Tips

I've created and shared a Course Template that you can easily import into your course to have a custom homepage with images for each unit, which link to an introduction page for the unit. There are 11 homepages to choose from (Art, Science, Math, etc). Search for "Garton" in the Commons to locate and import the template.
Limit course navigation items to the absolute minimum needed by the student.
Keep in mind students may be accessing your course on their phone or tablet through the Canvas Mobile App. When they click on your course, the home page layout is the first thing they will see. Make sure it provides enough information and direction and displays well within the mobile app.

Guides

Course Navigation Guides

Homepage Options

It is important to have an inviting and informative homepage. Canvas allows instructors to choose from five different homepage layouts:

Course Activity Stream: This is the default setting. The recent activity dashboard will list the most current updates related to notifications, assignments and discussions in your course.
Pages Front Page: Instructors can design a page and choose to display it as the homepage. This option allows instructors to be a little more creative with their home pages. See this page for the steps on selecting a page you have made as your homepage.
Course Modules: This option will show only the course modules. It is the equivalent of clicking on Modules in the course navigation.
Assignment List: This option will only show the list of assignments. It is the equivalent of clicking on Assignments in the course navigation.
Syllabus: This option will only show the syllabus with the list of assignments. It is the equivalent of clicking on Syllabus in the course navigation.

Homepage Considerations

What type of class are you teaching?
Is it fully online? Is it blended or flipped classroom? The way you are using Canvas will determine what you want students to see first. A fully online course may opt to make the landing page a "Page I'll design myself" because they may want more comprehensive home page or customization for online students. In the case of a blended course or flipped classroom, the instructor may choose a simpler interface since much of the interaction may be face-to-face. For instance, an instructor may choose to make the home page the "assignment list" if Canvas is being solely leveraged for assignment submissions.
Would your students benefit from the homepage changing as the course progresses?
You don't have to commit to one homepage layout. You change the homepage as the course progresses. For instance, at the start of the semester you may want to have the "Assignment List with Syllabus" be your home page. Then, you may want to set it to "Modules/Sections Page" as the semester progresses. You could use "Page I'll design Myself" and change this page when you progress to the next unit. You can create multiple homepages in advance, and then choose to publish a page and set it as the current homepage when appropriate.
Is there duplication between the homepage layout and the course navigation?
For instance, if you enable the "Modules/Sections" as the home page, do you also have "modules" listed in the course navigation? Allowing students multiple access to course content can be good, but duplication may end up creating a busy design.

Course Navigation Settings

There are two options you have when organizing your left-hand course navigation:

Which buttons to Hide/Show
The order of the buttons

The things instructors cannot manipulate are the hiding of the HOME button and changing of the button wording.

Course Navigation Considerations

Hide buttons that you are not using: If you are not using "Collaborations" or "Conferences" tools, there's probably no need to have it in the navigation.
Minimize duplication: Is there duplication between the homepage layout and the course navigation? For instance, if you enable the "Modules/Sections" as the home page, do you also have "modules" listed in the course navigation? If you are linking to files, assignments, discussions purposefully through modules or pages, then you may consider hiding them from navigation. Allowing students multiple access to course content can be good, but duplication may end up creating confusion and a busy design.

Video Tutorials

521 - Course Layout: Customization (EN) from Canvas LMS on Vimeo.

This course content is offered under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.