2020 Course Design Essentials: Event Launch & Giveaway

[lphilips]

January Teacher Appreciation Event: Seasonal Home Page Button Giveaway

What’s Included in This Post?
• About our event
• Seasonal Home Page Button Giveaway

We are Instructure’s Instructional Design Team! More specifically, we are @kristen_anderse,  @tiffany_foster,  @mmetallo, laurie.norris, and  @psanchez1. Between the six of us, we have over 36 years of Canvas experience! Within Canvas, we have been students, teachers, admins, trainers, and instructional designers. We have created fully online, hybrid/blended, and face-to-face courses for learners ranging from preschool through post-secondary and everything in between.

Why Are We Launching This Event?

We utilize the Canvas Community on a regular basis to position instructional design resources! We understand the impact and power of the Instructional Designers' space within the Community and want to give back. We are excited to collaborate and share tips and tricks about our Canvas Design Best Practices.   

About This Month's Event

For January’s event, we have created free, seasonal-themed home page button images for your course! You can choose from photography or illustration-based designs. Just like changing a bulletin board in your classroom to reflect a season change, you can update the design of your Canvas home page buttons. Be sure to check back in the Community in the coming months for other seasonal button sets. 

Each of the buttons can lead to course essential topics: Learning Modules, Resource Materials, Question Forum, and Teacher Contact Information. Link your buttons to relevant materials in your course to give your students easy access to commonly needed materials. 

Button Access & Preview

January 2020 Course Design Essentials Buttons Giveaway

Button Installation

1. Select the link above to download the button PNG files. 
2. Upload the button image files to your Canvas Course Home Page and insert ALT tag to ensure accessibility. 
   1. Canvas Guide: How do I insert course images into the Rich Content Editor using the Content Selector as an instruct...
3. Select each button to link to the appropriate course content while still editing the page.
   1. Canvas Guide: How do I insert links to course content into the Rich Content Editor using the Content Selector as a...
4. Save your changes.
5. Test your new buttons to ensure links are functional. 
6. Enjoy! 

Final Thoughts

Follow us for our full event! We can't wait to continue sharing with you!

Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!

Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com

[audra_agnelly]

This is great! I love the idea of changing course buttons for the season like a bulletin board. Can't wait to see what else you all have in store with this new monthly event!

[kmeeusen]

This is awesome! Thank you!

I send folks to your group all the time, and regularly share questions to your group. Over the years I have seen you help so many folks, and your resources have often helped me. So I am not sure why you felt the need to give anymore, but I suspect that is just the way your are.

Thank you yet again.

Kelley

[lphilips]

Thank you for the kind words and support,  @kmeeusen ‌! It brings us so much pleasure to know we have (in some small way) helped to support our Canvas friends. 

[lphilips]

Thanks,  @audra_agnelly ‌! We are super excited about the opportunity to contribute to the Community/Instructional Design space. Please keep an eye out for our next post in February. 

[BethCrook]

This is fantastic!  I'll definitely be following this space and thank you!

[dbourne]

Thank you @lphilips for sharing these resources. I have created some buttons, inspired by your designs, for some secondary course templates we are working on for our 2021 academic year.

Assessment links to a module with formal course assessments (assignments) and subject resources also links to a module. Ask a Question links to a discussion. 

Here are the Illustrator files for anyone who would like to customise these buttons for their course.