Before the first day of class, take a few minutes to review the following in Canvas.
Select a step below.
Step 1
Course of record shells are typically created six weeks before the start of the term, and can be found on your Canvas Dashboard, under “Unpublished Courses.” These shells will have your students enrolled.
In the screenshot example to the left, note the term designations. Use this to make sure you are working in the correct term’s course.
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Not seeing your course shell on your Dashboard? Contact your Colleague administrator to make sure you are listed in Colleague as an instructor.
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If you plan to request a merged course (combine multiple course sections into a single Canvas course), use this form to submit your request. Once your merged course has been created and you’ve been enrolled as a teacher in it, come back and follow the steps one through seven.
If you plan to request a Blueprint course, use this form to submit your request. Do not do any work in the individual course sections until the Blueprint has been set up and you have been advised further.
Learn more about merged courses and Blueprints →
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Choose one of the methods below for getting content into your shell.
YuJa Panorama is a powerful accessibility tool that integrates directly into Canvas, to identify and fix accessibility issues, generate alternative file formats, and support inclusive learning through AI-powered remediation tools. Instructors can use YuJa Panorama to enhance course accessibility and improve the student learning experience.
Learn more about Panorama by watching a recording of our training session, viewing the resources on our website, or by scheduling a meeting with a learning designer.
Step 2
Once your course content is created or moved in to the shell, use the “Validate Links in Content” feature to check the links used. This is a helpful feature to make sure the links you use are still active. If any links are flagged, note them down, check them out, and update them if necessary.
Some links Canvas flags won’t require remediation. You can check these later in step five when you view the course as a student.
Step 3
Make sure your Gradebook settings are set (including setting the manual grade posting setting), and the grade weights are set up, if necessary.
Step 4
Verify the course content you do not want students to see yet is unpublished. Verify the content you do want students to see is :publish:published. If you are participating in preview week, make sure any welcome/getting started information is :publish: published.
If you copied Canvas Quizzes into your course that use LockDown Browser, you’ll need to click into the “LockDown Browser” shortcut in your Canvas course navigation to open the LockDown Browser dashboard. This only needs to be done once to sync your LockDown Browser settings.
If you don’t see LockDown Browser in your Canvas course navigation but need to complete this step → See: “Enabling LockDown Browser” section in Using LockDown Browser in Canvas.
We’ve pre-set the course navigation menu for you in your course, and in most cases, faculty do not need to adjust the options shown. See: Editing the Course Navigation in Canvas
In rare cases, a course may run outside the standard academic term dates. Faculty teaching these courses are generally aware of this requirement. If your course extends beyond the established term dates, update the course participation dates as needed. See: Change Participation Dates in Canvas
Step 5
Use the “View as Student” feature to view your course as a test student. Revisit any content that should/should not be visible to students, and change the publish status if necessary. If anything was flagged in step two as a broken link, make sure the link is accessible or the content displays as intended.
Step 6
When you’re ready to open the course for students, :publish:publish the course. See: How do I publish a course?
Once you publish the course, it will move from “Unpublished Courses” to “Published Courses” on your Canvas Dashboard. This can be undone until students participate in the course (submit an assignment, take a quiz, post to a discussion board). Once students participate in the course, it cannot be unpublished.
Step 7
Once the course has been published, send an announcement or use the Canvas Inbox to message your students that the course is open. Your course must be published (open) to communicate with students.
Before midnight on the first day of preview week: use the Canvas Inbox, not an announcement.
After midnight on the first day of preview week: send an announcement or use the Canvas Inbox.
During the course, unless you intend to message specific students, you will likely want to use the announcements feature instead of the Canvas Inbox. Note the following:
More information on customizing notification preferences can be found here.
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