CANVAS PILOT REPORT April 2013 Introduction Valencia s Office of Information Technology facilitated a pilot over the Spring 2013 term. Fifteen faculty members from multiple departments and every campus used Instructure s to deliver 18 courses containing a total of approximately 400 students. is a Learning Management System (LMS) similar to s Learn product. is a fairly recent newcomer to the scene, while is a well established company. is quickly gaining adoption throughout the country and is responding by implementing a lot like features into the basic Learn functionality as quickly as possible. The following report contains the discussion of the benefits and problems with both systems observed during the pilot period from January 2013 to April 2013. Functionality The core functionality of both Instructure and Learning 9.1 are similar. The various tools in each LMS have their own strengths and weaknesses. The user interfaces are obviously different, and different users may prefer one over the other. The interface is more streamlined and is usually easier to understand at a glance as it presents all available options on the screen at once, while tends to rely more on nested menus. However, as adds more options and works on making the interface more consistent throughout its tools, we are starting to see the introduction of menus for some actions, bringing some added complexity to the interface. While most of the core functionality is equal when comparing both systems, each system has different strengths. For example, the quiz tool in has various options not available in (autoregrading and alternative question types.) is reworking their quiz tool and some missing features such as auto regrading will be implemented Summer 2013. On the other hand, has the SpeedGrader which significantly improves the grading workflow for assignments, quizzes and discussions. has implemented a Building Block which brings the SpeedGrader interface to the assignment grading workflow.
collaborates with various companies to add features such as Scribd (inline viewing of most documents without downloading throughout all of their tools), Crocodoc (inline viewing and commenting in grading), Big Blue Button (conference tool, similar to GoToMeeting), Kaltura (video recording and player) and Google Doc integration (collaborate sharing of documents within groups). Integration with Office 365 is coming in the next few months as well. To match some of those features, is implementing other building blocks, such as YouTube integration with Video Everywhere, and a Retention Center to monitor student performance. These Building Blocks will be implemented at Valencia in time for the Summer 2013 term. has various options and additions (Community, Content, Analytics, Mobile, Outcomes, and Collaborate) that can be picked and chosen based on needs of the institution and budget. The majority of these additions are already included within aside from the Content system, which doesn t have a comparison in. The following chart mentions some of the most significant system differences: Assignments Assessments Grade Center Syllabus Plagiarism detection SCORM Support 3 rd party integrations Set how students submit the work (file uploads, text, media recording.) Assignments can be submitted multiple times within the deadline. Granular control to allow extra time or extra submissions for specific students without a need to create duplicate quizzes. Respondus can only upload to. Grade totals are currently shown to student in percentage format and not total points. Easily contact at risk students via email or via a video message. Automatically created based on activity due dates. Dates are automatically updated when copying a course to another term. TurnItIn license must be purchased. SCORM content playback. Writing to the grade book requires an add on that is currently being developed. Via LTI (industry standard system). Most, but not all publishers, offer integrations via this system. Students can upload a file or attach text. You can specify the number of attempts. More types of questions. Automatic regrading. Respondus can both upload and download assessments. Multiple types of columns and calculated columns available. Must be manually created by faculty member. No date rollover assistance. SafeAssign offered at no extra cost. Full SCORM support (content playback and grade recording.) Widely available for all common textbook publishers.
Instructional Design Both and have different ways of approaching course design and communications. seems to have a student centered approach, making sure that students have a simple, consistent, and streamlined experience from course to course. on the other hand is more faculty centered and offers instructors more flexibility in course design which results in potentially vastly different experiences between courses. Course Navigation Communicating with Students Course Analytics Grading Rubrics Content Structure Adding Items Adaptive Release The navigation menu is the same for each course which provides consistency for students between courses. Communication from any area of the course can be accessed from within each specific tool, but it is also compiled in the conversations area. Comprehensive including page views, assignment statistics etc. and can be viewed on screen. Characters in rubrics feature criteria are limited. Content is presented in a module format. Content items can be added to modules with minimal clicks. Access to content items can be determined at the module level. Example: Adaptive release settings can be applied to an entire module rather a specific item. The navigation menu is customizable which gives faculty flexibility. Messages are housed within the particular tool from which they were created. Comprehensive and can be exported as a report. Rubrics feature provides sufficient characters to customize criteria. Content can be presented in the manner of the instructor s choosing Content items are added with multiple clicks. Access to content items can be determined granularly. Example: Adaptive release setting can be applied to specific items within a module.
Mobile Capabilities As more people adopt mobile devices, from smart phones to tablets, Learning Management systems have started to include access to their tools so that faculty and students may participate in courses anywhere any time. Full site via browser. Communications Grades functions fully on several smart phones since they use HTML5 and very minimal use of Flash. Compatible devices include platforms such as the ios, Android, WebOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone. In general interface is well suited for a mobile experience without the use of an app. There is an icon on the main interface that takes the user directly to the inbox for all messages in the system. Global grades are accessed directly from the main interface through an icon located on the bottom left. functions fully on several smart phones when accessed from a browser. The experience depends on the design of the course. There is no optimization in Safari offering a READER view. In general, interface is not well suited for a mobile. The BB app does not have a mobile native link to messages. It takes you to the VIEW in Browser in each course requiring 4 clicks to get to messages. Grades are accessed inside each course. There is no global access to grades from a single location. Assessments Not available. Students are able to take tests and exams delivered through Learn on their Android and ios devices. Any test that includes compatible question types (Multiple Choice, Hot Spot, Fill in the Blank, etc) can be taken with the app. Discussions Assignments Grading Students can participate in discussions with attachments uploaded from DropBox and Google Drive. They can also add video and audio. Students are able to submit assignments with attachments uploaded from DropBox and Google Drive. The can also add video and audio. Speedgrader is a robust grading tool that allows video/ audio and text comment to students. Faculty can grade with rubrics and view documents and media uploaded for grading by students. Available only for ipad, an Android version is in the works. Students can participate in discussions/blogs/journals and add media files (ipad iphone and Android) and include non media attachments (Android.) Not available. Grading can be done within each course through the ipad following the needs grading link under the grade center section of the Control Panel. Cost Free. Institution can purchase a mobile license, otherwise each individual user must pay a nominal yearly or lifetime fee.
Server Administration lives in the cloud which means that it is hosted by Instructure. This approach has some advantages. Valencia does not need any hardware to offer this service. At the same time, no personnel need to be pulled from other projects to administer servers, create backups, optimize the database, etc. is constantly monitoring the server load and can assign more servers to an institution during peak periods such as midterms and finals. Since controls the software in the cloud, they are constantly adding new features, fixing bugs and tweaking the interface. These changes are implemented in a 3 week cycle. This means that faculty and students are likely to see additions and changes in the middle of a term. These updates and fixes are implemented without any downtimes. provides three service environments: the production system which faculty and staff use, a test system where we can do what if testing before we implement something in the production system, and a beta system which has the new features and changes which will be installed in the production system within the 3 week cycle mentioned above. Available storage is determined using the institution s FTE. If more storage is ever needed it is purchased using a calculation based on the current FTE., on the other hand, is hosted at Valencia. Valencia provides the hardware and expertise to maintain the server, create backups, and administer its performance. Since we have complete control of the server environment, we can choose when each feature is going to be implemented. This lets us give faculty any necessary training prior to a feature being brought online. In order to maintain system performance and install the occasional emergency bug fix, we must shut the system down for a few hours a week (Sundays from 2am to 6am.) In addition, we often bring the system down for a few hours between terms in order to install updates and bug fixes. Hosting on site means that Valencia has to make hardware decisions (such as adding more capacity or upgrading outdated servers) based on enrollment numbers and projections. Deployment Cloud based. Self hosted at Valencia. Requirements Outgoing Internet connection. Hardware and on site expertise. Updates Automatically updated every 3 weeks without downtime. Valencia controls the timing of the updates. Updates require downtime.
Support Both companies have support contracts to assist staff, faculty and students around the clock via phone or email. When a student or instructor has a problem with, a ticket is created in the ticketing system. Valencia staff as well as staff can reply to the ticket. The student or the faculty member actively works with the support teams to resolve the problem. This is significant as this allows the end user to always be aware of the status of the trouble ticket. has its documentation and support site on public pages, and any user can participate in the community. Feature requests are posted in a public forum where any users can vote and participate in feedback. In our experience during the pilot, most issues were answered and addressed quickly. When a critical bug was identified during the troubleshooting process, the issue was often fixed immediately in the system. However, we did identify a couple of issues that were not considered critical. These issues were simply passed on to engineering so that they can be addressed in one of the updates that are installed in the 3 week cycles we have mentioned earlier. handles the initial faculty and student contacts and provides basic how to support. If a problem that they cannot readily address is identified, they send an email to Valencia. Once this happens OIT staff becomes the middle man for those support issues. The support site is behind a credentialed website accessible only to a limited number of OIT staff. A ticket has to be created on that website, and then OIT staff work with to find a resolution to the problem and then communicate back with the end user. The basic documentation is available on a public website, while more complex technical information is only available via a password protected site available to OIT staff. Feature requests are submitted via a form on a website. Selected client groups prioritize feature requests in private. Tier 1 Support Escalated Support Documentation Contracted directly with Instructure. Instructure staff work directly with faculty and students to resolve issues. All publicly available. Active forum based community. Contracted via Student Services, a division of. OIT personnel act as the middle man during the troubleshooting process. Basic how to publicly available. Advanced topics behind password protected website.