From Prompt to Pages
Course Design Decision Guide
Use this guide to make and record the instructional and design decisions that will guide your work with AI.
The Process
Make the instructional or design decision first.
Give AI your decisions and relevant course information.
Evaluate what AI produces.
Revise until the output reflects your intentions.
Use the approved decisions to create the next part of the course.
AI can generate quickly. Faculty remain responsible for deciding what should be generated and why.
Decision 1: Who Is This Course For?
Before asking AI to build anything, establish the instructional context.
Define Your Course
- Identify the course title and discipline.
- Determine whether the course is undergraduate, graduate, or another level.
- Identify the modality: face-to-face, hybrid, synchronous online, or asynchronous online.
- Identify the length of the course.
- Gather the official course description and student learning outcomes.
- Identify the major assignments or demonstrations of learning.
Consider Your Students
- What can you reasonably expect students to know when they enter the course?
- Where are students most likely to need scaffolding or additional guidance?
- What concepts, processes, or technologies may be unfamiliar?
- What should students eventually be able to navigate or accomplish independently?
Consider Your Teaching
- What matters most to you about how students experience this course?
- What instructional tone fits the course?
- What do you want students to understand about you as an instructor through the design of the course?
Record Your Decisions
This becomes the foundation for the decisions and prompts that follow.
Decision 2: What Is the Learning Journey?
Before designing Canvas pages, determine how learning should unfold.
Beginning
What must students understand first? What foundational knowledge, concepts, or skills make later work possible?
Development
What should students encounter next? How should knowledge and skills become more complex as the course progresses?
Practice
Where will students apply, test, discuss, or practice what they are learning?
Mastery
How will students demonstrate what they can ultimately understand or do?
Choose an Organizing Logic
Record Your Decisions
Before moving forward, ask: Does this structure represent how I believe students should learn this material? Revise before proceeding if the answer is no.
Decision 3: What Should Students Recognize?
Students should not have to relearn your course interface every week. A consistent visual language helps students recognize the function of information before they have read every word.
Identify Recurring Information
- Learning objectives
- Module questions
- Readings
- Videos
- Lectures
- Activities
- Discussions
- Assignments
- Due dates
- Examples
- Important reminders
- Optional resources
- Help and support
Create Your Course Vocabulary
Decide what language you will consistently use for:
- Learning
- Course Materials
- Practice and Activities
- Assignments and Submissions
- Important Information
- Help and Support
Consider
- Which elements should always look the same?
- Which information deserves greater visual emphasis?
- What should students immediately recognize as an action?
- What should they recognize as informational?
- What language makes sense for your discipline and your students?
Record Your Decisions
The goal is recognition. When students encounter the same kind of information again, it should look and behave like something they have already learned to use.
Decision 4: What Does Color Mean?
Color should communicate function, not simply decorate the page.
Begin With Course Identity
Determine whether your primary course color comes from:
- University identity
- Department or program identity
- Disciplinary conventions
- Existing course materials
- A deliberately selected course identity
Assign Color a Function
Course Identity
The primary color associated with the course.
Action
Signals that the student needs to do something.
Information
Provides context, explanation, or instruction.
Attention
Signals important or time-sensitive information.
Support
Identifies help, resources, or guidance.
Neutral
Provides backgrounds and secondary visual structure.
Test Your Logic
- What does this color tell the student?
- Would the meaning still be clear if the student could not distinguish the color?
- Does this color have the same meaning everywhere it appears?
- Does the text remain readable against the background?
Record Your Decisions
Each color now has a defined instructional function and a rule for its use.
Decision 5: What Pages Do I Actually Need?
Do not begin by designing dozens of individual Canvas pages. Build reusable page types.
Start Here or Home Page
- What is the primary purpose of this page?
- What should students understand immediately?
- What should students do first?
- Where should the page send them next?
Module Overview Page
- What information should appear at the beginning of every module?
- What should students know before beginning?
- What should students learn?
- What should students read, watch, explore, or complete?
- What deadlines need to be visible?
- What should students do next?
Assignment Page
- What is the purpose of the assignment?
- What does the student need to produce?
- What steps should the student follow?
- What resources are required?
- How should the work be submitted?
- How will the work be evaluated?
Record Your Decisions
Once these structures work, they become reusable templates rather than pages you redesign every week.
Decision 6: What Should the Code Do?
Content architecture comes first. HTML comes second. Before asking AI to generate code, establish the rules the code must follow.
Define Your Requirements
- Clear heading hierarchy
- Repeated section structure
- Established course color logic
- Callout boxes
- Clearly identifiable student actions
- Descriptive links
- Accessible formatting
- Mobile-friendly layouts
- Consistent spacing
- Reusable visual components
Establish Boundaries
- What should AI never add without your approval?
- What parts of the design system must remain unchanged?
- Which elements may change from page to page?
- Which elements should remain identical?
Record Your Decisions
You are no longer asking AI: “Design a page for me.” You are instructing AI: “Use the system I designed to build this page.”
Decision 7: Does It Actually Work?
Evaluate the rendered Canvas page, not simply the HTML.
Look at the Page as a Student
- Can I immediately tell where I am?
- Can I tell what this page is for?
- Can I identify what matters most?
- Do I know what I should do next?
- Can I distinguish required and optional material?
- Can I find help when I need it?
Evaluate the Design
- Instructional hierarchy
- Clarity
- Navigation
- Cognitive load
- Accessibility
- Color consistency
- Spacing
- Links and actions
- Mobile readability
- Consistency with the established design system
Record Your Decisions
Revise until the page works. Then scale.
Your Course-Building System
By the end of this process, you have established a set of decisions that AI can follow throughout the course.
You are not creating one attractive Canvas page. You are creating a repeatable course-building system.