Sign long-term deal with Canvas?

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.

Our 1:1 study team findings…

In May 2013, our district’s 1:1 study team reported back to our school board on our progress.   The study teams was NOT responsible for any decisions related to 1:1, including device selection, time frames, and other decisions. Instead, the group studied the topic and reported back to the board on several key questions.

Here are the segments of the presentation that were made to the school board.

Overview of our district study team….

Who participated? What did they do?  What are the key questions they set out to answer?

What does our community think of 1:1?

This segment gives a summary of the survey results that included..

What our parents think of 1:1

What our student think of 1:1

What our staff thinks of 1:1

Cost ranges and factors related to 1:1

The following video clip is the cost information shared with our school board during May 2013.

What does the research show about 1:1?

The following video clip is an overview of the research about 1:1.

What we learned from studying 1:1

A summary of the main findings and thoughts from our 1:1 study team.

What Brian learned from our 1:1 study

Our technology director, Brian Abeling, participated in all the conferences and school visits and provided his perspective during the final 1:1 study team meeting.