After a semester of testing, Binghamton University officials have not yet determined whether they will replace Blackboard with Canvas, an alternative Learning Management system (LMS) which was piloted by several classes this semester.

Donald Loewen, vice provost for undergraduate education, said in an email to Pipe Dream that the University is still in the process of collecting responses from the students and faculty who participated in the Canvas pilot. He said that testing will continue during the summer session.

“We are making the system available to other faculty to try,” Loewen wrote, “and we hope to get a few more courses on Canvas for the first summer session if we can find some instructors who will volunteer to do it.”

He said that the most heavily used software at any university tends to be its email system and its LMS. Loewen explained that this makes it extremely important to examine any potential new product and get input from various groups before deciding on a change.

“We also want to take a look at the way Blackboard is developing its own system to improve its usability and responsiveness,” he wrote.

Harald Zils, a German professor who used Canvas in his class this semester, explained in an email some of the differences between Canvas and Blackboard.

“Blackboard [clings] to a rigorous hierarchy of material, while Canvas is task-oriented,” Zils wrote. “That means, for instance, when I set up an announcement or an assignment in Canvas, it is done in one spot, and so, for adding pdfs or other material, [neither I nor my students] have to switch to ‘course reserves.’”

He said that one advantage Blackboard has over Canvas is a larger amount of storage space. However, he was not sure if that would change should the University choose to fully implement Canvas.

Zils said that it seemed like his students preferred Canvas’ Graphical User Interface over Blackboard’s. Some students also used a group-collaboration feature included with Canvas.

Another feature of Canvas that Zils enjoyed was the ability to bookmark certain sections due to the fact that it does not have frames like Blackboard does.

However, there are features Zils would like to see that are not available on either Canvas or Blackboard.

“A course planning tool that helps scheduling specific sessions before the semester begins would help a lot, especially for new courses (but also for making changes to old ones),” he wrote. “Enter topics for the sessions, drag and drop them until you got the best order, include all sorts of deadlines, push a button and the system fills a course calendar – this would be useful.”

Joe Mutarelli, a sophomore majoring in German who was in a class participating in the pilot program, said that Canvas has a very user-friendly interface and that it has grown on him even more since he last spoke to Pipe Dream about Canvas in February.

“If anything my opinion is only higher now than it was,” Mutarelli said. “The program is extremely efficient and I can’t say I have had any troubles with it. The interface takes some time to get used to, but after a week or two it’s like second nature.”

Mutarelli, who uses Blackboard in all of his other classes, added that he wishes those classes used the new program.

“Simply by virtue of the ease of use, the lack of technical issues, and the logical interface, I think it would be a phenomenal replacement for Blackboard,” he said.