This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas
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I think there should be a button maker in the rich content editor (RCE). I find myself creating courses that make thorough use of the pages feature of canvas (especially when designing fully online, asynchronous classes). I usually use images as buttons in order to make user friendly navigation options for these courses. This makes me wish that there was a way to more easily create and customize buttons within the RCE. I presently use "Da Button Factory" to create the buttons for my courses. This suggested button maker would have many (if not all) of the same features such as colour, font size, font, button size, fit to text, corner rounding...
The button maker could include additional features such as:
- Visual feedback that a button can be/ has been pressed (change of colour, removal of 3d elements to create the illusion of a physical button press).
- Programed changes to the button such as a change of colour after the assignment that it links to has been submitted. Or a size increase to draw attention to daily activities (quizzes, video lectures).
- Prerequisites. The button that links to a quiz could re-direct the student to a video lecture or online reading if Canvas detects that the student has not interacted with the necessary material for said quiz. Canvas already tracks student activity through "Access Reports" so I don't think this is outside the realm of possibility.
These are just a few of my ideas. I definitely think that community polls could be set up to see what features would be more useful than others. While there is definitely a high ceiling for this kind of tool, I also think that this kind of tool would help more novice creators create more professional looking courses.
