The question posed to me was: How can we improve our usage of Canvas?
My response: Make a long-term commitment/contract with Canvas, for example, sign a 3-year to 5-year deal to keep Canvas as our online system for storing course content and more importantly, our resources.
When I’ve stated this out loud, it seems that I’m catching people off guard. Sometimes the response back is the opposite approach, “We need to shop around to see if we can find something better.”
My response, “We did shop – and we could shop every year for a newer, better system…. but that will only help a few people. If we want to help everyone, we need to build consistency by staying with a solution for the long term.”
We know Canvas is NOT perfect. In my opinion, no learning management system is perfect. In fact, no piece of software is perfect. Every solution has benefits and concerns – and shopping for something new only gets you a new set of benefits, as well as a new set of concerns.
By looking at a long-term deal, we create stability and consistency that will help us. A long-term deal would help assure our staff that we aren’t going to pull the rug out from under them and make a sudden switch to the next new shiny thing that comes along. It takes a lot of time to load course materials and resources into an online system – and nothing is more frustrating than conversations about possibly changing systems. Providing this consistency is not only a benefit for staff, I believe it also provides consistency for students, administrators, and parents in the long term.
Thoughts or reactions? Either drop me a line at abelingb@wdmcs.org or leave a comment on this post.
West Des Moines Community Schools Technology 
Well said, Brian. I sat on the committee that chose Canvas and it was a unanimous decision. We spent a lot of time discussing the pros and cons and coming up with a list of what we wanted in an LMS and Canvas was lightyears ahead of anything we saw which is why the decision was unanimous. Unless there is a new LMS out there, repeating the process is pointless.
I think consistency is best. If we know this is sticking around for a while we may be more willing to put in the effort to create “classes” on Canvas (if we haven’t done so already).
I didn’t know this wasn’t a long-term decision (good to know). Will we always have Google Classroom as an option?
I would also like to keep Google Classroom as an option. VSW was one of the first schools to get Chromebooks and we found that Google Classroom was very intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, and simple to use. Most students prefer. We would love to keep it as an option with a link to it in Canvas.
I completely agree.
Please stick with Canvas. It’s fairly easy to use, and the amount of time it would take to retrain teachers, let alone students, would be wasted $$ on learning a similar but different other LMS. Long term deal please!
Agreed! Consistency is key!
I really hope Canvas is here for the long haul! We’re putting a lot of time and effort into making these courses useful for students and parents. It would be frustrating to do the work and get it all up and running to find out we’re switching to something new in a few years.
The possibility of switching again after having invested over 200 hours adding content, building curriculum, creating rubrics and quizzes in Canvas only to pick something else seems crazy. Canvas is easy to use, has a lot of extra functionality for those who want it, simple for those who don’t want any frills, kids have access to it from almost anywhere, it is consistent with many colleges and teachers have already made the switch. Too bad it isn’t possible to get rid of Infinite Campus.
I believe one of our driving reasons for having a district LMS was to create some uniformity for students and parents. (Versus having one class on the S:/ drive, Moodle, Weebly, Google Classroom, Echo, etc.) Switching LMS every year is not going to help students, staff, or parents. Let’s go with a multi-year commitment.
1. What Abby said. There where some very good minds on that District and the ones I have talked with all indicate that Canvas was well above the rest.
2. If you want to improve Canvas, use their “Submit a Feature” interface located in the help menu. They are constantly using the suggestions to improve their product.
Brian:
I think this is one of the best platforms West Des Moines Community Schools have ever used. I love it. I think it is very beneficial for not only staff, parents but also students. Students can see what they have missed when absent through a click of a button. Way cool.
I love the idea of consistency. I guess if it were up to me, though, I’d go back to Google Classroom and save the money we are spending on Canvas and on PD for Canvas.
hello, I’m sorry to contact you this way but, I saw that wallpaper customization on Chromebooks have been gone for me at least, can I know how to get it fixed because I saw that other classmates aren’t having the same issue, so do I have to restart then check.. or did you get rid of the ability to change the Chromebook wallpaper? I’ll check back often to see a response
I have been meaning to write to comment about the district’s adoption of Canvas for student work. I have used classroom ever since the start of junior high and have loved the interface. Assignments were ordered by how recent they were posted, class discussions could take place on the timeline, teachers could organize assignments by topic, and the overall system was very intuitive. From the moment I started using Canvas, everything about it has seemed so misplaced to me. Within a class, there are many subsections, such as the modules tab, assignments, discussions, grades etc. Just today I was trying to find an article one of my teachers posted on canvas and for some reason it wasn’t in the home tab but in the modules tab. The home, assignments, and modules tab all are very similar and should be grouped into a central timeline where students can access their work more easily without having to figure out what type of work they are looking for simply to access it on the site. It is clear that the district is oriented around Chromebooks, and google classroom is simply the most intuitive choice for students that have been using Chromebooks as the interface was developed by the same company that made the computers. I have understood what the “problem” was that the district faced that required them to switch their universal online work over to canvas. The only “benefits” or differences between that two that canvas can do and classroom cannot are simply, the addition of the grades tab, which adds further confusion as teachers now have to update work on two systems, canvas AND infinite campus, and some teachers have said previously that canvas has allowed them to further organize work into specific folders such as the way assignments are organized in the modules section, but the exact same organization can be performed on google classroom with the topic organization feature to the left of the timeline. The overwhelming majority of students and teachers alike agree that canvas has not been beneficial to them, and many of my own teachers are still using classroom until the district forces canvas to be the new standard. It is clear that almost no one has any interest in the adoption of canvas over classroom, so why was the decision made? I have had so many issues with canvas, from assignments not turning in due to unknown errors, and the overall lack of intuitive navigation within the interface. Another issue I mentioned previously is some students and parents are confused whether to check their grades on Canvas or infinite campus, both sounding similar, and almost all teachers don’t have enough time to grade every single assignment in both systems directly after the assignment was graded. One system might say the student has a 34% and another a 96%. A third issue I just remembered is at the semester point students have to manually add classes back into the system as their codes for connecting to the class pages have changed and cannot view work from earlier in the school year. I have been meaning to write this email since the start of the school year, but I thought maybe if I used Canvas more I would adapt to the system and realize its benefits, but I still do not see the purpose. And what I think really make me question the district’s use of canvas is that you spend money on the system, money that could be spent on funding other departments and equipment for schools. I still use google classroom for most of my classroom work and have still experienced no issues. I could somewhat reason the adoption of Canvas if there truly was a problem with classroom, but if you simply outreached to your staff and students I think you would realize that most did not have issues with classroom, and that an entirely new online student work interface was unnecessary. Staff have told me that they have needed to attend multiple training sessions on how to use the system throughout the year simply due to its complexity. I do not recall this level of training used for teaching teachers how to use classroom, for the simple fact that it was simple to use. I just got around to reason one of your blog posts on the WDMCS technology blog about considering a 3 to 5 year subscription plan to the Canvas system, and in essence I am writing this email to prevent something like that from happening. Many teachers dislike the system so much that they have simply used canvas as a directory to their classroom site, clearly showing they prefer classroom. I genuinely fear the district plans to keep Canvas over the next coming years and I would really like to try and persuade you to go against this decision, as it is simply not the rational decision to make at this time. I have contacted many teachers and students in the process of writing this email about their opinions on the system, and these confrontations have revealed that if necessary I would be willing to start a petition to show you what amount of students and staff in the district are in favor of the system’s abolition. I am willing to go to whatever is necessary to ensure that students are happier with the technology they use everyday in the district, and if it means I would need to show you the number of students at Valley Southwoods and other schools in the district, especially the junior high schools, I would be willing to do that. Please carefully consider the information I have provided you. The tone of this email might come across as aggressive, and the reason for this is I am quite annoyed and also puzzled as well that the district has kept this system over the course of the school year.
Summary of ideas:
Pros
Google Classroom:
-organize timeline into topics for easier navigation
-intuitive for teachers and students alike
-most students are already familiar with the system
-easier class discussions (students can respond to the timeline and even post on it if give permission by the teacher)
-mobile app and notification system is much more developed
-overall student body and teachers vastly prefer over Canvas
-works seamlessly with google Chromebooks
-easier for kids with learning disabilities to use due to its simplicity
-free
Canvas:
-Grades can be put in Canvas (this causes confusion for many though)
-subsections within class (finding assignments and navigating through system can be harder with this interface)
Cons
Google Classroom:
-none at the moment
Canvas:
-confusing layout and navigation
-inclusion of grades on canvas causes confusion whether to reference canvas or infinite campus for grades
-semester re-enrollment
-hard to know when assignments are posted
Personal Email: tikkisean@gmail.com
School Email: se35998@wdmcs.org
Please contact me regarding this pertinent issue.
This email is a representation of the collective opinion of Canvas among the student body and staff at VSW and other schools.
Best Regards,
Sean Eddy