Canvas Course Checklist

The first few times you create a course in Canvas, it's a challenge to remember all of the steps required.

We hope this helps you cover all the bases before you Publish your course. 

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New Canvas Course  

Ready to copy your Canvas course to Another Canvas Course?

This checklist will help you copy your old quarters' course into the current quarters' Canvas shell. This list will ONLY cover the steps to get your course setup before students access it.
NOTE:  You should also read the One Stop Shop page for a checklist of before/during/after as well as tips to avoid known issues. 

1. Starting from the blank course shell, Copy a Canvas Course. The copied courses' Home Page and navigation settings will remain the same. While in the Copy a Canvas Course tool, you can also use the Adjust events and due dates option, so that all your assignments are not graded 0pts each.
   
   NOTE: If you import the same content into the same course more than once, the new copy will overwrite the first copy.
   
   NOTE: the course will be Published, so you may want to unpublish until you're ready to share it. 
    
2. If your OLD course included ZOOM meetings, make sure to delete all the OLD meetings in the Calender before creating new ones. They may be in your Calendar as UNDATED, where you can delete them.
3. Add TA's to the course via the People page
4. Check Link Validation from Course Settings
5. Use the Bulk Edit Multiple Assignment feature to clean up all your Assignment due dates. 
6. Default Grade Policy = missing assignments 100% (meaning students will get an A for not doing the assignment). Change your Grade Policy.
7. Check the Files to make sure items within the course are Published. 
8. Choose the Front Page (if using a Page). Set Homepage [video] (Activity Stream, Front Page, Modules, Assignment list or Syllabus). 
   NOTE: if you copied the course - the old Homepage will remain.
9. Show/Hide menu items. You may want to hide the Files, People or other links.
   NOTE: if you copied the course - the old menu choices will remain
10. Cross-List course sections if you want to manage one Canvas course. 
    NOTE: Once you Cross-List, the child courses will no longer appear in your Dashboard. ALSO - you will manually need to create a group for your sections if you want to keep them separate in the grades, activities, or other.  If your course has group assignments - use Group Sets. 
11. NEW: Choose a Start Date. Default student access is 10 days before the 1st day of the quarter. 
12. Publish the course, which will automatically send invitation emails (ONLY: if the course Start Date has passed) to any student enrolled in the course. 
    NOTE: The items (Modules, Pages, Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions Links to an external site.) also need to be published so students can see them.
13. You currently have access to multiple quarters on your Dashboard. If you do not see a course in your Dashboard, click on the Courses > All Courses link to view all. On this page click on the Star icon to favor the course you want to see on the Dashboard. Make sure to favor ALL the courses you want to see.  
     

NOTE: Please check the One Stop Shop page for all the Tips & Tricks and Gotchas in Canvas.

Ready to start your new Canvas course?

This checklist will help you create a new course in Canvas. This list will ONLY cover the steps to get your course setup before students access it.
NOTE:  You should also read the One Stop Shop page for a checklist of before/during/after as well as tips to avoid known issues. 

1. Add assignments or assignment shells on the Assignments page
2. Add TA's to the course via the People page
3. Select the links you wish to display in the Course Navigation under the Navigation tab in Settings
4. Choose the Front Page (if using a Page). Set Homepage [video] (Activity Stream, Front Page, Modules, Assignment list or Syllabus).
5. Show/Hide menu items. You may want to hide the Files, People or other links.
6. Default Grade Policy = missing assignments 100% (meaning students will get an A for not doing the assignment). Change your Grade Policy.
7. Add events and Assignments to your course Calendar
8. NEW: Choose a Start Date. Default student access is 10 days before the 1st day of the quarter. 
9. Cross-List course sections if you want to manage one Canvas course. 
   NOTE: Once you Cross-List, the child courses will no longer appear in your Dashboard. ALSO - you will manually need to create a group for your sections if you want to keep them separate in the grades, activities, or other.  If your course has group assignments - use Group Sets. 
10. Publish the course, which will automatically send invitation emails (ONLY: if the course Start Date has passed) to any student enrolled in the course. 
    NOTE: The items (Modules, Pages, Quizzes, Assignments, and DiscussionsLinks to an external site.) also need to be published so students can see them.
11. You currently have access to multiple quarters on your Dashboard. If you do not see a course in your Dashboard, click on the Courses > All Courses link to view all. On this page, click on the Star icon to favor the course you want to see on the Dashboard. Make sure to favor ALL the courses you want to see.  

 

NOTE: Please check the One Stop Shop page for all the Tips & Tricks and Gotchas in Canvas.