Teacher Appreciation Week 2023: Course Banners

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To kick off our giveaways this week, I want to start by acknowledging the work educators do every day to make learning engaging and positive. As a former educator myself, I truly appreciate your dedication and recognize how invaluable you are! As you navigate the ever-changing landscape of education, please know that you have a community of support behind you. We want to start by offering a resource each day this week that adds a bit of fun to your Canvas courses and hopefully makes your job a bit easier. Our Learning Services team was excited to put together these course resources to thank YOU for all you do!

- Michelle

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Course Banners

A course banner is a great way to add branding to your course, decrease the cognitive load for your students, and give your course a little more pizzazz! Today’s giveaway is your choice of two beautiful course banners. Use these in your course today or use them to inspire your own course design! Whatever you choose, we hope you feel encouraged and energized by these designs.

Please comment below and tell us what you love about these banners! Also, if you have created banners for your courses and are able and willing to share them with your fellow educators, you're encouraged to do so. You're welcome to share them in a reply to this blog. Feel free to upload them directly or share a public link to Canvas Commons, a cloud-hosted folder, etc. We hope you feel appreciated and that you come back each day this week for more! 

Elementary Banners

These banners are sure to put a smile on your face. We have created two options for your Canvas course. The first banner option is a photograph of three apples with an orange gradient. The second banner option is an illustrated version including an orange gradient and some of our favorite Canvas icons to match the first banner. These could both be used interchangeably to set the tone for your Canvas course.

• Copy or edit the elementary banners (requires a Google Drive account).
• View and download the elementary banners (no account required).

Secondary Banners

These secondary banners are exactly what you’re looking for. We have created two options for your Canvas course. The first banner option is a photograph of colorful lockers with a blue gradient. The second banner option is a geometric version including a blue gradient to match the first banner. These could both be used interchangeably to wow your learners.

• Copy or edit the secondary banners (requires a Google Drive account).
• View and download the secondary banners (no account required).

How Do I Use These?

1. Click on the links in the sections above to access the images in a slide deck. To download each image, click on “File” → “Download” → “PNG.”
2. Upload the image files to your Canvas Course Files.
3. Insert your banner image at the top of your page, assignment, discussion, etc.
1. For extra support, visit the Canvas Guide on How to Embed Images in your Canvas course.
4. In the Image Options, add ALT Text or mark the image as “decorative” to ensure accessibility, and set the width to 100% to use the full page width.
1. For extra support, visit the Canvas Guide on How to Edit the Alt Text and Display Options for Images in your Canvas course.
5. Save your changes.
6. Enjoy!

More Ways to Show We Care

Instrucure's Learning Services team can support you in so many more ways. The services that we offer at Instructure are beyond compare! If you want to learn more about our services, please contact your school's CSM!

Strategic Services

Strategic services focus on effective change and adoption of Instructure products. Our strategic approach aims to create a deep connection between teaching, learning, engagement, and technology. Strategic services takes your vision of success and helps to create a pragmatic plan to fulfill that goal. Our Strategic consulting services will help increase the speed of adoption, deepen and elevate usage, and improve the overall student experience. 

Instructional Design Services

Our instructional designers work closely with customers to provide guidance and best practices through the following services: course reviews, course enhancements, course building, design coaching, and course consultation around course design projects that support institutional goals. Our designers build engaging experiences for students with high-quality graphic design while leveraging the most up-to-date standards for accessible course design and UDL principles.

Training Services

Our training team develops and delivers in-person onsite, virtual sessions, asynchronous and synchronous training across all of our products. Training is provided for Admins, instructors, designers, leadership, support staff, and any member of an institution's faculty or staff.  Our Training Services are fully customizable, and our team will work with customers to craft the best training program to meet their unique needs.

On-Demand Services

On-Demand compliments that initial adoption kick-off by providing ongoing training as your skills advance, training for new team members or cohorts, anytime and self-paced training courses, and the opportunity to collaborate with Canvas educators and admins from across the globe and apply your skills in evidence-based certification programs. Onsite Trainings, Remote Custom Trainings, Certified Programs, and the Training Services Portal help ensure that learning to use Canvas and the other amazing Instructure tools is never an obstacle in your journey.