Chris Lancaster works a San Jose City
\nCollege, Cabrillo, and San Jose State.
\nWhen it comes to platforms, he has used:
\nMoodle, Angel, WebCT, Blackboard, Desire-to-
\nLearn – D2L, and Canvas.
\nQ. How good are you with computers?
\nA. \u201cI\u2019m not technophobic. I\u2019ve been using
\ncomputers since I was five years old and I had a
\nhard time with Moodle. It is ugly. It is HTML.\u201d
\nQ. Top 3 favorite things about
\nMoodle?
\nA. \u201cThat\u2019s hard. I don\u2019t know that
\nthere\u2019s really anything about Moodle
\nthat I liked … We had to pay to host
\nsomewhere … So it looks like it\u2019s
\nfree, but it\u2019s not actually free … We
\nactually got funding from the state,
\nfor all of the community colleges to switch to
\nCanvas.\u201d
\nQ. Was that a particular bond or measure?
\nA. \u201cI don\u2019t know … it is an initiative by the
\nstate to get all the colleges to switch over and use
\nthe same thing.\u201d
\nQ. Top 5 things that you like about Canvas?
\nA. \u201cI like a lot. It has a lot of things that Moodle
\ndidn\u2019t have or that were difficult in Moodle, that
\nare easy in Canvas.
\nThere is a lot more integration for setting up
\ngroup assignments … I can put a team name …
\nand I can put their members in there … and I can
\nset up a discussion page just for their group.\u201d
\nQ. Are you talking front-end for the user or
\nbackend for the professor?
\nA. \u201cFor both.
\nSetting up discussion boards in Moodle was
\nreally difficult, and it is easy to do in canvas …
\nand it is (also) easy for students to figure out.
\nIn Moodle, \u201cFor assignments, there was a
\nmaximum point value you could enter … that was
\nset by IT.\u201d In Canvas, \u201cI set the maximum point
\nvalue for my assignments and nobody else sets
\nthem.\u201d
\nQ. Is there a Dashboard?
\nA. \u201cYeah! The Dashboard is Great! It lets you
\nsee all your classes in one place in a way that lets
\nyou customize. You can assign a color to each of
\nyour classes, so it is easier to find them. Which
\nis kind of nice. That\u2019s for both professors and
\nstudents.\u201d
\nThere is also an app! The
\nprofessors and students
\ncan benefit that there is a
\nmobile app for it. Also, as an
\ninstructor, it is easier for me
\nto send an announcement to
\nall of my students now.
\nQ. Can stuff get lost?
\nA. \u201cNo, there are no spam filters. Only people
\nin the system can send and receive messages, so
\nnothing gets lost.\u201d
\nQ. How long does it take to enter all the
\ninformation for a class per class?
\nA. \u201cFor me, setting up a new class is not that
\nlong. It took me an hour to set up the augmentation
\nclass. The first time (ever) probably took 2 or 3
\njust trying to find things and where they are.
\nOf course, your instructor has to be good about
\nputting all your assignments into Canvas … . But
\nthey can copy it.\u201d
\nQ. Can it migrate from semester to semester
\nor do you have to load it every single time?
\nA. \u201cI can export it to a file here at San Jose City
\nCollege, that I can upload to the Cabrillo one …
\nall the assignments, all the files, everything that
\nI put in is there.\u201d
\nSTUDENT TIPS!
\nGrades are easier to see. \u201cIt tells you what
\nyour current percentage is. And as long as
\nyour instructor is using a standard percentage
\nbreakdown – 70% is a C – you can tell what you
\nare getting in the class; in that moment.\u201d
\nEmail is foolproof. \u201cYou can\u2019t actually put
\nin the wrong email. You just click their name out
\nof the list.\u201d\\
\nCalendars. It \u201ccan send you reminders of
\nwhen assignments are coming. There would be a
\nsquare around the date to let you know.\u201d
\nAll Class To Do List. \u201cIf you have multiple
\nclasses, you can see when all things are due for
\nall of your classes, in order.\u201d
\nNotifications and Messages. \u201cThey
\nare all right there.\u201d
\nQ. Is there a Dashboard for
\nstudents?
\nA. Yes, You can set favorites on that.
\nThe trick with that is that you have to
\nchange it every semester.
\nQ. Since I haven\u2019t seen it, is it like Pandora
\n– nice looking?
\nA. \u201cSure. It is clean, and a lot nicer to look at.\u201d
\nQ. Are there YouTube tutorials?
\nA. \u201cInstructure, the company that makes it,
\nhas online tutorials … and most colleges have
\nresources on campus to learn how to use it.\u201d
\nQ. What kind of advice would you give to
\ncalm fears?
\nA. Professors: \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s going to be
\nbetter. It saves you time throughout the semester.
\nSpending a little more time at the beginning
\nsaves you time throughout. You can grade right
\nin Canvas, leave comments on student\u2019s papers
\n… without having to download anything and set
\nup a rubric … it is so much faster. That really is
\nmy favorite thing about Canvas!\u201d
\nA. Students: \u201cIt is more user-friendly than any
\nof the other systems. Once you figure out how
\nto click on a button it is so user-friendly …<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris Lancaster works a San Jose City College, Cabrillo, and San Jose State. When it comes to platforms, he has used: Moodle, Angel, WebCT, Blackboard, Desire-to- Learn – D2L, and Canvas. Q. How good are you with computers? A. \u201cI\u2019m not technophobic. I\u2019ve been using computers since I was five years old and I had…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":11171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"staff_name":[],"class_list":["post-11141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n