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Home > Staff > Content > Creating new content

You can access different course content types, including modules, pages, announcements and discussions within the course navigation menu. These can be edited and formatted using the rich content editor.

For an overview of creating content in Canvas, view the Designing in Canvas recorded workshop.

The content below outlines the process for creating new content. If you are re-using content from another course, we have a dedicated article with advice and gotchas.

Using the Rich Content Editor

The Rich Content Editor (RCE) allows you to edit and format content in Canvas, including announcements, assignments, discussions, pages and quizzes.  The video below provides a demonstration of its basic features and functions.

The Rich Content Editor allows for keyboard shortcuts for ease of use. The supported shortcuts are listed in What is the Rich Content Editor? (Canvas Guides).

For more information, see Rich Content Editor (Canvas Guides).

When using the Rich Content Editor, be sure to check the Accessibility Checker notifications to see if any accessibility issues have been detected. If an issue is detected, a number will appear to indicate the number of issues that need to be fixed.

For information on setting adaptive release, see Organising content.

Files

Each course comes with a Files section that can be accessed via the Course Navigation menu. By default, there is folder with the name of your course. In the Files screen, you will have access to a search bar where you can search the name of a file for quick access. You can also navigate through the folder structure for your course in the left windows if you know where a file is located. In the right window, you will see more details about individual files and folder. Below the folder structure, you will see a progress bar indicating how much storage quota your course currently has, and what percentage is currently used.

File Storage Quota

By default, the Course Quota for storage is 2GB. Any files uploaded directly into the Files section of a course count towards the course’s File Storage Quota. Large media files can continue to be hosted in Echo360, or in Studio, or linked from an external media site such as YouTube, all without contributing to the course quota. Files from other sources such as Student Submissions are also exempt from the Course Quota. If your course quota still exceeds the available limit despite following best practices for reducing file capacity, please contact the IT Service Centre for further assistance.

View Organising content for detailed guidance on organising and embedding files in course content.

Modules

Modules provide a structure to course content and allow you to control the flow of the course and its content. View Organising content for detailed guidance on creating modules.

You can add personality to your Modules page with Canvas Collections.

Pages

Pages store content and educational resources that are part of a course.

How to add a page

  1. In the Course Navigation, click the Pages link
  2. Click the + Page button
  3. Type in a Page Name and add content including links, files and images in the Rich Content Editor
  4. Edit the Page Settings to adjust who can edit the page and to add the page to the student to-do list
  5. Click Save to create a draft, or click Save & Publish if you are ready to publish the page

For more information, see Pages (Canvas Guides).

For advice on best practices on presenting course content, check out Designing engaging courses.

Announcements

Announcements allow you to communicate with your students about course activities. Announcements are listed in reverse chronological order with the newest appearing first and the older Announcements appearing towards the bottom. Each announcement includes the name of the announcement, the profile picture of the user who posted the announcement, an unread indicator near unread announcements, the announcement post date, the number of unread/total replies in the announcement (if replies are enabled for the Announcement), and an options icon to manage individual announcement settings.

Once you have created an announcement, Canvas will notify students according to their preferred notification settings. Advice for students on changing their notification settings can be found at Notification settings in Canvas.

Canvas email notifications of announcements does not include images or attached files. Students will have to view the announcement in Canvas to access these.

Adding an announcement

  1. In the Course Navigation, click the Announcements link
  2. Click the + Announcement button
  3. Type in an Announcement Title and add content using the Rich Content Editor
  4. Click the Post to drop down menu to select a specific section for your announcement. By default, Canvas will send your announcement to all sections within a course
  5. Add an attachment with the Choose File button. Upload the attachment and click Save
  6. The Options menu allows you to schedule the announcement at a later date and enable the students to comment or like the post
  7. Click the Save button

For more information, see Announcements (Canvas Guides).

View this Communication Plan template. for tips on Managing email, sending Announcements, and the what, how, why, who and when of sending different types of communications to your students throughout the Trimester.

Assessments

View Written assignments and Exams and quizzes for guidance of creating new assessments.

Discussions

Discussions allow for interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group. Discussions can be implemented as part of an assignment (and seamlessly integrated with the Canvas Markbook), or simply serve as a forum to discuss course learnings.  Discussions can be accessed by students in the left-hand menu, or you can create links inside of Modules and Pages. There are two types of discussions: focused discussions and threaded discussions.

Focused discussions showcase the original post with subsequent replies. They are best suited for shorter interactions, such as a weekly forum for questions related to that week's topic or activities.

Threaded discussions allow for multiple posts and related comments. Commenters can continue responding to a single nested thread, leading to potentially infinite levels of nesting. Threaded discussions are best suited for longer interactions, continuing over the entire trimester, as they allow for more complex ideas and discussions.

Creating a discussion

  1. In the Course Navigation, click the Discussions link
  2. Click the + Discussion button
  3. Type in a Topic Title and add content using the Rich Content Editor
  4. Use the Post to drop down menu to select a specific section for your discussion
  5. Add an attachment with the Choose File button. Upload the attachment and click Save
  6. By default, discussions created are focused discussions. Use the Discussion Options to create a threaded discussion
  7. Define other Discussion Options including requiring students to post before seeing replies, enabling a podcast feed, allowing likes and adding to the student to-do list. You can also make the discussion a Group Discussion
  8. To create a Marked Discussion as part of an assessment, click the Marked checkbox in the Discussion Options. If this option is selected, additional options with be added to the page, where you can assign marked discussions to everyone, individual students, course selections or course groups.
  9. To restrict access to the discussion to a specific date range, use the Available From and Until fields.
  10. Click Save to create a draft, or click Save & Publish if you are ready to publish the page

If you want to create a marked discussion and you have added sections in the Post To field, the Marked option will be unavailable. You must remove the sections from the Post To field before selecting this option. You will be able to add sections as part of the marked discussion options.

Discussion Summaries

The Discussion Summaries feature provides a concise overview of discussion activity within Canvas, summarising key points, popular posts, and themes. This makes it easier for instructors to quickly gauge the overall engagement and content of a discussion without reading every individual post.

Access Discussion Summaries:

At the top of any discussion page, you’ll see the Summarise button. This section will provide key highlights and themes from the discussion.

Review Highlights:

Click on View Summary to see a breakdown of popular posts, commonly mentioned topics, and most frequent participants.

For more information on setting up and managing discussions, see Discussions (Canvas Guides).

Groups

Information on setting up groups can be found in Your course sites.

For guidance on setting up a group assessment, see Group assessments.

Padlet

Information on using Padlet within your course site, including using Padlet in modules or as an assessment item, can be found in Using Padlet in Canvas.

Response Tool

With Response Tool Instructors can create a variety of Question Types and Question Sets to capture student reflections and responses to a range of topics, questions and stimuli.

This resource may be used only for learning purposes. It is not intended for general or research use.

Benefits:

  • Instructors can capture student responses and understanding of key concepts throughout the trimester
  • Use question sets to group questions around key ideas or concepts
  • Add stimulus items to engage learners
  • Learners can document their reflections at key points within the trimester/course and revisit these reflections when needed
  • Students can collate their own responses at the end of a module or course
  • Instructors can track learner progression
  • Instructors can review and assess learner progression at any time

For more information, see

SCORM Packages

Information embedding SCORM pages within your course site can be found in Uploading SCORM files.

Sections

Information on sections can be found in Your course sites.

Video-based content

For information on creating, editing and managing video-based content in Canvas, see:

Seeing what students see

Canvas has a tool called Student View that allows you to view your course as if you were a student. This can be helpful to use when creating and organising content, assessments and other course elements to ensure it the look, feel and navigation is how you want it to be for your students. To view any pages as a student, click the Student view button in the top right hand corner of the Canvas site.

Student view button

For some external learning tools, Student View may not accurately reflect what students see in Canvas courses. For example, clicking on a link to Echo360 in Canvas will always return an error message in Student View, even when the link is working correctly for students. This is not an error, but simply a limitation of Student View functionality.

For more information, see How do I view a course as a test student using Student View? (Canvas Guides).

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