Last week, 600 USF students were notified their online courses wouldn’t be taught through Blackboard.
Ten courses across three USF campuses will integrate Canvas, a new learning management system. USFSP students made up 200 of those, with the remaining from the Polytechnic campus in Lakeland and the university hub in Tampa.
Canvas, created by the educational software company Instructure, came on the scene 18 months ago. For USF, Canvas debuted in fall 2011 when the university used a free sandbox version of the system with 70 students and four faculty members.
This semester begins a full-year pilot, which the St. Petersburg journalism department bought for $7,500. This is a long time coming for Associate Professor Mark Walters, who helped research and extend the subscription to the rest of the USF system.
There’s a beautiful difference between Canvas and Blackboard, Walters said. “For every 20 clicks on Blackboard you have one click on Canvas.” He compared Canvas to Blackboard as “writing with a ballpoint pen versus coal.”
He’s quick to explain what features make Canvas work so well: it ties into existing tools of the web, such as Google Docs, while Blackboard tries to duplicate them. This seamlessness makes Canvas easy to navigate, he said.
System Administrator Glen Parker echoed the support for Canvas. “There’s no having to hunt for stuff,” Parker said, referencing a common problem with Blackboard. Canvas tells you what’s due up front with clean navigation, he said. Professors don’t have to post four different versions of a video for students to watch on their different devices. On Canvas, videos automatically format to your device—whether it’s an Android or an iPhone
Parker, who has worked with Blackboard on the USF system for 12 years, said the university has mostly piloted updated versions of Blackboard in the past. But because big names have signed on with Canvas, the company has proven its sustainability. This could make Canvas a contender.
Unlike Blackboard, Canvas has no local control or hardware. This ultimately means Canvas would be less expensive to run than Blackboard. While it’s cheaper, that can be a downside—problems might take longer to fix. Parker says while fewer problems are expected with Canvas, the hardware isn’t at hand to maintain.
In the last year, several universities across the nation have adopted Canvas. Auburn University announced its replacement of Blackboard in fall 2011, and by spring 2013, Canvas will be the sole learning management system. Brown University, New Mexico University and others are following suit.
The university has annual contracts with Blackboard that are renewed every August. Prices lock in for three-year intervals. If there is a switch, Blackboard and Canvas will run parallel for a year while content is migrated, said Parker, explaining there would be a lot to transfer.
Blackboard has been a part of USF since 1998.
On Canvas’s website it advertises, “You don’t want technology from 1998.”
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