W E E K D AY E D I T I O N | A U G U S T 2 9 - 3 1, 2 0 16 | T W I C E W E E K LY I N P R I N T | O U D A I LY. C O M
OUDAILY
For 100 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma
ALUMNI WEEKEND PHOTOS • 6
A FRESH CANVAS STUDENTS, FACULTY EVALUATE CANVAS
canvas.ou.edu
New online platform draws mixed reviews
C
ABHINANDAN NATH • @ABHI_NATH1996
anvas will fully overtake Desire2Learn as OU’s learning management system in the summer of 2017, but the transition toward it has begun. Opinions on the new system are mixed among both students and instructors, however. Some enjoy the new system while, others prefer D2L. R o b e r t Ke r r i s a p ro f e s sor in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication and a member of the Provost Advisory Committee for Learning Technologies. The committee recommended in February that OU begin the transition from D2L to Canvas this past summer.
“I decided to switch (to Canvas) now because I thought it’d be easier for freshman students to only have to learn one system, and I might as well get it over with.” JULIE WARD, SPANISH LANGUAGE PROFESSOR
Kerr was the only member of the committee who did not support the recommendation, as he abstained from voting. He said he is skeptical about Canvas because the system malfunctioned after he tried to copy his content to Canvas from D2L. “(Canvas) has not proven successful in fully and easily copying content-rich D2L courses
like mine,” Kerr, who is on sabbatical, said in an email. He also said he sees no advantage in Canvas over D2L. Danielle Gregory, an international relations sophomore, said she hates Canvas. “I just wish OU would stick to one system instead of changing it,” she said. Julie Cook, a psychology sophomore, also said she wishes OU would stick to one system. “(It) took a little bit of time to get used to Canvas, and there was a bit of a learning curve involved,” she said. “But I feel like I’ll be able to get used to the new system, given enough time.” Julie Ward, a Spanish language professor, said she loves Canvas. “I decided to switch (to Canvas) now because I thought it’d be easier for freshman students to only have to learn one system, and I might as well get it over with,” she said. Ward said her decision has been a positive experience so far. She also said she thinks the interface of Canvas is more user-friendly than that of D2L. But despite her liking of the system, Ward acknowledged there was a slight learning curve involved with trying to figure out how it works. Mark Morvant, the head of the Center for Teaching Excellence, is also optimistic about the direction in which OU is heading with Canvas as its learning management system. “There are several advantages that Canvas has over D2L, including a greater ability for students to access Canvas from their mobile devices,” he said. In addition to greater
mobility, Morvant said Canvas also allows students to better collaborate and allows for more interactivity between professors and students. However, Morvant said his team has received many complaints about the fact that OU is transitioning from D2L to Canvas. He said he took initiatives to ensure that the transition from D2L to Canvas will be as smooth as possible. “I focused on integrating the 1,000-level freshman classes (first) as a way to introduce freshmen to a brand-new system without having to first introduce them to the old system,” Morvant said. He also said he thinks emphasis on integrating the 1,000-level classes into Canvas before higher-level courses would convince other professors to give Canvas a try based on positive feedback from professors and students in entry-level classes. “In essence,” Morvant said, “the positive feedback from the entry-level classes will help start a sort of chain reaction until every class is integrated with the new system.” But even with the numerous opportunities to play around w ith Canvas, Ker r remains skeptical. “There are always problems with any technological tool, and it seems human nature always to focus most on such problems,” he said in an email. Abhinandan Nath
abhinandan.nath-1@ou.edu
Do you prefer Canvas or D2L? Vote in our Twitter poll @OUDaily.
A timeline of learning management at OU February 2005: OU announces that it will switch from Blackboard, its previous learning management system, to Desire2Learn.
July 2010: OU announces that it will develop a mobile version of D2L.
January 2011: OU’s Health Science Center begins transitioning to D2L.
August 2013: D2L is included as a feature in an OU app.
February 2014: OU’s College of Education experiments with Schoology as a D2L alternative.
January 2015: D2L is updated with a feature called Wiggio, a tool meant to help students share files and communicate more easily.
September 2015: D2L got a design update as part of the OU’s single sign on project.
April 2016: Canvas directors demo the platform for students and faculty as an alternative to D2L.
April 2016: OU announces that it will make the transition from D2L to Canvas.
August 2016: Canvas and D2L are both available for professors to use as learning management systems.
July 2017: Canvas will be OU’s sole learning management system.
To see full coverage of the learning management system switch, go to oudaily.com.
Source: Daily archives
The ongoing transition from D2L to Canvas is garnering mixed reactions among students and professors. Not all classes have made the switch, but the delay is causing more frustration for students who have classes on both platforms this semester. Courtlyn Connor criminology and philosophy junior “I think Canvas is a little more difficult, because we’ve been used to the same system. I’m a junior, so I’ve been used to the same system for two years. Only three out of six of my classes are on Canvas, so I have to switch back and forth between Canvas and D2L. I don’t really know how to use Canvas compared to D2L — D2L seems simpler.” Vivian Pham elementary education senior “I kind of like it. I mean, I guess I’m just used to D2L, but I’m slowly getting onto Canvas. It works OK — it doesn’t download documents as fast as D2L, but otherwise it’s almost the same as D2L. Some of my classes are still on D2L.” Elissa Crosslin undeclared freshman “All of my classes are on Canvas, so I’ve never used D2L. I think Canvas is a great way to get your assignments and know what you’re doing. I used it in high school, so I already kind of knew what I was doing when I first signed up for it. To me, it seems like all my teachers know what they’re doing for the most part. It makes it a lot easier — instead of having to get assignments from the teachers in class you can just, you know, find them online and do them yourself and work from there.” Adam Gratch political science junior “I have three of my classes on Canvas. I don’t mind it — I think it’s more organized than D2L. But our professors don’t really know where to put things now, so it’s missing a lot of things. I think that overall, once it’s fully migrated, it’ll be better since the whole university is not on it together. But once they are, I think it will be better.” Gabriela Raquel Rios associate professor, English department “I’ve already worked with Canvas. I’m setting my class up there instead of D2L. I love Canvas, personally. I’ve used Blackboard in the past, and I didn’t really like it. I like that it’s pretty intuitive — I don’t need help figuring out things — I can do it on my own. It also hooks up to things like Google Docs and Skype, so it’s easier to work together as a class. It’s not perfect, of course, but mostly it’s just really intuitive and easier to use than Blackboard. “My students seem tentative about it. They seem not entirely sure and maybe a little worried or daunted because they’ve only used D2L before. But I’ve been told that I could use whichever one I want, and I’d used Canvas before and liked it.” For more reactions to the new learning management system, go to oudaily.com. compiled by: Emma Keith, @shakeitha_97