Overview

Pages are where you'll add your course content. In this guide, we'll show you how to open your pages in the page editor, structure them using Cidi Labs DesignPLUS content blocks and add content to them using the Canvas rich content editor. This is probably one of our most complex guides, so take your time with it! Each section of this guide will build upon the last, so work through them in order.

The Canvas page editor

The Canvas page editor is what you'll use to add content to your pages. You can access it by selecting Edit [1] to the top-right of any page. There are two ways that you'll create content in the page editor. The base editor is the Canvas rich content editor (A). You'll use this to add the majority of your content to your pages. You'll find it works similarly to other page editors, like Word. There's then the more advanced Cidi Labs DesignPLUS editor (B), which allows greater flexibility in styling page elements and also offers additional elements to add to your pages, compared to the Canvas rich content editor. We'll show you how to use both of these further on in this guide. Note you can also change your page's name from the editor (C).

Cidi Labs DesignPLUS basics

Cidi Labs DesignPLUS is accessible via the Canvas page editor. When creating a new page, you'll start by creating page structure using DesignPLUS content blocks. We cover this more further on - for now, check out the presentation below to learn the basics of DesignPLUS.

Select the expand button to open in full-screen or open in a new tab if not loading. Follow the navigational cues in the presentation to move between pages.

Required use of DesignPLUS

DesignPLUS is only required to structure pages with content blocks, check the accessibility of your pages, and to update a few elements on the homepage (these are requirements of using the AU Course Template). Beyond that, its use is recommended but entirely optional. To learn how to do more with this tool, refer to our resources on editing and adding elements with DesignPLUS.

Coming from UoA MyUni?

MyUni uses the older version of DesignPLUS, Cidi Labs DesignTools. Both products function similarly, though DesignPLUS has a new interface and several improvements. DesignTools is not available in AU Canvas.

How to add content to a page

To set up a page in alignment with the AU Course Template, you'll first need to structure the page using DesignPLUS content blocks, then add content into those blocks using the Canvas rich content editor (remember that use of DesignPLUS beyond adding content blocks is optional).

What are DesignPLUS content blocks?

Content blocks are essentially just a set of pre-formatted blocks that you can stack together to build a page. Segmenting content into these blocks otherwise makes them easier to edit, copy and rearrange throughout course development.

The AU Course Template comes with some custom content blocks. For example, there's a video block, a readings block, an activity block, and much more! These content blocks are templated to make adding content to your page and maintaining consistency across your pages easier. While use of content blocks is required, use of these custom content blocks is optional.

The first content block you'll interact with will likely be the one that appears on AU Course Template pages. When you open one of these pages in the page editor, you'll see text inside a dashed red box (A). This dashed red box is a content block! You'll notice too that there's a yellow box inside the red one, with a yellow header titled 'Editor Only Note:' (B). Editor notes like these are present in all types of custom AU Course Template content blocks to provide advice on what content belongs in each block type. These notes are not visible to learners and can be removed once you've read them (we'll show you how further on).

Adding structure using DesignPLUS content blocks

Now you understand what content blocks are, check out the presentation below to find out how to add them onto pages to create structure. We'll also show you more about the different custom content block, how to arrange content blocks and how to remove editor notes.

Select the expand button to open in full-screen or open in a new tab if not loading. Follow the navigational cues in the presentation to move between pages.

Adding content using the Canvas rich content editor

After structuring your pages with DesignPLUS content blocks, you'll need to start adding content to them using the Canvas rich content editor. As a reminder, the Canvas rich content editor functions similarly to Word. In the presentation below, we'll show you everything you can do with it.

Select the expand button to open in full-screen or open in a new tab if not loading. Follow the navigational cues in the presentation to move between pages.

Other places you can use DesignPLUS

Cidi Labs DesignPLUS will also be available when editing assignment, discussion and announcement descriptions, but not quiz descriptions.

Set DesignPLUS to open by default

You'll use DesignPLUS to structure all of your pages. To save some time, you can set it to open automatically whenever you open the page editor, via your DesignPLUS user settings.

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