In the International Student Resource Guide, Kaitlyn Healy from the Office of Global Engagement sought to improve their existing Canvas community aimed for the international student population at Montclair State. Using the DesignPLUS Sidebar and collaborating with ITDS, we were able to design a cohesive template that could be used throughout the entire community to promote cohesion and make the information more easily accessible. The DesignPLUS sidebar enabled us to chunk out all of the relevant information, insert callouts to draw attention to important details, and, perhaps most importantly, allowed us to design a homepage that can function as a “landing pad” for students. Custom “link grids” can be inserted to function as a navigation bar that can direct students to important documents, websites, or resources.
DesignPLUS for Canvas, created by Cidi Labs, is a toolset designed for instructional designers to more efficiently create robust, high-quality course templates and content to deliver a better student experience. DesignPLUS includes the Content Editor Toolbox, the Multi-Tool, and the Upload/Embed Image Tool.