One of the things you can depend on in the beginning (and end) of the year is polls. We're not talking about the upcoming presidential noise, but higher education and it's surveys of what's working, making a difference, making our jobs easier.
The journal University Business covers this all year, across the spectrum: admin, finance, data storage. You name it. If higher education is using software to meet its needs, UB is studying and reporting on it.
So, of all the tools presented and polled, across all the services and demands of a campus, only one in the category of learning and teaching made the list. What software you ask? (You probably didn't, as you've already guessed or responded in the poll...).
Canvas. We chose right when imagining the tool that would take teaching and learning into the digital age. Now here's the tricky part: any LMS will allow you to do the things they were designed to do: replicate the classroom functions (Announcements, Discussions, Assignments, Grades...) but that's not why Canvas made the list.
It made the list because it's doing well what others don't even attempt: a move toward analytics across the digital experience (see my post on 'Nudging Students to the Finish Line' regarding Canvas and the 'message students who...' option). Darcy and I do a workshop on using DATA, gathered by Canvas, to better know, track, nudge and inform students on progress. The workshop wouldn't be possible without the Canvas approach to visualizing data.
And that doesn't even address their new speed grading functions; more intuitive rubrics, and synchronous chat and collaboration tools.
Check out some of the deep-under-the-hood features of our UW-supported LMS that's winning national awards. Canvas: it's not your mother's LMS.
