The Application and Design teams for the four campuses have been meeting regularly to share ideas about efficiencies, and how to better support the academic communities.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campus moved forward with pilot testing and implementation of the Canvas system for their colleges and departments.UNL received BOR approval for purchasing a 2-year contract with Canvas, and they will be transitioning over the next year. The other campuses in the NU system are being asked to review Canvas to get a better understanding of that system to have more informed discussions of future possibilities.
Over the past six months, faculty and students at UNO piloted a new Learning Management System (LMS) calledCanvas. Canvas was adopted by UNL and UNK before the 2017-18 academic year, and UNMC just announced they will be adopting Canvas as well. I wanted UNO to do a full review, gather feedback and explore the new product before making any decisions that would impact faculty and students.
With the review of the pilot complete, the Canvas Task Force has recommended the switch to Canvas as UNO’s official LMS.
A transition plan is in place allowing faculty to move courses out of Blackboard during the 2017-18 academic year. By summer 2018, all courses will need to be using Canvas as the Blackboard contract expires mid-summer.
The feedback and pilot of Canvas has been overwhelmingly positive. Canvas gives students and faculty a more mobile-and user-friendly experience than Blackboard. Having peers throughout the system using the same LMS can be advantageous for creating a community of practice as well.
