Note: Canvas training for faculty has started, see fall schedule. Student training will be available the first week of classes.
Excerpt from the 2015-2016 OIT Annual Report
OIT partnered with the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Digital Education and Fondren Library to start the evaluation of Canvas as a new learning management system (LMS). The IT Council and its Academic Technologies Subcommittee provided faculty oversight. The goal of the pilot was to ensure that Canvas would meet faculty needs and was a modern platform that would allow for better integration and portability of content between different teaching modalities.
During the summer 2015, fall 2015, and spring 2016 semesters, over 60 courses piloted Canvas. The cloud-hosted application is mobile friendly and accessible, which are high priorities for Rice. Faculty were recruited or volunteered to participate in the pilot. Pre and post surveys of faculty and students, which were gathered by Fondren Library’s User Experience department, assisted in the decision. The ITC Academic Technologies Subcommittee chaired by Scott Rixner solicited additional feedback from fellow faculty that teach a variety of courses and use different of features in an LMS.
Based on the feedback from the survey as well as the discussions the ITC Academic Technologies subcommittee had with faculty, the committee unanimously voted to recommend Rice University move to Canvas as its LMS. The rollout will begin in the fall 2016 semester.