Types of Canvas Course Shells

Academic Course Shells should be used to teach your course. This shell will receive student enrollments from Colleague. You will need to publish your Academic Course Shell for students to view and participate in the course. Students do not have access to the course until it has been published.

Assessment Courses are Canvas course environments created to store and manage student artifacts (work samples), evaluations, and assessments within an Academic Unit. These courses facilitate end-of-term or program-wide assessments and archiving, serving as a repository for student data required by the institution for evaluation and accreditation purposes. Examples include onboarding documentation, exit surveys, and comprehensive exams administered by the Academic Unit. Students are only added to Assessment Courses when needed for assessment purposes and have limited interaction. 

Resources - Collaborative Space / Assessment Course Add and Remove Users

A Collaborative Space is a specialized Canvas course environment designed to centralize academic resources and relevant information for students within a specific academic program or unit (e.g., college, school, department, or division). Serving as a web-based platform, a Collaborative Space consolidates information from various sources, presenting students with easy access to essential content in one streamlined interface. These spaces are not intended for interactive academic activities (such as submissions or assessments) but are purely informational. Collaborative Spaces can be developed in Canvas, Google Site, or Google Classroom. 

Resources - Collaborative Space Guidelines

Development Course Shells (Sandbox) are created by request for Instructors of Record. Sandboxes can be used to develop course content and copy or store content from a previous semester. Sandboxes do not have any associated student enrollments and cannot be used to deliver course content.

Resources - How to Request a Canvas Sandbox Course

Blueprint Course Shells enable instructors to develop course materials and seamlessly distribute them to multiple associated courses via course syncing. This feature is ideal for courses that share content across multiple sections taught by different instructors.

Resources - Template Courses in Canvas

Canvas Orientation Course Shells enable Student Life to deliver essential information, helping incoming students acclimate to TWU and transition smoothly into college life. Freshman and transfer orientations foster connections among students, introduce campus resources, and facilitate course registration.

University Scheduling and Canvas Administration defines a course manager as an individual who has permission to cross-list courses and course sections they are not assigned as the instructor of record (IOR). To request cross-listing in Canvas, your Academic Leadership needs to contact University Scheduling and list you as the course manager for the desired course(s) and section(s). Once an instructor has been added as a course manager, contact Canvas Support to submit the cross-listing request.

When a course is published, the published content is visible to students enrolled in the course. However, Canvas restricts students from accessing the course 3 weeks before the term start date. Once students have access to the Canvas course, they can interact with the course content, including posting in Discussions, submitting Assignments, and taking Quizzes.

Note that Academic Courses are NOT automatically published for students. This step needs to be completed by the course instructor.

To communicate with students in the course roster without making the course content accessible (effectively keeping it "unpublished" in terms of student access), follow these steps in Canvas:

1. Navigate to the course and click Settings in the Course Navigation menu.

2. In the Course Details tab, set a future start date for the course.

3. Check the box Restrict students from viewing course before course start date.

4. Check the box Users can only participate in the course between these dates.

5. Click the Update Course Details button.

6. Click the Publish button in the sidebar or on the course home page. This enables communication features, but the restrictions prevent students from accessing content.

7. To send the announcement-like message:

   1.    From Global Navigation, click Inbox.

   2.    Click the Compose icon (pencil).

   3.    Select the course from the dropdown.

   4.    Choose All in [Course Name] to address the entire roster.

   5.    Enter a subject and message body (this serves as your announcement content).

   6.    Click Send.

Students will receive the message via their configured notifications (e.g., email, push notifications) without being able to view or interact with the course itself. 

Note that true "Announcements" (via the Announcements tool) will not trigger notifications in this restricted state; use the Inbox/Conversations tool as a workaround for broadcasting information.

If your My Courses list does not display any courses, you may not be enrolled in a course, course participation may be restricted, or TWU may not have updated the course enrollments in Canvas. Once registered, courses may take up to 24 hours to show in Canvas. 

Instructors may need to contact their Academic Unit leadership team to be added as the instructor of record on the class schedule.

Resources - How do I view my courses in the Card View Dashboard?

If the Instructor decides to resolve the incomplete in Canvas, the instructor of record (IOR) for a course can request an Incomplete section in Canvas. The student can complete the coursework in the course that was not completed or in the current semester's course. Submit a Canvas Support case with:

1. The name of the student with the incomplete

2. The Course ID where the student will complete the coursework

3. The dates the student will need access to the Canvas course

Resources - How to Contact Canvas Support