To ensure your Canvas course(s) are ready on the first day of class, here are a few things you should double check!

Copy your Course: You can copy your course to your new course shell (no need to rebuild everything from scratch). After you copy it over you can make any necessary adjustments / changes.
- Purchase Course Materials: Allow students to purchase course materials directly from the Cuesta College Bookstore directly from your course. You will see the "Purchase Course Materials" link in your course navigation. Student may click this link, and be directed to the campus bookstore. This option is not intended for ebooks or deep integration of publisher materials. Use the link above to get more details, and a handy handout to provide your students.
- Inclusive Access Courses: If your course will have first day access to your digital materials (ebooks or deep integration of publisher materials), you will need to ensure to add the "Course Materials (First Day Access)" link to your course. Use the link above to get more detailed instructions on how to set up Inclusive Access, and important messages you can provide to your students.
- Publish your course - Students can't access a course until the Instructor publishes it. Even if it's the first day of class students will not be able to access a course that isn't published. Publishing your course does not mean all of your course content is published. You will still need to make sure all Modules and content items are published also!
  Check your course start date - When your course is created the course start and end dates are automatically populated. Instructors do not have the ability to manually adjust their course start and end dates on their own. Note: Students will not be able to submit any assignments before or after these dates! (Contact your Dean for more information) You may give students viewing access by changing one setting; then students will be able view the course, and course content. You can change this behavior by editing this in settings:
  - Click Settings in the navigation bar, then under the course details tab uncheck the box that says "Restrict students from viewing the course before the Start date"
Favorite your Course - In order for it to show on your dashboard. You can do this by clicking on the "Courses" link in the side navigation, then click "All Courses", then click the star next to the course name to favorite it. Then click back on your dashboard navigation and you should see your course. (see screenshot below).
You might also need to change your dashboard view to card view by clicking the three dots in the upper right hand corner of your dashboard to view the drop down list. (see screenshot below)

You could tell your student about this as well so they are able to see your course.

Remove unnecessary Navigational Links - Navigational links are the links on the left side of your course page. If you leave too many of them visible to your students, you run the risk of students becoming confused, or skipping your course content from the Modules and going straight to their quizzes or discussions. Remove any navigation links you are not using or that you don’t want students to access directly.

Email your students – After you have checked all the course settings and your course has been published; you can use the Conversations (inbox) in Canvas to send your students a welcome message and invite them to your course, remind them of the materials they need to obtain prior to the first day of class, etc.

If you have questions or need assistance, please reach out!

Email DeFaculty_Support@cuesta.edu, visit open lab or request an appointment below.