Since its debut in Spring 2025, the Canvas Course Spotlight program has offered Cornell students the chance to highlight and recognize design elements of Canvas courses that have positively impacted their learning experience. 

Each year, the program solicits course nominations from students via an online survey. Once reviewed, course nominations are sent to course instructors and further reviewed by CTI instructional designers to determine which courses have stood out among the student feedback received that year. These standout courses are recognized with Canvas Course Spotlight Awards. 

In our first run of the Canvas Course Spotlight program, nominations were analyzed and categorized to identify the Canvas course design elements that stood out most to Cornell students. Analysis showed that the majority of student nominations could be clearly grouped into seven key areas of course design: Organization, navigation, assessment, communication, clarity, timeliness, and flexibility. From these nominations, five Canvas course design practices and three courses — each recognized in five or more course design categories — stood out.

In the second year of this program, we’ve continued to learn from Cornell students. Analysis of this run’s nominations supported our previous findings while also highlighting the importance of consistency and self-containment in Canvas course design. Once again, three courses stand out amongst the rest of the nominations, each recognized in six or more of the now nine course design categories identified above. 
 

2025-2026 Canvas Course Spotlight Awards

NCCB 5000: Financial Accounting (2025SU)

Brian White

Professor, Department of Accounting, SC Johnson College of Business

Categories: Organization, navigation, communication, assessment, timeliness, flexibility, clarity, consistency, and self-containment

PHYS 2213: Physics II: Electricity & Magnetism (2026SP)

Ryan Tapping

Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Physics, College of Arts & Sciences

Categories: Organization, navigation, communication, assessment, timeliness, and flexibility

BEE 4310: Environmental Statistics and Learning (2025FA)

Scott Steinschneider

Associate Professor, Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Categories: Organization, navigation, communication, clarity, timeliness, and consistency