Canvas home page
Home Page Layout Options
When you enter a course the first thing you (and students) see is the course Home page. The default home page is the "Course Activity Stream," but there are other options that will probably work better for you and your students. The most common Canvas Home page layout is using a Canvas Page as the Home page, which allows you to provide a personal invitation to the course and instructions on how to use the resources, the next best is probably the Syllabus.
From the home page layout list select the layout of a course from the following options: Links to an external site.
- Course Activity Stream lets participants see the most recent notifications and interactions for this course. It is very similar to the dashboard page where users first log in, but only shows content for the specific course.
- Pages Front Page gives instructors an editable page that they can use to create anything they want including links, images and video. To use this feature you will need to designate a "Page" as your Homepage first. To do this see the following page for more information - How do I set a Front Page in a course? Links to an external site.
- Course Modules literally makes the Course Home Page the Modules for the course (where all course content, assignments, etc. are located). This could be useful because students would not need to search for course materials.
- "Assignments List view" lists groups of assignments and their due dates.
- Syllabus: Include your course syllabus on this Canvas page. The most accessible, best practice is to type or paste the course syllabus into this page. Instructors can provide a download link to a Word doc or PDF. The "Course Summary" at the base of the Canvas syllabus page includes an automatically populated list of assignments and course events. It is possible to turn off the course summary view: How to turn on, or turn off, the course summary Links to an external site..
Experiment with the different home pages and select the option which best suits your needs. It's probably a good idea to come back to this after you're done building your course to make sure it fits the look you want.
For more information also see the following guide: What layout options are available in the Course Home Page? Links to an external site.
Change Your Course Home Page Links to an external site.
To change your course home page, go into a course that you have instructor rights. On the first page (this is the Home page) you will see the option at the right side of the screen to "Choose Homepage." Click on this link and then select a layout option. Links to an external site.
For more information also see the following guide: How do I change the Course Home Page Links to an external site.