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CANVAS
What is CANVAS?
Canvas by Instructure is a learning management system for every stage and style of education. As the hub of your digital learning environment, Canvas offers complete LMS functionality including standards-based grade books, course content authoring, customizable assessments, mobile communication, video learning and digital badging, (just to name a few). Take teaching and learning to the next level with Canvas, the #1 educational software, and the foundation of the Instructure Learning Platform.
Who Uses CANVAS?
Available to institutions of all sizes and types, from individual K-12 classrooms to universities to companies with a blended or fully virtual environment.
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Reviews of CANVAS
CANVAS makes higher education accessible anywhere you have an internet connection!
Comments: CANVAS is very user-friendly and an all-around excellent way to engage in continuing education and life-long learning. Personally, as an older student, I love using CANVAS.
Pros:
While I am unsure of the College's side in using this software, for me, as a student, I love using CANVAS. I enjoy travelling and with an easy-to-use, school-issued/provided LMS (Learning Management System/Software), I can take many classes online from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The mobile application is robust and incredibly convenient, allowing 99% all-the-same functionality as the desktop version. Students can even take online quizzes and finals using their internet-connected mobile device (Smartphone). It is very user-friendly and an all-around excellent way to engage in continuing education and life-long learning as an older (personally, 42 years) college student.
Cons:
The only drawbacks to CANVAS I experienced were a loss of data if the active internet connection broke while in the middle of completing/submitting assignments and quizzes. I know that CANVAS has since implemented an auto-save feature on the quizzes, so that part of the problem is resolved. Whether or not this is true of the assignment submissions, I honestly do not know at this time.
Alternatives Considered:
CANVAS - Easy e-learning Setup
Comments: It is easy and quick to set up even for no technical people. It is a reasonable cost depending on usage.
Pros:
The first thing I noted about Canvas is that when creating content, the page looks like an MS Word document. This makes creating pages with content easy as the learning curse is very gentle. There is very little need to be technical. It is more a matter of formatting rather than getting to know the software platform itself. The dashboard is clean and modern with easy navigation on the left sidebar for courses, account information, calendar, inbox and help. Your default home is your published and unpublished courses. On the courses tabs, are announcement and conversation icons that notify if a course has issues you need to attend to in a specific course. The settings menu is straightforward with nothing cryptic even for non-technical people. Setting up courses is a breeze with a 'Course Setup Checklist' button available inside each course shell you create. There is a walkthrough for each element of a course from content to publishing your course. If you have an existing course you can simply import the course with several formats supported including but not limited to Blackboard, Moodle and zip. For educators at various institutions, they can just import and customize where the need arises for the different institutions. Assessment types include quizzes and assignments. It also integrates easily with other services like Google Drive, Office/Docs and others.
Cons:
Video elements management needs improvement, the thumbnails are poor quality and very small. There is no option to edit them. To get a good visual of Office elements needs embedding the content hosted somewhere else. Natively on the platform PDF and PPT display poorly with just vertical scrolling. Exporting An exported courses from Canvas is in a custom format that is not compatible with other LMS platforms. This makes it hard to move between platforms. There not much customization of learning elements compared to other LMS available. Some of the support documentation is dated and needs updating.
Alternatives Considered:
Canvas does not cover everything
Comments: A decent fit overall, but for enterprise corporate needs I would value more flexibility and ability to customize. The integrated video conferencing tool is BigBlueButton. There are other conferencing tools. I believe Zoom can now be integrated but was not available in previous years.
Pros:
The Canvas implementation and support team was great and supportive. Canvas has some nice features you'd expect in an LMS, intuitive class and teacher structures, scheduling, notifications, and smartphone app.
Cons:
We used Canvas in a large scale enterprise internal environment. In general, I think Canvas is more suited for educational institutions. The app exchange environment was basic and not very relevant. The grading, rubrics and outcomes interface was not intuitive or user friendly.
Best program for students
Comments: My experience with Canvas has been great! It's easy to use and there are several different options to use to complete each task.
Pros:
Canvas makes learning easy. It's easy to navigate and user friendly.
Cons:
I have not found anything least liked with the program.
Canvas Pros
Comments: I enjoy canvas for submitting homework, posting to discussion boards, and emailing professors. I used it throughout the pandemic and it made the switch to virtual school seamless.
Pros:
I’ve been using the website and app for several years for school. It has a dashboard for your classes, each of which have categories for grades, assignments, modules, discussions, external links, etc, and there’s a calendar for due dates, and a built in email for students and instructors. I really appreciate the comment section within grades. My professors that issue this function typically give advice or praise, in a convenient location instead of through email or in person. It also allows you to calculate your final grade by simply changing individual grades. It does the percentage and calculation for you. The calendar and to do also cross off things you have done and color code them to your class.
Cons:
I don’t like how the To do is impossible to clear at times, it holds announcements there and assignments you can’t submit online because neither of those can be marked as complete. There is an option to “x” them but they come back when my app refreshes.
