[Course Settings] Allow teachers to choose default font size

[SusanNiemeyer]

Please give teachers the ability to SELECT their preferred default font size in COURSE SETTINGS.

There are many reasons that a teacher might want to use a larger font size, such as 14 font, throughout his or her site:

• younger students
• older students
• second language learners
• special education students
• students relying on cell phones

I much prefer to use a 14 size font. It's time-consuming to have to RESET THE FONT SIZE for everything I create. 

All that Canvas needs to do is to allow instructors to go into their COURSE SETTINGS and choose their preferred default font size. 

Surely, the tech folks can figure this out pretty easily. 

By the way, did you see how much more eye-catching this post is when I changed the font size? I hope that I've caught the attention of the Canvas folks!

[SusanNiemeyer]

Thanks, Gregory, for reading and commenting on my post. I really appreciate it.

For my class, it would be much better for me to be able to use a default font size for my Canvas courses. For a 15-week course taught via Zoom and Canvas, I spend a sizeable amount of class time for the first three weeks explaining to my ESL students how to navigate Canvas and submit work.

The students who would most benefit from a larger font size are the ones least likely to figure out how to customize their individual browser settings. 

[Jeff_F]

Hopefully computerized classroom settings permit pressing the Ctrl key while using the mouse scroll.

😁

[Vitalii]

Thank you @SusanNiemeyer for this request. We have absolutely the same situation and our teachers are changing the font to 14pt all the time. I was asked multiple times to make the default font 14pt and to add 16pt font size as a font size option. But it seems like I cannot do anything to it from "outside".

[dlyons]

Hello all!

Before I add additional comments I want to shout out @Jeff_F's very helpful post about how to zoom. Thanks, Jeff!

Now to add a little more detail; the reason zoom is preferable is because of relative sizing. Headers and paragraphs, for example, convey their relationship through relative sizing, spacing, and positioning. If paragraph text is changed without also changing the relative sizes of other text like headers this can reduce readability. Additionally, increasing the paragraph text size wouldn't do anything for the application text itself (e.g. buttons and menus), whereas zoom increases/decreases everything in scale.

For those of you with student bodies that you do not believe can manage zoom settings (or local device resolution settings) for themselves, I encourage you to talk to your Canvas admin about using CSS in your global theme to make global changes.

[Vitalii]

Thank you @dlyons, the point about zooming is worth mentioning and "increasing the paragraph text size wouldn't do anything for the application text itself" — it's the truth, too.

But I believe people should still have the opportunity to choose themselves! I mean teachers, who works for years in the online field. Indeed, every person has their own point of view. And we (as clients) cannot force you to do anything.

But it's an important request which we all are hoping to have satisfied asap. Our organisation needs to have the default font size of 14pt and to have added 16pt font size as a font size option (from drop-down selector).

If we have a checkbox somewhere in admin settings for setting up defaults for TinyMCE RTE (the pages textbox editor) it would save a lot of us I believe.

[SusanNiemeyer]

@Vitalii 

If your instructors can work with the HTML code, it is possible for them to put text in 16 font size. 

18 font size

16 font size

14 font size

That's a lot of extra work, though. The option of 16 font size should be added to RCE. I really don't understand the need to include a 10 font size or especially an 8 font size in the RCE.

10 font size

8 font size

I can't imagine anyone using an 8 point font size. It could be replaced with the 16 font size. 

[Vitalii]

@SusanNiemeyer you are right, but of course, most of our teachers are 'afraid' of the HTML 🙂

RCE UI is made for them.

Hm... 8 font sizes can be used for disclaimers 🙂

[clpage1]

I work with visually impaired students. One feature I like is that I can adjust font sizes to make items in assignments and quizzes easier for them to read without having to enlarge their entire screen. I wish there were a "global" setting I could use in my courses to automatically default to larger font sizes within the entire course. Also, when student respond, they have to go hunting for larger font sizes to type. This is an extra step that makes thing harder for them. If a global course font size setting were activated, they could respond more easily.

[michelle_cowans]

It would be good if admins had the ability to change the default font size for courses for accessibility. Will Canvas be implementing a feature like this any time? 

[sammi_venegas]

I would also like the ability to set certain feature on Canvas, such as the quizzes to have a default size 14. I also teach students with limited English, IEP, and 504 plans. Changing font size might now sound like a big deal, but it is time consuming to constantly change the font size for every questions or text we write.

CANVAS PLEASE ADD THIS FEATURE.