Dr. Tingle shared with us how he went from not being excited to change to a new LMS to loving Canvas.
Dr. Tingle had previously used Canvas in another institution, and even when he did not build the course, he saw how this LMS was used by faculty and students, which made him less fearful of moving to Canvas. The move from TLearn to Canvas was easy; the content was easy to move, and the Canvas transition team had multiple support resources, like providing how-to videos and one-on-one meetings, answering questions through emails, and walking through issues over the phone.
In preparation for moving to Canvas, Dr. Tingle attended the Zoom trainings, spoke to instructional designers in department meetings, and watched a couple of quick video tutorials.
He discovered that Canvas is more intuitive, and if faculty liked how TLearn used modules, they could replicate this look in Canvas. In addition, Canvas makes it easy to share videos or podcasts, add hyperlinks to text from Google Drive or other resources, add bullet points, and customize text as needed.
Dr. Tingle teaches an FYE course with another professor and shares that previously, he would grade PDFs on an iPad and then share this document with the other professor, who would then add their feedback and share it with the students. In addition, he has an FYE peer tutor who would also make comments on student papers. Since students would submit both a PDF and a Word document, he would grade the PDF while the tutor made comments on the Word document. Grading with another professor and a peer mentor required organization and planning and left students with different places to view feedback from one assignment.
Grading with Canvas allows Dr. Tingle to grade from anywhere using his iPad and Apple pencil. He understands that some departments may not have iPads or Apple pencils, but he believes these are great tools for faculty to have for grading. He believes students see value in seeing feedback in handwriting instead of using text. Canvas also allows for customizing the feedback, such as using different colors or highlighting. In addition, grading digitally for Dr. Tingle means that students are not limited to a paper copy with feedback and a PDF of the rubric; they can access feedback together with the rubric from anywhere using their mobile devices or laptops. Digital feedback is particularly beneficial for in-class discussions as students can access their papers with the feedback and ask pertinent questions. The amount of students who have reached out to him with questions about comments on their papers has drastically increased. One reason for the increase may be notifications, but it has opened conversations for in-person or online official hours.
Dr. Tingle provided clarifications and suggestions regarding grading on Canvas.
Regarding support, the Canvas 24/7 hotline has been a great resource for faculty and students since they can talk to real people on the phone, even at night. Dr. Tingle has heard of Accounting faculty and students who have used this resource and were able to get their issues fixed.
If you're interested in learning more about grading or scheduling a one-on-one meeting with our instructional designers to explore how they can enhance your Canvas experience, please don't hesitate to reach us at academictechnology@trinity.edu.