Difference between revisions of "Canvas"

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Canvas is defined as “an open and reliable web-based software that allows institutions to manage digital learning, educators to create and present online learning materials and assess student learning, and students to engage in courses and receive feedback about skill development and learning achievement”<ref>What is Canvas? (2021, March 05). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-is-Canvas/ta-p/45</ref>. Canvas provides an array of features for both students and instructors. These features include files, calendar, syllabus, assignments, grades, discussion boards, private chat, Zoom links, and a list of classmates. Per teachers' preferences, everything a student could be expected to need for an online course is conveniently stored in one organized interface location. In addition, Canvas has three iOS apps: Canvas Student, Canvas Teacher, and Canvas Parent<ref>Canvas Apps. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1045977/pages/canvas-apps</ref>. These allow the user to stay aware of course content while on the go. While Canvas competes with other learning management systems such as Blackboard and Google Classroom, the demand for these systems is expected to increase<ref>LMS Market. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/learning-management-systems-market-1266.html</ref>. In August of 2020, thirteen states adopted Canvas for their statewide educational system<ref>Instructure, C. (2020, August 20). 13 States partner with Canvas LMS to Support educators, students, and parents. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/13-states-partner-with-canvas-lms-to-support-educators-students-and-parents-301115753.html</ref>, making it the number one Learning Management System in North America<ref name= "two"/>.
 
Canvas is defined as “an open and reliable web-based software that allows institutions to manage digital learning, educators to create and present online learning materials and assess student learning, and students to engage in courses and receive feedback about skill development and learning achievement”<ref>What is Canvas? (2021, March 05). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-is-Canvas/ta-p/45</ref>. Canvas provides an array of features for both students and instructors. These features include files, calendar, syllabus, assignments, grades, discussion boards, private chat, Zoom links, and a list of classmates. Per teachers' preferences, everything a student could be expected to need for an online course is conveniently stored in one organized interface location. In addition, Canvas has three iOS apps: Canvas Student, Canvas Teacher, and Canvas Parent<ref>Canvas Apps. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1045977/pages/canvas-apps</ref>. These allow the user to stay aware of course content while on the go. While Canvas competes with other learning management systems such as Blackboard and Google Classroom, the demand for these systems is expected to increase<ref>LMS Market. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/learning-management-systems-market-1266.html</ref>. In August of 2020, thirteen states adopted Canvas for their statewide educational system<ref>Instructure, C. (2020, August 20). 13 States partner with Canvas LMS to Support educators, students, and parents. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/13-states-partner-with-canvas-lms-to-support-educators-students-and-parents-301115753.html</ref>, making it the number one Learning Management System in North America<ref name= "two"/>.
  
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==History of Canvas==
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===History of Canvas===
 
LMS stands for Learning Management System and it is an infrastructure that handles all aspects of the learning process (grading, different types of analytics, discussions, etc.)<ref>Watson, William R., and Sunnie Lee Watson. "An Argument for Clarity: What Are Learning Management Systems, What Are They Not, and What Should They Become?" TechTrends 51.2 (2007): 28-34. Print.</ref>.  Learning Management Systems first appeared in the 1990s, and allowed for teachers to disseminate course content to their students remotely<ref name="ryan">John, Ryan. Canvas LMS Course Design. 2014. Print.</ref>, allowing for more efficient and streamlined education.  As the use of technology became more widespread and the market turned toward easy to use interfaces that connected users quickly, Canvas was created.  In 2008, computer scientists Devlin Daley and Brian Whitmer created Canvas with the goal of creating an intuitive Learning Management System<ref name="ryan"></ref>.
 
LMS stands for Learning Management System and it is an infrastructure that handles all aspects of the learning process (grading, different types of analytics, discussions, etc.)<ref>Watson, William R., and Sunnie Lee Watson. "An Argument for Clarity: What Are Learning Management Systems, What Are They Not, and What Should They Become?" TechTrends 51.2 (2007): 28-34. Print.</ref>.  Learning Management Systems first appeared in the 1990s, and allowed for teachers to disseminate course content to their students remotely<ref name="ryan">John, Ryan. Canvas LMS Course Design. 2014. Print.</ref>, allowing for more efficient and streamlined education.  As the use of technology became more widespread and the market turned toward easy to use interfaces that connected users quickly, Canvas was created.  In 2008, computer scientists Devlin Daley and Brian Whitmer created Canvas with the goal of creating an intuitive Learning Management System<ref name="ryan"></ref>.
  

Revision as of 18:06, 1 April 2021

Canvas LMS, by Instructure Inc., is a web-based learning management system, marketed for use in K-12 schools, higher education and large businesses, to provide an interface for educators and students to interact, complete coursework, and receive feedback on submissions[1].

Overview

Canvas Logo[2]

Canvas is defined as “an open and reliable web-based software that allows institutions to manage digital learning, educators to create and present online learning materials and assess student learning, and students to engage in courses and receive feedback about skill development and learning achievement”[3]. Canvas provides an array of features for both students and instructors. These features include files, calendar, syllabus, assignments, grades, discussion boards, private chat, Zoom links, and a list of classmates. Per teachers' preferences, everything a student could be expected to need for an online course is conveniently stored in one organized interface location. In addition, Canvas has three iOS apps: Canvas Student, Canvas Teacher, and Canvas Parent[4]. These allow the user to stay aware of course content while on the go. While Canvas competes with other learning management systems such as Blackboard and Google Classroom, the demand for these systems is expected to increase[5]. In August of 2020, thirteen states adopted Canvas for their statewide educational system[6], making it the number one Learning Management System in North America[1].

History of Canvas

LMS stands for Learning Management System and it is an infrastructure that handles all aspects of the learning process (grading, different types of analytics, discussions, etc.)[7]. Learning Management Systems first appeared in the 1990s, and allowed for teachers to disseminate course content to their students remotely[8], allowing for more efficient and streamlined education. As the use of technology became more widespread and the market turned toward easy to use interfaces that connected users quickly, Canvas was created. In 2008, computer scientists Devlin Daley and Brian Whitmer created Canvas with the goal of creating an intuitive Learning Management System[8].

Course Analytics

Course Analytics[9]

When an instructor first logs into Canvas, they are able to click on Course Analytics to view a graph or table representation of each student’s data[10]. These analytics are divided into four categories: activity, submissions, grades, and student analytics. Activity measures a student's participation and engagement, highlighting the number of page views and levels of interactions with course content from each student. The submissions tab refers to the quizzes and assignments that are distributed. This category measures the timely, or untimely, manner in which a student submits their assignments. Meanwhile, the grades section offers a box and whisker plot of the class grade distribution. This plot describes the median, lowest, and highest scores produced by the class, allowing the teacher a more comprehensive glimpse of a student’s success relative to their peers[11]. The final measurement gives a breakdown of these categories by student, providing an overall view of this students’ progress, or lack thereof, in a course[10].

Educator Insights

The Canvas platform provides educators with a great deal of classroom insight with the LMS method of instruction. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person instruction was more common compared to virtual instruction. With in-person instruction, instructors are able to get a general sense of how students are interacting with the class and course material. With virtual instruction and the use of Canvas Analytics, teachers are able to enhance their assessment by monitoring student activity directly via the course page. This tool provides a quantitative opportunity for teachers to correlate a student’s behavior on the canvas page with their performance in the class[12]. With this unprecedented amount of data, teachers are able to infer potential causation for why one student is falling behind compared to another, by assessing their time spent engaging with the course material and utilizing the resources provided by the teacher[12].

Ethical Ramifications

Data Collection

The primary purpose of teachers' access to an enormous amount of data is to better understand the level of commitment and overall engagement presented by each student in a course[12], however, there is no reassurance by Instructure that analytical information is not being used for any other purpose [13]. A substantial amount of potentially valuable, identifying information can be drawn from Canvas, including messages on forums along with questionnaires that have been created by students [14]. This data is a prime candidate for use with predictive analytics systems in an effort to improve the software or build profiles from users without their knowledge or consent[15]. While an increasing number of universities and other school systems have adopted Canvas, these institutions are ill prepared to handle the privacy concerns that come with mandating faculty and student use of the platform [15].

Additionally, Canvas does not give users a choice to opt out of this data collection[16]. Unizin, an organization of higher level learning institutions, developed contracts which allow the sharing of all data between other institutions[17]. They stress the ways in which lack of transparency regarding data gathering and use by Canvas through an institution creates risks of privacy breaches, poorly representative data models, and/or legal action taken against that institution[13]. Despite these repercussions, the majority of educators utilizing the Canvas platform do not present any sort of mission statement regarding the protection of user data being passed through the LMS[13].

Educator Transparency

Due to a global pandemic, universities have been forced to implement a virtual learning system to maintain a substantive academic experience, however, this transition has exacerbated already prominent concerns about surveillance and privacy[18]. Although students are familiar with the structure of Canvas, the significance of this platform as an asset to the universities it serves, has increased due to the vast array of functions and features available [18].

After a year of online courses due to COVID-19 , it is clear that the level of transparency and communication between students and teachers is minimized due to the nature of completing coursework online[19]. For example, when students come to professors seeking advice or counsel on how to improve their grade, the professor can refer to the data provided by Canvas to convey to the student, how and why their level of interaction with the course, correlates with their grade[19].

Disabilities

Educational institutions must ensure the equal opportunity for persons with disabilities to succeed in their academic goals [20]. Pendergast states, "University courses and the policies created to support students with disabilities are subject to a multitude of laws"[20]. While there are many rules in place for students with disabilities, these need to be modified for online learning. Many situations that seem easy to accommodate during in-person schooling are not yet available in an online setting. For example, a deaf student is usually provided an interpreter for in-person schooling, whereas online, Canvas has provided a dictation software. However, it has been shown to have, on average, one error per sentence[20]. Furthermore, lack of attendance cannot be penalized for a student with disabilities. When the journal was published in 2015, Canvas had no such function for tracking attendance, resulting in no way to see what a student has missed[20].

Grading

The plausibility for error in student assessment is significant because, on a personal level, each student is entitled to their preferred learning strategy[21]. This level of oversight by the teachers has raised concern for students because of their lack of privacy as well as how objective the assessment is[21]. More often than not, each student will engage with a certain amount of course material that they see fit. Some require more effort than others to achieve success and the uncertainty in whether a teacher will only use these analytics as a direct correlation to their success or not is a concern for students[22]. It suggests that regardless of the overall outcome, a teacher could primarily assess a student’s work due to the data presented by Course Analytics, increasing their risk of having an incomplete understanding of the student’s achievement[22].

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Canvas Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.instructure.com/canvas
  2. ↑ Empson, R. (2012, November 01). With 4.5M Users, Instructure Takes On The Courseras & Udacities Of The World With Its Own Open Course Network. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://techcrunch.com/2012/10/31/instructure-canvas-network/
  3. ↑ What is Canvas? (2021, March 05). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-is-Canvas/ta-p/45
  4. ↑ Canvas Apps. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1045977/pages/canvas-apps
  5. ↑ LMS Market. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/learning-management-systems-market-1266.html
  6. ↑ Instructure, C. (2020, August 20). 13 States partner with Canvas LMS to Support educators, students, and parents. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/13-states-partner-with-canvas-lms-to-support-educators-students-and-parents-301115753.html
  7. ↑ Watson, William R., and Sunnie Lee Watson. "An Argument for Clarity: What Are Learning Management Systems, What Are They Not, and What Should They Become?" TechTrends 51.2 (2007): 28-34. Print.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 John, Ryan. Canvas LMS Course Design. 2014. Print.
  9. ↑ Viewing Course Data. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://lakeland.instructure.com/courses/740304/pages/viewing-course-data
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 What do Instructors see for Analytics or Statistics in Canvas? (2016, September). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://canvas.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2018/05/CanvasAnalyticsIntro_WebVersion.pdf
  11. ↑ Analytics in Canvas. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://bostoncollege.instructure.com/courses/1292000/pages/analytics-in-canvas
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Johnson, T. (2020, April 03). Using Canvas Analytics to Ensure Student Engagement. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://otl.du.edu/using-canvas-analytics-to-ensure-student-engagement/
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Ann Hill Duin, Jason Tham, The Current State of Analytics: Implications for Learning Management System (LMS) Use in Writing Pedagogy, Computers and Composition, Volume 55, 2020, 102544, ISSN 8755-4615, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102544.
  14. ↑ Rubio Fernandez, A., Santamaria Gonzalez, F., Munoz Merino, P. J., & Delgado Kloos, C. (2017). A Data Collection Experience with Canvas LMS as a Learning Platform. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 1925(1613-0073). Retrieved from http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1925/paper11.pdf
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Roxana Marachi & Lawrence Quill (2020) The case of Canvas: Longitudinal datafication through learning management systems, Teaching in Higher Education, 25:4, 418-434, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2020.1739641
  16. ↑ Young, J. R. (2020, January 17). As Instructure Changes Ownership, Academics Worry Whether Student Data Will Be Protected. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-01-17-as-instructure-changes-ownership-academics-worry-whether-student-data-will-be-protected
  17. ↑ Unizin. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://unizin.org/about/
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Strauss, V. (2020, March 23). As schooling rapidly moves online across the country, concerns rise about student data privacy. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/20/schooling-rapidly-moves-online-across-country-concerns-rise-about-student-data-privacy/
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lederman, D. (2019, October 30). Professors' slow, steady acceptance of online learning: A Survey. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/professors-slow-steady-acceptance-online-learning-survey
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Pendergast, Mark, "Leveraging Learning Management System to Accommodate Students with Disabilities: Issues and Experiences with the Canvas LMS" (2015). SAIS 2015 Proceedings. 36. https://aisel.aisnet.org/sais2015/36
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Biederman, A. (2017, October 10). Professors can monitor student activity through Canvas. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://temple-news.com/professors-can-monitor-student-activity-canvas/
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Martin, Florence and Ndoye, Abdou, Using Learning Analytics to Assess Student Learning in Online Courses, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 13(3), 2016. Available at:http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol13/iss3/7
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