Introduction
Welcome! This course is designed to tell you all about Utah State University's Design Tools for Canvas.
Course Objectives
- Explain what USU's tools are and why they were developed
- Illustrate what can be done using these tools
- Provide information on where to get the code and how to implement it in Canvas.
Brief Overview Of Tools
The tools can be broken down into three basic categories, each category will be described in greater detail later on in the course. (If you just can't wait that long, you can click the category link and jump right to that section).
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Content Tools | Part of the tools are designed to help you manage the content of Front Pages, Content Pages (Wiki-Pages), Discussions and Assignments. These tools will allow you to quickly add boilerplate content as well as make your content look good. |
| Template Wizard | The Template Wizard is an LTI tool that can be installed to quickly provide a course shell for you to flush out using the Content tools. It also includes a tool to help you crop and add a banner to your course front page. |
| Syllabus Tools | We have taken CIDI's SALSA project (http://salsa.usu.edu/ Links to an external site.) and built it into the Canvas Syllabus page along with additional tools to add boiler plate content, IDEA objectives and more. The tools can even be configured to automatically import university policies and procedures into the syllabus. |
Credit Where Credit is Due
These tools would not be possible without some incredibly smart people out there who have created some amazing things and shared them with the world. Here is a list of some of the things that make these tools possible.
- Canvas API
- Canvas Style Guide
- jQuery Links to an external site. and jQuery UI Links to an external site.
- jQuery Expander Plugin Links to an external site.
- Spectrum ColorPicker Links to an external site.
- Tablesorter Links to an external site.
- TinyMCE Editor Links to an external site.
- Twitter Bootstrap Links to an external site.
We have decided to make these tools available to any institution running Canvas that is willing to put in the time to implement them. This course will show you how. Until then have fun exploring the remainder of this course.