Add a Delphinium Layout to a Course

Here are a few tips to give students more awareness of Delphinium (you are probably already doing most or all of them):

• Make the course homepage a Canvas page with instructions for how to access Delphinium, include some encouragement about the benefits of using Delphinium, so it is the first thing students see when they open a course

  • https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-change-the-Course-Home-Page/ta-p/1035

  • https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-set-a-Front-Page-in-a-course/ta-p/797

  • I have a video introduction to Delphinium on my homepage and some brief introduction text

• Hide alternate links to content in navigation like: Modules, Assignments, Syllabus (if you don't use the syllabus feature), Discussions, Grades (Delphinium shows the grades), and Quizzes to make it more convenient to access content through Delphinium

  • This still leaves the to-do list, and "Next" buttons at the bottom of every page, but will help more students find their way to Delphinium

  • The upside of hiding these links (and other unused links) is that it makes for a cleaner UI for students

• Make the Delphinium link the second link in the left-hand navigation so it is easy to see

• Make Delphinium the course home page (this feature is coming soon, let me know if you want to be updated when it is ready)

  • Here are the instructions for when the feature is ready: https://tutorials.delphi-me.com/deep_dive/set-up-a-course/make-delphinium-home-page

  • This option is not quite as pretty as giving Delphinium it's own link because Canvas adds extra titles and menus to the page around Delphinium, but it might make up for it by making Delphinium easier to access

• Frequently talk about Delphinium in emails and in class to encourage students to use Delphinium

I think it is worth the effort, Dr. Larysa lnadolny from Iowa State University has been doing studies on Delphinium for the past 3 years for a National Science Foundation grant, and she has found that student performance is positively correlated with the number of visits a student makes to the Delphinium page