Creating an effective Canvas course shouldn’t require coding skills or loads of time.
But many educators and instructional designers still spend hours formatting pages, organizing content, and making courses more engaging. And they do this all while wondering whether they’ve hit the mark. The challenge isn’t a lack of effort or ideas. It’s that Canvas was designed as a learning platform, not a design tool.
That’s where Cidi Labs DesignPLUS changes the experience.
Watch this new video to learn how educators and instructional designers use templates, themes, interactive elements, accessibility checkers, and more to create engaging Canvas courses without HTML or CSS.
Watch how easy it is to transform static Canvas pages into engaging, accessible learning experiences.
The DesignPLUS Sidebar brings powerful design tools directly into the Canvas Rich Content Editor, making it easier to create professional, polished course content without HTML or CSS.
Whether you’re building a new course or improving an existing one, the Sidebar provides everything you need in one tool. Themes automatically apply your institution’s branding in accessible color combinations, letting you create courses that look polished and consistent across programs.
With the Sidebar you can:
Instead of wrestling with formatting, you can focus on creating meaningful learning experiences.
Research shows that students learn best when they’re actively engaged rather than simply reading and scrolling.
The DesignPLUS Sidebar lets you incorporate interactive elements throughout a Canvas course. Add accordions to reduce cognitive load, tabs to organize related information, Quick Checks for immediate feedback, and module navigation lists to guide students.
These small design choices can make a big difference in how students navigate, process, and retain information.
Accessibility shouldn’t be something you have to remember at the end of the design process. The DesignPLUS Sidebar includes built-in accessibility tools that help you identify and resolve common issues as you work.
Need to verify the heading structure? There’s a checker for that.
Need to ensure images have alternative text? That’s built in, too.
The Sidebar also identifies links that point to inaccessible or unavailable Canvas content, helping prevent one of the most common sources of student frustration before a course is even published.
You don’t have to start from scratch to improve a Canvas course.
The DesignPLUS Sidebar lets you transform existing Canvas pages by turning large blocks of text into organized accordions, converting simple links into visually prominent buttons, laying out content in cards or columns, and adding interactive elements that improve readability and engagement.
The result is a cleaner, more intuitive course experience that helps students focus on learning instead of navigating.
And because tutorials, walkthroughs, and videos are built directly into the Sidebar, it’s easy to find new features and improve your Canvas design skills while you work.
The Sidebar is just one part of DesignPLUS, Cidi Labs’ comprehensive suite of course design tools for Canvas.
Together with the Multi-Tool, QuickStart Wizard, Upload/Embed Image Tool, and an extensive library of pre-built content, DesignPLUS helps educators and instructional designers build better Canvas courses in less time.
Want to see DesignPLUS in action? Schedule a live demo with Cidi Labs and see how easy it can be to create Canvas courses students love to use.
You can also subscribe to our newsletter for more practical insights like this.
Description