Canvas allows you to customize the content in your course along with the order in which the content is presented. You can add text, images, videos, hyperlinks, and files to your Canvas course for a robust learning environment for your students. The various assessment tools within Canvas can help further engage students in the learning process.

Modules

Modules function as the highest level of content organization in Canvas; these can be organized by weeks, units, topics, or other options that best suit your course content. Modules serve as the backbone of your course by providing structure.

You can add pages, files, external URLs, assignments, discussions, quizzes, and text headers to modules in order to package content in a logical manner for students.

Pages

Pages help you personalize your course and make the content more engaging for students. In addition to incorporating text on pages, you may also add files, images, videos, and links to other areas of your course. In most cases, your course will consist of content pages that you create.

In some instances, you might have students collaborate to create a wiki page in a course. When students collaborate on a page in Canvas, they also may add a variety of content — including text, images, videos, files, and links — to create a more dynamic page.

Canvas maintains a history of each page to keep track of changes made over time. You have the ability to review this history and revert a page back to a previous version if necessary.

Files

Canvas allows you to upload files that may be useful in your course. Files can include images, documents, media, etc. and are listed alphabetically by default. Depending on the file type and the organization of your course, you may add files to pages, modules, assignments, quizzes, and discussions.

Within the Files section of your course, you are able to manage files and organize them into sub-folders. Organizing files into sub-folders is especially useful when you have a large number of files in your course and allows you to locate a specific file with greater ease.

The following video shows you how to get started adding these essential building blocks to your Canvas course.