Text-Heavy Content

 Introduction

This page will demonstrate best practices for presenting textual information in Canvas using Canvas accessibility tools. See General Accessibility Design Guidelines Links to an external site. for more tips on designing content in Canvas. 

 Organization and Layout

Well-organized writing is always crucial, and Canvas offers several tools to help you keep your pages clear and organized.

Headings

Use headings (and subheadings) to break your content into sections. Use paragraph and headers styles in the rich content editor (rich content editor help Links to an external site.). Do not create headers simply by increasing the size of text. In addition to improving the organization and visual layout of a page, headers also make the page accessible by people using assistive technologies.

Spacing

Dividers can be used to create space and mark a clear distinction between sections. See the dividers page for more instructions and sample dividers.

Length

Keep content pages relatively short for easy readability. If there are several screens worth of material, consider breaking it into multiple pages. 

Icons - line_eye.pngIconography 

Icons can assist in signaling various tasks and may be helpful for students navigating your content. Be sure you are consistent with the icons used throughout the course and remember to set them as decorative images when uploaded to Canvas. 

Icons - line_gear.png Large Chunks of Text

If your content page is still too text-heavy, try one of the following: 

  • Link out to articles instead of copy/pasting content within your course. 
  • Integrate multimedia (e.g. videos, podcasts, etc) to support various learning preferences.
  • Use bullet points to highlight key points of the content.