Committee recommends full transition from OwlSpace to Canvas

By Amber Tong     8/23/16 11:02pm

A faculty committee tasked with investigating the university’s learning management systems has unanimously recommended that the Office of Information Technology transition from OwlSpace to Canvas for all courses starting this semester, according to the committee’s recent report.

The Academic Technologies Subcommittee of the University Information Technology Committee further recommended that OIT actively promote Canvas, provide training and support for faculty, establish a clear process for course migration, disallow creating new courses in OwlSpace and archive all Owlspace courses for research.

The recommendations came after the school piloted Canvas in more than 60 courses over three semesters. The subcommittee reviewed the feedback from faculty and students who took part in the pilot, held faculty discussions and referenced other universities’ experiences. They concluded that Canvas’ functions were mainly satisfactory and most of its issues could be easily fixed.

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“The current trend appears to be that universities are moving toward the use of Canvas,” the report stated. “Concretely, Canvas is the [learning management system] that offers the most and best features of the currently available top contenders.”

The committee emphasized that OIT should continue to maintain OwlSpace while some faculty still use it.

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