Curriculum continues with Canvas

PHOTO: Sitting on her bed, senior Anne Zhao navigates the Canvas homepage.

By Jihan Moon,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The Davis Joint Unified School District swapped Google Classroom for Canvas, a learning management system (LMS), to provide a more versatile online learning space for their students and teachers.

Last spring, DJUSD hastily selected Google Classroom as a district-wide learning service as a result of a quick migration to online learning. “We used whatever platforms were available,” said Rody Boonchouy, the DJUSD Associate Superintendent of Instruction. “We needed more robust functionality.”

When deciding what LMS they should use for the 2020-21 school year, DJUSD whittled it down to three options: Canvas, Blackboard and Schoology. They surveyed the teachers and got in contact with other districts that used these LMSs. Canvas became the front runner after a deep dive into the statistics, cost and support services of the three finalists.

“I’m not a huge fan of Canvas, honestly,” said Dianna Stommel, a Davis High teacher and the Davis Teachers Association President. While she does appreciate certain aspects of Canvas, particularly the Discussion section, she has struggled to transition to the new platform. 

“It’s all just there,” said senior Anne Zhao, in reference to the expanded capabilities of Canvas. “I prefer Canvas. I think it’s more well integrated for running a school that’s as big as ours.”