Before you start importing content and designing course assignments and activities, you have to have an actual course shell to work in. Once a course shell is created, you should be enrolled in the course as the role of a "Teacher" (or "Designer"). That's when the real fun begins...

When you log into Canvas, you should see a button to "Start a New Course". Click on this button to create a new course shell. If you do not see this option, then your administrator has disabled this function from your Canvas instance. In that case, you'll have to request or wait until your administrators create your courses for you.

In order to access your courses, click on the 'Courses' tab in the above dashboard to select the course you want to design and develop.

Things You Can Do With a Course Shell

Want a new course shell to play in?
Get one free at "Canvas Free for Teachers"

This may seem like an obvious question, but we've seen course shells be used in many different ways. Obviously, courses can be used to deliver your scheduled classes. However, course shells can also be leveraged in other creative ways:

sandbox or practice courses
master or template courses
professional development courses
Canvas orientation courses for students
Canvas training courses for teachers
a place for 100% online delivery
a place for blended or hybrid delivery (flipped classrooms)
a digital space for professional groups or committees to collaborate (note: Groups can also be used for this)

We've even seen teachers design entire programs under one course shell, using modules as a way to organize each 'short course'. We've seen clients explore the possibilities of using course shells for accepting student applications. Teachers have been encouraged to leverage course shells to deliver Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Canvas Network. Non-profit organizations are using it to train their volunteer staff.

Regardless of how you use your course shell, before students can see the course - YOU MUST PUBLISH it!

Want to see ways other schools have designed their Canvas courses? Check out the Canvas Course Collections to view all public, sample courses designed by higher ed and K-12 instructors from around the globe.

In other words, the possibilities of what you can do with your course shells are limitless!

The following tutorials detail course shells and global dashboard:

*NOTE: Some institutions disable the ability for teachers or instructors to create a new course. Instead, administrators provide course shells to faculty automatically via SIS (Student Information System) imports.