This tutorial presents how to declutter your Canvas course by removing old or unnecessary files that could lower the score on your Ally Accessibility Report.
The “Files” section in each Canvas course can easily become a dumping ground for documents, images, and other media. A messy “Files” section can make it difficult to find what you need. In addition, the Ally accessibility reports include all files in your score, even unused and unlinked files. Cleaning these out can be a great first step in improving your overall Ally accessibility score.
The Simple Steps
- Make a backup of your files – Important!
- Delete duplicate and unused files.
- Delete old template assets.
Step 1: Make a Backup
Before you start deleting or reorganizing anything, it’s a good practice to download a backup of all your course files. This is a crucial safety net that ensures you can restore any files you might accidentally delete during the decluttering process.
- Navigate to the Files Section: In your course navigation menu, click on “Files.”
- Select and Download:
- To select all files and folders, hit Ctrl+A in the right-side pane of the Files area
- Click the Download button at the top right of the Files area
- Do not leave the Files page until the .zip file compiles and the download completes. This may take a few minutes.
- Save the Files: Save the downloaded .zip files to a secure location on your computer or a cloud storage service.
Step 2: Delete Duplicate and Unused Files
- Delete Unused Files: Go through your files and delete anything that is not linked in your course or is no longer needed.
- Delete Duplicate Files: Look for duplicate files with similar names and delete the extra copies. Files that end with a dash and a number, such as “document_title-1.pdf” or “document_title-1-1.pdf,” are usually duplicate files.
Step 3: Delete old Template Assets.
A common source of clutter in the “Files” section is a folder named “template-images.” This folder often contains images from older TAMU Canvas templates that may no longer be relevant to your course design. You can delete this and any old template-related files and folders from previous semesters. Leave the current semester template folders intact.
Navigate to “Files”: Navigate to the “Files” area from the course navigation menu link on the left-hand side.
- Select and Delete: You should see a folder titled “template-images.’ Select the three-dot menu located on the right of the folder name and select Delete.
Your Ally Accessibility Report will automatically update as you make changes to your course, but it may take up to 20 minutes for all your changes to be indexed.
Conclusion
Remember that maintaining a tidy course is an ongoing process. Be sure to organize and review your files each semester and refer to the Import Content into Your Canvas Course tutorial to learn how to make this part of your course setup each semester. If you run a new Accessibility Report, you should begin to see a better score within a few minutes. As you prepare for new semesters, you can continue to keep your course content fresh and your digital space clutter-free.
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