[Course Settings] Allow teachers to choose default font size

[SusanNiemeyer]

Please give teachers the ability to SELECT their preferred default font size in COURSE SETTINGS.

There are many reasons that a teacher might want to use a larger font size, such as 14 font, throughout his or her site:

• younger students
• older students
• second language learners
• special education students
• students relying on cell phones

I much prefer to use a 14 size font. It's time-consuming to have to RESET THE FONT SIZE for everything I create. 

All that Canvas needs to do is to allow instructors to go into their COURSE SETTINGS and choose their preferred default font size. 

Surely, the tech folks can figure this out pretty easily. 

By the way, did you see how much more eye-catching this post is when I changed the font size? I hope that I've caught the attention of the Canvas folks!

[Jeff_F]

Just making sure everyone is aware that web browsers afford the capability to set a default zoom level.

Examples:

• https://www.howtogeek.com/658525/how-to-change-chromes-default-zoom-settings/
• https://www.groovypost.com/howto/set-the-microsoft-edge-default-zoom-level-for-websites/ 
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/font-size-and-zoom-increase-size-of-web-pages 

I hope this is useful information!

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hi Jeff,

Of course, there are workarounds. Yes, we can instruct our students how to enlarge the content on their screens.

One thing to keep in mind is that, because of the pandemic, many K-12 teachers and students, who would normally be in the classroom, are now online. Our goal should be to create EASY ACCESS for our most at-risk students. The population of students now using Canvas has greatly changed. 

Creating an option to change the default font size in the Course Settings should be a very SIMPLE UPGRADE. If we can choose how many Announcements to pin to the top of our Home Pages, then we should be able to change the default font size to 14.

So, Canvas Developers, can you do it? 

[DrumMan]

I agree!  For my elementary students, I almost always use a font size larger than the standard paragraph setting in the Rich Content Editor.  Having to select it from the dropdown menu every time I type something is very cumbersome, especially when building something like a multiple choice quiz.  I have to change the font size for every question and every answer.

Being able to set my preferred font size, or at least having a keyboard shortcut to be able to increase or decrease font size would save me so much time when creating content for my students.

Please consider providing an option to set a preferred font size or a keyboard shortcut to be able to more quickly change it. 

[Batgrl787]

Is it possible to re-set the font default to a larger font?

Currently, it's set to 12 pt. However, readability for online text is actually 16 pt.  I change the font each time, but it would be nice to be able to reset my default font to 14 or 16 to save an extra step in editing.

[nekuma]

Might it be possible to have the option of setting default font size for all our courses (or each of our courses individually). This would eliminate the tedious task of adjusting the font each time a page is created when font size (or styles) are required.

[SusanNiemeyer]

Thanks, Stefanie, for merging this. The question I have is whether a programmer can simply give us the option of choosing our preferred default font size.

Would this be so difficult to do?

[Stef_retired]

That's a great question, @SusanNiemeyer . Requests made in Idea Conversations are prioritized by our developers according to broadly identified needs rather than the relative ease or difficulty of accomplishing them. When the various sources from which we derive feedback (described in detail in What is the feature development process for Instructure products?) identify a request as desired new functionality, the product team, in combination with engineers, will embark upon the discovery and design process.

[SusanNiemeyer]

Stefanie,

Giving instructors an option of a larger font size (14 pt) would be both easy for the programmers to do and a helpful and welcome change for many instructors.

I teach ESL at a community college. Many of my students:

• are native speakers of languages such as Armenian, Bangla, Russian, and Korean. 
• are older students. (It is common for me to have students in their 60s and 70s.)
• have various disabilities.

I intentionally use a 14 font size because it is more "accessible" to my students. I am doing my very best to work Universal Design principles into my Canvas courses.

Canvas could save me a lot of time and effort by providing an option to set the default size of my courses to 14 pt. 

Thanks again.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

This is an excellent idea, @SusanNiemeyer! For all of our students and colleagues who prefer larger font sizes, this could be something that is a user preference akin to the high-contrast UI option that each of us has on the Account menu. After all, that is a way that Canvas allows each user to decide to apply a specific effect.

And thank you @Jeff_F for including those links to customizing browser settings! It will be great when our students can change those within Canvas and have them apply across browsers (especially if they are using a computer in a campus computer lab and do not have the privileges required to make those changes).