>>Jena Fahlbush: It's time to add some formal heading and list structure to
our similes and metaphors assignment in Canvas.
First, I want to point out that this assignment has been named, Similes and Metaphors.
Here, Canvas is going to do the work for us automatically format the assignment name to a
heading level one, which is just what we want- a singular
heading level 1 per assignment or per page on the Internet.
As I scroll down into our editing box where I have the
assignment instructions, activity choices, table, and more,
I definitely see some opportunities for adding form
structure. And, when I say adding
formal structure I mean using built-in tools in the Canvas toolbar above.
The reason we have built-in tools is because that creates
more universal accessibility for the document or for the
assignment in this case. If I was to just highlight and
bold the word instructions, for instance, to grab my students attention,
this is only going to work for students in a visual space.
If a student was using a screen reader, for instance,
they would not be alerted auditorally to the bolded text.
To create this universal structure instead of manually
formatting the text, we want to highlight by clicking and dragging the word instructions.
And, from the paragraph drop-down, I want to click on the drop-down
and choose Header 2. Canvas automatically formats it to a heading 2 and
increases the font size for a visual indicator to a 28.8-point size.
I can adjust the size in the font size box to the left of the
paragraph box we just used if I would like, but for this example, I'm going to leave it.
So, now I have a visual indicator in size and also structure built into
my assignment for someone using a screen reader, for instance.
As I scroll down below the table, I have a second section.
I have activity choices with three activities listed below,
and that tells me that this is indeed a second section and
that activity choices
is a heading for that section. So with it highlighted,
I am now going back to that paragraph button to the right in the bottom line of the toolbar,
and I want to choose heading level 3. The reason I choose heading 3
is because activity choices are part of the overall instructions.
If in a hypothetical assignment, for instance, activity choices
were a section in addition to another set of instructions,
I might make them both heading level 2. It's okay to repeat heading
levels. Just remember we don't want to skip any heading levels.
Just again, in this case, activity choices is part of the instructions,
so I'm choosing heading 3. Canvas formats to a heading
3 with an 18-point font size that can be adjusted using
the font size drop-down if you wish. I now have two sections with proper
headings added using the built-in tools.
But, before I finish with the structure, I notice that I had three
choices listed in the activity choices section for my students.
Essentially, this is a list of three items, so instead of leaving them
as individual paragraphs or manually making a list by adding the numbers 1,
2, 3, and so forth, I want to again
create more universal accessibility with built-in tools.
The manual entry will only be a visual indicator and not a
universal indicator. So, we'll delete those numbers
and instead highlight all of the text in the list, and because they have a space between list items,
when I go up to the toolbar in the top line on the far right, I get some bullet,
bulleted or list options. So, the first option is for a bulleted
list and I could select a bulleted list. In this case, a numbered list makes more
sense, because these, indeed, are one,
two, and three options. So, instead,
I'm going to click on the numbered list to change them
to numbers. I now have
a more universally accessible assignment created in Canvas by adding heading structure
and by using a formal list
structure using the built-in tools. And, once published my students
will have access to this more universally accessible assignment.