The change from Google Classroom to Canvas is one that many students were shocked by. The real question is, was the switch really necessary?
At the beginning of this year, LHS students were surprised to see that Google Classroom has been switched to Canvas, a new application that is used for assignments, grades, etc. This change was quite unnecessary and made things more difficult for students to understand, as navigating a completely new application is confusing and difficult. Furthered by the syncing issue with Infinite Campus, students have been confused on how to check their grades which makes the switch a bit messy for the beginning of the school year.
While Canvas already sounds bad enough, accessing assignments is another issue. Some assignments that teachers have made in past years don’t show up properly like they did in Google Classroom, which can be frustrating for teachers and students. This forces teachers to change their lesson plan or figure out how to make assignments appear properly on Canvas, which can be a hassle.
Another problem with Canvas is the entire layout. The homepage is similar to Google Classroom, but once you click into a specific class, there are many buttons that students can get confused pretty easily. This can be difficult especially with finding specific assignments. For example, if you need to access a textbook, there are so many different buttons that make it very complex. Overall, navigating assignments and textbooks on Canvas has been tough due to the amount of buttons and not being sure on where to click.
In addition to the layout being messy, there are also some flaws within the application itself. One flaw that’s stuck out the most is the to-do list feature. Sometimes, even when an assignment has been submitted and has been graded, it’s still under the to-do list. This is a huge problem as students may be perplexed when it says they have multiple assignments to do, even when they’ve all been submitted.
Ultimately, Canvas has a lot of drawbacks, and Google Classroom provided a much simpler way to access assignments with a nicer and less complex layout. Change can be good, but in this case, it’s not.
