The following are general examples of Canvas Tools that can be applied to a variety of courses; not all examples will be applicable to every course in every discipline.

Syllabus

The Canvas Syllabus is an important communication tool which allows instructors to share “traditional” syllabus material as well as to share assignment due dates and links. This tool has the power to set the tone and lay the foundation for all regular and substantive interaction within the course.

The following can be included in the course syllabus to promote instructor-student Interaction:

Instructor biography and contact information, including office hours. Contact information should Indicate when you will be available to students and when you will not be available (i.e., weekends, vacations, holidays, if appropriate).
Instructor teaching philosophy which emphasizes the value of communication and community
Expected response time to student questions and concerns. Our CBA (Article 9.11) states that your response time to student questions or concerns be within 48 hours; however, a best practice is to respond within 24 hours and to be available for answering questions in both synchronous and asynchronous modes.

Course Home Page

Consider the Canvas Course Home Page as the virtual entryway into your course. Here, students should be welcomed into the course and provided with basic course navigation information and directions regarding how to proceed.

The following can be included in the course home page to promote instructor-student interaction:
Welcome video with instructor bio. Instructor-created videos and regular announcements create a sense of “presence.” Presence is the most important best practice for an online course (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 53). Research has shown that an important component in students’ performance in and satisfaction with their online course is the active participation of the instructor within their course (Picciano, 2002; Rovai, 2002; Swan & Shih, 2005).
Contact information including instructor availability and response times as indicated in the syllabus.

Announcements

Canvas Announcements is an important communication tool that provides opportunities to strengthen instructor presence and interaction with and among students. Announcements can be used to celebrate, inform, and instruct.

To take full advantage of Announcements, be sure to pin Announcements to the top of your course home page. You can do so via the course “Settings” feature. You can also direct students to enable automatic email notifications when an announcement is posted.

To promote instructor-student interaction, announcements can be used to communicate the following:

Celebrate student success: student participation, interaction, achievements, etc.
Inform students of upcoming due dates and events.
Provide relevant Canvas tips/course navigation strategies.
Advertise COS learning supports at key points throughout the semester (i.e., encourage students to attend tutoring sessions and link the tutoring schedule; encourage participation in a Library Micro-Course and/or EdTALK that is relevant to an upcoming assignment)
Help students synthesize recent course content by digging deeper.
Encourage students to use the “reply” feature in Announcements to post clarifying questions and/or comments that can turn a one-way communication into a two-way conversation. If utilized, the reply feature can also support student-student interaction.

Learn more about creating effective announcements from this Byte-sized tutorial from Helen Graves: