OHIO Canvas Templates

Why use an OHIO Canvas Templates?
The OHIO Canvas collection of customized Canvas templates were created to support the upcoming Canvas LMS transition and to help instructors renew and refresh their existing courses. These templates support the  Six Descriptors of Teaching Excellence at OHIO and offer several advantages for instructors interested in enhancing their teaching experience.  

• Efficient  
  • OHIO’s Canvas templates are ready to use out-of-the-box, saving instructors valuable design time. With pre-built elements and structures, instructors can easily copy content, create assignments, and set up discussions. 
• User-Friendly  
  • OHIO Instructional designers worked with campus partners to create templates with user experience in mind, making them intuitive and easy to navigate for both instructors and students. 
• Pedagogically Sound  
  • OHIO Canvas templates contain pre-built elements and structures that supply the framework for sound instructional and pedagogical design – using these elements ensures that students have the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ they need to know to meet course expectations. 
• Sleek and Professional  
  • Templates have been customized to reflect institutional branding and identity, creating a sense of unity and pride among OHIO Bobcats!

Choosing the right canvas template for your course

• Ohio Custom Template: Best for most courses.
  The Ohio Custom Template is our most customizable out-of-the-box template. With examples of pre-built elements, assignments, and instructional language, this template will inspire instructors who are re-thinking their current Blackboard courses for a Canvas flow. 
• Weekly Course Template: Best for instructors who wish to create weekly learning pathways for students.
  The Weekly Course Template is best for in-person or online courses that are broad in scope and tend to introduce new topics and skills on a weekly basis. It is a good fit for full-term courses that have an established weekly rhythm built into the schedule, such as having a quiz due each Wednesday, for example.  
• Module-based Course Template: Best for instructors teaching courses that have distinct parts or learning pathways that may span longer than a week.
  A seven-week online course formatted using a Module-based Course Template, for example, might have a two-week introduction, a three-week research component, and a two-week application component, for a total of three modules. If students are expected to interact with materials or assignments for more than one week, a module format is a good fit.  
• Basic On-site Course Template: Best for instructors teaching on-campus courses that meet frequently and may have frequent schedule changes.
  Instructors who teach courses that meet frequently in person will find that the Basic On-site Course Template may be easier to manage. The template arranges content categorically rather than chronologically. For example, all videos are listed together while course readings are listed separately. This template is not recommended for online courses or any courses that have a strong online presence.  
• OHIO Online Template: Only for OHIO Online Courses.
  Instructors working with the Instructional Design team to develop OHIO Online courses, or instructors transitioning courses with the OHIO Online team, will use this template. 

Applying a canvas template to your course

1. Log in to  Canvas
2. In the dark green left Global Navigation Menu pane, click to select Commons
3. You should see 5 OHIO templates
4. Click to select the desired OHIO Custom Template
5. In the right navigation pane, click to select Import/Download
6. Click the check box beside the course(s) where you want to apply the template
7. Click Import Into Course
8. You will receive the following message highlighted in green:
   “You have successfully started the import! It may take a little while to see changes in your course”.
9. In the far-left dark green Global Navigation Menu pane, click Courses  and select your course to verify that the template has been applied.
   The template will be copied to your course immediately but may take a few minutes to fully import.