Summer is here, and for instructors, this is the time to prepare your course materials for the upcoming Fall semester. What about the Canvas course shells? What can be done over the summer to make sure they are ready to go by August? Here are a few best practices that may help avoid future frustrations and headaches. 

Combine Course Sections 

If you teach multiple sections of the same course, sharing content across separate course shells can quickly become time-consuming. Copying quizzes, presentations, assignments, and other materials into each section throughout the semester often creates unnecessary duplication of effort. To streamline course management, consider combining your course sections. 

Combining sections helps you to maintain all course content in a single location while still managing important course elements by section, such as assignment due dates, gradebook views, and SpeedGrader access. Most importantly, be sure to combine sections BEFORE the courses are published. 

Learn more about the course combining process. 

Manage Your Canvas File Storage 

At UT Knoxville, Canvas course sites are limited to a file storage quota of 1 GB (1,000 MB), making it important to monitor file sizes to avoid exceeding the limit. There are several effective strategies for managing storage efficiently, including using tools such as Canvas Studio or Panopto, relying on external storage options like OneDrive, and reducing the file size of PowerPoint and PDF documents. This can also be a valuable opportunity to remove outdated or unused files from your course site. 

Learn more about ways to manage your Canvas site file storage. 

Check for Accessibility 

The Accessibility Checker can be accessed by selecting the Accessibility link in the course navigation menu. The Course Accessibility Checker scans Canvas Pages and Assignments to identify common accessibility errors, including missing alt text for images, incorrect heading structures, and tables without headers or descriptive captions. 

While working on your Fall courses, make sure to keep these suggestions in mind. If you have questions or concerns, submit an online help request or contact us by phone at 865-974-9900.