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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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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October 31, 2023
Canvas is Comprehensive and User Friendly
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I have had the opportunity to use canvas as both a student and a professor, providing unique insight to its features and nuances. This product helps to streamline the online learning experience and allow for easy structuring of course materials. It also serves as a platform to submit and complete assignments, communicate with other students, and access internal and external course links.
- Course management
- Efficient grading
- Communication between students and faculty
- Navigation
- Building a new course
- Adding narrated lectures and videos
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.
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
March 10, 2021
Canvas is a good value for money
Canvas is used across the school as our primary learning management system. We have integrated it with our student information system and setup a templated course shell for every course taught in a semester. Most faculty use it to deliver course materials, schedule, assignments and grading. We have also integrated it with Zoom for video conferencing and that has helped tremendously with student engagement and remote course delivery during the pandemic.
- Syllabus management
- Course assignment
- Grading
- Canvas app
- Assignments can be improved
- Backend integration and reporting
August 12, 2020
The perfect LMS out there
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Canvas is used by most universities. At times Moodles can be used as an alternative. Depending on the requirements of the department. It houses courses in a structured and easy to manage format. Allowing students to proactively do their assignments and access course material with ease. Teachers can create and manage course modules efficiently and with ease. An extremely efficient platform that bridges the communication gap between instructors and students. Its integration with third-party tools makes it easy for the administrator to keep the platform up-to-date with the university requirements. A well thought out idea that is helping millions of students all across the world and improving how education is delivered.
- Simple and user friendly user interface.
- Third-party solution integration.
- Ease of course management.
- Inbuilt discussion forum.
- Lack of inbuilt video conferencing tools.
- Quizzes should have proctoring and browser locked capability.
- Mobile app can get have glitches.
- Notifications are missed at times.
At my institution, we use Canvas across the entire campus. We used a different platform when I was a student, so Canvas was an adjustment for me to switch to as a staff member. A colleague of mine suggested Canvas to our central Distance Learning office a few years ago, and the agreed to look into it as an alternative platform. It took a while to implement, but has been great! With the new switch to remote learning due to social distancing, Canvas has been more valuable than ever. We are utilizing it for classes and coursework, as well as organization and information sharing. We are engaging students through video, and sharing resources with constituents. I am certain that we would have a myriad of issues with any other provider during this time. I'm very thankful we have Canvas!
- Canvas allows users to personalize pages and ensure institution brand is kept true. Our Canvas pages look just like everything else our institution creates.
- Canvas allows for multiple users to full sites, that have different permissions. This allows us to assign teachers, teaching assistants, and other student users. Everyone has access in a different capacity, to make different changes, so management is easy!
- Canvas allows students to share documents within their classes, so no need for outside document-sharing platforms. Students in the past were using Google-Docs to create "group work" material that could be edited in real time. Now, Canvas allows students to access that material directly from the site. This makes remote group work run much smoother!
- I use the Canvas App as a part-time graduate student, and the functionality in the Discussion Board posts is a little off. I have to post discussion board posts often, so I find myself entering the information from my phone sometimes. After one or two sentences, the text lags behind. I'll be 3-4 sentences into a thought, and the text is still finishing the first line. This requires me to stop and let the text catch up, which often breaks my train of thought. I've noticed the same thing on my iPad - so I think it's strictly an App issue.
- Canvas has so much to offer, that it can be overwhelming. When I was first assigned as a TA of a course, I had no idea where to start. It's not that Canvas is not user-friendly, but it definitely has a level of understanding that must be done before you can even begin. I wouldn't just assign a student to start using it and assume they could "figure it out", which means that we have to allow for training to be done when we expect anyone to use it. This just means a little more time and energy on the user, which is sometimes not always possible.
- Using the People tab within a course is kind of pointless for me. This may be a setting at my institution, but when I look at the "people" in my class, I can't actually contact them. I can pull up their profile, see what sites they are enrolled in, their bio and their "links" - but there is no secure "send message" button from this landing page. I think that is a missed opportunity. I know there are other ways to send messages, but it seems that it would be pretty useful to add a contact button on the people tab.
April 22, 2020
Canvas Review
Canvas is a learning management system. It houses everything for all of my courses. This includes my face-to-face, hybrid, and online classes. Canvas helps me organize my course into modules. In each module, I have information pages, discussions, assignments, and assessments. Canvas also includes a calendar and gradebook. Moreover, Canvas has a messaging system so I can message students in my courses.
- User friendly: I found it easy to figure out how to use Canvas
- Variety; there are a variety of types of assignments an instructor can create
- Organized: the tools help you organize your course
- Sometimes messages are delayed
- It does not have it’s own video conferencing tool
- Would be nice if there was a way to message groups of students based on a risk factor
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.
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 10, 2019
Canvas LMS: a great way to provide an online course experience!
TCS Education System is a non-profit organization that uses Canvas for all of its five affiliates. We have an Instructional Design team under the Academic Affairs Department that designs all of the courses. The majority of courses are totally online, however, we do have many blended and on-ground courses that also use Canvas. Canvas solved a problem we had with our previous LMS, which was costing us a lot of money as well as not providing the flexibility and up-to-date design technology that we wanted for our students. We have been very happy with the quality of the product as well as the professionalism and helpfulness of the Canvas staff.
- Canvas does a great job of integrating many third-party vendors. We use vendors such as Flipgrid, Padlet, and Storyline to help enhance our student experience in the online classroom.
- Canvas is very user (designer) friendly. It uses a simple Rich Text Editor that is easy to create text, insert pictures and video and enhance the text. With that comes an HTML Editor which is very useful if you have knowledge of HTML. This provides the designer with the flexibility to design more than just plain text on a page.
- For the student, Canvas is also very easy to use and organized well. The Modules listing provides students with an "outline: of the course and helps keep them working in a linear fashion (if that is what you want). There are also direct links to assignments and discussions so students can see all of the specific assignments at once. The grade book is also very easy for students to read and interpret.
- Even though Canvas works great with third-party vendors by integrating them right into Canvas, there is room for improvement on this subject. There are still glitches with certain programs as well as programs that simply do not work well with Canvas.
- The Rich Text Editor is a good selling point for Canvas, however, it could use an upgrade There are features that could be implemented that are not there and it can make designing a dynamic page difficult.
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
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.
December 08, 2018
Canvas for Customers
Canvas is being used by our organization as a learning management system (LMS) provider. Faculty and students access the content through a link and through a web browser. Our company transitioned from Cengage/Evolve to the Canvas Learning Management System and the other three big learning management systems. Although we train faculty to use our content on Blackboard, Moodle, and Brightspace provided by D2L, Canvas is the LMS that we purchased to launch our content. The business problem it addresses is having a place to store our curriculum and content.
- Easy to use and navigate.
- Mobile friendly.
- SCORM compliant.
- No web design knowledge needed.
- Importing images and videos needs to be more user-friendly.
- Rubrics integration and design needs to be more user-friendly.
- iPad/iPhone app is not always easy to navigate.
I have experience writing course materials in Canvas for Russian language classes. In particular I've been modifying some materials originally written in Blackboard to use in Canvas.
I've also worked in Canvas as a student taking graduate courses online. The institution offering these courses (coincidentally) had also recently made a switch from Blackboard to Canvas.
I've also worked in Canvas as a student taking graduate courses online. The institution offering these courses (coincidentally) had also recently made a switch from Blackboard to Canvas.
- I looks clean and modern.
- "Next" and "Previous" buttons allow for a linear and relatively smooth navigation between pages.
- The video and audio recording tools are easy and fairly intuitive for both teacher and student.
- Canvas is very linear. When working through modules students will not be able to see the border between Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 unless you add numbers to the headings and (even better!) create a "Finished with Lesson 1 / Go on to Lesson 2" page. Also it is awkward to add in any "If you want to know more on this topic..." folders within Canvas. It'd be possible to add a link to an external resource (YouTube playlist, Padlet, Thinglink, GoogleDoc), but you wouldn't assemble those resources within a Canvas page.
- It's not intuitive for students to know where to start. You really need to create a straightforward Homepage in Canvas to give students a point of navigation beyond just clicking the Modules link in the Menu.
- You can't add Menu items, only control which of a number of set items students can see (as opposed to Blackboard where you can create any number of content folders, tool links, web links and keep them in a left hand menu).
- In Discussion boards the indent difference between an original post and a response to that post is basically negligible. When scanning a list of posts, it is hard to take in at a glance which were original posts and which were responses. It makes for a really crowded looking Discussion board.
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 24, 2015
Canvasing for Canvas?!?
Canvas is in use across the whole organization. It serves as our academic LMS. We moved from Blackboard Learn to Canvas. I was one of the early proponents of Canvas. I was the only instructor to use it in the pre-pilot and then one of few that used it in the formal pilot. I contributed to the decision to go with Canvas over Blackboard. I also wrote a technology grant to fund its implementation and developed training that helped with the successful transition.
- Outcomes in Canvas are fantastic, especially when enabled by rubrics for grading.
- Video integration using Kaltura was great for submitting quick video feedback on assignments.
- The no-folder approach is great in Canvas. Everything is visible at the first and second level to students and instructors.
- The visibility of points, due dates etc. in the module view was just fantastic.
- Canvas did not support SCORM. This was a major drawback for some. We solved the problem by hosting our tutorials elsewhere, but it was a painful workaround.
- The Blackboard course porting was not smooth. We took this as a positive though and an opportunity to redesign our courses from the ground up.
- Canvas was not very responsive to customer feedback and new feature or error correction requests. They were very focused on their goals, but the sequencing of these did not always match with client priorities.
September 23, 2015
Canvas! Because it is the best out there!
Canvas is an easy to use, user friendly Learning Management System (LMS) that lends itself to a variety of course types. While the vast majority of courses I design are online and hybrid, I have found countless opportunities to use Canvas as both course structure and resource, for face to face courses.
The Learning Management System comes with a variety of tools that promote online learning, collaboration and interaction. It is also very easy to design learning opportunities for different types of learners in Canvas. Just to name a few useful tools that Canvas offers: Speed Grader, Peer Reviews, Integrated Rubrics, Discussion Boards, Groups etc.
The Learning Management System comes with a variety of tools that promote online learning, collaboration and interaction. It is also very easy to design learning opportunities for different types of learners in Canvas. Just to name a few useful tools that Canvas offers: Speed Grader, Peer Reviews, Integrated Rubrics, Discussion Boards, Groups etc.
- Speedgrader. The opportunity for Instructors to grade several assignments at a go!
- Peer Review.
- Groups: Instructors can create groups - mini integrated courses within courses.
- It would be great to be able to "collect" discussion threads.
- A major part that is missing is a "Blog" tool. Yes there are LTI's that can be integrated but that gets tricky.
September 23, 2015
Successfully Navigating the Digital Space with the Canvas LMS
We are currently in our fourth year of using the Canvas LMS across our entire school (a 7-12 grade independent day school), in which over 200 faculty serve almost 1600 students. Our faculty uses Canvas as our digital "Hub" to store resources, collect student work, create digital discussions, and more. Now that our school has a 1:1 laptop program for all students, Canvas has helped us to consolidate the large variety of digital resources students use. It has made it much easier for our students to access their work, whether on campus or not, while also enabling them to easily share their work with teachers and other students. Given the ease of using Canvas and its flexible architecture, we have begun to use Canvas for other school purposes, including hosting club web pages and faculty professional development materials. Generally, we have been very pleased with the versatility of the Canvas LMS and the support of Instructure.
- One of Canvas' strengths is its "Discussions" feature, which is the most robust of all the LMS tools I've seen. Students can easily share ideas in discussions created either by them or by teachers, with options to reply in threads, include rich text, and attachments. The system allows for thorough conversations to take place entirely within the digital space of the LMS.
- Multiple types of assignments can easily be submitted through the Canvas LMS, including voice and/or video responses using the media recorder tool that are of great use for language study.
- The "Speed Grader" allows teachers to quickly sort through submitted work, while grading and adding feedback that students can see immediately. It's one of our faculty's favorite features of the Canvas LMS.
- Canvas offers a wide selection of LTI plugins that can be used to customize a school's instance of the LMS. For example, Quizlet flashcards can be directly embedded in Canvas pages and reviewed by students.
- Canvas offers a great mobile app giving our students easy access to the site.
- Canvas offers "peer review" within discussion, where students are assigned other student work to evaluate. While the idea is fantastic, the system of assignment and notification needs some work before it's as useful as other features of the system.
- It can be difficult to work with subsets of students, as one may do when teaching multiple sections of a class.
- The Canvas gradebook is evolving quickly and has become quite useful. But it needs a few more tweaks before it is ready to replace other traditional gradebooks.
September 23, 2015
The LMS for Student-centered learning
We use Canvas as the Learning Management System for our university. It is used to deliver online and hybrid courses, and to support classroom teachers who are using various pedagogies, including flipping the classroom. We are also piloting the integrated Outcomes tools to gather assessment data on our core curriculum for accreditation purposes. We are investigating the use of Outcomes and ePortfolio tools to address accreditation requirements for specific programs, as well.
- Canvas is very user friendly. The tools are simple to use, yet powerful and robust. There is not a large learning curve, even for users with little technical skilsl. Thirty percent of our students don't feel they need any support or training to use the system. Our faculty adoption rate in the first year was twice that of our previous system and continues to grow.
- Canvas support is great. They are responsive to their user community. They also are honest, transparent, and communicate well with their clients. They provide clear user guides and videos that are kept updated so that we don't have to create them. We can send links to the particular guides to our users to solutions to their problems or to provide just-in-time learning. Even as they have grown rapidly, they have kept the very open, supportive culture that I find so refreshing.
- Canvas includes many of the tools that were add-ons for our previous system with additional costs, such as video capture and streaming, outcomes tracking, and eportfolios. The variety of tools and ease of use is allowing our faculty to explore innovative pedagogies in a way in which they are comfortable. We no longer need to have a large group of faculty do a major pilot because of the expense of getting a particular system. We also don't have to support multiple systems that don't always work well together. No more concerns about whether an upgrade to one system would create problems with another system.
- Canvas is constantly improving and adding new features, usually based on requests from the user community. It can be a challenge to keep up with the new features every 3 weeks, but the incremental change is less disruptive to our faculty and students than a major upgrade every 1-2 years. Bug fixes are much faster in this way as well. I have seen major improvements in how the system works and meets its users' needs since our initial pilot in 2011. I like being able to contribute my voice and our user case scenarios to feature requests in an open forum and know that I am helping to shape the system that we use.
- Canvas is easy to administer even if you don't have a large support staff. You do not need database programmers or people to write scripts for everything. If you have people with those skills you can certainly leverage the system to do wonderful things, but it is not necessary. A small school, with a small staff can manage the system and get very positive learning results.
- Canvas still needs to work on their reporting features. This is something that they are actively addressing and have a new system coming soon that I hope will close the gaps between what is currently available and what we need.
- The ePortfolio tool is clunky and not as useful for program level evaluation as other systems. It is designed for student personal portfolios, or perhaps for a course portfolio. It requires work arounds to create an evaluation tool that can be used to track a student in a program over a period of time.
Canvas serves as the platform for asynchronous learning for the online graduate level certificate program our organization partners with two other organizations to create and implement. We have program participants from all over the US and a few other countries who use Canvas as their learning and communication hub for the program. They use a broad range of features in the software - discussion forums, assignments, editing wiki pages, embedding Google docs and other docs, sharing files, surveys, embedded media, and links to other applications like Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing. Our participants are also utilizing the mobile app version of the software.
- Canvas makes it smooth and easy to edit assignments and discussions, streamlining the number of places you need to make changes, compared to other LMSes. Changing the due date and points in the assignment itself, for example, updates the calendar, the syllabus, and the learning modules list automatically.
- The discussion forum is streamlined compared to other LMSs, so you don't have to click to multiple pages to view instructions or threads - it's all on one page. We also like that you can "like" posts on the discussion forum.
- The overall navigation of Canvas is clean and intuitive, making it easy to learn and attractive-looking.
- Canvas makes it easy for a course designer or instructor to embed relative links to other pages and parts of the course, and preserves these links when you copy or import the course into another course. This allows us to make the courses more user-friendly and makes course development MUCH faster than with other LMSes.
- The Modules page is a great feature for viewing a course at a glance. It is very helpful to be able to view requirements and due dates and track your progress all on one page.
- Canvas has a strong feature set for allowing communication between users, and in particular between students and instructors. The built in email tool, discussions on course announcements, and the ability for students and teachers to comment back and forth privately on assignments (including an easy to use audio recording tool) are appreciated features among our users, which will hopefully increase the social connection and student support in our online courses.
- Canvas allows instructors and course editors to embed images directly through the WYSIWYG editor, but not students. Students in the course (if they don't know how to embed external images using code) have to attach images, which makes the discussions a little more clunky and less fun (having to open attached files instead of viewing inline).
- The options for adaptive release and gamification in general, including achievement badges, are much more limited in Canvas than in Blackboard Learn. I would like to see more advanced options in this area in Canvas.
September 19, 2015
Instructure Canvas - 4 Years of Experience
Canvas was adopted by Utah State University in January, 2011 for use throughout the entire university system, as part of a state wide contract. All Utah System of Higher Education schools use Canvas. Utah State University uses it to offer fully online degree programs and classes, and is also used for blended courses and to supplement face to face courses.
- Canvas is a SaaS cloud application. Instructure pushes new features and bug fixes every 3 weeks, which keeps it current, and evolving. These new features are released in such a way that they are not disruptive to instructors or students, and we can choose when we make those new features available to our customers.
- The mobile app for grading assignments (Speed Grader) has reduced the time it takes for me to grade assignments by 30 - 50%. Allows instructors to grade while waiting for meetings, on the bus, and anytime they have a few minutes.
- A WYSIWYG editor appears in about every tool. It has a file and tool manager that allows you to provide direct links to any connect you have in your course with a simple click. You can provide these in content pages, discussions, announcements, and other places. Makes referring students to content a breeze.
- Students can create their own groups for course project purposes, and can play "what if" scenarios with their grades. For example, a student can see how a particular grade on a final exam will affect their final grade in the class.
- Instructors and students can choose their own notification paths, and how often they receive them. For example if an instructor posts an announcement, students could choose to receive it via email, sms, or other method, and choose if they want them immediately or in a daily or weekly digest.
- LTI integration is the best of any of the Higher Education LMS software packaged. It is easy for a campus admin, or even a instructor to add LTI tools to their course and choose them from a catalog of LTI tools. Everything from integrating full rich text books, open content, youtube, and social media integrators, and publisher content and tools.
- Outcomes - needs to be easier to create, adopt, and assign outcomes.
- Gradebook. It works, but some efficiencies could be added, and certain functions streamlined. I am told the grade book is getting a overhaul and will be released in 2016.
- SIS grade push. - Needs some additional functionality to allow instructors to choose which students grades to push to the SIS.
September 18, 2015
Canvas was the right choice for us!
Canvas is the Learning Management System at our university. All online courses are taught on Canvas, and campus courses can also utilize Canvas, as decided upon by the instructor.
- Canvas is very user-friendly and well organized. It is easy for students to find their courses, and easy for faculty to put their course materials into Canvas. Most faculty & students learn how to use Canvas very quickly.
- Canvas is very flexible, both on an admin and course level. It makes integration with third-party tools very simple, to allow faculty to utilize tools such as plagiarism detection, test monitoring, video editing, etc. Faculty can design their courses in several ways, to meet their teaching needs. Admins can set permissions for a variety of different types of users. All can be done quickly & easily.
- Canvas support & documentation is excellent. The Canvas guides are always up to date, easy to follow, and contain visuals to help users understand the various features & components of Canvas. Their support staff are very knowledgeable, and help answer questions and resolve issues very quickly. Each support agent has access to our account, so they can provide support for very specific questions and issues.
- Each institution has their own customer success manager. This is a huge benefit, to have someone at Canvas be an advocate when issues arise, to understand your needs, and to be a point of contact for serious matters.
- Canvas is updated every 3 weeks, which is helpful for fixing bugs & issues. And even though they provide clear documentation well ahead of time, it still does make it hard to train faculty & students since some features change in the middle of a semester or course.
- The Canvas roadmap needs to be more transparent. They are working on improving this, but it would be helpful to know which components they are working on and where they stand on the development timeline.
- Since Canvas is so community oriented, it would be helpful to have representation on the direction of the software. There are forums to make feature requests and make comments about upcoming releases, but it would be great if some of us could work with Canvas to have these discussions before a change is planned.
September 18, 2015
What will you create on your Canvas?
Canvas is our college's primary learning management system. It is used to deliver online and hybrid courses, as well as supplemental support for face-to-face courses. Every division at the college uses Canvas. It plays an integral part of instructors' pedagogical approaches, and it is an important catalyst for students' learning and engagement.
- Student engagement -- Canvas allows students to interact with content, with professors, and with course content quite organically in the learning process. Students may choose to integrate Canvas with Web 2.0 tools, while determining the method and frequency of Canvas notifications.
- Elegant User Interface -- Canvas mirrors many of the Web tools that our students currently use and with which they are already comfortable. The simple, clean UI prevents unnecessary clicks and confusion for students.
- Display of content -- Canvas provides innovative ways for professors to display their course content and for students to navigate that content.
- Assessment & Feedback -- Canvas supports interactive. immediate feedback to students, allowing them to track their learning progress. Professors can utilize a variety of feedback methods: digital annotations, video/audio comments, rubric assessment, and automatic quiz replies.
- Glitches -- even after four years of using Canvas, I still experience glitches in the system. Most recently, the Media Comment tool was not fully reliable when I was recording feedback to students.
- Missed opportunities -- there are some functions that are not fully realized in functionality. For example, an instructor can assign badges to students via the Attendance tool; however, the instructor is the only one who can view the badges tally! The effectiveness of badges hinges on students' intrinsic motivation -- how can they find motivation if they cannot see the badges that they've earned in a course?
- Poor reporting / poor extraction of data -- the Attendance reports that are downloaded from the system are simply horrible to decipher and read. If an instructor must produce a conversation from the Inbox to an administrator/supervisor, there is no easy way to extract these messages from Canvas. The best one can do is take screen shots of the conversation!
- Inbox -- the whole Conversations experiment that Canvas has been performing must end. The Inbox tool acts nothing like conventional email. Professors see the word "Inbox" and expect a traditional email tool. Instead, there is a "bait-and-switch" quality to Conversations. In my four years of training faculty to use Canvas, I regularly received complaints about the Inbox and the challenge of storing, sorting, and managing messages.
September 18, 2015
My thoughts on Canvas
Canvas is used to provide a learning management system for a community college district consisting of multiple campuses over a large geographical area. In addition, Canvas is being used with a state-wide licensing with more than 90% of learning institutions using it in the state of Washington. It's use provides a consistent and reliable interface for students.
- The interface allows for an easy set of of learning modules with lectures, photos, videos and assessments.
- The product update process is user-driven with a great deal of interaction with Canvas developers.
- Since it is cloud-based, updates are rolled out without down-time.
- There are many "apps" or externally developed utilities that integrate into Canvas.
- On the back-end, Canvas provides a great deal of customization, branding and user options.
- There is a great set of tutorials for users, user groups where knowledge is shared and technical support is drearily available.
- Parts of the customization require knowledge of CSS, and other programming. Providing a user-friendly administration panel would be a plus.
- If not done correctly, course content copying can get messy. I standardized check for file duplication would be great.