Canvas, our new Learning Management System

The University is pleased to announce that in Trimester 3 2022, we will start teaching on a new Learning Management System (LMS). The system we have chosen is called Canvas, replacing Blackboard Learn. In this MyView blog post, Director of the Centre for Academic Development Professor Stephen Marshall explains how the change has come about and how it will enhance the learning experience for you, our students.

Goodbye Blackboard and hello Canvas—what it means for students

This is an exciting change for many reasons, but one of the big goals is to improve the online learning experience for students. Canvas really impressed us in this area.

Canvas is known for its well-designed, intuitive user interface and approach to organising learning content and activities. It also has good mobile apps for phones and tablets, and accessibility features to enable a better online experience for all students.

I’m particularly excited for how Canvas will better enable students to take control of and manage their own learning.

Canvas will also help us to build our wider online learning platform which will enable the University to bring together the tools that will help us deliver high quality learning and teaching into the future, in a way that is flexible and responsive but also complements and supports our campus-based and face-to-face teaching. I like to think of this as laying the foundations of our online campus.

Timeline—when you can expect to see Canvas on your screens

For those of you who are taking courses in Blackboard this trimester, your courses will continue in Blackboard until they finish. For most courses, that will be at the end of Trimester 2.

For those of you who are taking courses starting in Trimester 3 this year, you will be the first group of students to use Canvas.

For those of you who are returning in Trimester 1 2023, we look forward to welcoming you for the first full academic year in Canvas then.

We will provide more detail about timings as we get closer to trimester start dates.

Over the next few months, you will see more information about Canvas and here and in various other channels that you may follow, particularly in the weeks leading up to Trimester 3 2022 and Trimester 1 2023.

There will be opportunities on campus to see demonstrations of Canvas in the coming months—and if you’re lucky, you might snag yourself some snazzy Canvas socks, sunglasses, or a tote bag. These will be advertised in due course, so keep an eye out, and see you soon.

Professor Stephen Marshall is the Director of the Centre for Academic Development. He is Principal Fellow, Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and holds a Graduate Diploma in Science, a PhD in Biochemistry, BSc. Hons, and a BSc. in Biochemistry Victoria University of Wellington.

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