K-12 Home Pages – examples please

[Bobby2]

It’s still very early days for us using Canvas in Tasmania, and every day sees us discover new features and potential. Canvas is offering so much to our learners. I’m particularly enjoying the way teachers are making the most of Canvas to create courses as spaces to collaborate and share resources between schools.

Participating in the Canvas Community has also provided insight into some of the exciting ways people are using Canvas in their learning environments. We can’t thank the community enough for providing timely advice and support in so many ways. Some super ideas were shared here Best reasons for using Canvas K-6. Thanks for those!

As we are traveling around the state supporting schools with blended learning we are often asked for examples of Canvas being used in primary/elementary classrooms. Course design has become a hot topic with the home page layout being crucial to the way a course operates.

Instructional Designers  K-12  or Canvas User Engagement are you able to share any ideas here?

Please, please, please could we see some examples of the way people are using Canvas in schools? THANKS in advance. 

[KristinL]

Hi  @Bobby2 !

I teach grades 9-12, but I'd be more than willing to create screenshots of my home pages if that would be helpful. 

Also, did you catch Partner Day Keynote: Confessions of the Canvas Design Team‌?  @shauna_vorkink and Deactivated usershared some great information too.

[Bobby2]

 @KristinL that would be fabulous thanks. And, no I didn't catch it. I shall have a peek at that gem.

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @Bobby2 ‌

Here is a blog you might find helpful, and started by stefaniesanders‌.

https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers/blog/2015/04/16/creating-an-inviting-course-home-pa... 

I hope this helps,

Kelley

[Bobby2]

 @kmeeusen that's a beauty. Thanks.

Finding home pages that are small people friendly is still my quest at the moment. eg. very little text, image rich, simple to follow.  

[GideonWilliams]

Here are some pages we made in our Secondary school - hope they are useful - https://community.canvaslms.com/people/Gideon.Williams‌

[Bobby2]

Brilliance. Great examples  @GideonWilliams 

[KristinL]

Hi  @Bobby2   Here are two of my home pages. I love the versatility that Canvas provides its schools. I'd start a home page design by thinking about the age of the students. What features would they access the most frequently? How can of icons or images would make their coursework easier or simplify their workflow?

Also -- have you seen this? Free instructional design course: learn to develop OERs 

❤️ 

I'd love to continue this conversation with you. 

[Bobby2]

Many thanks  @KristinL these will be helpful! Super resource too. Unfortunately the course is closed. I hope they do it again soon.

Where did you get your buttons from?

[KristinL]

I made the buttons for the Photography I in Photoshop, but the ones for the monthly modules in Photography III were made in Canva.

[GideonWilliams]

Hey  @Bobby2 ‌ I've written a bit about our upcoming Canvas Day for Junior Schools Introducing Canvas to Junior Schools - Canvas Day 2018‌ There are some pictures of pages there...

[colleen_bergin1]

 @Bobby2 ‌ This link might be beneficial for what you're looking for!  It has sample primary school Canvas pages that you can look at! 

[Bobby2]

 @colleen_bergin1  thanks for the link.

I've been using those examples when I do Canvas training. Super helpful.

[sfrizelle]

Hi  @Bobby2 . Just saw this post. Love all the resources here. Thanks everyone!  I designed the following homepage for our K-6 classes. In our K-3 classes they have 1 class for the whole year level and from 4-6 each class has their own class in Canvas. Parents have access to all the classes - and so we use it for general parent information as well as class specific information. 

As we are a 1:1 iPad school (from year 4 on) the homepage is made with responsive tables - so it looks fine on an iPad and a laptop. I'm not a whiz designer by any stretch. I took code from a page a colleague developed and edited it to make it work. The page can be found in the Commons if you want to download it. 

The goal was to make the homepage quick to navigate and use minimal text. Some teachers have added rows with descriptors and others have not. Some teachers connect the front 'buttons' to specific modules and others to different pages.  We have found using modules with the iPads tend to be easier to work with - but are less 'pretty'. We are also finding that using the modules can be overwhelming to the younger year levels - as it's just too much text to try and navigate. The students are not quite 'there' yet. 

Our examples can be downloaded from the Commons (K-3 Homepage Template | Commons Version) and (Year 4-6 Homepage Template | Commons Version). Screenshots below. Hope this is helpful. Thanks for starting a great conversation!

K-3 Homepage Template | Commons Version

Year 4-6 Homepage Template | Commons Version

[Bobby2]

Hey sarafrizthese look FAB.

Tanks for the share. 

[jsimon3]

Instead of doing images for the links to the page a bit of custom CSS helps spruce up the links and keeps them flowing for responsive mobile navigation