With many more courses adopting Canvas this year, the school is putting more education online.
The online software was used by only a few teachers last year, essentially as a trial run. This year, Canvas is far more widespread throughout the school.
Canvas is classified as a learning management system that allows teachers to post assignments and students to turn in assignments. Teachers can also post questions for students and use it as a grade book, allowing students to check their grades at any time.
Social studies teacher Sam Dickerman was involved in setting up Canvas for students and teachers and making it more unified.
Dickerman advocated purchasing the entire software after its success last year.
“This summer they finally got the green light and closed the deal. It’s a big deal because it’s a really big investment in technology,” Dickerman said. “I’m really proud of them because it’s the best software in this space.”
According to Dickerman, it is simple and easy to navigate around the site.
“It’s easy to find online, It’s nice and convenient.” senior James Mahon said.
After the scheduling information was transferred to Canvas, every course in the school had a Canvas group with its students automatically registered.
Teachers and students just needed to log in and all the information was already set up.
“We made it easy for teachers. We built their courses, enrolled their students, and it was just ready to go,” Dickerman said.“The easier it is, the more likely people are to use it.”
English teacher Eric Colburn found that since so many other teachers were using it, it would be advantageous for him to do so as well.
“I’m using it because everyone else is doing it, so I thought it’d be easier for students if they only had to go to one place,” Colburn said. “That’s really the advantage, that it’s all in one place.”
However, some students believe that teachers could better utilize the website.
“Some teachers use it, but it’s really delayed, and they don’t post anything useful,” sophomore Eli Kalb said. “I like it, but I don’t like the way they use it.”
Colburn has used Canvas to post assignments and occasionally have students turn them in. In addition, he also puts up discussion questions.
“If a teacher puts up a question, students can write answers to the question and then other students can see the answers that they wrote and then respond to those answers,” Colburn said.
Before using Canvas, teachers used various different learning management systems.
According to Dickerman, one of the major values of Canvas is that it consolidates those sites into one general tool.
“Now we have a common tool. The more people that join something, the more powerful it is,” Dickerman said. “So every time a new teacher starts using Canvas, Canvas is that much more effective, and it’ll just keep growing.”
Josh Slavin can be contacted at [email protected].
