New Feature Spotlight: Customize Your Course Navigation

If you’ve been using Canvas for a few months, or even if you’re brand new to it- you probably have noticed your course navigation (which appears on the left side of your course site) is a bit static.

This is because Canvas provides the same course navigation for everyone!  Ensuring that from course to course, regardless of whether you’re teaching Freshmen or Graduate students, the students will have a consistent experience in Canvas and always know what to expect and where to find what they need.

You can customize your course navigation in a couple different ways.  By re-ordering and removing items from the list, and by adding web resource links using the Redirect Tool.

Pro Tip: Items in your course navigation list that are “greyed out” can mean 2 things.  First, that your students can’t see it, but you (as the instructor) and your TAs can still view and edit OR that the item has no content materials in it.

Manage Course Navigation

You may change the order of the items in your course navigation, and remove those that do not apply to your course.

To do this, simply click on Settings (the last item in the list), then click on Navigation.  Follow the instructions on this page to add, reorder, or remove tools from the list.

Add New Links

Do you have an external web resource you’d like to draw more attention to by linking it within your course navigation? You can also add hyperlinks out to the web using an App from the Canvas EduApp Center.

To do this, click on Settings, then click on Apps.  Search (or browse the list) for the app called Redirect Tool.

In the pop-up window, replace “Redirect Tool” with the name you’re providing for your resource, and the URL for the web resource (make sure to include the https://).

Make sure to check off the box next to “Show In Course Navigation” to make the link appear in your course navigation and optionally, check the box for “Open in New Tab” if desired.

Click Add App.

The new link will show up at the bottom of your course navigation.  To reorder it, go back into Settings, click on Navigation, and follow the steps above (in Manage Course Navigation).

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the TTL team.