Create Content (pages & files)

Introduction

All courses have at least some content that needs to be shared with students. You may provide videos of recorded lectures, PowerPoint slides, course readings, handouts, and a variety of other materials to your students throughout the semester, and including those items in the LMS can help students keep up with required materials, even if they lose a handout or miss a class. In Canvas, you can organize all of your course content within your module structure, but first you need to add the content to your course using Canvas' basic building blocks: Pages and files.

On This Page:

    1. Review relationships between pages, files, and modules
    2. Upload and manage course files
    3. Recommendations for page design
    4. Create course pages
    5. Add videos, files, links, and other content to course pages
    6. Add media to your course with Kaltura

 

Review relationships between pages, files, and modules

In case you missed it: See Intro to Content Options for more information about the relationships between pages, files, and modules in Canvas.

In Canvas, you can add text, documents, videos, links, images, and more to pages (sometimes called "course pages" or "wiki pages"), and then you can add those pages to your course modules.

Why Use Pages?

  • Creating your course content in pages allows you to provide contextual information about the items you are sharing with your students, and it makes it easy for you to collect a number of related resources in a single location.
  • Adding files (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) to your course pages instead of adding them directly to modules allows students to preview the file in context, without having to download it or leave the page.
  • Creating pages that contain a number of related files, images, and links all in one place can also help keep your modules from becoming too long and difficult for students to navigate.
  • If you use videos in your course, adding any YouTube or Lynda.com URL or embed code to a course page enables students to preview the video directly within the page.

 

Upload and manage course files

NOTE: The files tab in your course is a place where you (the faculty or course builder) can upload and organize files to be used in various parts of your course. This is not the recommended way to provide content to your students! To organize files, pages, and other course items into a logical structure for students to access, please use modules instead.

Watch the following video or read the tutorial to learn how to upload and manage your files in Canvas:

 

Files Overview video, 2m 55s.

If you have files or other media on your computer, you can bulk upload them into Canvas. This is only possible with files, not folders. Follow the tutorial below to bulk upload files to your course:

SCORM modules are now enabled in Canvas. To learn how to implement SCORM into your Canvas course, read the article below:

 

Recommendations for page design

Designing for Mobile

Keep the following best practices in mind as you create pages in your course to ensure a positive experience for students accessing them via the mobile app:

  • Large images tend to be cut off when viewed through the app.
  • Keep page titles short but descriptive; long titles tend to run off the page.

Designing for Accessibility

Visit the following resources to learn about general accessibility guidelines for pages and to learn about using the Rich Content Editor in the context of accessibility:

Complete the Canvas Accessibility course in the Accessibility Learning Path to learn to identify and address accessibility concerns in Canvas:

NOTE: Access to the Accessibility Learning Path is not tied to your Penn State Account. You will need to create a separate account Links to an external site. to access this content.

 

Create course pages

Follow the steps in this tutorial to create a new page in your course:

Once you create a page in Canvas, you may need to duplicate it for other uses. Follow the steps in this tutorial to duplicate a page in your course:

You can also assign a published page a "to-do date" and add it to a student's To Do List as a reminder. Follow the steps in the article below to add a page to a student's To Do List:

 

Add videos, files, links, and other content to course pages

Now that you are familiar with the New Rich Content Editor and you have created at least one page in your course, use any of the following tutorials to learn how to incorporate images, videos, files, and more into your course pages:

Link

Embed

NOTE: If you choose to use YouTube videos in your course, please visit the following page from Accessibility.psu.edu to learn about captioning: YouTube Links to an external site.

NOTE: The Web 2.0 tools included in this article may track student information and therefore need to be approved by PSU Purchasing before use. Please contact courseware@psu.edu with any questions.

NOTE: Use this tutorial to embed LinkedIn Learning videos and Web 2.0 tools into your Canvas course.

Icons

Transferring Content From Microsoft Word to a Canvas Page

  1. Copy and paste text from a Microsoft Word document to a Canvas page.
  2. Save any graphics from Word by right clicking on the graphic and choosing "Save as Picture" from the menu.
  3. Rename the graphic and save it to your computer.
  4. Upload the graphic into files through the course navigation menu.
  5. Insert the graphic into the page.

University Libraries Integration

The University Libraries automatic integration in Canvas is available through Library Resources in the Course Navigation menu. Read the following document to learn more about automatic, requested, and manual integration options through the library:

 

Add media to your course with Kaltura

You can use the Kaltura integration in Canvas to create and manage media in your course.

Canvas

In Canvas, faculty and course designers can use Kaltura to:

  • Capture and stream lecture content
  • Share and organize course media in one central location
  • Embed media in the context of a Canvas page
  • View video analytics

To learn more about using Kaltura in Canvas, visit the Kaltura Learning Path: For Canvas Users.

MediaSpace

You can also use Kaltura's Media Space Links to an external site. (outside of Canvas) to add, create, and manage media.

In MediaSpace­, Penn State faculty and course designers can:

  • Upload and create digital media
  • Share publicly or privately
  • Collaborate on content via channel permissions
  • Browse public channels and galleries (public channels and galleries are also available to the general public)

To learn more about using Kaltura outside of Canvas, visit the Kaltura Learning Path: For MediaSpace Users.