This past Fall, we surveyed Cornell faculty to ask about their experiences using Canvas. This is the first time we’ve surveyed since the decision was made to switch to Canvas. Back then, in 2017, the top five features used were adding content, sending announcements/emails, collecting online submissions, uploading videos, and calculating grades.
The survey was sent to approximately 2,000 tenured and non-tenured faculty members, capturing a diverse range of academic titles and roles, and received 217 responses, resulting in an overall 10% response rate.
- Overall, a majority of participants agree that Canvas meets their course needs, is easy to use, and they like using it.
- Over 75% of respondents frequently use Canvas to share/organize course materials, maintain student grades, and communicate with students, with 75.93%, 60.09%, and 46.19% of participants finding it helpful for these tasks, respectively
- The data also indicates that creating engaging student experiences is not often done in Canvas. It is expected that the bulk of the student engagement is done in class. However, there may be opportunities to build meaningful learning experiences using Canvas.
Based on this feedback, we will be developing more resources and guidelines for creating meaningful student engagements in Canvas. We are currently exploring ways to collect and share good examples of faculty designing engaging learning experiences in Canvas, including a possible event for the Fall.
- The Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) resources and support were frequently highlighted as particularly helpful, with participants noting the Drop-In Hours, web resources, and email support as valuable.
- Some respondents suggested specific improvements, with the most frequent comments focusing on the desire for more flexibility and fewer workarounds along with enhancements to CTI’s documentation.
To address this, we will review our Canvas instructions and resources to ensure they are current and easy to access. We have also been closely collaborating with various Canvas product team developers to review and provide feedback on early beta products and improvements to current functionality. You can see what tools/products are currently available for feedback on Canvas Survey Feedback: News & Clarifications.
We have also been regularly engaging with the Canvas development team to prioritize the needs of Cornell’s community. Since the beginning of this engagement in October, Canvas has developed the Student Analysis report for New Quizzes — a feature that is holding back many faculty members from transitioning to New Quizzes. They are also developing a feature to allow instructors to assign Canvas course materials to groups of students rather than just individuals or sections. If you are interested in providing feedback on early mock-ups of how this might work, check out Help Us Fine-Tune Differentiation Tags: Your Feedback Matters!
