Creating Engaging Canvas Courses

Overview
Curriculum
Instructor
FAQs

Creating Engaging Canvas Courses is a free, four-week course for people who build courses in a virtual learning environment, with practical examples from Canvas. It draws on well-known design models, including PANDA, SAMR, Gagné, Merrill, Bloom’s taxonomy, Salmon’s five stage model and the Engagement Cycle, and adds practical advice on personalisation, accessibility and designing as a team.

Each week follows PANDA itself, so you experience the framework as a learner before you build with it. Every week has a Prepare lesson, an Activate question, one to three Navigate lessons, a Your turn task with a five-question graded quiz, and an Articulate reflection. You need 70% to pass each quiz, and you can retake it.

Curriculum

4 Sections
28 Lessons
4 Weeks

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Week 1: Choose a structure and a purpose
Compare three ways to structure a week in Canvas, choose one for a real week, and ask what your technology is actually doing for learning.
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Week 2: Sequence the learning with Gagné and Merrill
Compare two instructional design models, see how they fit PANDA, and design a module around one real task in Canvas.
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Week 3: Pitch the thinking, pace the group and keep students engaged
Write outcomes with Bloom’s revised taxonomy, pace activities with Salmon’s five stages, and check engagement with the Engagement Cycle.
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Week 4: Personalise, include and design as a team
Offer sensible choices with four personalisation tactics, make pages work for more students with five accessibility tips, and plan a module with Carpe Diem.
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How long does each week take?

About two hours. You can spread it across the week and retake the quizzes as often as the course allows.

Do I need Canvas?

No. The examples use Canvas, but the models apply to any virtual learning environment, and you can plan on paper first.

What do I need to pass?

You need 70% on each week’s quiz.

Do I need to know the models already?

No. Each model is introduced from the start.

Can I reuse what I plan?

Yes. Each Your turn task is meant to produce a plan for a real week of your own course.

Requirements

A real course, module or session you can use as your working example
Access to Canvas, or another virtual learning environment, if you want to build as you go
About two hours each week

Features

Choose a structure for a week of an online course and judge what your technology is doing with SAMR
Sequence a module with Gagné’s events and Merrill’s principles
Write learning outcomes with observable verbs and match tasks to them
Pace activities with Salmon’s five stages and audit a week with the Engagement Cycle
Design a small personalised route with one standard for everyone
Apply five accessibility tips to a Canvas page

Target audiences

Lecturers, teachers and learning designers who build online or blended courses
Staff who support colleagues with course design in a virtual learning environment