Some of our prior learning management systems
were not intuitive.
I find Canvas very intuitive.
There are a lot of tools in Canvas that are helpful for me.
And being able to import certain pieces of my course
into other courses with ease.
I like the interface.
And it actually made my job easier.
So far, surprisingly, I have no complaints
about Canvas or concerns or even much of a learning curve.
I thought for Research Methods, a course
that I teach that can be difficult sometimes
for students to learn conceptually,
having an online or hybrid class would be perfect,
because they could study the concepts outside of class.
And then we could use our time in class to apply the concepts.
So part of my role in the library
is not only to be a liaison to the School of Education,
but also to think about online learning differently
and how we can use tools, like Canvas,
to make courses more interactive.
Canvas has been much easier to add content to
and to know what the settings are.
It's really like applying a piece of tape to something.
It's so-- you say, I want to bring this in.
And you just make it happen.
And it goes-- I don't really even know how it's happening,
but it's always there.
It looks streamlined.
I don't have these links and links of URL pages.
I don't have documents that students are looking around
for.
They're just-- it's clean.
They click on something, and it's in there right away.
The best feature on it is the Speed Grader feature,
because I can click through students' assignments.
Without having to download anything,
I can give comment back on the actual documents.
I can write special comments off in another section to students
directly.
So I think giving feedback is a really important part
of my job, how I run my classes.
And that's just made it a lot easier.
One thing that assists me and assists the students
is there's a side bar on the page
as you open up the course site.
And that side bar is almost like a calendar or upcoming events.
So it tells students what's due next week, what's due today.
And so when they're planning their calendars,
they get a very clear indication of the upcoming assignments
and activities.
For me, it lets me know how many students maybe submitted work,
so that I can go in and then quickly monitor or see
what activities I need to evaluate or assess,
respond to in some way.
So in that regard, it's wonderful in terms
of announcing for the students and for me
what's going on on the site since I last visited it.
Canvas does have a mobile app.
And I have used it.
I have it on my iPhone.
And I use it because I know that students
are working at many different times of the week,
overnight, during the day.
I have students that work full time.
And I want to be able to respond to them as quickly as possible.
So the mobile app lets me go into the site quite easily,
see their messages, or check something
that they might have a question on.
And so I just kind of have that in my back pocket all times
and don't feel like I need to be at my computer
in order to communicate with them regularly.
For faculty who aren't sure about switching to Canvas,
I think if they went to a class, a hands-on class,
maybe just a two-hour class, and worked with it
and saw how it is, they would easily want to switch to it.
It's a much better system, I think.
I can see where there'd be hesitation, just because it's
something new, but so far, I've found it
to be completely user friendly.
The system interface is much more modern to me.
It makes more sense, and it's so easy to use.
I'm not an IT person.
I have no background in creating these sorts of things,
and it's very simple.
I really appreciate the live chat function.
So I don't know where these people are,
but they've been able to answer my questions right off the bat.
In the middle of the night, there's
somebody working at the desk.
So that's been really, really helpful.
There's so much in place to really help them get started.
Make the switch to Canvas and don't fight the system.
Don't fight Canvas.
It will be your friend, I promise you.