Creating a Course

All FWISD staff members have the ability to create Canvas courses. On this page, we will learn about the different types of Canvas courses and how to create them.

Types of Canvas Courses

Focus Populated:

Teachers of record will not need to create their own classes for their regular instruction. When teachers log into their Canvas accounts at the beginning of the school year, they will find that their content courses have been automatically created for them based on their course schedule in Focus.

Because these courses are synced with Focus, students will be automatically enrolled and unenrolled in the Canvas course based on the student roster in Focus. Additionally, grades from these courses can be synced to the Focus gradebook using the Canvas Grade Passback feature.

Manually-Created:

FWISD staff members can also create their own Canvas courses. These courses will not sync to Focus. Manually-created courses can be used for exploration (these are often referred to as sandbox courses), content building, collaboration with other teachers, clubs, etc.

‍ CLASSIC VIEW
ELEMENTARY VIEW

Creating a Course

There are two ways to create a course in Canvas.

Option 1: From the Dashboard

Navigate to your Dashboard using your Global Navigation Menu.
Select the Start a New Course button.
Under Which account will this course be associated with?, choose Manually-Created Courses. NOTE: You may not have the option to choose an account. If that is the case, skip this step.
Fill in the Course Name. Click Create.
Your new course will load, and you can begin adding content.

This item does not use sound.

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If your Dashboard does not look like the GIF above, you can change your view by clicking the three-dot menu at the top right corner. Choose Card View.

💡 Pro Tip 💡

Use a sandbox course to create your modules and lesson materials. You can then copy entire modules into another course. You can even use your sandbox course to collaborate with other grade level or subject area teachers as you create instructional materials.

Note: This is recommended to ensure that your files remain in your Canvas account at the end of the school year.

Option 2: From Courses

Click Courses in the Global Navigation Menu.
Scroll to the bottom of your course list, and click All Courses.
Click the +Course button.
Under Which account will this course be associated with?, choose Manually-Created Courses. NOTE: You may not have the option to choose an account. If that is the case, skip this step.
Fill in the Course Name. Click Create.
Your new course will load, and you can begin adding content.

This item does not use sound.

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Creating a Subject

There are two ways to create a subject in Canvas.

Option 1: From the Homeroom

Navigate to your Homeroom using your Global Navigation Menu.
Select the + sign.
Under Which account will this subject be associated with?, choose Manually-Created Courses (Elementary). NOTE: You may not have the option to choose an account. If that is the case, skip this step.
Fill in the Subject Name. Click Create.
Your new subject will load, and you can begin adding content.

This item does not use sound.

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If your Dashboard does not look like the GIF above, you can change your view by clicking the three-dot menu at the top right corner. Choose Homeroom View.

💡 Pro Tip 💡

Use a sandbox course, or subject, to create your modules and lesson materials. You can then copy entire modules into another course. You can even use your sandbox course to collaborate with other grade level or subject area teachers as you create instructional materials.

Note: This is recommended to ensure that your files remain in your Canvas account at the end of the school year.

Option 2: From Subjects

Click Subjects in the Global Navigation Menu.
Click All Subjects.
Click the +Subject button.
Under Which account will this subject be associated with?, choose Manually-Created Courses (Elementary). NOTE: You may not have the option to choose an account. If that is the case, skip this step.
Fill in the Subject Name. Click Create.
Your new subject will load, and you can begin adding content.

This item does not use sound.

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