Using Discussion Boards to Teach CSS and Improve Canvas Course Layouts

In this three-week lesson, situated in a five-week, shortened summer course, instructional design graduate students learn basic cascading stylesheet (CSS) skills to facilitate page layouts within learning management systems. During Week 1, basic HTML tags (e.g., heading levels, lists, paragraphs, images, divider, span, link tags) and tag attributes, including style (used for inline CSS in Canvas), are introduced. In Week 2, learners are introduced to CSS attributes: background color, font color, borders, margins, and padding. During Week 3, they learn about block position, float, clear, and z-index. Throughout the three weeks, learners leverage low-stakes discussion boards to share ideas and refine skills.