Maybe if I had the chance to use it a little more, I would like it, but right now I’m confused,” said Paige Woodward, another IUSB student. “Canvas does work a little bit better though. I don’t know why it exists,” said Zach Udell, an IUSB student with three courses on Canvas. “It’s about the same as Oncourse, to be honest. Student’s feelings on the new system seem fairly mixed, with many appearing confused or unsupportive of Canvas The system will be phased out by the summer of 2016, with Canvas as the only system afterwards. “Some faculty will be teaching in Oncourse and others will be using Canvas, which makes it a little bit more difficult for students, because you have to know whether you need to go into Canvas or go into Oncourse,” Kanczuzewski said.ĭespite Canvas being unveiled during the summer, Oncourse will not disappear right away. This could lead to some confusion, especially for incoming students. Since much of the faculty is still learning and transitioning to Canvas (roughly one third of faculty have at least tested the program, according to Kanczuzewski), many students are forced to know both systems. Souther also noted that the new system brings many other useful features, like the ability to reply to student messages via email, as well as an auto save feature and the easy navigation the system offers. With the new system, he is able to teach his courses within the university program. “The level of communication across the board is way better on Canvas.”īefore the release of Canvas, Souther had already stopped using Oncourse and instead taught most of his courses on blogs. So when Canvas came out, it had all these new and useful features, and it just felt easier for students to log in and use,” Souther said. “Oncourse could not do everything I wanted to do. This feature has already been embraced by Eric Souther, assistant professor of new media at IUSB. The program also features the ability to embed video and audio files. ![]() Faculty can instantly leave comments on student’s papers without ever leaving the system, and students can view documents inside of Canvas without having to download them. “A lot of people use iPads as their primary device and don’t even have a laptop for on-the-go, and Oncourse was basically incompatible with an iPad.”Ĭanvas includes many new features for both students and faculty, including faster feedback on assignments. ![]() “There is a continued push for people using mobile devices,” Kanczuzewski said. ![]() The system is also much easier to use in a mobile web browser. Mobile versions of Canvas are available for both iPhone and Android devices. One key factor that led to the switch, according to Kanczuzewski, was the widespread popularity of tablets and cell phones on campus. “With Oncourse, all the help material came from IU, but now we have all these universities across the whole United States helping.” Canvas is in use at IUSB now and will be the only system in use by the end of 2016. It is a big system, which means that Canvas not only built a huge array of help materials, but other universities have also contributed their own help guides,” said Kanczuzewski, who helps faculty navigate the new system. “One of the advantages of moving to Canvas is that over 700 universities are using it. The system is also in widespread use at other universities around the country. After extensive testing across the IU system, Canvas was chosen. Staff South Bend students and the rest of the IU system will be seeing big changes in the way their courses are administered throughout the next two years with the release of the new Learning Management System (LMS) called Canvas.Īccording to Kael Kanczuzewski, instructional technology specialist at the University Center for Excellence in Teaching (UCET), IU has been looking for a new system for the past two years.
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