The Tools You’ll Use in Canvas

Johns Hopkins University is transitioning from Blackboard learning management system (LMS) to Canvas (Surprise!). Actually, we hope this news does not come as too big of a surprise to most Engineering for Professionals (EP) faculty. You’ve received emails and announcements; answered surveys and provided valuable information about your courses in Blackboard; and hundreds of EP faculty have registered for, and attended, Canvas informational sessions geared towards helping ease the LMS transition. In this article, we’ll dive into a comparison of the top tools EP faculty use in Blackboard and the equivalent ones they can expect to find in Canvas. 

Grading, communicating with students, and assignments were among the top reasons faculty reported using Blackboard. When EP faculty were asked which tools they use in Blackboard the most, 27% said they used Tests, Quizzes and Surveys; 24% indicated they use the Adaptive Release feature in Blackboard; and 17% use Blackboard’s Groups tools (Course Migration Questionnaire-Tools). Here are the top tools faculty use and the corresponding ones in Canvas.

Assignments 

For an easy transition, Blackboard and Canvas both use the name Assignments for student submissions.   Here are a few features faculty should know about Canvas Assignments: 

• Can be accessed through several areas of the course, such as: assignments, calendar, or modules. 
• More choices for assignment types, including “No submission”, “Peer review”, “online”, “on paper”, etc.  
• Instructors can limit the file types to be submitted.  
• Students can submit multimedia assignments. 
• Instructors must create an assignment to create a column in the Gradebook.  
• Interactive rubrics can be used for grading assignments.

Adaptive Release 

If you prefer choosing when to release course materials to students in Blackboard, you use the Adaptive Release tool. Canvas does not have a specific tool for setting release dates. Instead, the option is built into other tools within Canvas. What does that mean for faculty who want to choose when release of materials?  

• Module pages can be published or unpublished; Unpublished modules are invisible to students. 
• Publishing a module will automatically publish any unpublished content items within the module. 
• Individual module content items such as quizzes, discussions, and assignments can be unpublished while a module is published.  
• You can set modules to be locked until a given date. 
• If an item or Module is published and locked, students will be able to see the titles, but they will not be able to access the module items until after the lock date has passed. 

Discussion Forum 

Discussions are used in Canvas in place of Discussion Forums in Blackboard. One benefit of Canvas’ Discussions tool is the ease with which faculty and students can view and filter posts. 

Grade Center 

Grading was one of the top reasons faculty indicated they use Blackboard. In Canvas, the Gradebook is the tool to use to communicate grades to students. Some Gradebook highlights include: 

• Create an assignment to create a column in the Gradebook. 
• Easily sort columns in one click by due date or Assignment Group. 
• Instructors can curve grades. 
• Instructors can Mute assignments 
• Students can message an instructor within the grade column. 
• Columns for assignment groups are shaded and appear at far right of Gradebook by default. 
• Students can enter “what-if” scenarios to calculate hypothetical grades. 
• Canvas uses the term Assignment Groups instead of the term Categories (Blackboard).

Groups 

Groups in Canvas are like groups in Blackboard and provide access to course tools including Announcements, Pages, Files, Discussions, and Collaboration. Faculty may even find that the Canvas Groups tool is easier to use. 

Tests, Quizzes and Surveys 

Used to looking for the Tests, Surveys, Pools tool in Blackboard? Get ready to look for Quizzes in Canvas. 

• Just as tests and quizzes are grouped together in Blackboard under Tests, they are grouped under Quizzes in Canvas. 
• Canvas allows different quiz types such as Practice Quiz, Graded Quiz, Ungraded Survey, and Graded Survey. 
• Quizzes can be edited after student submissions and are automatically regraded.
  

Closing 

We hope this information helps to calm a few reservations in migrating to a new LMS. Canvas is coming and we think once you experience Canvas, you will not even remember that other LMS.  

Additional Resources

Join us! A range of Canvas workshops is being offered at Faculty Forward Academy. Register today! 

A full list Blackboard and Canvas tools comparative is available and includes links to Canvas tutorials for each tool presented here as well as many more.  

Join the Canvas Migration team in the EP Faculty Community in MS Teams.