CANVAS Reviews

CANVAS makes higher education accessible anywhere you have an internet connection!

Comments: CANVAS is very user-friendly and an all-around excellent way to engage in continuing education and life-long learning. Personally, as an older student, I love using CANVAS.

Pros:

While I am unsure of the College's side in using this software, for me, as a student, I love using CANVAS. I enjoy travelling and with an easy-to-use, school-issued/provided LMS (Learning Management System/Software), I can take many classes online from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The mobile application is robust and incredibly convenient, allowing 99% all-the-same functionality as the desktop version. Students can even take online quizzes and finals using their internet-connected mobile device (Smartphone). It is very user-friendly and an all-around excellent way to engage in continuing education and life-long learning as an older (personally, 42 years) college student.

Cons:

The only drawbacks to CANVAS I experienced were a loss of data if the active internet connection broke while in the middle of completing/submitting assignments and quizzes. I know that CANVAS has since implemented an auto-save feature on the quizzes, so that part of the problem is resolved. Whether or not this is true of the assignment submissions, I honestly do not know at this time.

Quality Improvements

Comments: Fantastic experience! I have used Canvas for years. Every time I come back the improvements are noticeable and make for a better overall experience. At the start of a semester or course, it is a relief when I see I will be using Canvas over their competitors.

Pros:

Ease of use on student and teacher platform. Whether using mobile or desktop, the program works smoothly and integrates easily.

Cons:

Notifications are not as intuitive as others. If a teacher adds a note to each section of a rubric the student will get a notification for each section.

Dissatisfied with the user-unfriendly quality of Canvas

Comments: I have been able to assimilate some of the features from Canvas, but I feel like I am a day late and a dollar short.

Pros:

I do NOT like Canvas. I can appreciate the features of syncing grades in Canvas to the gradebook, as well as a way to categorize things as formative and summative.

Cons:

Canvas is INCREDIBLY WORDY. It has too many hoops to jump through to learn it easily, too large of a menu of options, and too many limitations for users to change or tweak those options. Canvas is NOT EYE APPEALING nor CATCHY to the reader, thereby making the software very DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE. Students are more responsive to color-coded folders to find their options. We already compete with the business world as teachers to keep kids' attention as it is. My students are consistently LOST in Canvas, and if the truth were told, so is their teacher. In my previous district, we used Schoology. It has less reviews than Canvas, but that should not be a determining factor as to the software's effectiveness. Schoology allowed for color coded folders to be created by the teachers, and it could be designed according to theirs and their students' own creativity and design. Things could easily be dragged from one folder to another. s

The best student management software I’ve found so far

Comments: Canvas helps me to interact with students in real time. It also leading the way in mobile use as well.

Pros:

It is very intuitive to use and it syncs very well with other software I use. I use Canvas for my classes as well as using it as a graduate student.

Cons:

Nothing yet, once we learned hire to use it, became a tremendous asset

" Excellent tools for multimedia integration, analytics, and collaboration "

Comments: Canvas is a popular learning management system (LMS) widely used by educational institutions and businesses for delivering online courses and managing learning materials. Canvas is known for its user-friendly interface, customizable design, and mobile app that allows users to access course materials and communicate with others on the go. Overall, Canvas is a well-regarded LMS that many users have positively received.

Pros:

Canvas is often praised for its user-friendly interface, customizable design, and wide range of features. Many users appreciate the platform's flexibility, including its ability to integrate multimedia content, enable collaborative learning, and provide analytics to track student progress.

Cons:

Some common criticisms of Canvas include limited customization options for the user interface and course design, a steep learning curve for instructors and administrators, and occasional technical issues, such as slow load times or glitches with specific features. Some users have also reported difficulty integrating external tools or applications into the platform, and others have expressed concerns about the pricing structure, which can be costly for larger organizations.

Student Review of Canvas

Comments: I have successfully used canvas all of my college career so far and it has helped me keep track of classes, grades, and all of the important things to graduate.

Pros:

When introduced to this software I felt very comfortable navigating the app. It has many organizational tools including notifications, grade updates, help services, access to assignments, and virtual learning. Having the option for virtual classrooms during the pandemic allowed many to continue their education.

Cons:

From a student's perspective everything in Canvas runs smoothly. The only problem that I have experienced is easily misplaced grades by instructors. This may be human error but there may be a better way of design.

Learning Platform helping students for an academic betterment

Pros:

The overall use of the product is easy and it even provides the preveliege of accessing to some authentic contents for free through the university login, For example: Students can login to IEEE and have access to Journal Papers, Magazines etc. for free. The software can be used on mobile devices as well, making it simpler for students to view announcements and offers from their chosen educational institution. It is simple to use and offers several advantages for academic success. In addition to this student can also contact with faculty members if any help is required. The to-dos list and calendar on the software helps a lot too.

Cons:

The software's tendency to become more buggy at times is what I enjoy least about it. For example, the tool that lets you check for plagiarism when turning something in occasionally breaks down. Many users appear to find canvas two factor authentication method to be perplexing. UX still has room for development. Being a student I have found canvas to be a very confusing software to navigate.

An Excellent choice for Educators.

Pros:

I really like using Canvas as a learning platform. It is very user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy to navigate and find the information I needed. I also liked the fact that it is customizable, allowing me to tailor the learning experience to my individual needs. The ability to interact with other students and instructors is also a great feature, as it allowed for a more collaborative learning experience. Also, the notifications and reminders were very helpful in keeping me on track with my coursework.

Cons:

I didn't like how Canvas had difficulty integrating with other apps. It was often difficult to set up the integration, and even when I was able to do it, the integration was often unreliable. This caused a lot of frustration, as I was constantly having to troubleshoot the integration or find a workaround. Also, the integration often didn't work as expected, and I had to manually enter data or make adjustments to get the integration to work properly.

A great learning tool that keeps on improving

Comments: My ex[perience with Canvas is it makes it easier for teams to work together, share information, and communicate in real-time which helps improve increase productivity as well as makes it easier to keep track of what's going on and to make informed decisions.

Pros:

I like that I can customize Canvas to fit my needs and make it look just the way I want it to, which is pretty cool.

Cons:

It can be sometimes slow and glitchy which could be an annoyance.

Reliability

Comments: Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) developed by Instructure that has gained widespread adoption among educational institutions worldwide. It offers a wide range of features and tools for teachers and students, including online course creation and management, content sharing, grading and assessment, and communication tools.

Pros:

I love Canvas for its a reliable and effective LMS that offers a wide range of tools and features for online teaching and learning.

Cons:

While it may not be the perfect fit for every institution or program, it is definitely worth considering for those looking to implement a robust and user-friendly online learning platform.

Review on Canvas

Comments: As a user of 2 years and counting, I am very satisfied with my overall experience with Canvas and am very likely to share it with others. It is software that will continue to be used in the future; it's a major improvement to online learning.

Pros:

This software is very well organised with minor issues. I think as a user of 2+ years, I am extremely satisfied with the software. Although there are some minor improvements to be made, I believe that this software is the future of remote higher education.

Cons:

I think my major complaint about this software would be the fact that hiding and/or deleting certain courses' cards/lists isn't an option. When one year is over and another begins, half of the courses still on my dashboard can be considered clutter and are no longer needed. I think another feature that would make organising easier is editing the name of the course on my dashboard. Organisations usually title their courses in the same format with minimal changes which does make it harder to differentiate from one another. Adding subtle features that allow for personalising your dashboard without compromising the content of the courses would be helpful, I believe.

CANVAS is a great tool for Courses and International competitions.

Comments: It's a nice program for communicating with students and is very organized. I really like to use it.

Pros:

If you work in a school or a scientific competition, or if you wish to teach a class, you can use CANVAS. It's an excellent application because the grade book offers an Effective Teaching option for tracking progress against a set of academic criteria. Students and teachers will benefit from this mobile-friendly and easy tool. The largest business would be distance education, although it performs excellently in general.

Cons:

It can be tough to cope with at first when using the application, and it takes a long time to publish a post on the student page. Students occasionally carried assessments in the incorrect location and took time to get acquainted with the mobile phone application.

CANVAS to Learn

Comments: CANVAS is superior to blackboard, even though we could argument blackboard is more complete, it is "0" user friendly therefore as a student it is hard to get the best out of the software. Thanks to CANVAS´ simple approach it is very easy to navigate once you had 2 or 3 courses and you can easily find what you are looking for. I sincerely recommend CANVAS.

Pros:

Very user-friendly interface, easy to find what you are looking for with clear icons and titles being displayed. For general areas such as courses, dashboard and calendar they are easy to use, and you can even add reminders to your calendar besides those posted by teachers.

Cons:

Sometimes, once you are inside a class within the software it may vary drastically from teacher to teacher. The software allows for customization therefore it can cause confusion for students for there is not only 1 format to visualize the classes.

Unique uses

Comments: Canvas is flexible enough to allow us to implement courses for unique purposes outside the traditional college course (online or with online support). I have built a course framework in the LMS for a semester-long class, with traditional assignments, grading, etc. (The gradebook and SpeedGrader are great.) However, it's also let my team create information hubs and portals, using Mastery Paths to direct different people to different resources, and offering flexible components (such as "mark as done" vs. actual assignments) that allow courses to stay evergreen throughout multiple semesters without having to be recycled. I've been able to use Canvas not only as a LMS platform for moving learners through courses and content, but to provide training and information and instruction on programs and processes.

Pros:

Canvas is flexible and has great integration with certain add-ins, including Microsoft Office, Zoom, Ally (an accessibility checker tool), and Echo360, which are the ones I use the most. It allows authors to integrate a variety of content in a way that makes sense, and the grouping of modules and content is convenient and easy to change. The support forums are also typically very helpful. There are plenty of tools that I haven't even gotten around to using to their full potential, i.e. the calendar, chat features, rubrics. I haven't used them this way yet, but the Mastery Paths feature would be excellent for providing personalized learning experiences or implementing pre-tests.

Cons:

I wish there was a more sophisticated way to subscribe to certain types of notifications (e.g. certain threads within discussion topics). There's limited ability to author courses within the LMS, and you mostly have to rely on content you create or import yourself. When used for nontraditional purposes (e.g. providing a central hub for students in an honors program, rather than students in a particular class), there have been some issues with our SIS integrating correctly with Canvas. This also may just be an issue with my campus' implementation of Canvas, but I wish that you could have 1 page linked to multiple courses and that updating it in one place made the updates in all the courses in which the page existed; this would help for centralizing information. There are no templates or pre-created objects and libraries, which again may be an issue with my particular campus rollout, and also just a general downside of open-source products.

CANVAS-A Great LMS

Comments: Overall Canvas has made my job as a professor more fluid and convenient. It has saved me many hours of time and has provided my students with a great tool to succeed in college. I have a very positive opinion of this LMS and am glad my institution uses it. There are some things about it that I am not too happy with, but the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.

Pros:

The thing I like most about Canvas is the user interface and the ease of use. Canvas makes it very easy to provide students with all course materials that used to be copied and handed out in class. Not only does this save time and effort, but it is great for the environment. I have been trained several times on Canvas though it is quite easy to learn and use. Once you become accustomed to the nuances of using it, you start to appreciate its design. I really appreciate the tools that are available with Canvas such as the attendance feature and the ability to integrate publisher's materials.

Cons:

The thing I like least about Canvas is the lack of ease of importing test banks from publishers. I am not sure if this is due to Canvas or the publishers. But I try to avoid using quizzes as much as possible. I hate to type 60 questions and answers for each test and for each class. I usually give 5 exams per class and I typically teach 3 different classes.

Canvas in three words: reliable, convenient, and innovative.

Comments: My overall experience with Canvas has been incredible. From my days using the platform at my large public high school to my current use of Canvas at the University of Pennsylvania, I have found it to be extremely instrumental in fostering my learning. The landing page for each of my courses presents the necessary information, such as grades or quizzes, in a way that is consistent across the platform, yet also enables professors to customize what different links to information appear in order to allow them to design a page which best fits the scope of their course and its associated assignments. I have loved using Canvas, and look forward to doing so throughout the rest of my college career!

Pros:

I first used Canvas long before I ever even entered college as a high school student. However, throughout the years the platform has always remained extremely easy to use and provided me stable and secure access to my course content. With the advent of online learning brought on by the pandemic, I began to use Canvas even more this past year as a current junior in college. Reflecting on my increased use of the platform over the past year, I can appreciate how Canvas has remained not only reliable and convenient to use, but also innovative in that they have continued rolling out updates which make the platform even better, such a the "like" feature which enables students to engage more with their classmates' responses on discussion posts.

Cons:

The one feature which could be improved on Canvas would be more clear instructions on how to update your profile photo! One of my professors requested that we change our profile photos to a picture of ourselves last week, and while I was eventually able to do so successfully, it took me a little but to figure out where to take this action.

A huge step up!

Comments: As a student in several certification courses, I'm largely just relieved by the move away from Blackboard since my time in university! Canvas works reliably—it's always a relief to know that you'll be able to access your course when you need to—and has a variety of compelling features that really benefit the online learning experience, including well-designed quizzes and interactive forums.

Pros:

I feel that the quiz tool is one of the best assets to online learning I've seen in recent years. With our virtual learning system in which back-and-forth conversation (a more traditional lecture style) is not currently possible, the quiz tool allows instructors to gauge student knowledge and understanding of everything taught so far, without requiring a grade for accuracy. So much more powerful than the old-fashioned approach of requiring a weekly forum post to promote "engagement"! Canvas has a huge variety of learning tools that really enable instructors to customize their teaching styles. Instructors who use it to the best of their abilities really empower their students to learn, even in this crazy virtual world.

Cons:

The platform can be difficult to navigate at times—it's not a particularly intuitive design—and materials can get lost or overlooked (not a great situation when grades are involved!). In addition, it doesn't always play nicely with certain web browsers or ad blockers. If it's best accessed under certain settings, that should be clearly communicated!

Best of the bunch (but still not stellar)

Comments: I've been a full-time professor for six years now, and before that I was a full-time graduate student for three, and an adjunct instructor for another six, not to mention the time I spent as an undergraduate myself, when LMS software was becoming ubiquitous. This means that I've used virtually every LMS package out there as either an instructor or a student (or both), and despite its bugaboos and flaws, Canvas continues to outpace the others in terms of usability, innovation, and overall quality.

Pros:

I've used the Canvas learning management system (LMS) as both a student and an instructor for years now, and I can say with a high level of confidence that it is, by far, the best LMS available today. It strikes a good balance between available features and ease of use, meaning instructors have a reasonably high level of customization at their fingertips at the course level, but students won't be confused or overwhelmed since every Canvas course retains certain similarities that can't be altered (e.g., navigation). There also appears to be a great deal of control that can be exerted by administrators in terms of locking down (or opening up) features, so it can be tweaked accordingly for any given institution. There are a LOT of features available to instructors in Canvas, and those can be expanded indefinitely by adding third-party integrations.

Cons:

There are a range of frustrating quirks, missing features that require hack-y workarounds, confusing user interface issues, and inexplicable limitations that regular users will run into with routine use. For example, if you create an assignment and enable peer reviews of that assignment, it is difficult for students to figure out how to access the documents they are supposed to evaluate. Once they do find them, the embedded document editor is buggy and limited, and occasionally fails to save student edits. On top of all of this, if peer reviews are set to "anonymous," the embedded editor is disabled entirely--not just for students, but for the instructor as well, making it impossible to make inline comments or suggestions. Even more frustrating is the Canvas/Instructure support website, with its arcane, verbose design and overreliance on "community" message boards instead of dedicated agents to solve problems.

One of the Better Learning Management Systems on the Market

Comments: When I heard that my work was switching from our old custom-built learning platform to Canvas, I was excited. Having already used Canvas as a student, I knew that we would be switching to a much better quality experience. Canvas is overall easy to deploy and use. Though for the leading learning management system on the market, you would wish some of its rougher edges, such as navigation, would be ironed out. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to most as a quality learning management system.

Pros:

It is easy to see why Canvas is one of the most well-known and well-used learning management systems by schools and colleges across America. Its simple customizable interface, mobile app, and many integrations are definitely a step up from moodle, blackboard, and other more common systems of a generation ago. I have used it both as a student and as a teacher. I appreciate its robust features (discussion boards, file integration, quizzes, announcements, custom pages, assignment options, html design). Classes are usually organized via pages and the "modules" page which allows the building of a customized course flow. If there is something you want to be able to post to your class website Canvas probably makes it possible, and most features have many options. Your online assignment settings can be highly customized with settings such as when the assignment in visible, what kind of submissions and documents are accepted, and what category of grade the assignment is. Likewise the online quiz/test maker is fairly robust, allowing for most question types, has some auto-grading capabilities, and offers taker-friendly features like question flagging, test timer, and unfinished question reminders. Perhaps one of its best features is its plug-ins. Canvas works with other popular providers to integrate their products into Canvas. Our school uses the very well-designed Zoom plug-in for scheduling and posting recordings for our virtual classes as well as others including WebEx and Kaltura.

Cons:

While Canvas is an excellent learning management system it is far from perfect and there is still definite room for improvement. The main feature I have found frustrating is its navigation. There is no universal back button which means that rather than easily going back to a previous page you have to use a combination of your web browser back button and the course menu. Each course has a helpful customizable sidebar with major navigation links, but this is not "sticky" and so you may need to be scroll to find it on longer pages. While the online quizzes/tests are a step up for many platforms, like google forms, but not as robust as such an important feature could be. Matching questions have no easy way to tracked used answers, which can make questions with many options harder to track. Adding alternative answers for fill-in-the-blank questions can be cumbersome. Not all plug-ins are of equal quality either, but this is probably at least partly the responsibility of the developer. The mobile app works well in general but occasionally I have seen issues such as auto-rotating video screens or issues with certain quiz questions.

Design Your Dream Course on Canvas

Comments: Designing online course content has been easier with the use of Canvas. It has made teaching in an online setting much more rewarding as I am able to focus more on students and their learning instead of spending time trying to figure out how to use software.

Pros:

The intuitive design features and ease of use are great! You can create a great course in a short amount of time and you can share courses with colleagues for this purpose, too! If you're new to online course design, Canvas is definitely the platform to use. It also has design features for more advanced users that let you customize your content even further. There's definitely something for everyone here - whether your a new online content creator or well-versed.

Cons:

If I had to pick one thing it would be the actual process of integration of external software. While I love that I can integrate external software, the process is multi-step and counterintuitive. You have to secure permissions (product key or registration number externally) and separately add/activate the software in the settings feature for the course (for EACH course), and a few other steps when you actually want to use the external program in Canvas for an assignment. It does require a bit of setup and patience. The good thing is that once you do it, you're set for the term.

My favorite course management software

Comments: Overall I'm happy with Canvas. My students use Moodle in most of their other classes, but I'm still holding out... I just think it's a superior product.

Pros:

My institution uses Moodle, which I have found to be extremely cumbersome. So a few years ago, I switched to the free-for-teachers version of Canvas, and have never looked back. My favorite specific feature of Canvas is the Speed-grader, which changed my life when I switched from Moodle. I also like the way the online quizzes work. More generally what I like about Canvas is the unified design. Where as open-source course management software feels like a hodgepodge of different options and designs Frankensteined together, Canvas feels like there is a design team actually thinking through the way it should look and operate. I appreciate the flexibility it gives me with regard to the layout of the home page, how I can control what the students see, etc. Also, over the six years that I have used Canvas, I've seen features get improved in response to user suggestions. Always a good thing.

Cons:

Like all course management software, there are times when I feel that too much clicking is involved to accomplish basic tasks, or little things that should be possible are not. For example, when making rubrics for assignments, there is no way to shuffle the order of the categories. If you want to add a new line in the rubric between lines 2 and 3, you'd have to delete all the lines after 2 and start over from there. Little things like that, which aren't a huge deal, but sometimes do leave me scratching my head. Also I wish the question banks for quizzes were a little easier to manage.

Learn and teach comfortably with Canvas

Comments: You can start using this platform for your academic purposes with confidence. In spite of all the above-mentioned disadvantages, generally, the platform works without any serious problem. I’m confident that students who prefer distant learning and the teachers who like online teaching will really appreciate Canvas LMS.

Pros:

The platform is very easy and flexible to navigate so, you can be sure that you’ll never be lost while searching for the material you need. Besides, you can add text, upload pictures and videos without difficulty. In addition to this if you know how to work with HTML code you can have the design you like. The next thing that I like about Canvas is that you can communicate with your teacher and fellow students easily. You can send an email to your teacher or start a chat with your classmates. Canvas is used by educational institutions for two purposes: either for creating courses that are taught exceptionally online or for blending the traditional way of teaching with online one. This platform is especially useful for students who always need to find all the material on their course online, including the textbooks, lectures, homework, individual works and of course, their grades and attendance. Canvas makes collaboration between teachers and students more effective and fruitful.

Cons:

It is fascinating to know that the Canvas app is available on mobile devices. However, the app needs some improvements because some features are still not available there and notifications sometimes don’t pop up. The platform successfully cooperates and works with third-party vendors. However, I should mention that some programs do not work well and obviously they need to get improvements. And finally, there sometimes some glitches may occur but I wish the platform could work more smoothly.

Very functional with lots of features but can be hard for professors

Pros:

I like that CANVAS offers a lot of features to accommodate the increasing needs of online resources for learning, and its functions/features upgrades quite up to date. During the pandemic years, CANVAS is the major (virtual) workplace for professors and TAs outside Zoom. It can do almost everything, including passing down materials, creating and monitoring quizzes/tests, grading and commenting homework assignments, communicating and interacting with students and so on. I felt like the software is ahead of us in thinking about functions. Sometimes there were features to allow us avoid problems that we would not think about. Because our school used to use another platform and changed into Canvas a few years ago, I assumed the all-in-one and expanding features must be based on thousands of comments from teachers and students in lots of other institutions using it earlier than us. Overall, it's a very smart online course platform.

Cons:

CANVAS is great in having tons of features, but it could be very confusing and intimidating for professors who were not very confident in using technologies. As a student and later TA, I've seen professors having troubles or feeling uncomfortable after they made a mistake on CANVAS, for instance, wrote something incomplete and announcements were sent to the whole class before they could correct the message. Also, the ever changing features in the navigator make them feel like they have to learn it hard every year. They're busy people and not as comfortable spending time exploring features like fun parties as Gen-Z. Well, Gen-Z teachers are more and more common since they came of age, but schools and universities still have quite a lot of tenured professors who were our parents' age, so would be great if the software considers their feedback or thoughts.

Canvas - more pliable than you think

Comments: If administrators would like to get the most out of Canvas they have to "think outside the box"; otherwise it can get quite dull and tiresome for their users. Overall I think it is a good software which has a lot of potential. A simple Google search revealed that many administrators like myself looked for similar additional features/options on various forums online; so I wish that the above mentioned options -and many more-could actually be integrated into Canvas by the creators for ease of use for the consumers.

Pros:

People may define Canvas as "clunky" and "not very intuitive". I would agree that you need to "learn" how Canvas works, rather than quickly "figuring it out". I personally use Canvas not for a specific "Unit of Study" but as a platform to share information & news, and communicate with among a large group of students who do not get together in a classroom. So far it has been successful. Students seem to enjoy it and I can view usage stats to see how many pages have been viewed by which student, which is great information. The fact that it accepts HTML code made it possible for me to integrate photo slideshows and 3-d interactive photos onto my pages. I used other free software available online to create them and simply embedded into my HTML code. I do not think most users are aware of these possibilities.

Cons:

Canvas has its own language which does not apply to all needs. "Pages" and "Modules", "Unit of Study" lose their meaning when Canvas is used as communication platform like I use it. I wish these "names" could be changed by the user. Another thing that most users find a bit frustrating is the way "Modules" are displayed on one page as a list; and the constant need to scroll down to find what the user is looking for. Since this page does not really lend itself to "zjeujing up", it may look tedious for users.

Canvas User

Comments: Overall wonderful product! I will be upgrading to the pro/paid version very soon myself.

Pros:

I have my own business in addition to a full-time Revenue Cycle Manager position with a large company. I am very happy to have discovered Canvas. I started out with what can be done for free online, having not a lot of money to spend as a start up. I could not have been more pleased! They have so many templates and specifics that you can create. From business cards to posters to flyers. They have great options within the free (something that you do not always see) for font types and size and colors to choose from.

Cons:

The one thing that I had trouble with, to this day is how to create without a template. For example, If I want a plain background and add simple text. You cannot do it (that I have seen) without using something that doesn't fit for what you are doing and working with it to create. For example, I would have to choose a poster or business card but tweek to what I wanted. I have seen other software, that let you start from scratch to make what you want without a defined template. It would be great if Canvas would do that too.