Getting Started in Canvas at UIC
A Practical Beginning of the Semester Checklist for Instructors
Is your Canvas course ready for students? Whether you use your course site simply to distribute documents or rely on quizzes, discussions, or other tools and integrations, use the essential steps below to help ensure students can find what they need. Use the optional steps to add more structure and support.
Welcome Your Students by Adding Important Course Information to the Homepage
Upload the Syllabus & Pick Your Homepage (Essential)
When students enter your course, they need to know where the syllabus is and what to do first. An intentionally chosen homepage acts as a starting point. The homepage should provide a brief introduction or course description, indicate where to begin, and help them easily find the syllabus, course materials, and their assignments. While Canvas provides five different starting points for students in your course, the Pages Front Page, Course Modules, and Syllabus options are especially useful for welcoming students and helping them stay oriented.
Table
| Homepage Option | Best for |
|---|---|
| Modules View | Courses requiring weekly management of assignments, readings, and resources. |
| Syllabus | Courses where the syllabus is the primary, recurring point of reference. |
| Pages Front Page | Instructors wanting a custom welcome page with specific images, links, and text. |
Show Recent Announcements on the Homepage (Optional)
Show Recent Announcements on the Homepage (Optional)
Canvas Announcements are a great way to communicate time-sensitive information, but students don’t always remember to click the Announcements tab. Showing recent announcements on your homepage helps put important updates, such as a room change, class cancellation, extended deadline, or new extra-credit opportunity, front and center when students log in.
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Help Students Focus by Centralizing Course Materials
Organize Student-Facing Content in Modules and Ensure Everything Is Published (Essential)
Modules help students work through your course by breaking content into manageable weeks, units, or categories. Add Canvas Pages, course files, assignments, and external tools or links. Make sure your content is visible to students by checking that the green published checkmark appears on each item.
Set Your Students’ Expectations by Adding Module Overview Pages (Optional)
Set your students’ expectations by adding Module Overview Pages at the start of every week or unit. Dropping students straight into complex course materials can overwhelm them, but a brief introductory page can reduce cognitive load by outlining the learning goals and providing a simple checklist of upcoming tasks.
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Make it Easier for Your Students to Navigate
Now that students can find key course information, make other materials and activities easier to locate by customizing the course navigation menu.
Disable Unused or Unnecessary Navigation Links (Essential)
When it comes to course navigation, less is more. A menu cluttered with unused tools makes it difficult for students to find what they actually need. This principle also applies to content areas you might use heavily to build your course—like Files, Pages, or Assignments—but that students don’t need direct access to. Taking a few minutes to disable unnecessary tools can make your course look cleaner, feel less intimidating, and be easier for students to navigate.
Enable Any External Tool Integrations (Optional)
Depending on your discipline or teaching style, you might rely heavily on third-party tools like Zoom for synchronous sessions, Panopto for recorded video lectures, or specific textbook publisher platforms. Often, integrations remain hidden in your Canvas settings by default.
Adding these tools to your course’s navigation menu can make them easier for students to find without hunting through pages or bookmarking multiple websites.
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Support Your Students’ Executive Functioning by Configuring Course Assignments
Set Due Dates, Add Assignment Descriptions, and Configure the Gradebook Early (Essential)
Setting up assignments early helps organize your course for both you and your students.
Create Assignments and Add Descriptions
In Canvas, the assignments you create form the structure of your Gradebook. Setting up assignments and adding concise descriptions before the semester begins also creates the corresponding Gradebook columns. This prepares your grading structure early and gives students a clearer picture of how they will be evaluated.
Set Due Dates in Bulk
Setting due dates for your Canvas assignments automatically populates the Canvas Calendar, the Syllabus page summary, and your students’ global To-Do list. Rather than clicking into each assignment to set these up, you can use the bulk “Edit Assignment Dates” feature to set all your course deadlines at once.
Organize and Weight Assignments Using Groups
To prevent confusion, it helps to match your Canvas Gradebook to the grading scheme laid out in your syllabus. Whether you are setting up submission-based assignments, graded discussions, or quizzes, placing them into specific Assignment Groups allows you to weight their impact on the final grade and helps keep your grading structure clear and aligned with your syllabus.
Make Evaluation Criteria Transparent by Using Canvas Rubrics (Optional)
While setting up a rubric takes a little upfront effort, it can save you time once grading begins. Canvas offers a built-in rubric tool that students can reference as they work. You can also use this same tool to click through your criteria and calculate scores in SpeedGrader, supporting more efficient and consistent feedback.
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- Canvas Assignments
○ How do I use the Assignments Index Page?
○ What assignment types can I create in a course?
○ How do I create an assignment?
○ How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
○ How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
○ How do I create rules for an assignment group?
- Canvas Rubrics
○ How do I add a rubric in a course using Enhanced Rubrics?
○ How do I add a rubric to an assignment using Enhanced Rubrics?
Let Your Students Locate Your Course
Preview Your Course in Student View and Publish Your Course Site Before the First Day of Class (Essential)
All that work only helps if your students can access the site. Before the first day of class, use Student View to do a final walkthrough and catch any unpublished or hidden items. Once everything looks good, return to your homepage and click Publish in the right-hand sidebar.
Add a Course Card Image and Welcome Announcement (Optional)
A custom Course Card image makes your course recognizable on a crowded Dashboard. You can build on this by sending a short Welcome Announcement that says hello and directs students to their very first task. These two quick steps create a welcoming instructor presence and can reduce day-one confusion.
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Last Check
Is your Canvas course ready for students? If you’ve streamlined your navigation, organized your modules, and made assignment expectations clear, the answer is most likely yes. By building a clear, easy-to-navigate course site, you’ve done the groundwork to make it easier for your students to focus on what really matters: learning. All that’s left to do is preview your work in Student View, click Publish, and enjoy the start of a new term.
Additional Resources
- Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist V 2.0 – If you want a more detailed checklist for reviewing your course before the semester begins, explore this Canvas-provided resource.
- Canvas Instructor Getting Started Resources – Find additional vendor-provided tutorials on teaching in Canvas.
- LMS Transition Page – Learn more about the LMS transition.
- Canvas Service Catalog