How and Why to Use a Master Shell

Every course that students enroll in automatically receives an official Canvas Shell for the course. So, when a faculty member accesses Canvas, they will see the course shell created and they will see the students enrolled into the course. Although a course is created for our faculty, it is a best practice to design your course in a master shell that you own and that does not have students in it.

Why create a master shell instead of using the official class shell?

Sometimes course assignments change and we do not want you to lose the course you have worked hard to design. By designing in a master shell that you own, you will always retain your course.
You can begin designing your course before your official course shell is created.
Without students in the course, you reduce the chances of accidentally publishing the course before you want your students to access it.

How to create a course master shell

Palomar faculty have the ability to create courses in Canvas.

Important Be sure you do not add your students to a course that you create!

Step 1: Create the master shell

You can create a course master shell from two areas of Canvas, from the "Dashboard" or from "Courses."

From the Dashboard look to the righthand panel and select "Start a New Course"
From the Courses tab, go to "All Courses" and then select the "+ Courses" button at the top of the page.

Step 2: Name your master course shell

You can name your course shell any name you'd like. If you think you might like to participate in Peer Online Course Review (POCR), please use the following naming conevntion:

MasterShell_CourseC-ID_LastName (Example: MasterShell_MATH110_Bell)

Step 3: Access your new master course shell

You should now see your new master course shell listed in your "unpublished" courses.