The homepage of your course site provides students with both an overview of the course and guidance about what is most important in the course. Your choice of a homepage is closely related to how you choose to organize your site content (see Options for Organizing Content).
Selecting a Home Page Type
1. To choose a homepage layout, click “Choose Home Page” in the upper right corner of the homepage:
![](https://cteresources.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2017/04/choose-home-page-button.png)
2. Then select from the list of options:
![Home page options including Course Activity Stream, Pages Front Page, Course Modules, Assignments List, Syllabus](https://cteresources.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2017/04/home-page-options-selection.png)
How Each Homepage Option Looks
Pages Front Page
The default home page style for most courses is a basic webpage that can be edited using the Rich Text Editor. You can add formatted text, make links to documents, images, websites, and other content in your course, and embed videos and other multimedia content (see Options for Organizing Content and Pages documentation).
![A sample home page with text reading "Welcome to Math 101!" and an image](https://cteresources.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2017/04/default-home-page-style.png)
Syllabus
The Syllabus option automatically creates a schedule with assignments and events to guide students through the course. This option works best for courses organized by assignments (see Options for Organizing Content).
At the top, you can enter course details and other relevant syllabus information into the text editor. Below that is the automatically-created chronological list of events and activities in your course.
![](https://cteresources.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2017/04/syllabus-page.png)
Course Modules
Modules are recommended for courses that involve organizing a lot of content in thematic units. If you want to foreground the use of modules in your course, you can opt to use the module view as the homepage (see Options for Organizing Content and Modules Overview).
![Sample module set as home page](https://cteresources.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2017/04/course-modules.png)
Assignments List
The Assignments List is organized to show upcoming, undated, and recent assignments at the top. This ordering cannot be changed, and no additional text or content can be added.
![Assignments set as home page](https://cteresources.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2017/04/assignments-list.png)
BC Homepage Template
Boston College instructors also have access to a Homepage template customized with BC branding and regions for a welcome message, contact information and central links (e.g. syllabus and modules). This template was developed by the Center for Digital Innovation in Learning for online courses, and adopted more widely during the pandemic. Read information from CDIL about the template and how to add it to your course site, and contact centerforteaching@bc.edu with any questions about getting started.
The Homepage information provided includes suggestions for other Canvas customizations such as managing the left course menu, adding announcements to the Homepage, and making your syllabus available to students selecting courses. It is part of a Guide that also includes models for using Modules and Pages to organize course content, and making sure course content is accessible to all students. Different suggestions and models can be used independently of each other, so you can customize your course site in whatever way best suits your teaching.