CSN Welcomes Canvas
By Gabe Hernandez
College of Southern Nevada switched to a faster, high-tech online-learning-management system called Canvas by Instructure fall 2013.
CSN switched from ANGEL Learning system to Canvas to expand and enhance its online learning environment to benefit students and faculty. CSN’s office of eLearning states the new online experience will become faster and easier to navigate.
According to Canvas’ website, “Canvas excels at delivering powerful functionality in a simple, intuitive way that users love. The Canvas LMS was designed from the start to be an open, flexible platform for education.” Additionally, it provides a seamless link to innovative Web technology and learning resources.
Nancy Webb, senior analyst of eLearning at CSN, shared some of the benefits of Canvas.
“Students have the ability to be notified when their instructors and other students communicate via ‘conversations’,” Webb said. “Course files (created in PowerPoint, Word, Excel) can be viewed within the course; there is not a need to download the file to a computer to view. Files can still be downloaded and printed out if necessary.”
Alfred King, a former CSN student who was part of the pilot program for Canvas in the spring, said that Canvas was an improvement over ANGEL.
“The accessibility is much better and the server seems much bigger, meaning it won’t crash as much— which was a big problem I had with ANGEL,” King said. King mentioned he liked the mobile apps for Canvas, which are offered for iPads and iOS at no extra cost.
Kelsey Fraser, CSN student, finds the Android app hard to use. “I can’t find the things I am looking for half of the time.” Fraser finds the transition to Canvas slow. It’s taking time for professors to transition over, she said.
For more information on how to access and use Canvas, check out this website http://www.csn.edu/pages/2451.asp?item=16238.
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 