Gonzaga begins transition from utilizing Blackboard to Canvas

Jul 17, 2023

Staff writer

This spring, Gonzaga University academic departments will begin a transition from the Blackboard platform to Canvas for hosting class content.

According to a briefing from the Office of the Provost, professors and faculty can expect to start exploring Canvas this semester, and students can expect to have their first courses on Canvas in the spring semester.

Karen Petruska, an associate communications studies professor and GU Senate vice president, said the faculty experience using Blackboard during the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult.

"Blackboard was not a tool that was functional for us … everything about it was cumbersome," Petruska said.

The way Blackboard serves videos was especially challenging for her media based communication courses.

Justin Marquis, the director of Instructional Design and Delivery (IDD) at GU, said he is quite excited about the benefits of Canvas over Blackboard.

Marquis said that the benefits of the transition greatly outweigh the challenges, and trainings have been going well.

"So far, the turnout for the workshops have been fantastic," Marquis said.

Petruska said she is looking forward to all the class management features, especially file management.

In Blackboard any changes made to a file require a new version of that entire file. If a single date in the syllabus has to be changed a new version must be uploaded on Blackboard. Blackboard retains a copy of each and every additional file, which means that some Blackboard classes are taking up more than 300 gigabytes of storage space. This may cause difficulties with Canvas’ 2 gigabyte per course limit.

Marquis said he wants to reassure faculty members who are worried about the transition that his office is working directly with faculty members to clean up their courses. He doesn't foresee many instances where anything of substance is lost, rather that most of these large file courses are simply stuffed with duplicate and outdated files. Approximately 7,000 students and 500 faculty will need to have their data moved. IDD's plan consists of migrating to Canvas one department at a time.

Each professor will have specific needs for their courses, but Marquis said he hopes that by giving attention to individual departments the lessons learned along the way will most likely apply to other professors in the same department.

IDD is running a voluntary "early adopter" program for faculty who want to make the switch as soon as possible. Marquis said he would like any faculty who feel they would be a good fit for early adoption to reach out to him at the IDD office.

"We are going to support people and teach them best practices, it's plain and obvious that [with Canvas] we can do things better than the way they were with Blackboard," Marquis said.

Marquis said that professors will see their syllabi and calendars automatically update term by term. For example, if a class is every Tuesday and Thursday this term, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday next term, Canvas will edit the syllabus, list the new dates on the calendar and alert students to the change.

Not only will Canvas maintain a single faculty member's calendar and schedule, but it will also synchronize with the central GU calendar. Notable days like Founder's Day and Red Mass will automatically shift the syllabus schedule and serve it up to the professor for review.

Marquis said that for students, communication and collaboration are the foundations Canvas is built on. Students can now conduct joint remote projects without setting up a Google document, a Discord chat or a Zoom call. Documents can be collaboratively edited inside the Canvas suite. Members can generate text messages or social media notifications for their group.

"Right now, students will all go to Slack or they go to FaceTime or they do something else, and with Canvas they can actually do all of that collaboration on one platform." Marquis said.

Staff writer