For over six years, Schoology has been the app most teachers and students at Dana Hall have used to view and submit assignments, but soon we will bid it a farewell. We are switching to Canvas, which is another course management platform that is used around the country.
According to Ms. Samantha Maselli, Technology Support Specialist at Dana Hall, the switch is happening because Schoology “has been crashing and causing issues that are impacting students, faculty, and staff.”
These technological errors were not an isolated incident according to Emma Beardsley ‘22, who says that “throughout this year some of my assignments have not gone through due to a glitch, and for a while assignments would not export to Notability properly.” Emma Gershberg ‘22 agreed about the technological difficulties and added that “Schoology’s layout is not very clean and easy to navigate.”
Canvas began operating in 2012, and the Technology Department has been researching it this year. Ms. Maselli states that “after months of testing, the decision to move forward with Canvas has been approved.”
While we do not know as a school whether Canvas will be an improvement from Schoology, there will be features for us to adjust to. Alumna Jocelyn Zuckerman ‘20, who uses Canvas at Colorado College, states that “Canvas has a different kind of grade book than Schoology. There is an option for teachers to show you the class average and where you fall on that scale.”
We will soon find out if Canvas is a positive change for us, for the Dana Hall community will begin using Canvas in the 2021-2022 school year.
Image Source: University of Nebraska, Canvas Logo