October 23, 2024

Want To Balance Design, Function, & Engagement? DesignPLUS Is Your Super Tool!

Have you ever wondered how we make CoE courses beautiful, scalable, and functional to deliver exceptional student experiences? We have a tool for that called DesignPLUS!

This past summer the creators of DesignPLUS, Cidilabs, offered a 5 part workshop series over called Summer School for Educators that highlighted how to use DesignPLUS from first time launch of the toolbar to advanced tips and tricks. Each day covered specific elements of the toolbar including:

• Getting Started with DesignPLUS:
  Start with a tour of the DesignPLUS Sidebar and cover the basics of building content from scratch with Themes, Content Blocks, Images, and the Action Toolbar.
• Elevating Canvas Content:
  See how to transform and elevate existing Canvas content with the DesignPLUS Sidebar; how to build beautiful and engaging course Home pages; and how to utilize our awesome, built-in Accessibility Checkers.
• Course Building with Templates:
  Learn how to utilize Templates in DesignPLUS to make content building a breeze, and see how the Multi-Tool can help you quickly scaffold out an entire course’s Module structure.
• Exploring the Tools:
  Explore our fan-favorite DesignPLUS elements and tools. We’ll see how to use Accordions, Dialog Boxes, Icons, Progress Indicators, Quick Checks, and more!
• Course-Level Customizations:
  Still want more? Discover the joys of course-level customizations, with your own custom Content Blocks, Quick Styles, Snippets, Icon Categories, and Themes!

If you missed the live sessions, we have video recordings that you can watch on-demand in this video playlist.

Prefer to just dive in? You can launch the toolbar with some quick keyboard shortcuts anywhere in Canvas that has a rich content editor. There are also several helpful resources that you can reference if you would like more specific guidance you would like on different elements in DesignPLUS:

• A quick DesignPLUS sidebar introduction page. This will give you the basics of working with the sidebar and is meant as a quick start reference.
• The main user guide for DesignPLUS. It’s got tons of great information, and you can look up how to use specific elements within the course.