Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/The Cougar
UH will slowly switch to Canvas as its preferred learning management system, with Blackboard no longer being available in Fall 2023.
In an email sent out to faculty and staff, interim senior vice president for academic affairs and Provost Robert H. McPherson and associate provost for education innovation and technology Jeff Morgan announced the University’s new partnership with Canvas.
For many students, this change came as a relief after years of frustration brought on by Blackboard, the current LMS.
“Thank god,” said communications freshman Sarah Lundberg. “My high school used Canvas, and it’s a much more user friendly platform than Blackboard, for both students and teachers.”
Other students had previous experience using Canvas and expressed uncertainty that the program would be much better than Blackboard.
“I used Canvas in high school and it was more confusing than Blackboard,” said graphic design sophomore Ashley Wandling. “The teachers were able to customize their pages more, so each class would vary widely. I would have to remember where each teacher put their assignments.”
Canvas is better-suited to fit student needs and has been many colleges’ LMS of choice, according to McPherson and Morgan.
The program will begin its soft launch next semester, becoming fully integrated into the curriculum during the summer. While it remains to be seen how students and teachers will adjust to the rollout, some, such as psychology junior Amanda Perry, are hopeful.
“Blackboard is not very user friendly and it seems to have some known glitches,” Perry said. “Hopefully Canvas will be a vast improvement.”
