This OER provides an overview of Canva. Canva is an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone to design anything, anywhere.
Key Features
Canva is an online design and publishing tool.
Canva's mission is to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.
Canva provides free, professionally designed templates which can be customized to best meet your needs.
Some of the template categories include posters, presentations, flyers, cards, infographics, business cards, Instagram posts, resumes, invitations, menus, letterheads, newsletters, photo collages, and bookmarks.
Here are a few simple steps to help you get started on your Canva journey of creativity!
1. Create your Canva account
Signing up for Canva and using their basic features is free! To unlock additional design features, you may want to consider signing up for Canva Pro.
2. Locate Your design’s new home
The Canva homepage is where all of your designs will be saved. You can access your designs any time. To visit your home page go to www.canva.com.
3. Start a new design
To create a new design, click on the icon of a design type such as 'social media', 'presentation' or ‘poster'. If you don’t see the design type you're looking for, click on the ‘more’ button and you'll see an array of other design types that you can select.
Templates:
Features:
4. Develop the design and choose the layout
You will see different ‘layouts’ that have been specifically designed. Choose a layout from the options provided or start your design from scratch. There are filters to help you pinpoint a layout.
5. Edit your design
You can easily edit any aspect of your design, inclusing the layout, fonts, colors, and images. For example, to edit the title of a newsletter, click on the text to edit the words. There are many font options and color options. You can also edit the colors within the template, by clicking on the ‘template’ tab, or the colored box on the top left, and choose a different color.
6. Upload and personalize your design
You can upload your own images, videos, audio files, graphics, stickers, charts, logos, and embed media within your design using the tabs on the left side of the screen.
7. Utilize the search tool
You can also search for images, videos, audio files, graphics, stickers, and logos inside Canva’s library. For example, using Canva's library to search for a picture of a ‘plant’ will return a collection of plant themed images, video clips, and stickers that you can include in your design.
8. Use filters (optional)
Once you have an image in your design, you can easily apply filters. Simply click on ‘edit image’ and various filters will appear.
9. Share your design
Select the ‘Share’ button to send the access link to others, download the design, print the design, present and record the design, or upload it to social media. You can easily download your design as a JPG, PNG or PDF.
Educational Uses
Canva fosters creativity, collaboration, and visual communication which are all critical skills for students to learn!
How Does Canva Work for Educational Purposes?
Canva for Education is the learning-based extension of Canva, where interactive, immersive teaching and learning can take place virtually.
Canva for Education is a design tool, which allows students to create visually stunning designs for any topic or age level.
Educators think of Canva as their own virtual classrooms. Using Canva for Education, teachers and students can discuss their designs, clarify tasks, provide feedback, collaborate on projects, submit designs, and share them on social media.
Top-Rated Canva Templates to Use with Students:
Presentations - Students can create presentations on an array of topics
Infographics - Students can visually display information and facts learned
Student video - Students can develop an introductory video or build a video to present to peers
Group work activities - Group activites foster project-based learning with these templates
There are several ways you can share assignments with students through Canva. You can create activities in Canva and share them to your Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams as an assignment.
Additionally, Canva is compatible with Mac, Windows, Android, and IOS. Students can access Canva on various devices.
Is Canva Implemented in Educational Settings?
Yes, Canva is used in classrooms around the world. For example, Ms. Felder, a teacher in Lloyd Harbor School District uses Canva in her third grade classroom.
Her students create a design which exemplifies climate change. Canva allows students to explore their understandings further by engaging in design activities that enhance creativity and visual thinking with serious topics like climate change.
Ms. Felder gives students template options such as developing a poster, an infographic, a website, or a presentation.
Canva Infographic Samples:
Future Uses and Implications of this Technology:
K-12 Setting
Practice design thinking -
Instead of teaching students to solve problems with existing solutions, let them experiment and innovate in order to stumble upon something better. The goal is to come up with more human-centered, collaborative, and optimistic ways to create social change—or at least to start thinking that way. Students can transform the world when you approach it with the goal of imagining and creating solutions!
Integration -
Canva seamlessly integrates with popular Learning Management Systems such as Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom.
Higher Education Setting
Developing infographics -
Design thinking provides students with a creative outlet where they can tie in their learning. Infographics are a great way to show this level of thinking.
Create learning portfolios -
Students can use Canva to design and create their own learning portfolios to better visualize and record their experiences and learning.
Corporate Setting
Accessing the Canva Pro account -
This allows organizations to manage their branding and customize their own fonts, color palettes, logos, graphics, icons, and images. Another tool that is helpful is Canva Folders. Canva Folders keeps designs organized and is particularly useful for designs utilized on a regular basis, such as logos, brand templates, and letterheads. These folders can be shared among team members.
Benefits and Recommendations
Benefits of Using Canva:
Anyone can be a designer using Canva
It is user friendly
Canva offers a variety of templates and tools that can be altered and customized
You can create various types of designs. Canva allows you to develop every aspect of your creative work
It will allow you to import photos, videos, and other forms of media
Your projects remain saved on Canva, allowing you to go back to them and edit them whenever you want
Canva has cross-browser compatibility
The designing process is streamlined
The learning curve is minimal
Canva allows connecting your social media accounts
It allows for team collaboration
What Are Some Challenges Associated with Using Canva?
"The Canva Style"
Photo and templates may appear generic to some users. Therefore, creating a distinctive design could be a challenge.
The export settings are limited
Users are not able to export designs to files such as PowerPoint.
Alignment concerns
Canva may not be targeted for experienced designers. Regarding software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, there is more control with the alignment elements. Canva is not as controllable in terms of design elements.
Recommendations:
Explore all that Canva has to offer:
Brainstorm the purpose of your project. Canva believes that design is about solving problems. By streamlining what you want your design to achieve, it will be easier to stay on point with your design later in the design process.
Learn the design basics:
If you are new to design, the tools Canva provides makes it user friendly and simple to use. If you would like to achieve your design goals utilizing in-depth articles and resources, then access the Canva Learn blog. Canva's Learn blog has an abundance of professionals sharing their advice as well as tips and tricks of design.
Get the whole team involved:
Canva supports collaboration in every aspect. Collaborating within Canva is as easy as possible and allows for peers and team/group members to showcase unique perspectives and provide feedback.
OER Viewpoint
Open Educational Resources (OERs):
OERs are materials for teaching and learning that are in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others.
OERs has been shown to positively impact student learning while diminishing barriers of affordability and accessibility. I think they also expand access to learning because students are able to access OERS at anytime, anywhere. OERs are easily distributed with little or no cost.
Universities and colleges are able to use OERs in various ways. For example, OERs can supplement textbooks and lectures where deficiencies in information are evident. Presenting information in multiple formats may help students to more easily learn the material being taught.
An obstacle to utilizing OERs is that anyone can create and distribute an open resource.