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UNO Canvas Recommendation Report April 3, 2017

The UNO Canvas Task Force recommends that UNO switch to Canvas.

Why UNO is looking at Canvas? In July 2016 UNL presented to the Board of Regents (BOR) wanting to move to the Learning Management System Canvas by Instructure. This required UNL to start a contract with Instructure in August 2016 and complete two more years of the Blackboard contract. The BOR approved this request. At this meeting the BOR asked UNK, UNMC and UNO to review the Canvas system. UNK announced they would move in August 2016. Both UNMC and UNO announced they would start a Canvas sandbox in the Fall of 2016 and move into a pilot in the Spring 2017 semester. UNMC announced mid-March 2017 that they will be moving to Canvas. The UNO 2016-2017 Canvas exploration was led by UNO’s Information Technology Services (ITS). Lending support throughout the investigation/pilot, developing the evaluation, analyzing the feedback, and writing the recommendation was a Task Force composed of faculty from each college, staff from critical support areas on campus, and a student member. Faculty Task Force members: Dr. Michelle Friend (COE), Dr. Craig Maher (CPACS), Dr. Dale Eesley (CBA), Dr. Briana Morrison (IS&T), Dr. Tomm Roland (CFAM), Meghan Salsbury (Library), and Dr. Randy Adkins (A&S). Staff/Student Task Force members: Suzanne Withem (A&S), Rick Murch-Shafer (COE), Anne Heimann (Accessibility Services), Drew Nielsen (Compliance), Karen Hein (Center for Faculty Excellence), Melanie Krings (eMBA), and Josiah Krutz (student).

LMS Research The statistics in this section was part of the Educause Center for Analysis and Research - The 2014 report The Current Ecosystem of Learning Management Systems in Higher Education: Student, Faculty, and IT Perspectives The average age of an LMS is eight years, and 15% of U.S. institutions are planning to replace their LMS within the next three years, making the LMS market a competitive place. Blackboard has been UNO’s LMS of choice for nineteen years. In 2010 UNO Information Technology Services worked with a group of faculty, staff and students reviewing different LMS’s with the decision to stay with Blackboard. Canvas started in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, but did not become a viable LMS product until February 2011. In 2015 Blackboard currently held 43% of the market while Canvas held 14%. Several reasons institutions cite for wanting to switch their LMS are to upgrade functionality and to replace a legacy system.

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Many universities have moved from Blackboard to Canvas in the last few years. This list includes the University of Missouri system, Harvard, University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Georgetown University, Northwestern University, and University of Kentucky. UNO peer institutions who have moved, in process, or starting pilot.

• Wichita State – Blackboard – (currently setting up Canvas pilot • University Missouri St Louis – Canvas (phasing out Bb in Summer 2018) • University of Colorado Denver – Canvas • University North Carolina Charlotte – Canvas (phasing out Moodle in May ’17)

The following is a comparison chart of LMS’s from 2:011 to 2015. Educause Center for Analysis and Research - 2015 Enterprise Application Market in Higher Education Learning Management Systems –

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UNO Spring 2017 Canvas Demographics 51 faculty from seven colleges

83 courses were part of pilot

• 13 faulty asked to teach multiple courses

• 14 faculty asked to have courses merged

• 32 courses were listed as 850 or 860 (online/hybrid)

• Appendix A lists faculty and the courses

1661 students were enrolled in the 83 courses at the time of Student Evaluation (as of February 23, 2017)

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7103

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PilotFacultyByCollege

A&S CBA COE CFAMCPACS Eng IS&T

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Canvas Survey Feedback

Faculty Responses - 51 faculty participated in pilot and 37 completed survey

Pilot faculty were presented with the question “Please rate the degree to which you agree with the following statement: I prefer Canvas over Blackboard”. 94% of the respondents agreed by selecting a score of 3 or higher (2.5 would be a neutral score). 60% of respondents indicated they Strongly Agreed with the statement.

When asked “Would you recommend faculty in your department adopt Canvas?” an overwhelming 92% of faculty respondents indicated Yes.

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Comparative Tools Faculty were asked to specify how well specific tools worked within Canvas compared to Blackboard. For each tool Canvas was preferred by a large majority of the pilot faculty.

Weekly Usage The majority (57%) of faculty survey respondents reported utilizing Canvas an average of 3-6 hours per week.

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Adaption Time Faculty adaption was varied among survey respondents. A number of faculty were able to become comfortable quickly. 32% in under 3 hours and 11% in less than an hour. However, 32% of faculty respondents reported taking 7 or more hours to get comfortable. It was left to the individual faculty member to determine if the reported adaption time included training.

Comfort Level Although adaption time differed amongst faculty, they were able to become comfortable with Canvas during the first seven weeks of the Spring 2017 semester.

Faculty Qualitative Data Faculty were asked, “Please rate the degree to which you agree with the following statements: - I prefer Canvas over Blackboard”. 94% of faculty surveyed prefer Canvas over Blackboard. This was followed up with an explain your preference question. The most common comments among faculty about their preference for Canvas or Blackboard were that Canvas is easier to navigate and is more intuitive, with better features and design capabilities. Those interested in simply making their materials available had the ease of a cleaner, easier interface, while those interested in more complex interaction noted that the “html rendering of pages were sharper.” Several respondents noted that they made use of Canvas Instructor and Student Guides to help trouble shoot and learn new features. While many faculty members noted that Canvas’s grade book was one of their favorite features, a few respondents noted that the grade book did not allow them the flexibility they

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were accustomed to in Blackboard. Others noted that the fact that Canvas’s design encourages a common organization of classes around modules limits faculty’s “creativity and ability to innovate in delivering the best education to the students.” Student Responses – 1661 students participated in pilot and 583 completed survey Pilot students were presented with the question “Please rate the degree to which you agree with the following statement: I prefer Canvas over Blackboard”. 63% of the respondents agreed by selecting a score of 3 or higher (2.5 would be a neutral score).

Students were asked to specify how well specific tools worked within Canvas compared to Blackboard. For six of the tools they selected Canvas as working better while they indicated Blackboard was better for the other three.

When looking at student results it’s important to consider that 98% of those who responded have classes in Canvas and Blackboard this semester, so they are being asked to use both LMS’s. Additionally, for many of the tools there is likely a correlation between how an instructor has used the tool and student perception of it.

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Weekly Usage Student respondents (66%) reported using Canvas an average of 0-3 hours per week for their class. For the majority of the students this is for one Canvas course.

Adaption Time The vast majority of students (78%) indicated that it took them less than 3 hours to become comfortable with Canvas.

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Comfort Level Although adaption time differed amongst students, they were able to become comfortable with Canvas during the first seven weeks of the Spring 2017 semester.

Student Qualitative Data Students were asked, “Please rate the degree to which you agree with the following statements: - I prefer Canvas over Blackboard”. 63% of students surveyed prefer Canvas over Blackboard. This was followed up with an explain your preference question. Students gave a variety of answers, but by far, the most popular were comments related to the design, organization, ease of navigation, and intuitive user interface (UI). Specific comments to support this are:

• One student comment that shows this , “Canvas has a more user friendly UI and is more streamlined than Blackboard, which can get a bit cluttered after a lot of things are posted.”

• Another student noted their additional preference for customization options in Canvas, saying, “Canvas is much more intuitive than Blackboard and was easy to figure out. I enjoy the customization available in Canvas.”

• Other popular features among respondents were the mobile access and calendar functions: “I like the ability to view the assignments in either a calendar view or a scheduled view.” And, though instructors may not be thrilled about student gaming the system by figuring out what the bare minimum requirement is, many students enjoy the “what if” feature saying things like “I like the way you can see your grades easily as well as predicting your grade when you turn in the assignments”.

The most common category of comments from students who did not reply favorably to the statement “I prefer Canvas over Blackboard” was simply that they were more familiar with Blackboard and either had trouble or didn’t care to switch to the new system. “I prefer blackboard because I have been using it for the past four years and am used to how everything runs.” One concern common among both those who did and did not prefer Canvas was instructor familiarity with the new LMS “I think that Canvas can be [useful], but professors and instructors need to be clear in their own knowledge of Canvas”.

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Support A variety of support services were provided to faculty and students throughout the Canvas pilot program.

• For faculty in-person sessions, both group sessions and 1-on-1 consultations, were offered before and during the pilot.

• Canvas 101, a series of self-paced training modules made available within Canvas, was available for both students and faculty.

• 24/7 Tier One Support allowed Canvas faculty and students to reach out for assistance at any time via phone, email, or chat.

• Direct communication was provided throughout the pilot program including “tip of the week” e-mails for faculty

• At the start of semester, a one-page Canvas overview was emailed to students. For a more detailed breakdown of support offered see Appendix B. Faculty Use of Support All of the following training opportunities were well received with each offering receiving mostly ‘satisfactory’ ratings.

• 78% of faculty survey respondents reported utilizing UNO-provided training opportunities • 49% attended in person workshops • 59% attended online workshops • 24% utilized drop-in assistance • 22% scheduled one-on-one consultation

Faculty also found the following resources helpful: email (including tip of the week), project web site, UNO-designed documentation, and recordings of workshop and meeting sessions. As a result of using these materials, 83% of faculty respondents made changes to their course in Canvas.

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24 x 7 Canvas Support Numbers 136 total support records from 9-25-16 through - 3/19/17

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24 x 7 Types of Questions Asked Everyone who has used the 24x7 support line finds this to be a very good option for students and faculty.

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Appendix A Faculty Participating in Pilot and Courses

Art and Sciences Timi Barone ANTH3910001 Paul Davis BIOL 8770850 Paul Davis BIOL3240001 Andrew Swift CSCI4310001 Andrew Swift CSCI8316001 Andrew Swift MATH4310001 Andrew Swift MATH8316001 Mark McLaughlin ENGL1150009 Mark McLaughlin ENGL1150017 Mark McLaughlin ENGL1150709 Mark McLaughlin ENGL1150717 Suzanne Withem ENGL1160852 Alec McMullen ENGL1164002 Frank Bramlett ENGL4690001 Tracy Bridgeford ENGL4830850 Tracy Bridgeford ENGL8836850 Tracy Bridgeford JMC 4830850 Tracy Bridgeford JMC 8836850 Maria Arbelaez HIST4910001 Maria Arbelaez HIST8916001 Maria Arbelaez LLS4920850 Laura Grams PHIL3130001 David Kriegler PHYS1350850 David Kriegler PHYS1350851 David Kriegler PHYS1354850 Joel Hebrink PSCI2310001 Joel Hebrink PSCI2310850 Greg Petrow PSCI3000001 Greg Petrow PSCI4120850 Greg Petrow PSCI8000850 Greg Petrow PSCI8005001 Greg Petrow PSCI8126850 Kathryn Dybdall PSYC1010001 Nathalie Yuen PSYC3540001 Julie Pelton SOC2120850 Andrew Swift STAT8710001 Dawn Cripe WGST2020850 College of Business Ben Smith ECON3200001 Jennifer Riley HONR300097 Dale Eesley MGMT3490-852 Patricia Meglich MGMT4120001 Larry Buland MGMT4440860 Robert Celsi RELU 4390001 David Beberwyk RELU2410002

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College of Communication, Fine Arts, and Music Jeremy Johnson ART2600001 Tomm Roland MUS1050850 Jenna Lucas Finn WRWS1500004 College of Education Amelia Lanier BMCH4630001 Jeanne Surface EDL8000001 Kay Keiser EDL9520001 Sam Wilkins PE4310001 Sam Wilkins PE4360001 Sam Wilkins PE8316001 Anne Karabon TED2400002 Kelly Gomez Johnson TED2400003 Michelle Friend TED8010862 Michelle Friend TED8060860 Kimberly Gangwish TED8520860 Elizabeth Agar TED8520861 Derek Nero TED8860860 College of Information Science and Technology Georg Link CIST2100007 Harvey Siy CSCI4970001 Briana Morrison CSTE8020860 Christopher Daniels IASC1100850 Ryan Schuetzler ISQA4380001 George Royce ISQA8210001 College of Engineering Kelli Herstein CNST4800001 Kelli Herstein CNST8806001 College of Public Affairs and Community Service Jeff Kosse ENGL1160850 Julie Boron GERO4460001 Julie Boron PSYC4460001 Julie Boron GERO9460850 Christopher Kelly GERO4670001 Christopher Kelly GERO8676001 Mark Kazor GERO4940001 Mark Kazor GERO4940850 Mark Kazor GERO8940001 Mark Kazor GERO8940850 Del Bharath PA 3600850 Craig Maher PA8120851 Christopher Goodman PA8400850 Jeff Knapp SOWK1000001 Henry Dsouza SOWK8190001

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Appendix B Support

Pilot Faculty Training / Support

November/December 2016 College-level on-site small group sessions November/December 2016 1-on-1 consultations by appointment November/December 2016 “Tip of the Week” e-mails November2016 – May 2017 Canvas 101 for Instructors, a series of self-paced training modules

available within Canvas

November 2016 – May 2017 Recommended guides for instructors on the Canvas website: https://guides.instructure.com/m/4152

November 30, 2016 Blackboard to Canvas Demonstration Session January 3-6, 2017 Day-long walk-in sessions, Kayser Hall 538 January 9-13, 2017 Day-long walk-in sessions, Kayser Hall 538 January – May 1-on-1 consultations by appointment January – May 2017 24/7 Tier One Support through Canvas

• 2 min response time via chat • 1 min response time via phone • 1 hour response time via e-mail Faculty Communication

October 2016 - May 2017 Various emails from ITS staff preparing for pilot January – May 2017 Canvas Tip of the Week Emails February 23, 2017 Evaluation of Canvas sent to faculty March 8 and 14, 2017 Faculty Focus Sessions

Student Training / Support January 3, 2017 Canvas 101 for Students, a series of self-paced training modules

made available within Canvas January 9-13, 2017 Pop up shop in MBSC for Canvas information January – May 2017 24/7 Tier One Support through Canvas

• 2 min response time via chat • 1 min response time via phone • 1 hour response time via e-mail Student Communication

November 2016 Information placed in course notes, given to advisors December 2016 E-mail to students notifying course is in Canvas January 3, 2017 One page Canvas overview e-mailed to students February 23, 2017 Evaluation of Canvas sent to students March 7 and 8, 2017 Student Focus Sessions