Pimp My Canvas: Improving Canvas Courses at the University of Liverpool

9/12/2025

A view from the back of a university lecture theatre with James stood at the front, presenting a workshop in front of large screens to a group of a dozen attendees.

Some much needed context

Way back in 2023, myself and James Barber (Chief Executive) as students at the University of Liverpool saw a huge problem in how teaching was delivered to students. Online learning resources, including lecture recordings, lecture slides, past papers, and coursework information, was provided via Canvas, a Learning Management System (LMS). Each module on every course across the University had its own Canvas course, managed by the respective module coordinator. With no guidance or oversight for this, students were left to deal with a wild west of rushed out Canvas courses that were hard to navigate and inaccessible to disabled students.

To address this, James and I launched a sub-committee of the Student Staff Liaison Committee in the Department of Computer Science that focussed on improving the standard of Canvas course design. This was where we first dreamed up the idea of ‘Pimp My Canvas’, an interactive workshop for academics to learn about best practice in Canvas from a student perspective, empowering academics to create high-quality, clear, and accessible Canvas courses for their students.

A perfect opportunity

Unfortunately, given the nature of studying for a degree alongside working at Jamescape, James and I were unable to spare the time to create and deliver Pimp My Canvas to the standard we wanted to. It remained a pipe dream and slipped through the cracks as we graduated in June 2024 and begun working full-time across Jamescape and its partner company, Harker.

So when we learnt about the Alumni & Friends Fund at the University of Liverpool, where students and academics can apply for small pots of funding for small-scale transformational projects, we immediately reignited our dream and resurrected Pimp My Canvas.

One part of a greater whole

Alongside the Pimp My Canvas workshop, we expanded the project with three additional strands:

  • Canvas Clinics - 1:1 meetings between student volunteers and academics to get in-depth feedback on their Canvas module
  • Canvas Course Template - a plug-and-play template that academics can slot their module content into while ensuring a good course structure and navigation
  • Canvas Awards - student-voted awards to celebrate academics who go above and beyond to make high-quality Canvas courses

Together, we hope that these four activities will raise the standard of Canvas course design, and make the computer science department a beacon of best practice for other departments to follow.

Pimp My Canvas

Last month, James and I delivered Pimp My Canvas to a group of academics on the University of Liverpool campus, covering topics like alt text, colour contrast, and best practice when using in-built Canvas tools for linking, giving assignment feedback, and discussion boards.

The session was capped off by a group activity where academics were tasked with identifying poor practice in a poorly designed course we made, competing to score the most points. It was a fun and fast-paced activity that got academics to solidify the knowledge we delivered, and some academics got every competitive with using the buzzer and getting points!

Professor Martin Gairing, Head of Department of Computer Science, said:

The session was both fun and informative - a real boost for improving our Canvas presence.

We’d like to give a huge thank you to Martin Gairing and Lindsay Chadwick at the University of Liverpool, who supported us in making this happen, along with the funding from the Alumni & Friends Fund.

Future of the project

Our focus now shifts to completing the remaining the two strands of the project: Canvas Clinics and Canvas Awards. If you’re a current computer science student at the University of Liverpool and looking to get involved with this, we’ll be recruiting for volunteers in the near future so keep an eye on our social media channels!

Our larger ambition is that our work could shape best practice for Canvas courses across the entire university, so if you’d like us to deliver this, or other Canvas-related work in your department (UoL or otherwise), then please get in touch!