Designing your course
What is course design?
Course design, sometimes called curriculum design or course development, is a structured process of planning and organizing the elements of a course to achieve specific learning outcomes. A course design process typically includes setting clear objectives, structuring content, selecting appropriate teaching methods, aligning assessments, and ensuring that the course meets the needs of diverse learners. Whether for in-person, online, or hybrid environments, course design aims to create a cohesive, student-centered learning journey that facilitates understanding and application of knowledge.
From a Student’s View
A student shares what it felt like to navigate a well-organized course — and why it mattered:
“Organization of courses can be the ultimate decider if a student with ADHD/Autism passes. In a school year, I like to do a combination of online and in-person learning. I’ve seen the issue of course organization cross to both of these settings. [In one course,] the writing was in a small, smashed-together font with as much information as possible. There were also large amounts of abbreviations that weren’t intuitive. I found myself falling behind quickly before having to develop my own system to decipher the calendar. This led me to putting more energy on this then setting myself up for success in the course.”
- Lio, Portland State undergraduate student
From a Student’s View
A student shares what it felt like to navigate a well-organized course — and why it mattered:
“Organization of courses can be the ultimate decider if a student with ADHD/Autism passes. In a school year, I like to do a combination of online and in-person learning. I’ve seen the issue of course organization cross to both of these settings. [In one course,] the writing was in a small, smashed-together font with as much information as possible. There were also large amounts of abbreviations that weren’t intuitive. I found myself falling behind quickly before having to develop my own system to decipher the calendar. This led me to putting more energy on this then setting myself up for success in the course.”
- Lio, Portland State undergraduate student
Why is good course design important?
Thoughtful course design is critical for effective teaching and meaningful student learning. Just as an instruction manual guides someone through assembling a complex item, a well-designed course with clear course goals will guide students through the learning process, ensuring that each step builds toward a comprehensive understanding of the topic. A well-designed course fosters engagement, accommodates diverse learning styles, and removes unnecessary barriers to understanding. It also improves instructor effectiveness by providing a clear roadmap for teaching and assessment.
Effective course design contributes to:
- Clarity and Accessibility: Students can easily understand course expectations, objectives, and how to navigate materials.
- Engagement: Thoughtful design encourages active participation, fostering a deeper connection to the subject matter.
- Equity: By considering diverse learner needs, good design ensures inclusivity, making content accessible to everyone.
- Alignment: Ensuring that learning objectives, activities, and assessments are in harmony increases the likelihood of achieving desired educational goals.
- Efficiency: A structured course reduces redundancies, saving time for both instructors and students.
How do I design an effective course?
Designing a course that engages students and supports meaningful learning requires more than just assembling materials. It involves intentional planning—starting with clear goals, building aligned assessments, designing active learning experiences, and maintaining a consistent structure. These strategies will help you build a thoughtful, student-centered course that meets your instructional goals and fosters student success.
1. Identify course goals
You may be familiar with student learning outcomes, also sometimes called learning objectives or course goals. Your course may have preset outcomes, or you might need to identify outcomes. In either case, you need to have observable and measurable, so you can clearly communicate how you will observe student work and measure whether it meets the goals of the course. Outcomes might address content knowledge, skills, or even dispositions that you intend students to acquire and should help them focus their learning and attention and connect the dots between course content, learning activities, and assessments.
Imagine that a large box arrives at your house. It’s full of parts to assemble but has no instructions and no pictures of the final object. This is how students often feel when they enter a course without student learning outcomes or clear goals.
Once you’ve identified the outcomes for your course, they form the foundation, blueprint, or roadmap that everyone in the course is working toward. As you design or revise your course, keep coming back to these outcomes to ensure your planned assessments, assignments, learning activities, and teaching strategies align with your intended learning outcomes.
2. Build assessments around course goals
Think back to that mysterious box that arrived at your house. What if the box had instructions, but they didn’t match the parts? What if parts were missing or the instructions skipped big steps? This is analogous to what happens when assigned work doesn’t align with the course goals or when assessments don’t match what has been taught in the class. It’s difficult for students to understand why the work is necessary or relevant or how their assessments reflect what they are learning.
Consider the purpose of each of your assessments.
- Do they help you and your students perceive how much progress you’ve all made toward the course goals?
- Are they being used to measure whether students are ready to move onto the next stage?
- Should they be graded or used for practice to help students focus on specific topics?
It can also be helpful to give students opportunities for peer review, self-reflection, and suggestions rather than a letter or number grade. Research shows that grades are often demotivating for students and can be confusing when students try to improve their grade in future assignments. While we often look at grades as inevitable and ubiquitous, they are relatively new as a standard practice in higher education (Schinske & Tanner, 2014).
This section provides a brief overview of assessments as they relate to course design. The terms “assessments” and “assignments” are used interchangeably here to describe ways to externalize student learning and better observe and measure it. For a more in-depth discussion of assessments and guidance on building assessments around course goals, please review the [ASSESSMENT PILLAR] article.
Understanding Assessment Methods
Explore various assessment methods and tools for effective teaching.
3. Design learning experiences and plan teaching strategies
One of the most common mistakes in course design is assuming the material is the course. Rather, the material is merely one tool of the course. The learning experiences, relationships, and teaching strategies you plan should align with your course goals and students’ needs. “Those who do the work do the learning” (Doyle, 2011) — so the more students have opportunities to interact with the course materials, their peers, and you, the better. When considering what activities to design for your course, ask yourself what students can do to connect with the course skills, dispositions, and concepts.
There is a wide range of teaching and learning approaches to consider:
- Active learning provides experiences that give students more active involvement in learning about and evaluating perspectives.
- Flexible teaching strategies emphasize teaching and learning across course modalities (online, in-person, or blended)
- Community-engaged learning invites students and community members to participate in mutually beneficial goals and projects in well-planned and structured partnerships
- Open education focuses on using free learning materials that allow students to co-create alongside their instructors, building non-disposable assignments, and encouraging agency
- Universal Design for Learning emphasizes student choice, access, and agency in assignment and course design to reduce/eliminate barriers to learning
More about teaching strategies
More about online course design
4. Build a clear course structure
Once you have identified your course goals and designed your assessments and learning experiences to align with these goals, you’ll need to consider how to present this information to your students. Regardless of the modality of the course, a clear and consistent structure will help reduce students’ anxiety, enhance focus on learning, and promote better engagement with course materials, ultimately supporting academic success.
Using Canvas, even for a fully in-person course, can help enhance communication and organization by providing a centralized hub for your course. Canvas can help you:
- distribute materials
- track assignments and student progress
- streamline grading and feedback
- provide a structured learning cycle students can follow.
Example Canvas module
This is an example of how you might organize a module. Note that each type of activity is organized in the module with text headers to separate content.
Example Canvas overview page
This is an example of an overview page. It includes a brief introductory paragraph to orient students to the week’s topic(s) as well as the learning objectives
An effective syllabus can also provide a clear course roadmap, outlining learning outcomes, assessments, policies, and support resources, which helps set clear expectations for students. A well-designed syllabus can promote better time management, improve student performance, and create a more organized learning environment.
More about course structure
5. Get student input on your course design
Whether you use feedback from last term’s students or suggestions from this term’s students, inviting your students to give design input will do a lot to help the course run smoothly.
- Student input encourages student motivation, participation, and agency.
- Course co-creation helps to meet student needs by encouraging a diversity of ideas and choices.
Ways to encourage student input as you plan the course
Ask: Send out a poll about a week before the course begins to ask about technology access, communication mode preferences, and assignment type feedback. Students might be most interested in devoting some class time to asking questions while working on video projects rather than term papers, but as instructors, we won’t know that unless we ask.
Brainstorm: Give students three or four learning outcomes on the first day, and ask the class to brainstorm other outcomes they would like to include on the list. Work to include one or two of their suggestions on the final list of student learning outcomes.
Offer: Offer choice in how students complete some assignments. This might mean a choice of assignment formats, collaborations, or due dates.
Negotiate: Create a negotiated syllabus with your students during the first week of class. Give them a say in the course goals, assessments, assignments, and activities. You don’t have to make everything negotiable. A critical part of planning is to identify the scope of choice. This is a great way to build community and get student buy-in around course requirements. “The Negotiated model is totally different from other syllabuses in that it allows full learner participation in selection of content, mode of working, route of working, assessment, and so on. It should by this means embody the central principle that the learner’s needs are of paramount importance” (Clarke, 1991).
Want to try a pre-term survey?
Check out this sample pre-term survey to get ideas for the kind of questions you may want to ask your students. Then, use the link at the top of the form to make your own copy and modify it to fit your class needs!
Never used Google Forms before (or need a refresher)? Visit the Google Forms Support page for help getting started!
Resources on getting student input on course design
Clarke, D. F. (1991). The negotiated syllabus: What is it and how is it likely to work? Applied Linguistics, 12(1), 13–28.
Doyle, T. (2011). Learner-centered teaching: Putting the research on learning into practice. Stylus.
Schinske, J., & Tanner, K. (2014). Teaching more by grading less (or differently). CBE—Life Sciences Education, 13(2), 159–166.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). ASCD.
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Faculty field notes for AI
Discover innovative PSU faculty examples of how fellow instructors are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their courses to enhance learning and engagement. These real-world applications showcase practical strategies for using AI in higher education with today’s students.
We invite you to share your ideas on how you use (or don’t use) AI in your teaching practice. By crowd-sourcing this resource, we hope to invite a range of perspectives and examples across the varied teaching styles and disciplines of Portland State University.
- Please note that the examples below reference a range of AI tools. Gemini and Notebook LM are two AI tools available to the PSU community with enhanced security and privacy features.
Share your AI example!
Submit your example through our the Google form using the button below. Note, you must be logged into your PSU gmail account to access this form.
- Roy Kravitz, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science
- ECE 558: Embedded Systems Programming and ECE 544: Embedded system design using Programmable Logic
- 7 students; 15 students
“For the winter term I used ChatGPT to help me design the project assignments and to provide starting code for the programming portion of the assignments. Both courses assumed that the students were competent in their programming skills. I would not have allowed students who were learning how to program use the tools.
Students were given permission, and in the case of generating Android code, encouraged to use auto-code generators to provide starter code. For the midterm exam for the Android programming course, I made it open book/Internet. One of the problems on the exam asked the students to provide the prompt(s) they used to generate portions of an Android program. Student feedback was positive, and most students had success in completing the assignments. Many students commented on my willingness to use, and let the students use, the technology that they will likely have to use once they start working.
As for the capabilities of the technology. I was impressed by the code generated and the scope of the help I could get from ChatGPT and Gemini, however…and it’s a big however. Pretty much everything auto-generated required extensive dialog w/ the tool, and more often than not, the solution did not work, and I had to troubleshoot and modify the auto-generated code.”
Submitted April 2025
- Rachel Noorda, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- WR 579: Researching Book Publishing
- 15 students
“I have used AI in the classroom in the graduate research methods course WR 579 Researching Book Publishing. Many students are very nervous for the oral exam where they have to defend their research to graduate. To alleviate this nervousness and help them practice, I gave them an AI prompt to help generate practice questions that they could try responding to aloud.“
Submitted March 2025
- William "Ike" Eisenhauer, MEng, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science
- ME 314: Machine Component Design
- 45 students
“In my course, I use AI to enhance both engineering problem-solving and digital literacy. One specific assignment involves designing a steampunk-inspired robotic knee joint for “The Iron Voyager”, an automaton built to traverse harsh environments. Students use AI as a brainstorming tool to generate ideas for mechanical configurations, material selection, and aesthetic integration. After generating initial concepts, students must fact-check all AI-generated suggestions using engineering calculations, CAD simulations, and industry standards (such as AGMA for gears or ASME for welds). This process teaches them to critically evaluate AI outputs, distinguishing between creative inspiration and technically feasible solutions. Additionally, students document where AI provided useful insights and where it failed, fostering discussions on AI’s limitations in engineering design. By the end of the assignment, students not only refine their technical skills but also develop a nuanced understanding of how AI can aid—but not replace—rigorous engineering analysis.”
Submitted February 2025
- Prof. Kathi Inman Berens, Ph.D., College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- WR 466/566: Digital Skills
- 15 students
“Students arrive in WR 466/566 Digital Skills presenting a huge range of experience with HTML and CSS. Some have never looked at source code. Others have passing familiarity; a few have built websites for years. The assignment is to build a webpoem using HTML and CSS (and JavaScript, for those with pre-existing expertise). The challenge: each student must create learning goals that push them beyond their existing level, including a “stretch” learning goal. Students reflect on how they pursue those goals in a structured learning reflection they submit with the webpoem. GenAI is a tool that students triangulate with traditional resources such as W3Schools, sample exemplary webpoems that we study and annotate, and code snippets found on fora such as StackOverflow and GitHub. Students find GenAI performs variably. Sometimes its suggestions work well. But, especially for the least experienced learners, GenAI doesn’t provide the conceptual framework with the same coherence as class discussion or tutorials on LinkedIn Learning. Students identify workshops of their webpoem-in-progress as a valuable learning tool. Workshops are dynamic, improvisational discussions of how other students approach aesthetic goals and problem solving. Workshops build camaraderie. They are both fun and efficient. This affective reinforcement supports the intellectual and experiential learning.”
Submitted February 2025
- Andrew F. Lawrence, School of Business
- BA 325: Information Literacy
- 40 students
“Rather than rely solely on the textbook/course materials, I used ChatGPT to help scaffold the input phase of an assignment. Specifically, students read a chapter that included some content about Moore’s Law. The textbook chapter did not cover the topic very cohesively, and so on a quiz question about this topic, I instructed students to ask ChatGPT about it in addition to reading the chapter. Students then shared the output of that conversation.“
Submitted February 2025
- Kam Moi Lee, Ed.D., School of Business
- BA 336U: Essentials of Information Technology for Non Majors
- 45 students
“BA 336U is a minor course for the School of Business that covers (among many other things) data analytics and spreadsheet management. A variety of majors enroll in the course, and students can vary in data literacy. Within the course, there is a list of critical terms that students need to be aware of by the end of the term. To assess their knowledge of the critical term, students can pick a term for the week and then use a Generative AI tool to define it. Then, students are asked to compare and contrast the answer against the textbook and explain any similarities or differences. I also require them to cite their sources using APA. Many students responded that they appreciated the exposure to Generative AI and that I allowed it to be used within my classroom.“
Submitted February 2025
- Megan McFarland, M.Ed, College of Education
- SPED 422: Comprehensive Individualized Assessment & Curriculum I
- 23 students
“I use AI in many parts of my courses! For the example I’ve shared here, I built a lesson that has students use a fictional case study and ChatGPT to evaluate the uses and limitations of AI in case management and IEP writing (I teach pre-service Special Education teachers). This lesson has been a great way for students to authentically and neutrally explore the benefits and limitations of AI without me imposing rigid policies onto them. We’re able to have rich discussions after the activity where students are able to wrestle with if/how they might use various AI tools to manage the large writing workload required of special educators, as well as the important ethical and legal considerations when using these tools with real K-12 student data.“
Submitted January 2025
Community-Engaged Learning at Portland State University
Contributors:Harold McNaron
Community-engaged learning (CEL), also known as community-based learning or service-learning, is central to how Portland State embodies its motto, “Let Knowledge Serve the City.” As a public university founded in Vanport, OR and now located in the heart of downtown Portland, our history, present and future are bound to the Portland metro area and the community at large. This article discusses considerations for integrating CEL into your own classes as well as highlighting the work currently being done at on our campus.
What is Community-Engaged Learning (CEL)?
Community-engaged learning involves collaboration among community partners, students, and faculty/staff for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge, experiences, and resources. According to the PSU Faculty Senate-approved description for academic courses bearing the CEL tag, it is important that CEL courses:
- include community-engaged experiences that are central to course outcomes and goals (for all participants)
- ask students to reflect critically on their community engagement.
Some other key components often included in CEL courses and co-curricular programs could also include:
- Social justice orientation. Collaborative experiences that employ a social justice orientation that guides student-community partner engagement.
- Length of engagement. Some CEL students may work on one project over the course of several weeks or even throughout multiple terms while others might participate in a variety of CEL experiences within a course or co-curricular program. Length of engagement time is often a primary measure, and sometimes requirement, of CEL courses and programs.
- Impact and benefit to community partners. Short-term engagements can assist grassroots organizations with tasks like mailings, facility upkeep, and event support, all of which enhance their efficiency and visibility. In contrast, long-term engagements might contribute to organizational capacity building, workforce development, and fundraising efforts.
The depth of CEL collaboration can vary widely. Newer collaborations might start out with a single guest speaker or site visit while more mature partnerships could employ collaborative course design (faculty, community partner and/or students participating in curriculum design, implementation and evaluation), community-based participatory action research, and more significant time commitments at the partner site. Per the above examples, CEL can also take place both on and off campus.
Why CEL?
For decades, PSU students, faculty, and staff have utilized CEL to augment student success. Students can benefit from CEL pedagogies that make direct connections between course content and their academic, professional, and other personal interests. The impact of CEL extends beyond individual courses or academic years and influences alumni well into their professional and civic lives. When CEL utilizes a social justice orientation, it can be aligned with PSU’s ongoing commitment to and pursuit of racial justice, equity, and environmental sustainability.
In alignment with PSU’s commitment to serving the city and other communities, CEL courses and programs foster mutually beneficial and generative efforts that build on community assets and address pressing place-based interests/needs. Since most PSU graduates stay in the Portland Metro area upon graduation, CEL also serves as an avenue for alumni engagement. Many current community partners include PSU alumni among their staff, some of whom originally connected with their employers via PSU’s CEL efforts.
Lastly, as a public institution funded to meet the interests and needs of the Portland area, the State of Oregon, and the wider community, CEL is an accountability mechanism for the funding and other public supports we receive.
How does CEL happen at PSU?
PSU’s strong commitment to CEL is evident through University Studies and the Senior Capstone program, ensuring nearly every undergraduate engages in CEL before graduation. Beyond that, a number of graduate, professional, and other programs also embed their curricular and co-curricular work within meaningful community-connected initiatives and organizations. The examples below illustrate the many ways PSU community members are engaging in CEL:
The College of the Arts partners with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA). KSMoCA connects public school students, teachers, administrators, and staff, PSU students (graduate and undergraduate), and PSU faculty with internationally renowned contemporary artists through collaborative workshops, exhibitions, artist lectures and site-specific commissions.
Students learn about museum practice and careers in the arts by participating as curators, preparators, artists, gallerists, writers, and docents. KSMoCA reimagines the way museums, public schools, and universities can affect people, culture, and perspectives by creating radical intersections for sharing resources across organizations. Programs are developed collaboratively with Dr. MLK Jr. School community, PSU students, and a team of supporting artists.
Place-Based Engagement: Featuring KSMOCA
Discover innovative strategies for place-based engagement in this case study with the King School Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Student Community Engagement Center (SCEC) at PSU employs a critical service-learning framework, which enables students to collaborate on meaningful projects with local nonprofits. SCEC offers a variety of educational equity, environmental stewardship, and economic justice projects as well as other supports and resources.
For more than 50 years, interdisciplinary groups of PSU students have served as camp counselors who build relationships with and support the experiences of campers with disabilities while exploring intercultural communication strategies and the inter-professional, collaborative nature of the nonprofit sector. About 25 years ago, the University Studies Senior Capstone Course at Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp was implemented. The capstone incorporates academic course content and rigorous reflection supporting the four UNST goals (Communication; Critical Thinking; Diversity, Equity and Social Justice; and Ethics, Agency and Community).
Zapoura Newton-Calvert’s Social Justice in K-12 Education Capstone is an online community-interdependent course partnered with Reading Is Resistance, Teaching for Change, and Libraries for Liberation.
School of Social Work undergraduate and graduate students dedicate 400-500 hours during the academic year to educationally focused, professionally supervised practica. Students develop competence in social work skills and professional values in community-based organizations in support of the community partners’ mission. They engage in responsive practices that address the pressing needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized individuals, families, groups, and communities.
Speech and Hearing Sciences graduate students complete clinical practicum experiences that support services in local schools and provide needed expertise, such as the Bilingual Spanish Assessment Clinic, which conducts evaluations in Spanish and English for children who have been referred for special education.
College of Education teacher candidates complete year-long practicum (student teaching) experiences in K-12 school settings.
Putting Community-Engaged Learning into practice
Are you interested in integrating community projects and partnerships into your teaching?
Meet current community partners at PSU
Identify one of PSU’s existing community partners whose goals align with your course. You can begin looking for opportunities to expand or deepen partnerships by reviewing current partners on the following PSU pages:
- Partnerships & Engagement (Global Diversity & Inclusion)
- GivePulse (Student Community Engagement Center)
- Senior Year Capstone Program (University Studies)
Develop new partnerships
Take time to understand potential partners’ contexts, including their history, goals, and collaborators, while sharing key information about PSU’s academic structure to lay the groundwork for a successful and sustained partnership.
Get personalized CEL support at Portland State
Schedule an individualized consultation with The Office of Academic Innovation to get course or department-level support in integrating CEL.
Explore CEL resources and guides
You may also explore some of the following resources for continued learning about community-engaged learning:
Community engagement toolkit
The Community Engagement Toolkit helps students explore the importance of engaging within the community and how to find meaningful connections. The Faculty and Facilitator Guide for this toolkit includes ideas on how to utilize this tool kit within the classroom environment.
Guide to Community-Engaged Learning Instruction
Explore the relevant chapters in this guide to community-engaged learning instruction, authored by Dr. Christine Cress from the College of Education and other PSU-affiliated scholars. (Contact the Office of Academic Innovation to inquire about borrowing a copy.)
This is an example of an overview page. It includes a brief introductory paragraph to orient students to the week’s topic(s) as well as the learning objectives.Following that, students can see all of the weekly activities/assignments.
Stay current with community-engaged pedagogy
Check in with one of the many professional associations and conferences producing timely research on community-engaged pedagogies:
Kaltura MediaSpace Player Upgrade
Kaltura MediaSpace Player Upgrade
This article was last updated .
Kaltura discontinued its V2 media player, replacing it with the next generation V7 player. This new player has a more responsive design, improved accessibility features, and customizable options to experience your media however you want. To compare the new player to the old player, check out Kaltura’s V2/V7 comparison tool.
How does this upgrade affect me?
If you have embedded video from MediaSpace in your Canvas course or another platform, you will need to replace the embed code.
Although the V2 player may seem to be working fine, it can stop working at any time since it has been discontinued and reached the end of support.
To determine if your embedded video is the old (V2) player or the new (V7) player, look for the following features:
V2 Player
- Square play button
- No transcript visible
V7 Player
- Circular play button
- Transcript visible by default (if available)
Note: All videos hosted on our MediaSpace have been automatically updated. If you have shared a direct link to a video in MediaSpace, no action is needed from you to change to the new player.
How do I update the embed code for my MediaSpace video in Canvas?
The process to replace the V2 player with the V7 player requires that you search for videos in your MyMedia list. We highly recommend that you access your MyMedia page in MediaSpace and take the following steps to make it easier to find your content.
- Delete unneeded videos.
- Update your video titles to use a consistent naming structure. (Example: [COURSE#] Week#: Topic -> “[SPAN 101] Week 4: Prepositions.”
- Publish the videos you want to use to “Unlisted.”
- In your Canvas course, navigate to the Rich Content Editor (editable text box) in the page or tool (quiz, assignment, etc) where you want to update the embedded audio or video player.
- Delete the existing video and be sure to position your cursor in the Rich Content Editor where you want the updated video to appear.
- In the top toolbar of the Rich Content Editor, select the Embed Kaltura Media (1) icon.
- Search for the media file you want using the Search Bar (2) or by navigating through the list.
- Once you have found the video you want to use, select the blue </>Embed button (3) next to it.
- The video will appear on your page. Save and publish your page, quiz, assignment, or discussion.
Add My Media to Canvas Course
Add My Media to Canvas Course
This article was last reviewed .
If your course uses MediaSpace and Canvas, you can save time by adding your My Media page directly to your course in Canvas. This must be done individually for each course you would like to integrate with My Media. Continue reading to learn how to add a page for MediaSpace’s My Media in a Canvas course.
Note: You must be logged into your Canvas account before starting.
How do I add My Media to my Canvas course?
Open the course where you want to add the My Media page.
Open Settings (1) from the left course navigation sidebar, then select Navigation (2) from the top tabs.
Locate the My Media row in the lower column. Select the options icon (3) and Enable (4). This will move My Media to the top column.
Select the Save button under the lower column.
From the left course navigation sidebar, navigate to My Media (5) and select Authorize (6) to allow Canvas to access your MediaSpace account.
After completing these steps, you will have access to your My Media page from within your Canvas course.
More about My Media & Canvas
Threaded Replies Unavailable in Canvas Discussions
Threaded Replies Unavailable in Canvas Discussions
This article was last reviewed .
Why aren’t Discussions working as expected?
In Summer 2024, Canvas introduced a redesigned Discussions tool, which includes an option to disallow threaded replies. Threaded replies allow students to respond directly to each other’s discussion responses. They are grouped together visually, and each subsequent reply to a post is indented. When threaded replies are disallowed in a discussion, participants can only post top-level responses to an initial discussion prompt; no one can make direct replies to other discussion threads.
When updating the Discussions tool, Canvas inadvertently applied the disallow threaded replies feature to existing threaded discussions. As a result of this feature change, students may find that they are no longer able to reply directly to discussion responses in some courses.
Learn more about threaded versus non-threaded Canvas discussions.
How can I fix the disallow threaded replies issue so participants can reply to discussion replies?
Option 1: Use the temporary button to make all discussions threaded
This self-service button (1) is only visible in courses that still contain at least one discussion affected by the issue.
Learn more about this temporary button at the Canvas product blog post, Temporary button to uncheck the Disallow Threaded Replies option in all Discussions.
Option 2: Manually update individual discussions
-
- Navigate to the relevant Discussion’s Edit page.
- Then, uncheck Disallow Threaded Discussions.
- Select save.
Availability Dates won’t update on Graded Discussions
Availability Dates Won’t Update on Graded Discussions
This article was last reviewed .
Are you having difficulty getting Canvas to reflect your graded Discussion availability dates, even after updating the dates in the Discussion’s settings? If so, follow these steps to fix this issue:
- Open the Discussion’s Edit page: Navigate to the relevant Discussion’s Edit page.
- Refer to How do I edit or delete a discussion in a course? for guidance on locating this page.
- Note relevant information: Write down the graded discussion’s Point value and Availability and/or Due Dates set.
- Change the Discussion Graded option: Below the Options section, uncheck “Graded”.
- Remove Date Restrictions: Delete the Availability and/or Due Dates noted in Step 2.
- Save changes: Save the discussion by selecting the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page.
- Revert the Discussion Graded option: Edit the discussion again, and check “Graded” from Step 3.
- Re-Add Date Restrictions: Re-enter the Availability and/or Due Dates noted in Step 2.
- Finalize changes: Select the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page.
The dates should now display as expected.
Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit
Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit
Resource type: Self-paced Canvas course
Intended for: New faculty, emerging practitioners, seasoned educators
The Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit is a flexible resource to enhance your teaching practices. The toolkit is designed to be navigated freely, allowing you to jump between modules and topics based on your current needs and interests. While this toolkit can be quickly scanned in approximately 30 minutes, as with racial justice work, it is ongoing and not time-bound. It invites lifelong learning. Some of these resources are not quick fixes but rather parts of a greater whole to pause, process, and reflect. It invites conversation within yourself and a trusted community.
What's in the JDEI Teaching Toolkit?
This module explores how culturally-responsive curriculum utilizes the heritages, experiences, and perspectives of ethnic and racial groups to more effectively reach/teach students who are members of those groups.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- Representation
- Caring and Loving Pedagogy
- Universal Design for Learning
This module explores how to build an equitized syllabus that considers how to reduce barriers to equity for minoritized and poverty-affected students.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- The Inclusive Syllabus
- The Invigorating Syllabus
- The Intuitive Syllabus
This module explores the active involvement of students in their learning process, faculty, the content, and each other.
In this module, you will explore two sub-topics:
- Proactive Communication
- Addressing Student Trauma
This module explores how effective assessment practices not only measure student progress but also inform instructional decisions, support student success, and contribute to the overall quality of the course.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- Equity-Centered Assessment Design
- Student-Centered Assessment Design
- Alternative Grading Practices
This module focuses on the input, perspectives, and opinions of students in the learning process, allowing them to express their thoughts, ideas, and concerns.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- Student Voice
- Student Experience
- Student Feedback
Tools You'll Use
The Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit is built within PSU’s learning management system, Canvas by Instructure. You can learn more about how to use Canvas with our Canvas Tutorials.
About the Toolkit Creators
The JDEI Teaching Toolkit Project Team created this resource, guided by the OAI inclusion charter (part of the Office of Global Diversity & Inclusion’s Time to Act Plan), with significant input from both Portland State University faculty and students.
Cross-List in Canvas to Combine Multiple Sections into One Course Shell
What is cross-listing?
Cross-listing is where multiple CRN sections of the same course are combined into one course shell in Canvas. This process is not able to be completed by instructors. A majority of cross-list requests are completed before course shells are released to instructors by your department’s scheduler and added as a unified shell within Canvas. These combined courses may share the same scheduling, location, and/or instructor. However, there are certain situations where this prior cross-listing is not possible and a manual cross-list will need to be created on your behalf.
In Canvas, how can instructors see if their course has been cross-listed?
In Canvas, there are two main indicators that may show your course has been cross-listed.
- In most cases, cross-listed courses will have all Sections listed in the Course Code. The Course Code is displayed at the top of your Canvas course and listed on the Settings page within Course Details.
- In all cases, cross-listed courses will have each Section listed within the Sections tab. Instructions on how to access the Sections tab are listed below.
From the Course Navigation menu within your course, click the Settings link [1].
Click the Sections tab [2].
Under Course Sections, view your sections [3] and the number of users within each section.
When to request a manual cross-list
Instructors primarily request cross-listing in order to improve course management efficiency. Not all courses can be cross-listed, though. The requirements for cross-listing are that all course sections must have the same content and occur within the same term.
Common cross-list request situations:
- An instructor is teaching ABC-460 and DEF-460; these contain the same course content, but with different department codes.
- An instructor is teaching ABC-543-001 and ABC-543-002. This course is listed as two different sections due to class size, but the Canvas course content is identical.
- A special studies course, ABC-199, uses the same content as ABC-399.
- ABC-435, an undergraduate course, and ABC-535, a graduate course, share the same content, with only 1 or 2 distinctions between assignments.
In a cross-listed course, by default all students will receive the same content and assignments. For this reason, we recommend you consider using the Differentiated Assignments feature. By using Differentiated Assignments, you can set different due dates and availability dates for quizzes, discussions, and assignments. You can choose if the assignment will be limited to specified students, sections, groups, or assigned to everyone in the course. Reference How do I assign an assignment to a course section? for more information on setting up Differentiated Assignments.
How do I start?
To begin the cross-listing process, submit a cross-listing support request including all course names and their corresponding URLs, if possible. If the request can be completed, we will reply with a link to the cross-listed course. If you have already begun adding content to one or more of the courses, please let us know so we can ensure your content is preserved.
The Registrar’s Office requests that instructors with custom cross-listing in Canvas add this note to their syllabus or Canvas course:
“This Canvas course is shared by one or more course sections. This means that students enrolled in the other section(s) of this class will be able to see the Canvas course content, and may be able to view various activities such as discussion boards or any activities that are created by the instructor to be shared commonly among the different sections.”
Peer Review in Canvas
Contributors:Isabel Elizalde, Misty Hamideh, Lindsay Murphy
Enabling Peer Review on your Canvas assignment gives students a way to provide feedback on their classmates’ work. The peer review process exposes students to different perspectives and approaches to the same task, and can often deepen their understanding of the material.
Peer review can be used for various types of assignments, such as:
- Writing assignments (essays, reports, research papers)
- Multimedia projects (videos, presentations)
- Problem sets or coding exercises
- Artistic or creative works (drawings, designs, compositions)
Setting up effective peer-reviewed assignments can be tricky. Consider scheduling a consultation with OAI staff to get help through the process!
How do I set up Canvas Peer Review?
Canvas supports peer review through the Assignments tool. When creating a new activity, you can enable the “Peer Review” option and configure settings like:
- Anonymous or named reviews
- Number of peer reviews required per student
- Instructions and rubrics for reviewers
Here are some things to consider as you set up your peer review assignment:
Include the due dates for both the initial submission and peer review comments in your assignment description.
Because you cannot set separate due dates for the initial draft posting and peer review phases, communicating both due dates in the assignment description will make your expectations clear and help ensure that all students have a paper to review. Using Announcements to make sure students stay on track is also a great idea!
Be sure to highlight the importance of submitting initial drafts on time.
Students who don’t submit an assignment cannot be assigned another’s work to review. (Note: If you have chosen to “Automatically Assign Reviews”, students who did not submit the assignment by the due date will not be automatically assigned a classmate to review and thus will need to be added manually.)
Peer review may be new to some students.
Consider sharing a model and/or rubric that gives students a framework for providing feedback. (Note: If you attach a rubric to the assignment, peer reviewers are also able to access this rubric. Rubrics used by peer reviewers for feedback are not included in the final grade.)
Once the assignment is published, you can monitor the progress of submissions and peer reviews through the Assignments page. Canvas provides an overview of the peer review status, allowing you to see which students have completed their reviews and which ones are still pending. If needed, you can extend deadlines or reassign peer reviews to ensure each submission receives the required number of reviews. There’s also a Reminder tool you can use to send a notification to students who have not completed their assigned reviews!
What Should Students Expect?
Peer reviews are not assigned until:
- The student has submitted their own assignment, AND
- The date set by the instructor to assign the reviews has passed (if you choose to assign reviews automatically) or the instructor assigns the peer reviews manually.
Until both of these things have happened, the peer review assignment will not show up on the student’s To Do list or on the original assignment. As many students rely on the To Do list to keep track of their assignment due dates, be aware that this may cause some confusion.
Note: Peer review details do not show up in Student View.
It may be helpful to ask students to watch this overview video of the peer review process in Canvas:
As the instructor, you may want to provide feedback to the students on the peer reviews. Canvas allows you to view and comment on the peer reviews themselves, offering feedback on the quality and accuracy of the reviews. You can also use SpeedGrader to view each student’s work alongside the peer reviews they received, making it easier to assess their overall performance and provide your own feedback.
Canvas does not have a way to automatically assign a grade for completing a peer review. However, if you would like to assign points for peer reviews, you can create a No Submission assignment in the Gradebook and assign points manually. The Peer Review page for the assignment will show the names of students who have completed the peer review. (Note: You can find a link to the Peer Review page on the main Assignment page under Related Items.)
Group Peer Review Assignments
Peer review can also work with group assignments. By creating group set, you can assign students to specific groups and distribute peer review tasks accordingly.
Some important things to know about using peer review for group assignments:
Peer reviews are assigned to individuals, not groups.
Each group only needs to have one member submit the assignment, but this submission will show up for every student in the group. When the peer reviewer makes comments on their assigned classmate, these comments are compiled with other comments from reviewers who were assigned the same submission. In this way, each member of the group will see comments from all the peer reviewers in their feedback.
By default, automatically assigned peer reviews will not be assigned to members of the same group.
If you would like to allow group members to review their own group’s work, be sure to check the option to “Allow intra-group peer reviews”. This will randomize the peer review assignments, not paying attention to group membership. (Note: The only way to ensure that students are assigned only to members of their own group is to set peer reviewers manually.)