Seeking Canvas Pilot Participants

Lucy Ramos | October 27, 2015

The LMS Evaluation team is seeking participants to pilot the Canvas learning management system (LMS) this spring.

The first Canvas pilot has allowed us to measure the level of interest from students, staff and faculty in the pilot. Moreover, it has allowed us to test key questions related to whether or not Canvas is even feasible as an enterprise-level LMS solution at Ohio State. The spring pilot is a natural extension of those questions.

Assuming Canvas fairs well enough on the initial reviews (as reports are indicating), the spring pilot gives ODEE a chance to test a broader range of use cases. The thorough piloting process allows us to begin developing experience with how Ohio State faculty could take best advantage of Canvas. This includes identifying potential problems with the "fit" between Canvas  and Ohio State and developing solutions to address them. With the university’s decision concerning the future LMS due mid-spring, we will also use the spring pilot as an opportunity to start exploring potential adoption questions should the university select Canvas as its next LMS.

We want to make maximum use of the limited number of student-seats available for the spring pilot.  We are also looking for courses and instructors with certain characteristics:

  • colleges which weren't represented in the first pilot
  • a range of courses from across the university (course level, disciplines, instructional approaches, and technology needs)
  • one or two very large courses (350+ students)
  • one or two courses in which students engage in collaborative work using the LMS
  • one or two courses that use Canvas' built-in audio and video features
  • a pair of courses in which at least some students are enrolled in both
  • a pair of courses in which someone -- presumably a graduate student -- is a student in one course and holds an instructional role in the other
  • a course that will also use Engage - a solution for the use of eTextbooks and digital course materials

Interested in piloting the system? Complete this Canvas Pilot Application form by Wednesday, November 4.

Applicants will be contacted the week of November 9, 2015. Instructors will complete Canvas training in December and complete a few surveys throughout the semester about their experiences with the Canvas LMS. Pilot instructors will be encouraged to attend monthly Canvas pilot workshop meetings to discuss the strengths, weaknesses and issues they have encountered using Canvas.

We look forward to working with a new cohort of pilot participants to test drive a new LMS for the Ohio State community.

Pilot 1 Summary-So-Far

  • Instructors have strongly preferred the Canvas LMS
  • Both students and instructors have cited Canvas’ modern design and intuitive interface as reasons they enjoyed using the LMS
  • More than 1000 students in 15 courses have piloted Canvas
  • Over half of the students in the pilot have been taking advantage of Canvas’ student-oriented mobile app to access the LMS
  • More than 100 Canvas sandboxes have been created
Tags: 
Canvas, Canvas Eval