Canvas is Comprehensive and User Friendly
I have had the opportunity to use canvas as both a student and a professor, providing unique insight to its features and nuances. This …
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What is Canvas?
Instructure is an educational software company based in Sandy, Utah. It is the developer of the Canvas learning management system, which is a comprehensive software package that competes with such systems as Blackboard Learning System, SumTotal and Saba.
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- Assignments (41)9.090%
- Course authoring (41)8.989%
- Mobile friendly (40)8.585%
- Course catalog or library (38)7.171%
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What is Canvas?
Instructure is an educational software company based in Sandy, Utah. It is the developer of the Canvas learning management system, which is a comprehensive software package that competes with such systems as Blackboard Learning System, SumTotal and Saba.
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- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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ProProfs LMS is a learning management system software that is designed to help instructors create and deliver online training courses. The LMS offers both businesses and educational institutions comprehensive training solutions by allowing them to create online courses, complemented by tests,…
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Atomic Apps for Canvas LMS, Webinar recording from #CanvasLive August 2017
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Starting with BookWidgets in Canvas LMS - Demo for beginners
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How to Use Video with Your LMS | Powtoon's Canvas LMS Integration
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Creating demo users in bulk for Canvas LMS
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Canvas Demo Slam
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What is Canvas?
Canvas by Instructure is a cloud-based learning management system for every stage and style of education. Available to institutions of all sizes and types, from individual K-12 classrooms to universities to companies with a blended or fully virtual environment.
As the hub of the digital learning environment, Canvas offers complete LMS functionality, including standards-based grade books, course content authoring, customizable student assessments, mobile communication, video learning, and digital badging.
Canvas LMS integrates with an institution's existing SIS and other teaching tools. With over two hundred different LTI tools educators can customize courses and monitor engagement with classes or individual students. Canvas also has mobile apps to keep everyone informed and connected, on the go, on any device.
Canvas Features
Learning Management Features
- Supported: Course authoring
- Supported: Course catalog or library
- Supported: Player/Portal
- Supported: Learning content
- Supported: Mobile friendly
- Supported: Progress tracking & certifications
- Supported: Assignments
- Supported: Compliance management
- Supported: Learning administration
- Supported: Learning reporting & analytics
- Supported: eLearning
- Supported: Assessments
- Supported: Live online learning
- Supported: In-person learning
- Supported: Micro-learning
- Supported: Video learning
- Supported: eCommerce
- Supported: SCORM-compliant
- Supported: Social learning
- Supported: Gamification
- Supported: GDPR Compliant Learning
- Supported: Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning
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Canvas Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Mobile Web |
| Supported Countries | Global |
Canvas Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Instructure is an educational software company based in Sandy, Utah. It is the developer of the Canvas learning management system, which is a comprehensive software package that competes with such systems as Blackboard Learning System, SumTotal and Saba.
Reviewers rate Assignments highest, with a score of 9.
The most common users of Canvas are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Canvas has proven to be an invaluable tool for various educational institutions and organizations. Users have praised Canvas for its user-friendly platform, effectiveness in managing distance courses, and seamless integration with other vendors. It has been widely adopted by universities, community colleges, and high schools as the primary learning management system due to its intuitive interface and ability to bridge the communication gap between instructors and students.
Canvas has been used for a multitude of purposes, including online degree programs, blended courses, and supplementing face-to-face classes in educational institutions. Human Resource services have utilized Canvas for assessing new employee skills and providing information to employees. Student Services have used it to promote clubs and other services, while the library has used Canvas as a platform to provide information about their services and obtain feedback.
Canvas has also been used by administration committees and faculty committees for discussions, dissemination, and data maintenance. It has served as the central hub for organizing assignments, sharing content, managing grades, and supporting hybrid distance learning models. Instructors have utilized Canvas to post announcements, assignments, theory slides, Zoom Meetings, as well as give points and feedback. Canvas has provided a dynamic and student-friendly interface that encourages interaction and engagement among students.
Furthermore, Canvas offers a mobile app that allows students and instructors to access course content on the go. This feature has greatly enhanced the flexibility and accessibility of online learning. Additionally, Canvas has been used by universities as a replacement for other learning management systems due to its frequent updates and robust features. Its versatility supports a variety of course types including online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses.
Overall, Canvas has been widely adopted across various educational institutions due to its ease of use, versatility, and ability to deliver content effectively. It has become an essential tool in delivering quality education regardless of location and promoting student engagement through its range of features such as discussion forums, assignments, embedding Google docs, sharing files, speed grader for assessments process, integrated rubrics, and more.
Frequent updates and evolution: Users have expressed their appreciation for the frequent updates and evolution of Canvas. Some reviewers have mentioned that these regular updates demonstrate the platform's commitment to continuously improving the user experience over time. The consistent release of new features and bug fixes every three weeks ensures that Canvas stays current and addresses user needs.
Efficient mobile grading with Speed Grader: Many users have praised the mobile app for grading assignments, Speed Grader, for its efficiency in reducing grading time by 30-50%. Reviewers find this feature convenient as it allows instructors to grade assignments on the go, making use of any available time. By providing a way to grade assignments while waiting for meetings or commuting, Speed Grader saves users valuable time.
Intuitive WYSIWYG editor: The WYSIWYG editor in Canvas is highly valued by users as it simplifies the process of creating and editing content. This intuitive editor appears in almost every tool within Canvas, allowing users to easily create engaging and visually appealing course materials. Its presence enhances the overall learning experience for students.
Difficulty in navigation: Several users have expressed frustration with the navigation within Canvas, stating that it can be confusing and not user-friendly. They have mentioned difficulty in finding desired features and having to click through multiple options before reaching the required functionality. Some users also find the linear structure of Canvas makes it difficult for students to differentiate between lessons.
Lack of customization options: Many reviewers have mentioned a lack of customization options in Canvas. Users have stated that there is a limited ability to customize colors, profiles, and class pages, making it difficult to personalize their experience. Some users have suggested including more basic color options for personalization and providing more freedom for designing a visually enhanced environment.
Challenges with customer support: A number of users have experienced challenges with customer support in the past. They have mentioned issues such as unanswered complaints via email or phone calls, delayed response times, and a lack of availability. While some users acknowledge that customer support may have improved over time, others still express dissatisfaction with the level of service provided by Canvas.
Note: These three cons were selected based on their frequency of mention throughout the context provided.
Users of Canvas have provided several recommendations based on their experience with the platform. The most common recommendations include: getting familiar with Canvas before submitting assignments, taking the time to navigate and figure out the features of Canvas before the semester starts, using Canvas for collaborative work, considering Canvas for higher education settings, appreciating its user-friendly interface, and valuing its seamless experience. Overall, users express that Canvas is a simple yet full-featured solution for online learning, which they find more user-friendly than Google Classroom.
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December 02, 2021
Canvas: A students evaluation
I am a student so I use it all the time. Teachers use it to post announcements, [assignments], theory, slides, Zoom Meetings[,] and more. It is very handy to have a quick overview of what you're supposed to do with the agenda. It can also be used to give out points and feedback. It has Feedpulse integration so students can leave the result of their feedback in an input field with the date of the day of the feedback. The Teachers then have the option to give it points.
- Being a means of giving feedback and points to assignments[.]
- Being [the] main hub for students where they can find all their stuff for school (assignments, points, slides, feedback)
- [Assignments] are dated and the agenda gives a quick daily/weekly/monthly overview for the deadlines across all courses[.]
- It has Zoom integration and can be used to schedule and store them[.]
- It has [its] own video [platforms] like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, but it isn't that great (it doesn't like being used on Firefox for example). It has disconnection issues and the mic and camera sometimes [have] issues[.]
- When looking at points in the [assignment] overviews it only shows the total amount of points on the [assignment] but it doesn't show the given amount, you have to go to the [assignment] page to see these points[.]
- When an announcement is posted it takes a bit too many clicks to get there. The amount of announcements doesn't always update right. I could have already read an announcement but Canvas will still show it as being unread until I go to the page again.
November 05, 2021
Great LMS
We used it as a Learning Management System--I posted assignments and grades on Canvas, and students could use it to check their daily assignments, future assignments and assessments, and their grades. We used it across the whole school, so it was a uniform way for students and teachers to keep track of assignments and progress.
- Serves as online gradebook
- Helps students keep track of daily assignment
- Helps students keep track of grades
- Full school calendar/events
- Teachers seeing student grades in other classes
We work with Canvas in our learning platform with the objective of facilitating academic teaching, which is extremely practical for planning and teaching online classes. We also take advantage of the integrated system that allows us to keep track of studies and student evaluations, which is optimal for keeping our study system up to date.
- This tool has a responsive web design, its adaptation to all devices facilitates access to the platform.
- It has a dashboard, which presents a detailed list of our recent activity and academic history.
- It gives educators the ability to create content to evaluate and upload grades to the system, allowing students and representatives to monitor grades and teaching methods.
- Canvas is a software that is easy to access and operate through the web or application, but it should be taken into account that in order to create course content from scratch, training is needed since this area is not easy to do by yourself and the platform does not offer tutoring in this regard.
- The user must have a stable internet connection as the system does not have auto-save, a slight fluctuation in the connection automatically generates the loss of information.
- It offers few options to customize profiles, which makes it difficult to identify students at times.
- Unfortunately, this software has a very bad customer service, since complaints, via email or phone call, have not been answered within three days, which hinders and hinders the smooth and continuous learning process.
We have used Canvas as an education platform. It was integrated with the employees job training and education for the continuing learning program. Canvas is a great platform to combine and aggregate all the learning activities, information and courses. Canvas is used across the local schools in the area and have used it on a number of occasions for that as well.
- Canvas is great for keeping all the learning and education tasks, info, assignments, etc in one place
- The discussion options are helpful
- The messaging system with instructors and students/employees is great
- The grading options work well
- It's a little difficult at first to use
- For some reason my log in has trouble working at times. Not sure if its a server issue or something else.
- The video and recording tool could be better
April 22, 2021
The all-in-one Learning Management System that DELIVERS.
Canvas has been integrated into one of my companies as a virtual and in person learning platform to streamline learning for students (and teaching for teachers!). Not only does Canvas streamline learning across disciplines, classrooms and settings but also has allowed for students with differing computer access skills to learn how to access information and files within similar electronic organizational structures. It has allowed for bounds of progress in computer access and independence for students of all ages. It also allows for wonderful collaboration between teachers and disciplines.
- 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.
- Canvas is challenging to use when creating your classroom as a new user (Must know basic editing and get acquainted with the Canvas page editing page, many will need training to get set up).
- Does not always save students' work adequately (no built in auto-save feature) unless using an external PDF annotator or word processor program.
- Canvas should create template classrooms or class pages that make getting started easier for teachers and new users.
March 08, 2021
Canvas: The LMS for Everyone
Canvas is our LMS for students in grades 5-12 (approximately 1,000 students and 150 faculty). It is the central hub for organizing assignments, sharing content, managing grades, and our current hybrid distance learning model. It is considered an essential technology tool/core application for our institution and students, faculty, and parents rely on it for structuring our academic program.
- Many popular third-party educational apps have LTIs that integrate with Canvas.
- The gradebook has a Mastery Learning option for recording progress against a set of academic standards.
- The UI is very intuitive and even non-tech savvy users can use it effectively with minimal training.
- 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.
March 08, 2021
A consistent and powerful platform
Canvas [is being used] across the organization. We are able to streamline certain course delivery for all of the stakeholders.
- Simple design interface.
- Basic analytics for organization and courses.
- The simple function for each module within the system.
- The should be a possibility of having at least three basic colors for customization.
- More local service support for Malaysia.
- Pricing is still quite expensive for now although not as expensive as BB.
March 20, 2020
Canvas is great for new online learners
I use Canvas for a graduate program I am enrolled in. All of my classes and professors work through Canvas to support online learning. It's a useful platform. Most importantly, as someone who has never done online learning before, I find the platform easy to use. It allows me to access all of my school work in one place.
- Organization.
- Communication with professors.
- Hosting online materials.
- If you send a message to a teacher, there is no record of the message until they write you back.
- The Zoom features are confusing.
- Not all of the teachers are as tech savvy as the students. This is user error, but more training would be helpful.
February 20, 2020
Paint Your Ideal Class with "Canvas"
Canvas is being used by all faculty and students at Kansas State University. It is used to organize classes in an online platform. It allows students to download and upload assignments, and it allows professors to grade assignments as well as organize grades in a timely manner. To conclude, it gives faculty and students alike remote access to the class material.
- It organizes students' grades in a timely manner.
- It gives students notifications about upcoming assignments.
- The notification feature could be improved upon as the professor has to put the due date as "midnight" otherwise the assignment will be automatically erased from the platform.
- The audio recording feature has its technical issues. I have never been able to use it correctly.
February 18, 2020
Canvas
At Northwest, Nazarene Canvas is used as our learning management system. I use this at NNU as a student. I previously used Canvas from the admin side, where I was putting in classes and helping teachers create content. Canvas allows teachers to publish their courses online in a user-friendly platform. Students can then engage with the course material and each other throughout the class. Canvas also allows students to submit homework online and for teachers to publish grades so that students can see it.
- Ease of student use
- Completed assignment tracking
- Journal function
June 19, 2019
Great choice for instructors
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Canvas is used by the majority of faculty at the University of Florida. It is a great way to keep in touch with students outside of the classroom as well as an effective method of posting grades. If you decide to use Canvas for your class you can be as involved with it as you choose to be. There are tools which allow you to have message boards/group chats, you can post assignments, rubrics, videos, etc. Being a university professor in today's day and age you must have some sort of online platform for your class. Canvas fulfills all your possible needs said platform and more.
I have seen other instructors post take-home exams on Canvas as well which gives you the option to have automatic grading (one less thing to worry about as an instructor) for exams.
I have seen other instructors post take-home exams on Canvas as well which gives you the option to have automatic grading (one less thing to worry about as an instructor) for exams.
- User-friendly. It is very straightforward to use.
- There are lots of functions at your disposal.
- The layout is aesthetically pleasing.
- There are really any technical issues.
- Providing walkthroughs on how to carry out certain tasks could be helpful.
- Allowing instructors to use the 'what if scenario' for grades to gauge students' outcomes.
- Making profile pictures bigger so they are easier to see.
January 20, 2019
Canvas is the perfect training system too
Canvas is a great learning management system that allows for training and teaching to take place anywhere in the world because it utilizes web apps. Our marketing department uses Canvas to help train our sales staff on new products, features, and other items we need the team to be aware of. Since most of our staff is remote, Canvas offers multiple options to ensure that our staff is up to date on learning.
- Announcements
- Communication options within the app
- Building of modules
- Random glitches can occur
- Navigation can be tricky
- Being able to go back to previous versions
January 20, 2019
Canvas has been a revelation for our university
Many departments across our university are using Canvas. Canvas is used by our faculty to communicate and interface with students i.e inputting student grades. Students interface with Canvas to find information about their classes and courses.
- Grade reporting: easy for students to find their grades once posted.
- Analytics on student interaction: now we can view the analytics around how students are interacting with the application and find ways to better serve our students
- Custom notification for course updates: now we are able to create custom notifications for our students when an update is made to a course.
- Mobile app: the mobile app has been a revelation. Now, students can access their course material from anywhere they are.
- Native integration with third-party applications i.e: Zendesk, Salesforce
- Sometimes you have to click through many features before you get to what you are really looking for
- There is no simple way to add one-sentence reading assignments to a calendar
January 16, 2019
Powerful LMS for Effective Online Learning
Spending a lot of time utilizing an LMS system myself within my current school district and having to be knowledgeable on most LMS systems, I had to evaluate how Canvas stacked up against other popular systems such as Schoology and Google Classroom. I use Canvas outside of my school organization. As with most learning management systems, the goal is to help provide a platform for blended learning, where students are able to manage their digital selves, track homework assignment, interact with the teacher and students, and submit work digitally. For teachers, this helps solve problems with missing work that needs to be turned in physically, or during the creation phase as teachers struggle to integrate technology into the classroom and design more digitally engaging lessons and activities for students.
- LTI integration. This is particularly useful for teachers creating digital lessons and activities so that can embed other digital tools within their canvas materials.
- Collaborative in nature. Easy to navigate and engage in discussion with students and teachers.
- The Calendar view. Teachers are use to utilizing agendas and Google Calendar for daily routine like a planner. This give you an overview of your course highlighting various assignments, quizzes, tests, etc.
- An easier way to manage and/or organize materials and be able to share them with others.
- A way to track what learning objectives are being met.
- Integrated badging system to create and award badges for gamification elements.
January 10, 2019
Canvas Allows for More Freedom for Educators
Our high school is using Canvas with junior and senior classes to help ease the transition from high school to college. I have been using it since we piloted it, and find it very intuitive and also very customizable. It is a great product to share resources and lesson plans with students while still allowing for individualization.
- Provides a customizable platform where the user can determine the experience for others.
- Allows for integration with many useful services, such as Drive.
- Is fairly user-friendly and you can use only the features you desire.
- The integration with Drive and Gmail could be more intuitive. Originally I found a workaround for this. I am now able to link shared pages, etc, but it still could be more native.
- The interface can seem cluttered at times, so a way to be able to remove or hide features you don't tend to use would be helpful.
- A way to archive courses in a more accessible way would be helpful.
January 09, 2019
Canvas for K-12
LEISD uses Canvas for a myriad of reasons. Teachers use Canvas in their classroom for blended instruction, campus leaders use Canvas to provide information to staff members, district-wide professional learning is also offered via Canvas. Canvas is versatile enough that it has been used to house curriculum, host book studies, and serve as a traditional learning management platform.
- Customer Service--Canvas has great customer service. I have reached out via phone, email, and their help desk and received prompt reliable service each time.
- Training--Canvas and the Canvas Community has a plethora of training materials available for use. These range from documents and"click-sheets" to video tutorials.
- Innovation--Canvas is not content to sit still. New products and enhancements are added.
- One of the big things I would love to see would be a way for students to annotate PDFs or other documents within the Canvas web platform. The app has an option like this, but currently, there is nothing of equal use in the web version.
- It would also be great if students could highlight questions in the quiz portion of Canvas.
January 09, 2019
Ins and Outs of Canvas
We use canvas for both our students and faculty. We use it to supplement our course instruction so that there is an online learning component with our students and so they have access to course materials from anywhere. We also use canvas to provide required professional development courses for our faculty so they are able to complete them at their convenience and not be taken out of their classrooms.
- The landing page is very easy to understand and navigate to find courses.
- As an instructor, it is easy to setup my classes to include only the sections I need for my students.
- I would like to be able to add more creativity to my class page since I work with middle school students. I would like to be able to make it more inviting to keep them engaged.
- It can be difficult to navigate between pages when you go into a small group section. There are times when you simply have to go completely out of the class and start over.
- We have had difficulty accessing and printing student quizzes after they complete them to be able to include them in portfolios.
January 09, 2019
Canvas is the online learning system for me!
Canvas is being used at the university where I attended. It is used by the university as a Learning Management System for online learning at college. Canvas provides an easy platform as another avenue for teaching and learning where teachers set up their course and students easily navigate through the class. Canvas allows easy communication between the professor and students individually and as a group. Students can submit their work and received feedback from their instructor with ease.
- Canvas is easy to navigate for both the instructor and student.
- Skeptics of online learning claim that it limits the ability of students to communicate with their professor or the social interactions with fellow students. My experience was the opposite. I felt closer to my professors and colleagues because of the diverse ways Canvas allows for communication. There is email, chat options, and ways to set up groups to work together. Professors can add video lectures if needed. I loved the experience.
- Canvas provides various ways for professors to create and set up their courses. Instructors can offer video, links to specific readings (documents), set up groups to work and perform together, and more.
- Canvas allows the business, instructors, and students to design the way it looks.
- Instructors need to take the time to learn all that Canvas allows them to do. If not, the course could be quite dull.
Canvas is used by our entire institution as the means for delivering course content, assessing student work, calculating grades, and providing actionable feedback to our learning community.
- Canvas integrates with 3rd party vendors extremely well. We have multiple vendors and publishers connected to our instance of Canvas. These integrations allow our instructors to use additional tools such as McGraw-Hill Connect, Kaltura, Box, Office 365, Google Drive, and many more to deliver course materials and pass grades back to the Canvas grade book.
- Canvas has a cascading approach to its organizational design. We can manage roles, permissions, LTIs, etc. at the root account level or within any sub-account. Each sub-account inherits its parents’ attributes. Managing all these items is made incredibly easy by leveraging SIS Imports of .csv files.
- Instructure keeps its Canvas documentation up-to-date on the Canvas Community. Canvas Community users share knowledge, offer help, and provide valuable insight into best practices and approaches for everything from administering Canvas to course design.
- Canvas has extremely reliable ‘up time.’ Because Canvas is SaaS-based and hosted in the AWS environment, we have experienced very little down time. In the very rare instances we have had outages, we’re usually back up and running extremely quickly.
- I would like to see Instructure continue to focus on improving the user interface and functionality for the Canvas roles and permissions. In the summer of 2018, they made vast improvements to this area of Canvas, but they still have a little work to do. I’d like to be able to manage ‘sub permissions’ within the top-level permissions for each role. I’d also like to run a report/export of the roles and permissions, make edits in a .csv editor, and then upload the updated roles/permissions via the SIS Import tool. This would alleviate the time-consuming process of managing roles permissions by hand.
- I’d like to see more LTI integrations that are set up like the Box integration. The Box LTI integration is accessible via the user’s profile page and allows the user to access content in Box via a native Box window that is embedded in the page. Most LTIs are only accessible via an actual course. Instructure has the potential to turn the user profile page into a hub that allows the user to jump in and out of multiple apps, whose provisioning and authentication is handled by Canvas
- Instructure needs to create a permission that manages the access to a course’s start and dates. At our institution, we have to programmatically hide the start/end dates for courses from instructors, so they don’t open courses early or leave them open after the semester has officially ended. Canvas customers should be able to treat the opening/closing of a course (not the publishing) as an administrative task only.
- Canvas admins should also be able to restrict who can control the course visibility and course format functions in the course settings. At our institution, we have committees and processes in place to determine these attributes. Allowing faculty to edit these options creates confusion for students and administrators.
February 17, 2017
Canvas - A great efficiency tool for the course I teach!
The University of Iowa recently switched over to Canvas in order to manage our online resources for students in various courses. I have found Canvas to be MUCH more user-friendly and easy to use than our past web platform. My grading goes much faster, and I can easily update my course in ways I was not able to before. I attended to short training sessions on Canvas and immediately felt at ease with the program. I highly recommend it.
- The "Speedgrader" option is amazing! I can easily grade student papers and the rubrics are built right into the system!
- We do group assignments in my course and I can assign groups electronically and also assign peer evaluation for assignments electronically! It does it all for me and I love it.
- The ability to require "links" for submission is helpful to me when we ask our students to update websites for the course I teach. They submit the link, and I can access their site easily to do my grading!
- I enjoy the ability to view my site from the "Student View" so I know exactly what my students are seeing on Canvas!
- It took me a long time to figure out how to set up my "dashboard." I felt like it should have been easier considering how easy the rest of the program is to navigate.
- When you assign a peer evaluation to an assignment, the peer comments end up in the rubric and you have to erase them to write your own comments.
September 23, 2016
Canvas Review
Canvas is currently being used across the Maricopa Community College District as the primary LMS for all 10 community Colleges. The LMS provides a technology based solution for faculty to deliver classes in several different modalities. Canvas is used both in online and in-person classes, and has been incorporated into nearly every subject.
- Canvas does an excellent job of organizing lessons through the use of modules and HTML options
- Canvas has a fairly straight-forward grade-book that makes grade management easier
- Canvas does a great job integrating other apps and technologies such as MyITlab.
- Canvas's Inbox and messaging system is easy to use and integrates with other messaging platforms
- Speed up the time it takes to navigate between menu options.
- Include more options for modifying test banks, such as listing all details of questions without the need to expand each question to see its answer contents
- Include more options in the WYSIWYG such as font types, active content, and rotating banner capability
September 06, 2016
Canvas is a stream-lined, intuitive LMS that is setting the pace for others to follow
We use Canvas to teach online and blended courses related to instructional design and educational technology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Our department uses Canvas along with a homegrown LMS called Learning Suite, but adoption is generally up to the lead instructor for each course. We use Canvas to organize course content, communicate with students, and grade assignments.
- Intuitive: The Canvas interface is generally easy to navigate and aligns with students' notions of how a web app should operate.
- Connected: Canvas connects courses, assignments, due dates, calendars, third-party (LTI) resources, and notifications well.
- Simple: The Canvas interface is scaled-down and avoids bloat, making it generally easy to use for both students and instructors.
- Customization: The instructor has some customization options within Canvas, but as with any standard LMS, power users will sometimes wonder why they cannot do things that seem simple.
- Email: Depending on your preference this may be a pro or con, but Canvas tries to operate as its own email client. Though you can also receive notifications whenever students message you, having the separate inbox in Canvas can be confusing for students and instructors, and the conversation threads in a large course can become confusing very quickly.
- Ugly HTML: This is only a critique that power users would have, but like many Web 2.0 systems that use a WYSIWYG interface for content entry, Canvas pages can often yield ugly HTML that does not comply with usability standards, especially if you work with others that are not mindful of these issues. As a result, I often have to edit HTML directly on content pages that have hundreds of unnecessary elements, that incorrectly use tags for layouts, or that do not provide appropriate "alt" or "title" attributes to visual content.
October 29, 2015
What Instructors and Students Can Learn Using Canvas
Canvas is in use across the whole organization.
- Syllabus makes it easy for an instructor to communicate with students on what will be required of them throughout the course providing a chronological order of assignments/events.
- Discussion Board allows the instructor and students to interact asynchronously deploying text, images, audio, or video and attach files. They may be graded or non-graded.
- Student Groups facilitate semester/term-long projects for students to communicate and iterate on documents, share media files, create discussions and collaborate synchronously.
- Peer Reviews enable students to comment on work by their peers. A tool that allows communication between students. An instructor can require students to submit their assignment before reviewing their peers.
- The video guide heading has labeling for All Users, Administrators, Community, Instructors, Students, Observers, Canvas Commons, and Canvas Network. Video tutorials are essential for answering instructor questions, guiding students on the use of assignment overview and submission, using chat or collaboration along with working in groups, peer reviews, and taking quizzes. Tutorials represent the Canvas features that include Asynchronous/Synchronous Learning, Classroom management, Live-Video Conferencing, Mobile Learning, Skills Tracking, Social Learning, and Testing/Assessments. Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) interface (approved by the institution). For example, facilitate academic textbook publishers’ robust learning/assessment tools to interact within an instructor’s course, etc. Assistance from our institution provides telephone and one-on-one Canvas support from our instructional designers at the Center for Faculty Excellence or Information Technology Services (ITS). Yet, we have experienced challenges using Canvas.
- Canvas and Turnitin services undergo scheduled maintenance. It is important for instructors to schedule course work accordingly to offset problems during scheduled maintenance. Our institution publishes this information when an instructor or student logs into Canvas. IT remains proactive by providing access to the Canvas release notes for the latest features and upgrades in conjunction when the upgrades occur.
- We have yet to experience the perfect LMS. Canvas has its share of challenges. Instructors find difficulty when communicating to students using Canvas within a specific course having multiple course sections. For example, working in an undergraduate health course that has three similar combined sections, an instructor must initiate a conversation from the Canvas “Inbox” specific to each section, and is unable to communicate with all combined sections from the primary health course.
- Upgrades and changes within the LMS during a given semester/course term provide a mild annoyance for instructors. For example, Canvas made a location change (i.e., allowing students to attach a file to a discussion. Permission was moved from the instructor view within a discussion to the course “Settings,” then “Course Details” tab and moving down and selecting the “more options” link and clicking on the radio button “Let students attach files to discussions” while then selecting “Update Course Details” to enable this option.
- Another challenge is having the instructor and students remain current with software upgrades as it’s integral to ensuring a successful experience with the Canvas LMS. For example, a Spanish instructor wanted her students to record a video within Canvas of students speaking Spanish as a video assignment. Multiple issues presented themselves since Canvas requires the most recent upgrade to Adobe Flash Player and web browsing software to accomplish the task. When students used on campus computer labs, current updates were not equally applied throughout the labs. A similar challenge followed with student’s personal computers, consistently keeping their software up-to-date to accommodate specific tools within the Canvas LMS. Recording within the Canvas environment is functional when one is running the most current upgrades to their web browser and Adobe Flash Player. Collaboration and interaction with our instructional designers and ITS resolved the above instructor/student video assignment challenge.
We use Canvas as a LMS for several online programs and it is additionally being used as an internal training platform. The solution offers an engaging online environment and meets the intuitive design, navigation, and interaction expectations of our users.
- Intuitive Design
- Modern in-line engagement functionality, 3 click video recording
- Tier 1 Support is phenomenal
- Cloud based, enabling frequent and continuous updates for product evolution
- High performance (no system slowdown) and solid uptime
- Undelete functionality, (if instructors delete content it can be undone)
- Strong course calendar system
- Canvas support guides and documentation are extremely helpful
- Mobile apps perform well, Speed Grader is a faculty favorite
- Linking to content is easy within courses
- The Quiz/Assessment options are terrible and have forced us to bring in third party vendors to mitigate testing shortcomings on the native platform. (1 - Mandated partial credit on multiple select and matching quiz question types (no all-or-nothing) , 2 - cannot preview a quiz, 3 - cannot view all questions in construction if total exceeds 25, no question headers for question groups, no easy way to randomize questions, 4 - no ordering question type, 5 - no delayed quiz reviews without unmuting assignments)
- Frequent updates make us reliant on referencing Canvas documentation, we cannot create branded support materials due to the volume and frequency of changes.
- E-Portfolio's are very poorly designed and have caused extreme implementation challenges.
- The online collaborative environment Big Blue Button currently has some browser compatibility issues with Firefox, and desktop sharing does not work on Chrome.
- There is no method to have students peer review large files, (like uploaded presentations/videos). Instead, students have to upload to another system like Dropbox or Google and link their content.
- Canvas has a very weak mail platform, there is no rich text editor or signature options.
- The data is not very accessible despite API availability. The company created an additional product called Canvas Data to charge users to access their own data.
September 25, 2015
Canvas LMS offers flexible and customizable course design options
We use Canvas as our global LMS solution. Specifically for online courses, but our face to face and broadcast courses use Canvas as a content repository.
- Organizing Content in Modules
- SpeedGrader feature for grading and student feedback
- Allows for course level and global customization
- The Gradebook needs improvement
- Ability to edit css for mobile
- Quiz feature needs to have more options for question types, alternative questions, and extra credit questions