Introduction

Files are the most common item in Canvas, as they include Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, Excel spreadsheets, pictures, audio, and video. Pages also provide a way to share content and information with students through your Canvas course. Managing both of these items well is important to keep a course organized and tidy.

On This Page:

1. Upload and manage course files
2. Recommendations for page design
3. Create course pages
4. Add videos, files, links, and other content to course pages

Live Training On This Topic:

If you are interested in live training on transferring content to Canvas, sign up for a hands-on, face-to-face training session with a CAT Instructional Technology Specialist.

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Upload and manage course files

Please Note: As we reviewed earlier in this module, the Files tab in your course is a storage space area where you (the faculty or course builder) can upload and organize files to be used in various parts of your course. Pointing students to the Files area 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.

In Canvas, files are any documents, videos, images, or other files you upload to your course. Watch the following video or read the tutorial to learn how to upload and manage your files in Canvas:

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:

How do I bulk upload files to a course?

Pages

Pages are individual content pages created by you within Canvas; they can include any combination of text, images, and files (documents, videos, etc.). You can essentially think of them as web pages that you can create without using any coding. In Canvas, you can add text, documents, videos, links, images, and more to pages, and then you can add those pages to your course modules:

What are pages for instructors?

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 URL to a course page enables students to preview the video directly within the page.

See a comparison of pages vs. modules in the following tutorial:

Canvas Pages vs. Canvas Modules

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

General accessibility design guidelines

Create course pages

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

How do I create a new page in my course?

As you create your page content, you will be using Canvas' Rich Content Editor. Watch the following brief video to learn about using the Rich Content Editor in multiple areas throughout your course:

Rich Content Editor

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

Now that you are familiar with the 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:

How do I insert links to course content?

How do I create a file link in a page in my course?

How do I embed a video in a page in my course?

The University Libraries automatic integration in Canvas is available through the Ares tool in the Course Navigation menu. Click this link to learn more about automatic, requested, and manual integration options through the library.

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