New Courses (24-25)

Canvas Course Release

The Canvas course creation process for 2024-25 will be different from previous years. Courses are now created in June and will start to appear on your dashboard from W/C 3 June 2024 (in the "Unpublished" area). Any colleague listed on a MOF will automatically be given Teacher access to the respective Canvas course. Colleagues not listed on the MOF can be added manually by your School Office.

If you have any queries about the course creation process, you can contact ltds@newcastle.ac.uk.

What has changed in my course template for 2025/25?

New Icon/Emojis

You may notice that the icons have changed in the titles of pages. We are now using new emojis which you can add to your own course to differentiate tasks.

To incorporate emojis, simply right-click and select 'Emoji' while editing the page's text, or use the keyboard shortcut Win + Period. We recommend consistent emoji usage, assigning one emoji to each task type, and suggest following the examples in your template as standard practice.

Discussions to Discussions Redesign

From 20th July 2024 discussion boards in Canvas change to Discussions Redesign. The Discussions Redesign offers several new features including:

• Anonymous discussion topics: Instructors can set discussion topics to be partially anonymous (students can opt to hide or show their name and profile pictures) or fully anonymous (names and profile pictures are hidden for all student replies). Please note that users with a teacher, TA, or course designer role in courses will never be anonymous.
• Version history for edited posts: When users edit their discussion posts, instructors can view the version history for the post.
• Inline and Split Screen views: Users can choose between two views for reading replies. Inline view displays all replies on the main topic page with the option to expand or collapse replies. In Split Screen view, all replies to the initial post are shown in a sidebar.
• Sort threads: Users can sort replies from newest to oldest or oldest to newest.
• Role labels: Role labels appear next to or beneath names for teachers and TAs. If the topic was created by a student, the label "author" appears next to the poster's name.
• @ mentions: Users can mention other users by typing @ (an at sign) and selecting the name from a list. The mentioned users will receive a notification with a link to the post where they have been mentioned.
• Quote reply: When replying to a post, users can quote the original post in their reply.
• Report inappropriate messages: A new Report option allows users to notify the teacher when they encounter messages that are inappropriate, offensive, or abusive.
• Quoting in Replies: Users have the option to include quotes from the original post within their responses.
• Inappropriate Content Reporting: A new reporting feature allows users to alert teachers about any content they deem inappropriate, offensive, or abusive.

We have enabled Discussions Redesign on your courses earlier to allow you to try this new way of working with discussion boards, prior to the July 2024 release. For more information visit guidance at How do I use Discussions Redesign as an instructor?

Get your Canvas courses ready: checklist

Here is a handy checklist to make sure the Canvas course for your module is ready for the new academic year. You can also find answers to questions in our FAQ at the bottom of the page. If you are creating new content, you will find a number of useful guides to creating course content in the Canvas Orientation course.

1. Create your course structure

Before you start building your course, you need to create a course structure. To do this, you can use Canvas Modules. Canvas Modules are an organisational format that help you structure your course content by day, week, unit or topic. They create a one-directional linear flow for students, guiding them through the course.

Each module can contain various elements, such as pages, files, discussions, assignments, quizzes, and other learning materials. Drag and drop functionality allows for easy organization of modules and their elements

A recommended module structure has been provided in the template for your course. However, this can be adjusted to meet your teaching style. In the additional resources section below there are some links to resources to help you build your course structure.

2. Import content from previous courses

Course content is not automatically "rolled over" from previous years. This is to give you the opportunity to review your current course and decide which content, if any, you would like to reuse in the new course.

Canvas enables you to import (copy) selected content from one Canvas course to another quickly and easily. This includes assignments, quizzes, modules, files, pages and discussions. To do this, you will need to use the "Import Existing Content" tool that is available from the course home page.

It is important that you use the “Select Specific Content” option as using the “Import All” option will overwrite any new default content added by your School for this year.

3. Create content

To populate your new course structure, you can create content to add to your modules directly from the module block, or use the content you imported in the previous step. You can add different types of content to your module such as assignments, quizzes, modules, files, pages and discussions.

In this video you can see an overview of modules including how to add and move content:

For information on how to add content to your Canvas Modules visit: How do I add course content as module items?

4. Edit your homepage

The course homepage is designed to welcome and direct learners to key areas of your course. Within your new course, a homepage template has been provided with placeholders for suggested information. 

Customise the homepage template to include the correct module name and code. Include a welcome message for students, which could either be text or – preferably – a video.

Make sure to outline how students should navigate the course, e.g. whether modules are ordered by week or topic. This short video will demonstrate how you can do this within your course:

5. Edit your module contact page

Key contact information should be easy to find within the course. This is so students can easily contact instructors whenever they have questions, concerns, or require additional support.

In the Modules section, under Course Information, you will find a Module Contacts page has already been provided. You can populate this page to include you and your teaching team members contact information.

This short video will demonstrate how you can do this within your course:

6. Check syllabus page information is correct

Module information is stored within the Syllabus page and is populated automatically using information from the Module Outline Form (MOF) system. To check this page go to the Syllabus page in your course navigation menu.

For Parent-Child Modules, the Canvas Syllabus page will no longer be populated from the MOF database. Any content normally provided on this page will need to be provided elsewhere in the course.

If there is any incorrect information in your Syllabus page, please contact your school office to make amendments to your MOF.

7. Ready your reading list

By providing a Course Reading List on Canvas, instructors enable students to access and engage with the necessary readings conveniently via a direct link. The Reading List feature has been enabled on all Canvas courses.

If a reading list is applicable to your course, follow the guidance on the Library Reading List webpage. The below video is a preview of what the reading list looks like in a Canvas course:

8. Check your course accessibility

At Newcastle University, we value individual differences and the diversity that this brings. We want to ensure that no-one is at a disadvantage because of who they are. This is highlighted in our institutional EDI strategy and Equality Objectives, where we aim to create a positive, supportive culture for everyone to reach their potential.

Our commitment to inclusion is underpinned by both the Equality Act and the more recent Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This short video is a preview of these tools in Canvas:

9. Check your course against the Canvas Baseline

The Newcastle University Canvas Baseline sets out the minimum core requirements expected on all University modules within the centrally supported Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

The Canvas Baseline ensures that the University provides students on taught programmes with a core set of materials. These include programme related information and information about learning, assessment and skills for each module.

It has been designed to:

• establish a degree of consistency across University modules (Canvas “courses”)
• provide clear guidance regarding the availability of information and teaching resources provided via Canvas
• establish a baseline against which modules can be developed, and offer guidance on ways colleagues can enhance student engagement with learning through Canvas.

When developing your Canvas course, please make sure if fits with the Canvas Baseline.

There is also a new Canvas Exemplar Course which aims to demonstrate how to meet the University Canvas Baseline using tutorials and real examples of each requirement in practice. This can be accessed via a self enrolment link available via the Canvas Baseline Guidance Webpage.

10. View your course as a student

Check your content in student view to ensure materials are available to students and displaying as intended. Courses need to be published in Canvas to be available to students.

The Student View feature allows you to view what your course looks like from a student’s perspective. This is important to ensure your content is published and displaying correctly. Courses need to be published in Canvas in order for students to access the course.

Use the Student View feature to check your course materials are published and displaying correctly.

This includes checking content such as pages, files and assessments are visible to students as expected. You can also check your Canvas Pages to ensure media content is displaying as intended such as images and video. More information on how to use Student View can be found in the additional resources below.

11. Publish your course

When all the checklist items are complete, you will need to publish your course for this to be viewed by students. Please follow the Canvas guide on how to publish your course.

For students to view courses they will need to be published and enrolled onto the course via SAP. Students will be enrolled onto courses from September 2024 following registration.

Frequently Asked Questions