At the start of the 2018-2019 school year, Sonoma State University began the process of moving from Moodle to Canvas as their new learning management system (LMS). Some instructors may still be using Moodle instead of Canvas. For most students who have attended Sonoma State since their freshman year, they are used to going through Moodle for their school needs.
Depending on the student and what courses they may be taking, they must check with their instructor to find out if the course will be through Moodle, or canvas.
Today more than 300 colleges, universities and school districts use Canvas as their learning management system.
Chris Gawel, a development representative with Canvas says, “Canvas launched in 2011, and was first used in Universities, though I don’t know exactly which was first… probably someone here in Utah as we are based here.” Gawel explains that he has never personally been a user of Canvas, but he thinks Mastery Paths are very cool. “Mastery Paths allow for students to receive individualized instruction based on level of comprehension,” Gawel says.
The change to Canvas was not a question of personal preference; it was a change Sonoma State decided to make campus-wide. They are still in the process of transferring over, and some instructors still have not made the switch. With the change from Moodle to Canvas, Gerontology Professor Pamela Abbott-Enzo was one of the instructors to make the shift right away. She says that most LMS are fine but “Ultimately, it really comes down to instructional design. I prefer the discussion board capabilities in Moodle, and I think it is far more visually appealing. Students seem to prefer Canvas in terms of simplicity of screen and similarity to social media in appearance,” she said
She believes students would much rather prefer to turn their assignments in through a website like Canvas or Moodle, rather than wasting their money on printing pages and pages out, as well as it is much more environmentally friendly. Abbot-Enzo uses Canvas to its full potential. She says she used it to, “load lecture notes, copied of presentations, readings, and even do exams through the LMS.”
Izack Romero a Senior transfer student, has used Canvas in the past with his school work and he says, “I prefer Canvas over Moodle because of the ease of use that Canvas brings. Canvas’ user interface is a lot easier to manage because they have all your classes, assignments, and grades on one page. You have to click through three to four tabs to get to any of those on moodle.” Everybody has their personal preferences on what they would prefer using. Eventually, Moodle will no longer be an option as the university will complete its transition to Canvas at the start of the next school year.
