Meet TLi’s Updated Course Starter Kit
Building a course from scratch takes time that could be spent on what matters most: your content and your students. Teaching and Learning Innovations’ Course Starter Kit 3.0 is a Canvas template designed to give faculty a strong, accessible course foundation— one that already reflects best practices in inclusive design, course organization, and student engagement. It aligns with current Title II digital accessibility requirements (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), incorporates quality criteria from the CSU QLT rubric, and is built to be adapted for any discipline or modality. It provides a consistent visual design with pre-built course elements that you can duplicate and fill with your own instructional content.
Alignment With Quality Standards
- The Starter Kit incorporates best practices outlined in the Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) CSU Rubric, one of two rubrics approved by the CSU Online Course Service (OCS) for defining criteria for well-designed digital learning environments.
- The Starter Kit is also developed using accessibility best practices aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, meaning your course begins at a high level of digital accessibility before you’ve added a single piece of content. An Accessibility Support module for instructors ensures you have support for maintaining these standards with accessible-by-design best practices.
- Research-based pedagogical practices to support learners, such as the transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) framework, connections to community and career, and student-centered design, are built directly into the template elements.
- The Starter Kit is built with a mobile-responsive layout, ensuring your course is easy to navigate on phones and tablets– an important standard for the many students who access Canvas primarily from a mobile device.
Course Starter Kit Highlights
Customizable Homepage
An intentionally designed course homepage reduces cognitive load for students and sets a welcoming, organized tone from day one, supporting student engagement. The Starter Kit includes a homepage template that provides a clear, easy-to-navigate landing page for your course that can be customized with your course information, a banner, and quick access links to help students easily find key course materials. 
For Instructors: Course Development Support Module
A Course Development Support Module provides resources to guide your course design. This module will remain unpublished and invisible to students, but available to instructors for quick access to learning design support, including tutorials on key Canvas features, templates to create custom course banners, and sample module pages for various content types.
For Instructors: Accessibility Support Module
The updated Starter Kit includes an Accessibility Support Module (also unpublished) that provides guidance and resources to help you maintain the kit’s accessibility standards as you build out your content. As you add your own content (videos, documents, and images), you will need to ensure it meets accessibility standards with captions, alt text, and appropriate formatting. This module provides links and resources to help you build an inclusive course that supports all learners.
Student Support Module
The Student Support Module compiles resources to support students’ engagement with your course and the broader campus community. It includes technical support tips and resources, as well as links to campus resources that support student success and well-being.
Start Here Module
Research shows that students who feel oriented and welcomed in a course are more likely to persist and engage. The pre-built Start Here module helps you establish that environment from the first day, with templates for introducing yourself, setting expectations, and helping students navigate your course with confidence.
Weekly Template Modules
Course organization directly impacts how students navigate and engage with your content. The Starter Kit provides three customizable weekly module templates with options for a standard weekly format, due-date organization, or an in-person format. You can choose the format that best serves your students and course design. These modules include templates for a variety of content types, including learning content pages, assignments, discussion boards, and quizzes. You can add, edit, and delete template pages to suit the needs of your course, duplicate modules as you build to save time, and develop a consistent course structure your students can count on.
Course Starter Kit Tour
Ready? Access Starter Kit 3.0
TLi’s Course Starter Kit Knowledgebase article provides more detail about how to locate and import the Course Starter Kit. Import into a sandbox course today and start building.
If you have questions about Course Starter Kit 3.0 or would like support for your summer or fall course prep, you can find resources and learn more about how to connect with the TLi team here. Wishing you a smooth and productive end of the semester!
