In this article: Creating a Canvas Course Site | Use Our Template | Add Your Syllabus | Modules and Content

Create a Canvas Site

Canvas sites aren’t created automatically for a course; faculty are responsible for creating a Canvas site for their course, if they plan to use one. Canvas sites (along with number of other digital resources) can be created at the Course Hub listing for your course. See below for more details on how to create your Canvas site using Course Hub.

Use Our Canvas Template

DLINQ has created a template that can be used by both the College and the Institute for your courses.  The template provides a basic structure to work with to build your course site, along with resources that will be helpful both to students and instructors.  This is a great starting place that you can customize further for your own course. To use the template:

  • Make sure you are logged into Canvas with your Middlebury account (having trouble with your Middlebury credentials? Submit an ITS Help Desk ticket)
  • Directly access the template OR
    • Go to Canvas Commons to explore other templates and search for Middlebury College/Institute 2021-2022 Template
  • Optional: add the template to your favorites (easier to find later for use in other courses)
  • Import the template to your course

Add Your Syllabus

All Canvas sites come with a syllabus section for your use. You can add your syllabus language here, and any assignments and quizzes that you create for the course will automatically be listed at the bottom of this page. We urge you to use the syllabus guidelines developed by Academic Affairs as a guide for what to include in your syllabus.

screenshot of a Canvas syllabus page

If you prefer not to use the Canvas syllabus, the Canvas site template also includes a blank syllabus template page that you can edit and populate.  Note that there are separate modules for the College and the Institute:

Screen shot of the Module for the CollegeScreen shot of the module for the Institute

Add Modules and Content

Modules are the way to organize content in your course site.  Modules are the container for other Canvas elements like pages, assignments, discussions, and quizzes.  Modules give a lot of flexibility in organizing your course.  Many instructors opt for a temporal organization (one module equals one week is very popular), but you can also use them to organize your course thematically.  This video gives a quick overview of Modules in Canvas and the template.