Canvas vs. Slack

It is really well suited for school situations like knowing what [assignments] need to be done when, getting feedback, getting points, finding the slides that the teacher used for explaining an [assignment] or theory. I think It would be less suited in business situations because it's [primarily] made to be a [one-way] communication tool for schools. Businesses need more control on individual levels I think[.]

Incentivized

Slack is well suited as another tool in our toolbelt to find answers to common questions and to find resources. it is less appropriate to be used to collaborate on a project in terms of being a project management tool

Incentivized

• Creativity options for teachers to create a virtual space that still has fun graphics and accessibility options.
• Canvas has versatility in viewing options for assignment due dates such as the calendar built in feature as well as the dashboard options to display upcoming and due assignments.
• Allowing teachers to create community with each other and collaborate in each-other's space.
• Discussion platforms within classrooms for students to communicate with each-other and with their teachers.
• Easy messaging portal within each virtual classroom.

Incentivized

• Can create channels for small, medium, or even bigger team to relay important information/updates and whatnots.
• You can do one-on-one (huddle feature) if you're on-boarding a member.
• A platform that can be collaborated with other platform. Example a CRM to be linked with Slack for easier comms relay.
• The best feature for me so far is that you can mention a team member so he/she won't missed an important message you sent.
• You can directly message about anyone within the company.

Incentivized

• Their integration with Big Blue Button was a bust for distance learning. Would be great to see them collaborate with Zoom or Google Meets.
• Their "feature request" process is slow and cumbersome at times because it relies on user "up votes" to get ideas addressed by the developers.
• They seem to have a lot of turn-over with their staff. We get a new Customer Success Manager far more frequently than with other vendors.

Incentivized

• Undoubtedly Slack’s search function is powerful but sometimes it is difficult to find specific messages or files in very active channels with high message volumes. This needs an improvement.
• I have experienced notification issues on my phone. I am not receiving notifications and have missed important updates as a result. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but the problem still persists.
• The Business Plus plan does not include support for data loss prevention or offline backup providers.

Incentivized

The other LMS tools have fallen behind. One reason is they are not able to update their systems, features, toolsets in a timely manner. While other LMS providers release bug fixes and new features several times a year, schools struggle to install and implement them in a timely manner. It is not uncommon for a school to take 6 months to a year to fully install and implement new releases on other LMS platforms. With Canvas, those features are released every 3 weeks, and there is nothing for a school to do other than choose to turn them on once released. This has allowed Instructure to innovate faster, and get new features and tools to customers quicker. Other factors include great pricing, customer support, and the innovative way in which LTI is implemented in the tool.

Incentivized

Slack is wonderful, it is a tool that changed our perspective and our way to work. We used to use another one, which was purely and sorely designed to messages. Slack provides us that possibility and more, all the other functions that we daily use in our work routine, not to mention the fact that Slack has a wonderful design and it's really easy to use and adapt.

Incentivized

The functions in Canvas are well integrated and consistent across the application, and mostly intuitive. Overall navigation and setup is streamlined through integrated features and navigation. The feedback we've gotten from our program participants is that it is easy to learn to use. It also integrates well with third party software like Google Docs and Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing software

Incentivized

Applications can cause slowdown when onboarding because of the learning curve. Slack is user friendly and very easy to teach new users how to navigate the app. Installation is fairly quick, which also saves a lot of time when setting up new computers and users

Incentivized

Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.

Incentivized

Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.

Incentivized

I do not personally use Canvas support since we have a central office that helps us. However, our central office always has the answers we need and are always able to solve our issues - so I would assume that get great support from the Canvas team on their end. They also offer great training, which uses materials directly from Canvas

Incentivized

I've never had to contact support for Slack which is a great testament to its ease and use. Adding people outside of the organization takes a little getting used to, but ultimately allows for greater collaboration between FTE and contractors. There is no clear alternative to this software, so it's the best we can do for now.

The training sessions were broken down into several days as well as different levels depending upon the knowledge of the user

Incentivized

The online tutorials and videos are very clear and addressed the issues/questions that I had about using the system.

Incentivized

Once you purchase and sign the contract there is nothing to install or hardware to buy. You can almost immediately start using it and have courses up and going within weeks. We signed in December and had pilot courses online ready to go for the start of school in January

Incentivized

It always helps if you communicate to everyone in the organization how important it is to drop whatever other chat tools they are using and jump quickly to Slack. They will all fall in love with it.

Incentivized

Canvas is more secure, has a cleaner design, and has more features. For the features, they have in common canvas still stacks up against [Smart school] by going for the extra mile. Besidfor e that, [the] canvas looks a lot more [professional] than [Smart school]. I didn't make the decision myself to get canvas instead of [Smart school] but I'm happy they did.

Slack is vastly easier to use than Teams and far less convoluted. It also handles Trello and GitLab integrations in a way that is easy to read and digest (whereas Teams handles them in the most useless way possible). Every time I use Teams, something is broken or I can't find things. But Slack is on the ball. Always easy to use and to search. Plus better emoji syntax (um, Microsoft, people put stuff in parenthesis all the time; that doesn't mean they want it to be emojis). Anyway, I'd choose Slack over Teams any day, if given the option.

Incentivized

• Canvas has helped us provide a more robust online component to our courses.
• Canvas has helped us better adapt to a rapidly changing educational landscape.
• Canvas has reduced the time that we have to spend training faculty on how to use our learning management system.

Incentivized

• I don't have hard numbers, but I can't imagine the level of mistakes that would go uncaught without the easy ability of multiple people being alerted to look at something in real time.
• Efficiency of communicating this way takes a lot of slog out of email, more focus on more important conversations and tasks
• It is on managers to define expectations on how long it should take someone to respond on Slack; it can feel immediate, which can be distracting to deeper work

Incentivized