Websites for Classes
Stanford provides two recommended options for instructors to publish and maintain centrally-hosted websites for their for-credit classes.
Solutions
1. Canvas
After a successful pilot during the 2014-2015 academic year, Canvas was adopted to replace CourseWork as Stanford’s primary LMS.
Canvas is an all-in-one system that lets you post announcements and reading materials, manage class assignments, run discussion forums, assign grades, and more; the website is just one of many system components.
CourseWork was retired in Dec. 2016. Canvas is the sole centrally supported campus LMS.
2. University IT Course Support (do-it-yourself)
Recommended in cases where the format of an LMS does not meet instructor needs and someone is available create and maintain a webpage using HTML.
- Website is hosted on the university’s main web servers.
- Pre-defined, dedicated namespace for URL (web.stanford.edu/class/my_class_name).
Other digital learning platforms
In addition to Canvas and CourseWork, the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning (VPTL) also supports the following digital learning platforms: Lagunita, Coursera, NovoEd. To find out which option is the best one for your class, with staff at the Learning Technologies & Spaces.
School-managed websites for classes
Some schools and departments host web pages on their own servers or use third-party solutions. To pursue a local hosting option, talk to administrators and colleagues within your department or submit a help request.
More options
- Go back to the publish a website guide page.
- Dive deeper into web solutions for specific tasks.
