Canvas has streamlined how I deliver and grade coursework, and students appreciate having everything in one place. The web experience is excellent and feature-rich. My only frustration is the mobile app occasionally fails to load submissions, forcing students back to a browser. Minor in the scheme of an otherwise strong system.
Feature-rich web platform, central hub for courses
Mobile app occasionally fails to load submissions
As a lecturer, Canvas has been a revelation. Setting up modules, embedding videos, and automating quiz grading all save me hours each week. Students find it intuitive and the SpeedGrader tool is excellent for giving feedback at scale. The best LMS I have used in fifteen years of teaching.
Time-saving automation, excellent grading tools, intuitive for students
Our college relies on Canvas for everything, so when it went down repeatedly during finals week it was a disaster. Students could not submit assignments and the deadline timers kept running regardless. For a learning management system that institutions pay heavily for, this level of unreliability at the worst possible time is unacceptable.
Outages during critical exam periods, deadline timers unforgiving
Instructure's Canvas underpins our entire teaching operation and it handles the load impressively well. Integration with our other systems was smooth and the analytics help us spot students who are falling behind early. The support team has been responsive whenever we needed configuration help. Couldn't run our courses without it.
Scales well, strong integrations, helpful support
Canvas does almost everything our department needs, from gradebooks to discussion boards to assignment workflows. The mobile app keeps students connected and notifications are reliable. The learning curve for new instructors is steeper than it should be, but once you are up to speed it is very capable.
Comprehensive features, reliable notifications
Steep learning curve for new staff