For a more recent post regarding Canvas at Clemson, see: The New Canvas Rich Content Editor.
By Ashley Waldrop
Clemson courses are moving to Canvas this year, and students will be saying bye-bye to Blackboard after Spring Semester 2017. Many Clemson students have already had the chance to use Canvas and experience the platform’s sleek design and innovative features.
When asked, Clemson students were most excited about the following:
1. Customizable course notifications
For each type of course notification—announcements, calendar updates, due date changes, discussion replies, and more—students decide how and when they receive system messages. Students may choose to be notified via email, text messages or social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Students can also control how often they receive notifications in order to stay aware of course activities and ensure that important messages never fall through the cracks.
2. A calendar that is actually useful
The calendar in Canvas automatically displays upcoming course assignments and deadlines for students. These items are color-coded to correspond with each class and may be filtered on and off for easy viewing. Students can add personal events, study groups, or reminders and automatically sync them with assignment due dates. If a student prefers to use a separate calendar app like those provided by Apple, Google and Outlook, the Canvas calendar can generate a feed that integrates with these platforms. Organizing life and school could not be easier!
3. A media-rich learning environment
Canvas supports a variety of audio and video formats. Students may easily embed videos from YouTube, images from Flickr, and media from other sites to enhance their assignments, discussions, and messages. In addition to sending and receiving standard text-based messages, students may create and send audio and video notes to their instructors and fellow students. Also, instructors have the ability to better coach students on their assignments by providing audio and video feedback in addition to text comments. All of these features promote creative and engaging communications between all users.
4. A well-stocked collaborative workspace
When students form groups in Canvas, they share a toolset for collaborating on assignments, completing peer reviews, uploading and sharing files, creating wiki pages and publishing threaded discussions. Integrated tools like Google Docs and Etherpad support productive group learning and help minimize the obstacles of distance and time. If collaboration becomes too complex, Canvas allows students to gather together in real-time chats and web conferencing as well.
5. Faster access to grades and feedback
A favorite feature for faculty and students alike, SpeedGrader cuts down on the amount of time a professor needs to grade assignments. This means that students may get access to instructor feedback sooner. Because grades automatically transfer from SpeedGrader to the grade book, instructors may reallocate the time it used to take managing records into providing even more substantive feedback about student work. Also, there is reason to believe that easier grading loads may lead to happier instructors (and, in response, students) overall.
For more information about Canvas at Clemson, visit www.clemson.edu/canvas.
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