[ARCHIVED] How can create buttons/links for students to navigate easily between different courses?

[meghan_k_wilkin]

Hi. I teach first grade students and I need to make everything as simple as possible for them to navigate. My district will have my first grade students enrolled in multiple courses (a math course, a language arts course, a science course, etc). I don't think they will allow cross-listing. I want my students to easily navigate between these different courses each day by clicking on buttons from ONE homepage in ONE course that will redirect them to correct course (subject) at the required time. Once they are finished with modules in the course they could click a link that would take them back to that one homepage. In other words, if I copy course links or even pages within a course and put them as subject buttons in one homepage in a different course, will these links work for students so they can be able to navigate successfully? 

If not, what are your suggestions for creating buttons on a homepage for students to click on and get to the course they need to be in? 

[KristinL · Accepted solution]

Hi Meghan ~

You're definitely not the only elementary teacher who is wondering about this. Feel free to join the conversation  here: https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/55818-elementary-classes 

You asked about buttons! I really enjoy this part of the home page design. It's the visual that sets up the rest of the user experience. My favorite resources are Canva and Google Drawing. You can create a variety of .png (image) files and then bring them into your course.

I know you teach littles, and I blogged about my course that's for students in grades 9-12, but there are some interesting comments that could be helpful: Student-Directed Home Pages‌

There are also great templates available for you to adopt. You can make duplicates of buttons that would lead you to your courses!

Teacher Appreciation 2018 | Home Page Templates‌

2020 Course Design Essentials: Home Page & Sample Module Template‌

[A_Thornton]

This was exactly my question! Set your homeroom course up with a homepage/front page that has a button for each course. When you go to add links to the buttons, use the external link option and insert the web address/url of the course. To find that, you can open your dashboard in another window. Select the course you want to link to. Then copy and paste the url into the external link option for your button.

[Hedrick1]

I followed these steps and it works from my teacher view but when I go to student view it says access denied.

[A_Thornton]

I spoke to Canvas about this. They said that the test student in each of your courses is a different entity and so it won't work in student view. As long as a student is enrolled in both courses that you are linking it should work. If you are worried, you could try logging in with one of your actual student's login information to check it.