[ARCHIVED] Can you add a Homework Button?

[Mina_Soliman]

What I mean by button is, like dashboard, courses, calendar, and all that, it would be really useful, Please and Thank You!

[Mina_Soliman]

I would really enjoy it!

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mina_Soliman 

First and foremost, keep in mind that in an online course all work is homework. Also, the examples that you provided, "dashboard, courses, calendar, and all that" are global navigation menu items, which means that those are links that are appropriate to any and all courses in a Canvas Account. Because Canvas is a course-centric platform, providing a link there would not be the best solution. It would be much better if located in the Course Navigation Menu, then students could go into their course, and see their homework for that course..

While you cannot change the name of a course-level navigation item, you can create your own navigation link titled Homework by using the Redirect Tool. You can learn more at Navigation - Redirect Tool

The problem then becomes, where do you point that navigation link to? It could point to Assignments (and you could subsequently hide the assignments link), which would be a very logical choice, but that link already exists and it does also include Discussions and Quizzes which are also "homework" in online courses. Really, this is simply a language problem - some teachers call it assignments, some teachers call it homework, you say tomato and I say tomato.

If you want to delineate your "homework" from other graded activities, because that language is important to you, then the easiest solution is to create an Assignment Group under the Assignments tab, and call it "Homework", then drag-n-drop all of your "homework" into that Assignment Group. See How do I add an Assignment Group to a Canvas Course, and How do I move or reorder an Assignment Group. However, the Assignments Index (where you go when you click on Assignments) can be challenging and overwhelming to students - it becomes just a huge shopping list that presents some huge accessibility challenges.

A better solution is to organize all of your content into  Modules. Modules are an excellent tool to organize your course content - both learning materials and learning activities - into more reasonable and manageable chunks. Modules can be organized by week, topic, project etc. No limits except your imagination. Then, within each module, you can use a Text Header to create an area where you list the homework for that module. You can learn more at UDL for Module Design.

If, after you think about this, you have more question, we are always glad to help in here however we can.

Kelley