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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