Create Canvas cards with PowerPoint
You can add custom course cards to your classes, which will appear as a thumbnail on your (and your students’) dashboard(s). Let me rephrase this statement. You definitely should create custom course cards for all of your classes. Add your individual flair and let your students know right from the dashboard that your course is awesome, the content is interesting, and that you care about what you are teaching your students.
This tutorial will teach you how to swap out the default course image (which is no image) with something that you have carefully and creatively customized. For me, it is important to look for any opportunity to add a personalized touch to my Canvas course. It is important that I look for ways to tacitly tell the students that I am involved with the teaching and learning process and that the curriculum was not created by a robot. Plus, fancy course cards are just fun!
For this tutorial, I am focused on using PowerPoint to create my graphic. You can use Google Slides, Keynote, or other dedicated platforms such as Gimp, Visme, Canva, or Photoshop. But I chose PowerPoint because most people have access to it and it is very simple to work with. The dimensions for the course card should be a minimum 262 pixels wide and 146 pixels high. PowerPoint be default will export my image at about 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels high, so it will be plenty large. The important thing is that the ratio of width to height is approximately 16:9. This is a standard widescreen dimension for classroom projectors, computer monitors, TVs, and mobile devices.
Your PowerPoint slide deck will most likely be set to Widescreen (16:9). You can verify the dimensions by visiting the Design ribbon, and in the far right there is a Slide Size icon with a dropdown menu. From the dropdown, you can also set a custom slide size and specify in inches the width and height you would like. I typically just keep the default 13.33 in by 7.5 in, but if you are worried about file size you can reduce those dimensions. Just make sure you do it proportionally and maintain the 16:9 ratio.
In PowerPoint, there are various options for adding your images. If you have an image on your computer or device (that is cleared with copyright or creative commons considerations) then you can insert your picture from the Insert ribbon. With a subscription to Office 365, you will have access to Microsoft’s library of resources, including images, icons, videos, illustrations, and such.
You can also visit one of the free image repository website, such as unsplash.com, and download an image for your course card. Feel free to visit my blog post for more details on some of the better free image repositories.
Choosing your image is the important first step. The image shouldn’t have too much detail, and should have enough contrast so that students can clearly discern the content without it being overly busy, distracting, or gaudy.
Once you have your image, it is a good idea to crop it to the slide. This is not necessary, but it’s a good practice. When it comes time to save your final image, PowerPoint will only save the parts of the image that fit onto the slide. So make sure the image extends to the edges of the border and then crop the excess off. A quick way to crop is to double click the image (which will pull up the Picture Format ribbon) and click the crop button on the far right.
If you want to put text on your screen then that’s completely up to you. I think it’s a great option. You can do this with a simple text box. Click the Insert ribbon (1), then select the Text Box icon (2) and draw your text box on the slide. I typically stretch the text box so that it fits all the way from the left portion of the slide to the right portion. I’ll then center align the text (ctrl + e) and pick a nice bold font. These days my fonts of choice are Aharoni, Articulate Extrabold, Arial Black, and Intro Rust Base.
When you have your image and the text overlay, then you’re ready to save. Instead of saving your slide as a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to save the slide as an image. To do this, you will click on File, Save a Copy, and then from the dropdown menu (under the file name), choose an image format. You can select JPEG, PNG, or GIF.
Once you have your image saved onto your computer, you can upload it into Canvas. In the course settings, click on the Course Details tab and select Choose Image. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the button Update Course Details (don’t forget that step). That’s all there is to it!
☝️ Don’t forget to ☝️
click me!
Course card image in the Course Details tab of the settings
You will see a preview of your course card image immediate in Settings. Your course card will have an overlay, and your students will be able to change the color of their overlays in their Canvas accounts. So it is good to create course cards using imagery that does not depend on a certain color scheme. Pandas always work.
Course card color overlay options in the dashboard
Navigate out to your Canvas Dashboard and admire your work. You may need to tinker with some of the settings in PowerPoint so that your card image looks good with the overlay. You might adjust the contrast, brightness, font color (size, family), etc. With a little tweaking you’ll have a great looking course card that the other teachers will envy!
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