Applying the OHIO Canvas Course Templates

Description

A Canvas course template is a course shell that has been configured to establish a consistent course structure experience for students. OHIO Canvas course templates are developed by OHIO instructional designers to help instructors organize content and help students anticipate how to navigate courses and access content.

Environment

Canvas in your web browser

Considerations

When you apply a template to your Canvas course, the settings and navigation in your course will be replaced with those in the template. 

Apply the template before you start creating or importing course content. 

• You will need to add the template to your course before you make your course available to students. 
• If you apply the template after you create your course content you may overwrite your course syllabus or other content in your course. 
• If you've made customizations to the settings or navigation of the course, you may need to reset them.
• Adding a course template does not impact file size quotas.

If you have already created content in your course site, consider making a copy of the course before applying the template. This will preserve your course content and structure should you decide to revert back to your original course set up. 

You can reset your course if a template was applied in error or if you decide not to use it.

• Please note, this will delete all content in your course and reset it to a “newly created” state.
• For step-by-step instructions, see the Resetting a Course in Canvas help article.

Solution 

To apply a custom template:

1. Log in to Canvas at canvas.ohio.edu
2. In the left Global Navigation Menu pane, select Commons
3. In the search bar, search for “Ohio Custom Template”
4. Select the desired OHIO Custom Template 
5. In the right navigation pane, select Import/Download 
6. Select the course(s) where you want to apply the template
7. Select Import Into Course
8. You will receive a message that “You have successfully started the import! It may take a little while to see changes in your course”
9. In the far left Global Navigation Menu pane, select Courses to view your course and verify that the template has been applied
10. The template will be copied to your course immediately, but may take a few minutes to fully import.

To check the template import status:

1. Return to the desired course
2. In the course navigation pane, select Settings
3. In the right navigation pane, select Import Course Content 
4. Under Current Jobs, review the status of the first item

Video instructions

Outcome: The OHIO Custom Template should now be applied to your selected course(s).

Get Help from Canvas

• Live chat with Canvas support (Faculty) 
• Get 24-hours/7-days a week Canvas support  
  • Dial the Canvas Support Hotline number located under "Get Help" in the Canvas Global Navigation Menu 
  • Contact OIT at 740-593-1222 for questions related to logging in, test courses/manually created courses, or third-party tools (Panopto, VoiceThread, Inclusive Access, etc.) 

Get Help from OIT

• Use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) ticket form to submit a help ticket 
• Visit the Technology Resources and Training page for available training 

Additional Resources 

• Canvas Basics Guide 
• Canvas Instructor Guide 
• Canvas Video Guide 
• Mobile Guides 
• Canvas Course Accessibility Checklist
• Canvas LMS Implementation updates
• Canvas Experts Corner Blog