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Get Help with Canvas

Canvas Training Resources

Canvas Logo

In summer 2021, Indiana State University officially launched our new LMS, Canvas. By spring 2022, all ISU courses will use Canvas as the primary content delivery and management system. If you are new to Canvas or want to know more about how Indiana State’s Canvas instance functions, you are encouraged to access the following Canvas training resources:

Another great resource is the HELP button in the global navigation within Canvas. Here you will find:

As Canvas is new to our campus and students, you are encouraged to communicate with learners about available Canvas student resources, such as the

Sandbox Sites

You may be familiar with development sites in Blackboard, a kind of playground to design and develop course shells. In Canvas these are referred to as sandbox sites. A personal sandbox is automatically created for all faculty and is a great place to explore new features or test out concepts. Course-specific sandboxes are used to build your actual course. You can request a course-specific sandbox site via OIT’s Knowledge Base. Once you have finished developing your course sandboxes, you can then perform a course copy to add them to your live, student-populated site.

Canvas Template

A Canvas Template has been created to help guide the design of effective (and legal) courses within our new LMS. While it provides the basic structure necessary for sound design, it also offers a lot of flexibility and allows for full customization by the faculty. You can view the template via your Canvas Dashboard. If you would like to add the Template to your course (especially your course-specific sandbox), you can import it from the Commons.

Build a Canvas Course

As mentioned, it’s best practice to build your course within a course-specific sandbox site. You may wish to use the 14-Day Toolkit to guide you through a course build. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the Canvas Template described above to guide the design of your course.

Once you are finished with your course build, you can copy your sandbox site into your live Canvas course site.

Before you launch your live course, you may want to utilize Canvas Course Readiness Checklist, as this guides you through some of the final steps before publishing your course.