Canvas

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

Overview

Canvas Logo

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”. 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 into one location, providing an organized interface to access content. In addition, Canvas has three iOS apps: Canvas Student, Canvas Teacher, and Canvas Parent. 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. In August of 2020, thirteen states adopted Canvas for their statewide educational system, making it the number one Learning Management System in North America.

Course Analytics

Course Analytics

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. These analytics are divided into four categories: activity, submissions, grades, and student analytics. Activity measures 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. 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.

Educator Insights

The Canvas platform provides educators with a great deal of classroom insight with the LMS method of instruction. In the pre-covid era, when in-person instruction was the mainstream option, teachers were able to get a general overview of students who pay attention and actively participate, versus those who do not show effort in class. Now, with the development of Canvas Analytics, teachers can enhance their assessment by monitoring student activity via the course page. This tool provides an opportunity for teachers to correlate a student’s behavior on the canvas page with their performance in the class. 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.

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, however, there is no reassurance by Instructure that analytical information is not being used for any other purpose . 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 . 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. Canvas is being adopted in thousands of universities who are ill prepared to handle the privacy concerns that come with mandating faculty and student use of the platform .

There is also no way to opt out of this data collection being performed by Canvas, states Duin. In a specific case, schools that are part of Unizin, an organization of higher level learning institutions, have contracts which allow the sharing of all data between other institutions. 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 or legal action being taken against that institution. The study also strongly emphasizes how 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.

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. 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 .

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. 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.

Disabilities

Educational institutions must ensure the equal opportunity for persons with disabilities to succeed in their academic goals . Pendergast states, "University courses and the policies created to support students with disabilities are subject to a multitude of laws". 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. 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.

Grading

The plausibility for error in student assessment is significant because, on a personal level, each student is entitled to their preferred learning strategy. 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. 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. 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.