Lili Kim / Asst. News Editor 

With the start of the spring semester, USD wakes from its winter slumber as students flood the green lawns of campus in search of their new classrooms. This spring, the USD community is also adopting a fresh change in the form of Canvas. 

Canvas, a web-based learning management system, replaced Blackboard, which was USD’s previous online learning program for over a decade. According to the Director of the Learning Design Center (LDC) Ashley Kovacs, this switch was initiated for a multitude of reasons. 

“The version of Blackboard we used was going to enter ‘end of life.’ In tech terms, this means the current version we were using was no longer going to be supported,” she said. 

Kovacs also mentioned that many students were ready to move on from Blackboard. 

“We got a lot of feedback from students particularly about how Blackboard was antiquated and the look and feel of it was clearly dated. Because of the large market share that Canvas has in relation to Blackboard, a lot of students asked, ‘Why aren’t we using Canvas?’”

The 20 largest school districts in the U.S. use Canvas, as well as all California community colleges. The shift, therefore, would allow  transfer students and   adjunct professors who teach at other universities greater ease when logging onto their USD accounts, Kovacs explained. 

Migrating over to Canvas from Blackboard, however, took some time and effort on both the part of the LDC as well as professors. USD Professor of Communication Thomas O’Rourke described the shift like moving out of a comfortable home. 

“Imagine you’ve lived in a house for 15 years. You’ve decorated it,   and all the things are in the right places in the cabinet. And  then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re going to move this to a condo down the block.’ It sounds  simple, but some of the furniture doesn’t fit, and some things get lost,” O’Rourke said. 

Due to the magnitude of the shift, the LDC worked to ensure that the entire community was well equipped. 

The team initially launched some online programs on Canvas at the beginning of the fall semester,  before going campus wide. They have been preparing faculty and staff since the end of September for the transition, in hopes   of    making    it  as    seamless as possible. Specifically, they hosted online training sessions and helped resolve   technical issues.

 “Without the IT team, I never could have done the transfer,” O’Rourke said. 

Regardless of the mid-year switch, students are adapting to Canvas rapidly. USD senior Nolan Anderson expressed his excitement about the new learning program. 

“It’s intuitive. Everything just feels smoother and — more importantly, the professors [seem to] like it.” Anderson also explained how he used Canvas at his university abroad, so the program was familiar. 

Kat Harris, a sophomore  at USD,    said her experience has been smooth sailing as well. “I honestly like it better than Blackboard…  it’s  more  organized.” 

Kovacs explained that Canvas is more organized, with student-oriented features which was the deciding factor  for why USD chose to make it the primary learning system. 

“According to the data, a majority of students access their classes from their mobile device,” said Kovacs. “Canvas is a mobile-first platform. The ability to access your grades on the tram  or access a powerpoint on your phone before class was a huge selling point for us.” 

Additionally, Canvas blends well with other technologies, such as   Zoom,   PDF    files   and  electronic    textbooks, ensuring that students would not need to have ten tabs open just for schoolwork. 

“We tried to create an ecosystem around Canvas where students have one place they can go,” said Kovacs. 

The installment of Canvas created  a  fresh slate for students entering a new semester, and in Professor O’Rourke’s terms, “forced  us  to do a housecleaning.” 

As the semester  continues,  students  will   continue   to learn how to navigate the platform and conquer the changes of the new semester.

The USD Vista conducted a poll on Fizz which found popular support for Canvas. Colin Mullaney/The USD Vista