New Canvas Learning Management System (LMS)
When UMass Boston learned that its contract with Blackboard would be ending in Summer 2025, those in charge were faced with a decision. On the one hand, they could remain with Blackboard as the company migrated to a new version after its purchase by Anthology. On the other hand, there was the possibility of moving to another learning management system, as UMass Amherst had already done when they switched to Instructure. Two teams were created—a core team in charge of decisions and a larger team made up of 270 faculty, staff, and students from the campus community—to weigh these two options.
The three systems in the running included Anthology’s Ultra—the LMS replacing Blackboard Learn—as well as Instructure’s Canvas and Brightspace’s Desire to Learn. After each company presented to the core team, Instructure and Anthology were both invited to campus to do two days of demonstrations for the campus community. “Their presentations focused on their Learning Management Systems, their unique features, and they also provided hands-on time with the tool. After that the core group voted based on input from their colleagues and Canvas was the clear winner,” explains Director of Learning Design Services Paula Thorsland. The core team made a recommendation to the provost’s office shortly thereafter.
Canvas was the clear choice for a variety of reasons, says UMass Boston’s Associate Chief Information Officer Apurva Mehta. “Canvas is a much more modern system. It is more open. The navigation is much easier. The features are better,” Mehta says. Thorsland echoes that sentiment but rattles off a list of other plusses. “Canvas uses less bandwidth than Blackboard, is more accessible to students, and offers an integrated mobile tool that allows students to participate in classes on the go,” she says. “Canvas has many features to make the work easier for faculty including intuitive navigation, course building, and grading. The system remembers what you have done and offers quick processing of repetitive steps, and it also allows professors to easily share work with colleagues and amongst their own courses.”
Twelve faculty members running a total of 28 courses participated in the Spring 2024 pilot, while 80 faculty members and 165 courses were a part of the Summer 2024 pilot. The pilot allowed IT staffers to set up protocols, customize the interface, set up support and training, and otherwise prepare for a larger move. By Fall 2024, 848 courses were being taught by 504 faculty members using the Canvas platform. The rest of the faculty are expected to migrate their materials over in Spring 2025, in anticipation of the Blackboard contract’s end in Summer 2025.
IT staffers are migrating roughly 5,000 active courses and archiving all courses from the past five years to help ease the transition. Thorsland and her department have also provided plenty of tools to support faculty as they attempt to familiarize themselves with the new system, including Canvas training events, weekly learning sessions, daily Zoom drop-in hours, and a self-paced Canvas training course. Faculty are appreciative of these supports, as well as the move to a more navigable and modern platform. “IT has a bunch of training sessions, which were super helpful. They also have a bunch of different shells set up for you that have a bunch of things in there for you to use already,” says Ashleigh Shelton, a Senior Lecturer in the Communication Department who was a part of the Spring 2024 pilot. “And then the thing that I think is most helpful for me is the online chat, which is through Canvas itself. With Blackboard, there is nothing like that that is immediate.”