My institution is using Blackboard but I prefer Canvas

[lberger]

I have two small classes with 8 in one course and 14 in the other.

My institution uses Blackboard but I just HATE it.

I am familiar with Canvas and think it's user friendly.

I have opened a free teacher account.

I am not totally clear how to give my student's access to the course that I am creating.

Is anyone doing this?

Using Canvas indépendant of your institution?

What resources here have you found helpful?

How do you give student access to the Canvas course?

I only want to use the discussion, files, grades and announcement portions of Canvas.

thank you for your help

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @lberger  Welcome to the Canvas Community!

I am not that familiar with FFT, but there is a discussion at Adding new users to FFT and you may also want to check out the https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/free-for-teachers group in this community. I have also asked any of my colleagues who use it to help out.

Kelley

[hallmans]

 @lberger ‌ Hi -

Canvas is great and very intuitive. One thing you should check on is how does your institution require you to keep records. For instance, you may need to have grades in the "official" LMS and be responsible for providing all student submissions in case of an audit. Bureaucracy aside, its a better student experience here in Canvas.

[rickh]

What will your students think if they have to remember another URL to go to for just your course?  That is in addition to your storing student records in a place (Albeit really safe) that is not authorized by your school may cause some issues or it may not.

Rick 

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @rickh  

You might note that I said, "I am not that familiar with FFT". And that is because I don't use FFT to provide instruction to students at any of the three colleges I work for.

However, If I worked at a Bb school, I would certainly consider it!

Kelley