Wrap text in Module

[training14]

Is there a way to wrap text in a Module tile?  Right now, text in long Module titles gets cut off after one line.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @training14,

The only way to adjust this on Canvas for the web would be through custom CSS through your school/institution theme (it appears the "ellipsis" class "white-space" property could be set to "pre-line".  This is something that would affect all courses, and many administrators want to keep these kind of customizations to a minimum or zero, so you'd need to talk to your local Canvas team to see how they feel about this.  Please also note that this wouldn't affect the Canvas apps (I know there are ways to apply similar customizations on the app, but I'm not familiar with how to do that myself).

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris

[SusanNiemeyer]

Rather than try to find a work-around, I would urge you to shorten your module titles. It should have no more than five words. Consider how your module titles look on mobile devices. Long titles are problematic.

Rather create a long module title, just make an introductory page with the important information. 

[training14]

I get your point about title length and adding additional information elsewhere.  I use one module per week of a twice-per-week course. I was using the Module title to list the topics of each lecture, which could run a bit long.  

Working from your suggestion, I shortened the Module title to just the dates.  Rather than making an introductory page, I added a Text Header to each Module with the topics of each class for that week.  The Text Headers wrap if the text exceeds one line, and the hierarchy from Module Title to Text Header to Assignments and Quizzes looks pretty clear on both desktop and mobile devices.

[SusanNiemeyer]

I would strongly urge you not to use dates. I started using Canvas during the pandemic, and I put dates on everything: module titles, assignments titles, and in the text (e.g. This assignment will be due on Friday, April 24.)

When it was time to import the Spring 2020 course content into my Fall 2020 course shells, I realized that I had created a huge amount of work for myself. I spent hours removing these dates. Now, I only have dates listed in my course syllabus and for the final exam. 

Now, I label my modules this way: Week 1, Week 2, and so on. Depending on the class, I may include a reference to the content For example: Week 2 (Unit 2: Animal Habitats). I follow the same approach for Text Headers.

At the beginning of each module, I post a page with links such as;

Monday

• Read XXX.
• Do XXX.
• Take XXX.

Wednesday

• Read XXX.
• Do XXX.
• Take XXX.

In each assignment's text, I simply write: "This assignment will be due on Friday.")

I publish each weekly module at the same time very week, and I move the newest module to the top of the page.

While I still have to make some adjustments every semester due to holidays, this approach has saved me countless hours.

[TrishaMeyer1]

Hi @training14 ,

I'm glad you found a solution that works for you! In case you don't already know, I wanted to share that you can select Text Header and then leave it blank before saving. A blank text header creates a bit of white space between other elements in your module. It looks a bit different in student view, so be sure to preview. You can use multiple blank Text Headers to create more white space as desired. 

Since you said you use one module per week for a twice-weekly class, I thought you might like to separate the two portions of the week with some visual white space.

[prof_aro]

This is also a problem in setting up a quiz with long sentences as I have experienced it. Text does not wrap.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @prof_aro ...

Thank you for sharing that screenshot.  For this kind of question type, have you considered reversing the items that you want students to read/match?  For example, instead of having those long sentences in your drop-down list, why not display those on the left side of your screen (where "Multijet printers", "DLP", "SLS", and "FDM" are)...and then include the shorter items from the left column in the drop-down.  This would definitely remedy the situation that you describe.

My $0.02 ... for what it's worth.  I hope it helps in some way.