New Accessible Course Template for Fall 2016

Over the last few weeks, you likely received an email stating that your fall 2016 courses were updated with a new course template.  This new Canvas course template homepage is accessible to screen readers as the campus moves to compliance with federal law. The template is more streamlined than the original we were using.  Links to Library Assistance and Atomic Learning are now in the left navigation bar.  The new template removes the Q & A Course Discussion Board, the “Welcome to Canvas” Announcement, and the Textbook and Course Materials page.  New additions to the template include an updated “Course Intro.” module that includes pages to helpful links for using Canvas and college policies.

We have also added a “Practice Quiz” (meaning it doesn’t factor into the course gradebook), regarding FERPA in multiple section courses.  If your Canvas course contains more than one section of students, please be sure to have your students answer the one question quiz and alert Linda Macaulay if anyone does not agree to be a part of a combined course.  If that occurs, we can change some course settings and implement some design changes to protect the student information. If you don’t use Canvas or the course is only comprised of one section, this quiz can remain in an unpublished state so it is not visible to students.

If you do not see the new template in a course you plan to use this semester on Canvas, please be sure to email macaulayl@etown.edu ASAP so that the new template can be correctly copied into the course.