General



GeneralOld Dominion University has used Blackboard as a Learning Management System (LMS) since 1998. In late 2014, the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) and Information Technology Services (ITS) discussed current issues being experienced with Blackboard. These included course and content delivery issues, new innovation of technology, and integration with existing systems at Old Dominion (SIS, PLE and others). After review of online material and documentation from other institutions, Old Dominion began the process of reviewing the Canvas LMS by Instructure as a potential replacement LMS. The following information is available related to LMS Pilots conducted by other institutions and how a variety of Learning Management systems compare: HYPERLINK "" University of TexasIndiana UniversityUniversity of KentuckyPurdue UniversityIn 2015, CLT and ITS led the implementation of a pilot program to test Canvas and established a Faculty Committee to assist. Below find a recommendation from that committee as well as the methods of data collection and the results. Faculty Committee RecommendationBased on the information available, the Canvas Pilot Faculty Committee recommends that Old Dominion University postpone a decision at this point and re-evaluate LMS options in 2019. This will provide the opportunity for Canvas to mature and for ODU to deploy and evaluate the Blackboard Ultra interface.Pilot EstablishmentInformation presentations were done during 2015 to the Provost, Provosts Counsel, and Faculty Senate Executive Committee to garner support and lay the ground work for the pilot. Canvas Pilot at ODU web site was started to provide general information to the campus about the pilot and its progress.Pilot FacultyAssistance was solicited from college Deans and Chairs to help identify faculty that would participate in the pilot. The goal was to host courses from all areas of the academic arena including Face to Face, Distance courses, Online, and streaming courses to insure the widest applicability of testing. This initially identified 45 potential faculty participants for Summer / Fall 2015 that were communicated with about pilot details and process. As the pilot began in August 2015, there were 24 participating faculty delivering 43 different course sections involving 841 students.Faculty CommitteeIn addition to identifying faculty that would participate in the pilot, the goal was to create a Faculty Committee that would manage the pilot, provide guidance and feedback and after completion and review of relevant information, provide a faculty recommendation to the Provost on the outcome. This committee was established and consists of the following members:Amy Landers (Sciences)Jackie Sharpe (Health Sciences)Rick Jones (Engineering)David Chapman (Business)Karen Sanzo (Education)Ruth Triplett (Arts & Letters)M’Hammed Abdous (CLT)June Ritchie (CLT)Rusty Waterfield (CIO)David Hamel (ITS)Pilot EnvironmentSetupWhile arrangements with pilot faculty were being made, the Center for Learning and Teaching and ITS eLearning team worked with Canvas technical support from November 2014 through April 2015 to establish both a test and production environment for the pilot term July 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015 in their SaaS environment. This environment included integration with the ODU SIS system and MIDAS authentication. Additionally, the pilot environment was configured with any players and plugins that were currently being used by the pilot faculty in the Blackboard environment.Course MigrationEach faculty member that participated in course delivery for the pilot was assigned an ITS staff member that provided assistance with pilot course establishment, course material migration, and resolution to any questions or issues found while setting up the course prior to delivery (this was in addition to the Canvas support). ITS members worked closely with faculty to insure successful migration of courses to the new environment.TrainingTraining in the Canvas environment was provided to faculty participating in the pilot in a variety of ways. These included online training sessions with Canvas Technicians (two were held and recorded), review of Canvas training session video (on demand), one on one sessions with ODU ITS and CLT staff, ITS/CLT lab training/migration sessions (five were scheduled), and email communications. Additionally, ITS and CLT developed a Canvas 101 course that was made available to all pilot faculty and other users of the Canvas system. This course included documentation and information about how to do perform all common actions that were previously done in Blackboard. This was a basic tool to help faculty transition from one system to another.ITS also developed a training course for students entitled Canvas 101 SE (Student Edition). This course was used as a basis to create a document for students and went through the most common student actions such as participating in discussion boards, reviewing assignments, submitting work, taking assessments and more. This course was reviewed and edited by pilot faculty to insure it contained the information they felt necessary for their students. This information was used to develop and deliver five online training sessions that were delivered by the ITS Help Desk using Adobe Connect meetings.Issues and ProblemsDuring the pilot semester, ITS / CLT staff kept in touch with pilot faculty to insure course delivery went as expected. A running list of unresolved issues or functionality problems was kept to understand the limitations associated with the Canvas LMS. Canvas technical teams were provided time on campus with pilot faculty in October 2015 to discuss questions, issues and options that were available within their courses. The following list of issues presented severe delivery problems for faculty participating in the pilot in the common use areas of ‘interface and layout’, ‘gradebook and assessments’, and ‘groups and communications’ as well as features that were liked about Canvas:Interface and LayoutLack of flexibility in course menus.Inability to create/rename/customize menu itemsInability to create quick hyperlinks to external web itemsCanvas courses have to be published before many functional items populate/operate (i.e. messaging use or address book) Course assignments that have reached due dates and availability dates remain visible to students and are marked as “Closed”. There should be some way to make them “Disappear” from view to reduce course clutter.Inflexibility, inability to customize the course No Wrap feature in email for Android (mobile) environment Lack of multi-level hierarchy for files, folders or modules in a course (Canvas “module” must be a section OR a chapter, but there is no way to create “sub modules”)Gradebook and AssessmentsUsing Student view to practice take/view test/quiz in Canvas locks assessment in published view (can’t be unpublished) because student view account holds quiz activeAssessment if altered after students have taken, issues with re-grading Can only attach a single rubric to a question in an exam/assessment. Cannot do rich text (copy/paste from documents) in the “Additional comments” box in assessments. Inability to create manual columns in the gradebook Inability to make items “time out”/disappear (instead of just grayed out) Inability to create a calculated/total column in grade bookLimited support for assessments, including:Matching type questions lack functionalityLack of functionality to display non-text (e.g. pictures, math expressions etc.) as either a question or answersLack of flexibility to arrange items in a pre-determined way (as opposed to the random arrangement.Issues with migration of question pools from Blackboard, tool does not import/export correctlycreates mismatched/wrong answer responsesCannot provide for partial credit in assessmentsCannot copy question bank pools and reuse in new courses/semesters. Cannot randomly build new pools from existing pools (subsets) for different assessments Groups and CommunicationsInability to force sending communications through email for privacy; workaround is to send notifications but students can opt outCreating Groups in Canvas, allowing student to enroll in groups, when students dis-enroll from the course, group numbers are not automatically / correctly adjusted to reflect remaining students in course.Canvas Discussion Boards less flexible - only extend down 2 levels, Discussion Board – Thread (vice Blackboard discussion board, forum and thread) Features that were liked about Canvas:Canvas scheduler. Much easier to use to setup office hours, however focused on single event scheduling (does not allow recurring daily, weekly or monthly events)Easy to see demarcation between past and present in calendar with past dates grayed out.Product FuturesImmediately after the pilot semester, both Canvas and Blackboard were provided an opportunity with pilot faculty and faculty committee members to provide information and demonstrations on their future products and roadmap. This was both companies opportunity to demonstrate commitment to future feature development, product improvement about the User Interface (UI), and support for the changing landscape of course delivery. Since the pilot began, both companies have delivered an improved “social like” UI that is designed to improve usability.Pilot Completion and RecommendationsPre-Pilot surveyTo gather baseline information for the evaluation, a survey of all ODU faculty was conducted just prior to the beginning of the Canvas Pilot. There were a total of 210 respondents out of a ~1300 potential faculty at ODU. The survey focused questions on faculty technology experience and comforts with using Blackboard as their LMS. A slight majority use Blackboard (58%) in at least one class, and the same percentage report that they are very comfortable with technology. A significant minority of faculty then do not use Blackboard and report being less than very comfortable with technology. Some highlights of the responses include:64% of faculty respondents have been instructing here for more than 6 years57% of faculty respondents are greater than 50 years old58% of faculty respondents are very comfortable with current technology53% of faculty respondents primarily teach in a Face to Face delivery method58% of faculty respondents indicate they teach at least 1 course using online delivery with Blackboard69% of faculty respondents indicate that Blackboard is Effective or Very Effective in grading assignments59% of faculty respondents indicate that it is Very Easy to upload files for content in Blackboard86% of faculty respondents indicate that it is Easy or Very Easy to Send and Receive messages or notificationsPost-Pilot SurveyAt the completion of the pilot a survey was conducted of both the pilot faculty and the students that participated in the pilot. The post pilot survey questions focused on faculty experiences with the Canvas LMS. Almost all of the pilot faculty use Blackboard as well. Importantly 50% indicated they would not like to use Canvas in future courses. Some highlights of the results include:88% of pilot faculty also currently deliver courses through Blackboard45% of pilot faculty indicate it is Difficult or Very Difficult to Organize Materials (files) in Canvas61% of pilot faculty indicate it is Easy or Very Easy to create course pages in Canvas77% of pilot faculty indicate it is Easy or Very Easy to Post Assignments 62% of pilot faculty indicate it is Easy or Very Easy to Manage and/or Grade submissions38% of pilot faculty indicate it is Difficult or Very Difficult to send or receive messages or notifications 59% of pilot faculty agreed that the Canvas interface was easy to learn55% of pilot faculty disagreed that the Canvas Interface increased their efficiency as a teacher50% of pilot faculty indicated they would not like to use Canvas in future courses68% of pilot faculty indicated that the instructor interface for grading assignments, test or quizzes is effective or very effective47% of pilot students were undergraduate Senior students, 66% undergraduate Junior/Senior89% of pilot students used Blackboard prior to the Canvas pilot95% of pilot students had NOT previously used Canvas>90% of pilot students regularly use their Smartphone or laptop for academic work70% of pilot student respondents were in online canvas courses68% of pilot students found the Syllabus Highly useful in contributing to their learning Individual Recommendations:At the end of the pilot, all pilot faculty and members of the faculty committee were provided a detailed summary of all information that had been gathered through the pilot term and asked to review this information and document their recommendations for the Universities future LMS. (See the Appendix for a list of all comments). The recommendations were as follows:Nr.Recommendation5Recommend Old Dominion migrate to the Canvas LMS11Recommend that Old Dominion postpone the decision and re-evaluates LMS options in 2 – 3 years. 10Recommend that Old Dominion remain with Blackboard as the better LMS for the future.The Faculty Committee reviewed the issues and problems uncovered in the pilot, the product futures for both Canvas and Blackboard, the results of the pre-pilot and post-pilot surveys, and the individual recommendations of pilot faculty and committee members. Its recommendation, based on all the information is that Old Dominion University postpone a decision at this point and re-evaluate LMS options in 2019. This will provide the opportunity for Canvas to mature and for ODU to deploy and evaluate the Blackboard Ultra interface. AppendixPilot Faculty and Faculty Committee Comments: (Anonymous and in random order)While I'm not a huge fan of Blackboard, I do prefer using it compared to Canvas. I am an instructional design and I'm familiar with a variety of LMS'. I did not find Canvas to look professional and I did not like how files and modules were to be organized in the system. My students, also communicated that they preferred Blackboard. I found myself having to to post items multiple times for students to be able to access or locate materials. Canvas may be more suitable for a professional development type learning environment but for higher education, I still think that Blackboard provides us with more capabilities.68580083185Canvas is just plain easier to use. Stuff is intuitive and plainly presented. It does not seem to require all the little tricks of BB. BB, to me, is as VCR's were described, highly capable in the hands of an exotically trained person. Canvas is very user friendly.68580083185Pros:Quizzes: list of questions (and whether they have/haven’t been answered), time allowed and due time (time quiz will auto submit) visible on right side of screen as quiz being takenEasier to embed video (than Bb)Can set up old Quiz/Exam questions to be visible AND disappear at a set timeEasier to grade on iPad (in the Speedgrader app) than in normal Blackboard (in Safari)Cons:Students can comment on everything (announcements, grades, etc). Instructors can disable comments on announcements if needed. This is part of the ‘student-centric’ nature of Canvas, but may be distracting or inappropriately used—Recommend that instructors make communication expectations clear for these various areas if Canvas is recommended.Cannot rename folders/links on left side. We were told this leads to a uniform look across all classes using Canvas, but is less intuitive than instructors naming their ‘folders’ (links) according to class objectives and content (as we are able to in Blackboard).Students can see links to content that is date restricted (though they cannot see content but can see its there). This can lead to confusion about accessing the documents at unavailable times.No option to email announcements/class as a whole. Probably the most detrimental loss for communication in any class using a course management system, but especially for online classes.Students cannot attach documents to Discussions without instructor set-up through Settings (this may confuse some instructors and Pilot faculty would recommend training be available to instructors and one-on-one consultation be available for instructors as needed if adopted)Awkward discussion set-up (less streamlined than Blackboard)Students Cannot delete an incorrectly submitted document. Though Canvas allows for multiple submissions—the instructor would need to expect to manage that and clearly identify expectations.68580083185I think given the possibility of a better and more robust BB system we should delay our decision until all factors are available. I think the decision should be made in 2 years in a well laid out, logical manner. I will say the evaluation process that took place was well laid out and logical so I see no problem with the format that was already used. So just continue along the same path, but give this more time - I would continue to evaluate and pilot and NOT wait 2 years to start again . I think the 2 year decision process and then a 1 year deployement if we go with Canvas is a good idea, if possible. There are so many changes taking place at ODU right now related to technology it's a little overhwelming for faculty. 68580083185I understand that the student population finds some of the features of Course Canvas superior to our current Blackboard. #1 being the ability to access/work with Canvas on smart phones and other devices. Blackboard is difficult to use with devices other than the traditional computer. Thus my thought that we should investigate the use of Canvas further. Canvas was very workable but some of the features I found difficult to use as faculty:While working with courses in the Canvas site, students received numerous messages with each change I made. This led to their turning off notifications hampering communication later in the semester.The quiz features I found difficult to use. This was possibly a learning curve on my part.I disliked that I could not change the menu names for areas of Canvas. I disliked that when a file was posted on the Canvas site the file was available to students under the file option. This allowed students to download all, often missing important information as they did not access from the area posted.68580083185Although, I'm leaning more towards the third option (Postpone decision and reevaluate in 2-3 years), I'm recomending that we move forward with Canvas for the following reasons: 1.Unlike Bb, Canvas remains an open source prodcut, which gives us (CLT) more felxibility in developing, customzing our current and future PLE needs around Canvas. Although Bb is taking a different path, it remains a closed system with LTI as the only integration option (This is my understanding). 2.Bb is replicating Canvas's and other MOOC providers interface, which is good news. However, this effort may take a while before Bb is able to replicate 9.1 features into Ultra. The new Bb interface is a breeze compared to the cluncky and unintuitive current GUI.3.While changing to Canvas will require additional time investment from faculty, students and staff, I believe it’s a great opportunity to invite faculty to rethink their current LMS practices of using Bb as a content repository.4.Some faculty might be disappointed with the lack of specific features in Canvas, but I believe that Canvas is more responsive to faculty input.5.Overall Bb to Canvas content transfer is relatively easy, wich could be the same if we migrate from Bb 9.1 to Ultra. 68580083185Blackboard is more user friendly and offers better testing capabilities.68580083185Both students and I liked the Canvas interface because it felt more modern, worked better on mobile platforms, and usually required fewer clicks to navigate to access resources. Discussion boards also had a better interface than Blackboard.I strongly prefer the Blackboard Grade Center over Canvas' gradebook. Blackboard allows for customization (creating derived columns, creating columns not associated with assignments, etc.), which allows me to keep grades in the system rather than requiring me to maintain a separate Excel spreadsheet.In general, Blackboard allows for more customization than Canvas. I got the impression from the Canvas meetings that they were not interested in customization but were more interested in creating similar experiences for all courses and faculty. My concern is that Canvas would ignore our requests for new features (or features that we already use in Blackboard).68580083185I think the Canvas user experience (student side) is cleaner and integrates better across courses. However, there are two things preventing me from recommending an immediate switch:1) Building a course in Canvas is not as intuitive as building a course in Blackboard. I am relatively tech savvy with a firm grasp of HTML. But for the vast majority of people in my department, I cringe at the thought of them trying to work through the Canvas design interface. Unless course design becomes more intuitive, I expect a lot of people will lack the know-how to use a lot of the great features…and the average course won't look nearly as clean as the average Blackboard course.2) There are still some limitations in Canvas…where the course designer doesn't have the freedom to do things or remove things. For instance, there are some rows in the grade book that automatically calculate percentages for each grade category. These rows can't be removed. If you are like me and work off a total point system, these percentage categories are very confusing to students. It's frustrating to constantly tell students, "Ignore those rows…” Also, there are issues like limitations on the number of sub-folders that I'd love to see changed.In sum, Canvas is an excellent tool for the "power user". The best of the best will probably prefer Canvas. But I don't think the vast majority of faculty are ready for Canvas.68580083185Although I was able to successfully use Canvas, I don't think that its current configuration is an acceptable substitute for Blackboard. Although I liked the idea that Canvas was cloud based and allowed for easy updates, there were several issues that I think make Canvas unacceptable. These issues include the lack of personalization in the links/folders (I understand that Canvas says this is so users can easily use the forums, but I think there is too much confusion created by having a Modules folder on Canvas and modules in the PLE). I also don't like the less streamlined Discussions, along with the students' ability to comment on everything (including grades) - although I understand wanting to be student centered I think this ability makes it difficult to manage communication with students (which, to me, is best done through email as opposed to having to check everything for a comment). Although I am concerned about the changes coming to Blackboard, unless Blackboard becomes significantly like Canvas I think we should stay with it; Canvas simply was not so much better than Blackboard that the downsides were worth it.68580083185I think that Canvas has a lot of features that would benefit both students and faculty, but based on pilot study it seems that there is not strong faculty support for migrating to a new LMS. The updated Blackboard looks much more user friendly and has some attractive new features, which may resolve some of the concerns that prompted exploration of a new LMS. If the updated Blackboard works as well as advertisted, I don't think there will be a need to look for a new LMS. However, I'm concerned that they're rolling out features piecemeal and it is possible that the updated Blackboard won't have the necessary functionality. Therefore, I think we should wait until the updated Blackboard has been used for at least 1 year, then re-evaluate whether it is meeting the needs of faculty. If not, a second evaluation of Canvas (or another LMS) would make sense.68580083185Canvas lacks important features, which Bb does have. It is considerably less flexible than Bb in a number of key areas including* the grade book - insufficient support for custom grading/weighting schemes, custom views (smart views in Bb), items to be permanently hidden from students' view ("muted" grades are not an adequate substitute, since students see them as something the professor still has not finished);* the quizzes - for instance, the matching type of a question, which I normally rely on heavily in Bb, is almost useless to me in Canvas because of- lack of flexibility to display non-text (e.g., pictures, math expressions, etc.) as either questions or answers,- lack of flexibility to arrange answer items in a pre-determined way (as opposed to the random arrangement).* unreliable communication from the professor to the students - students can "opt out" of receiving emails. * simplistic interface, e.g.- instructor cannot rename the left-side menu buttons, or create custom ones,- lack of multi-level hierarchy, e.g., files cannot be arranged into folders, sections cannot be arranged into chapters (a Canvas "module" must be a section OR a chapter, but there is no way to create "sub modules")- very inflexible syllabus, populating automatically with all quizzes etc. deployed throughout the course.In an attempt to create a "lightweight" and easy to use environment, unfortunately, Instructure has gone too far. If their product can be claimed to be easier to use than Bb (which indeed may be true for some professors), it is chiefly because of the large number of functionalities that are no longer available to a former Bb user if they were to switch to Canvas.Also, when deciding to possibly switch from Bb to Canvas, one should consider the large installed base of Bb-hosted learning materials created by ODU faculty. Since such material very often cannot be automatically transferred between the two systems, ODU would need to budget for the resources required to support re-creating such materials in Canvas.?68580083185Blackboard is more organized and appears to be adding more of the features that would be useful in my courses in the near future.68580083185Canvas ProsOffers a more modern feel and easier course navigation. The multimedia capabilities, and the ability to search and add videos, pictures, and other information from the web are significantly better in Canvas The grade book was easier to set up, particularly with weights by category. It was also easier to assign individual assignments to groups or individuals.I LOVE the schedule and calendar functions. When you create an assignment, it automatically adds the assignment and due date to the syllabus and calendar. Any changes to a due date or assignment are automatically reflected in the syllabus and calendar, so there is no confusion for students.I LOVE the use of pictures and the ability to take attendance in Canvas. I learned my students’ names faster than in any previous semester.The discussion board is easier to use, and I was able to use it live in class to facilitate discussion. I have not been able to figure out an easy way to do the same in Blackboard.It is easier to grade using the Rubric feature in Canvas and to modify grades for a group of students assigned to the same project. Canvas ConsThe course menu is limited, but this can be worked around by using the Home Page and creating a menu within this page that links to other sections within the LMS.Student UINs are not available in the grade book, which made it a little more difficult to computer final gradesOverall point totals were not listed in the grade book, which made it more difficult to compute final grades. Blackboard ProsAbility to edit left menuGradebook includes the students UIN and total points earned, which makes calculating final grades easier than in Canvas.Blackboard ConsLess ability to link items for ease of navigation.?You cannot link to more than one item within an announcement, you can only link to one. ? Sometimes an announcement might reference more than one item and you have to click on each assignment, copy the web link and then hyperlink. It’s rather time consuming.The course content collection is more cumbersome than the file upload process in Canvas. Uploading files take a lot longer than the process to upload files in Canvas. Additionally, in Canvas it is easier to find items, files, images, videos, etc. and upload to any assignment. Organization – it can be difficult to find items in Blackboard68580083185Pro-Canvas:There is a virtue in simplicity, and Canvas has that now. Blackboard does not. Canvas may lose it in the future as it continues to accumulate new features.Canvas’ prominent display of a course-specific calendar did wonders, IMO, in helping my students keep up with assignment and project deadlines. The Bb “all-your-courses-jumbled-together” calendar view doesn’t cut it.Something seldom talked about, but extremely important. When I respond to student emails, I often want to point them to a specific page in the course. Canvas has stable URLs that I can copy and paste into my email. Blackboard does not, so I often wind up having to type out a roadmap like: “Click on Modules and go down to Module 3. Expand it and click on the third item. Go to the item titled “Assignment”Anti-Canvas:Grading of essay questions on exams is extremely crude. 1) No rubrics. 2) Feedback to students is provided through “Additional Comments”, which are reformatted, no matter how we type them, into a single line of text. So meaningful feedback to students is nearly impossible. This is a deal-breaker in my opinion. (And it hurts to say that, because otherwise I really did like Canvas.) If we adopted Canvas, though, I would have to look for a separate testing platform.Messages to students are handled through Canvas’ internal tool. That’s the default in Blackboard as well, but somehow that Bb messaging system has been remapped onto the @odu.edu email system. We NEED a mechanism for direct email to student accounts for all students in a class. (Ideally, we should also be able to do this for students in a Canvas group.) If Canvas is adopted, ITS either needs to find a way to do a similar remapping of the Canvas messaging tool or a separate mechanism for emailing everyone on a course roster needs to be established.68580083185My experience with both has me leaning toward staying with Bb. If there is strong feelings toward Canvas I'd op to postpone. I've continued to review my experience on both platforms and can't find a compelling reason to move. Both have their pluses/minuses but without a clear cut advantage to one or the other I'd stay with the devil we know. Dave I've been through a lot of platform changes in my career and have always been surprised (slow learner) by the disruptions that I did not see coming. Again, without a very compelling reason I'd use the Canvas system as leverage to keep Bb on their toes and get some requested mods people may have.68580083185Once learned, I enjoyed the learning platform much more so than Blackboard.Emailing classes was easier.Students enjoy getting instant email updates as grades were posted.I felt creating and updating modules were more efficient.I liked being able to access all courses from one page.I liked the automatic separate Exams and Assignments were totaled at the end of the gradebook.Creating Assignments was much more intuitive.Ashraf was extremely helpful!Students did struggle at first. I recommend a more effective way to teach students about Canvas. I think some students struggled because the a) did not?? preview the Canvas 101 page or became confused going back and forth between Canvas and BB.68580083185I would not oppose the movement to Canvas if there was clear and compelling evidence that it offered users substantial improvements over the use of Blackboard. There does not appear to be evidence that this is true. In the document "Faculty Documented Issues with Canvas LMS" faculty list a number of concerns/issues that equal, if they do not outweigh, the benefits. Responses to questions from faculty on the "Faculty Post Pilot Survey" about what they like most and lest about the use of Canvas, and their written comments, suggest there are just as many negatives to the use of Canvas as positives. The same can be seen with the document "Student Post Pilot Survey". There could well be many ways in which Canvas is an improvement over BlackBoard that users who know a lot about these systems and use them in mutliple ways would see. The findings from the pilot suggest that for many of the faculty and students who have used both Canvas and BlackBoard, and for the ways they commonly use Canvas and BlackBoard, Canvas is not an improvement .68580083185Blackboard allows for customizability that is not available in Canvas. This is an disadvantage for students because they can't easily find the content when it's not linked to meaningful tags. In canvas students are scrolling through generic tabs. Additionally in Bb when you disable a tab you can make it go away and the site isn't cluttered. This didn't happen in canvas- the tabs were gray but visible and made a cluttered site.The communication in canvas is not as clear as Bb. Announcements aren't readily visible as they are in Bb. My adjunct faculty had difficulty creating groups and communicating with individual students. When messages were sent via canvas they went to faculty e-mail and students didn't always get responses and weren't sure whether to look in odu email or canvas.Turn It In was unacceptably slow. It took > 1 week for assignments to be processed when papers were submitted mid-November. It's not acceptable to delay returning assignments waiting for turn it in scores. This also makes it unusable at exam time since grade turn around is 48 hours after an exam and the Turn It In doesn’t meet that guideline.The gradebook was not as user friendly as blackboard. The groupings of grades required multiple layers of data entry. I give weekly quizzes and I had to create an assignment for each quiz and then create a collective quiz score and manually calculate grades dropping the lowest quiz. Plus for canvas- was easy to upload documents and more intuitive than Bb.68580083185Canvas is comparable to Blackboard but has some advantages that Blackboard does not have. First is its central file repository that provides one place to store all course-related files and then use them throughout Canvas to establish modules and assignments. Second is its ability to create conferences that can be tailored to certain students within the course. However, it also has some drawbacks. It is difficult to configure and uniquely tailor to a specific course. Also the submission of assignments for grading are difficult to find because the interface for it is not very intuitive. I think we should see how the two products evolve over the next couple of years to make the decision that best supports the majority of the faculty.68580083185For my needs Canvas worked better than BB.Pros:ease of use;less cluttered UI;ease of handling uploaded/downloaded .pdf files;Cons:email does not reveal addresses;gradebook needs more flexibility to create items on the fly;some quirks in system that makes downloadable files available;Huge Benefit: does not currently integrate with CLT’s dreadful PLE!68580083185There are many features in Blackboard I prefer over Canvas. It isn't simply a matter of what I'm used to--Blackboard is more customizable for what I need. Canvas is superior to Blackboard in the ability to upload videos (because my courses are online only, this is nice), and I like how it creates a calendar from the assignement due dates, but when considering everything that is done in a course, those are fairly minor compared to the options I use all the time. Blackboard's discussion boards are easier to manage, the announcements are scrollable (in Canvas, there is only the title of the announcement--you have to click to read it, so if I want to refer to a previous announcement, finding it is a pain), and I know where my material is because I organized it--Canvas doesn't allow much of that, but instead "organizes" it for me in the most frustrating ways. I have to make almost all areas of Canvas so they can't be seen by students in order to control access until I want them to have it. It is laborious to change items in an exam (points, using pools, etc.), and I loathe the gradebook--the only way to enter comments and numerical grades at the same time is to use the Speed Grader, which I don't like. And, students can enter comments on their grades--who ever thought that was appropriate? Do we really want to send the message that the subjective opinion of an undergraduate student is equal to the informed opinion of an instructor/Ph.D.? In fact, in Canvas, students can comment on *everything*--if we're trying to mimic social media, why not give them a "Like" buttons everywhere? To be "student centered" is to have their best interests in mind, not to make everything fun for them.I certainly understand the desire to save money, but I suspect the savings may be lower than projected (does anyone ever save more than they anticipated?) In my view, to justify such a change, there should be enough clear advantages to using Canvas that even those of us who prefer Blackboard will understand the need to change.68580083185Other than the steep learning curve with Canvas, I feel it is in line with what we need as an LMS, provided they can accommodate some minor changes/modifications. I feel that to truly accept Canvas as a new LMS, it needs to be laid out so that each professor/lecturer has an opportunity to use it at least once in a 3 or 4 semester period, this will also allow students a better visibility of it. It has some very good features, but takes a few trials to figure it out. I also believe that BB will be feeling the pressure and may possibly complete some upgrades to better position themselves to remain our LMS of choice. I have been using BB since 2009 and I learn a new trick or two each semester, it is much better now that I have had this much experience. I don’t think this is a decision that should be made in less than a 2-3 year period.Some negative thoughts on Canvas: -No partial credit for quiz questions. This is problematic for my courses, as I will administer a test that covers a third or about half of a semester and ask 10 to 20 questions and would like to give partial credit for an answer given to boost the student’s overall score on the quiz. The final exam will be the same, as I would like to afford partial credit.-Assigning extra credit on a quiz is difficult as you have to make the quiz 10 out of 10 and then go back in and change the point value to 0, so they will have a potential extra 10 point added to the numerator and not 10 point added to the denominator of the percentage calculation of that grade…. -Announcement welcoming students to the course/semester did not go out to their e-mail automatically-Immediately after taking the first quiz, students could see the correct or incorrect comments, which essentially opens the door to cheaters to take it, get the correct answer and then share with classmates, and then they get a perfect score on the next one as some other student will be the mule to get the answers and share them.oNeed to have a feature in Canvas that automatically shows my comments 68580083185As a long time blackboard user both as a student and educator, there are many components of CANVAS that take away from the ease of usability that I have become accustomed to with Blackboard. For example: 1. In blackboard, I can prepare my entire course at the beginning of the semester and then schedule modules to release at certain times as the course progresses. In CANVAS this must be manually done for each individual class which has proven to be very tedious. 2. While grading in blackboard, I can hide my gradebook from students until all grading is completed. This allows me to change grades controlling for different factors without students seeing this process. In CANVAS students are automatically notified whenever a grade is entered which could be an incomplete grade or an in-progress grade however students can see every single change 3. I can personalize the blackboard course room to fit the individual needs of the course. I can name tabs such as "assignments" "extra credit" "study guides" "helpful resources" etc. this is not an option in CANVAS as everything must be under the "module" tab which does not make it clear for students where items are in the course. 4. In blackboard, I am able to create extra credit opportunities that some students can take advantage of while others can opt out of with no penalty. I am not able to do this in CANVAS as I must create an assignment for EVERYTHING (even tests) which forces students who do not want to take advantage of the opportunity to have their grade penalized5. Setting up the rubrics for grading was an absolute disaster in CANVAS. I literally spent 3 hours creating rubrics due to the CANVAS system reverting my numerical values, changing the values to what it felt it should be and the final visual product was not properly aligned and appeared sloppy. 6. Regarding rubrics, I am not able to divert from the rubric in CANVAS. If I do not want to take off as much points for a student, I have the option to override the rubric value in blackboard but not in CANVAS68580083185As I've mentioned in meetings, Canvas is a very good product, but iwe'd suffer death-by-a-thousand-cuts. The primary issue is the lack of flexibility in the product within the menu system, the gradebook, and presentation of assignments (coming and completed).A few examples: Course menus are wholly non-customizable; Instructure should build the system to allow this (it's appalling that they haven't done this and this is similar to the - quite frankly - horrible PLE mess). The Canvas Gradebook cannot have empty columns for ad hoc or special grades (except for ONE notes column) and does not allow calculated fields. Currently, there is no integration with ODU Email, which caused us to be stuck with the VERY limited Canvas internal Email system (no search capability). There is a major problem with the Android mobile app that they can't seem to get right (related to their internal Email system). The system is "flat", in that the user can only go one-level deep.The above aren't huge issues individually, but - in total - are problems (and others not mentioned) that amount to a lot. Given the number of faculty members who use Blackboard (fully or minimally), this product would need to be at least marginally better and without most or all of the aforementioned issues. We can't say right now that it's more than a nominal improvement. The potential training requirements would be huge. However, consider that a lot of faculty might not opt for training (lack of time, time of year) and would try to figure it out themselves.Thus, it seems prudent to put a pause on this effort and see what Canvas AND Blackboard develop over the next few years (as Purdue has done).[Note: I'm willing to discuss this directly with Canvas reps, as I did when they were here.] ................
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