Hi Todd,
I fondly recall when we were going through our LMS evaluations a few years ago and I know it's an exciting yet daunting task. At the time our top contenders were Canvas, Schoology and Haiku. Haiku would have been the safest choice for us because many of our neighboring K-12 school districts had been using it and had positive things to say about it. However, when we put all of the features of the systems next to each other on a spreadsheet Canvas ranked highest on the things we valued most. At the time this was:
- Open, yet secure, integration and design architecture- Open APIs, IMS Global Standards (LTI, QTI), Turnitin.com integaration, Google Apps/Drive & SSO, and open sourced.
- Feedback Tools- video, audio, annotated markup, rubric, text and peer reviews
- Less clicks to get it done- We didn't have a lot of resources to dedicate to our evaluation so we especially appreciated this report from the University of Texas at Austin.
The list goes on, but those were our top three things at the time. We also appreciated how Canvas shared most of it's future development plans and roadmap and we found that they were the most forward thinking of the group. We've been using Canvas now for nearly three years and we don't have any regrets. Of course, there are always a few things everyone wishes it had but it doesn't right now, but we have seen steady improvement and it's also amazing to see how the Canvas using community has grown and how open source projects such as Utah State's Design Tools (AKA Kennethware) and Canvancement: Enhancements to the Canvas LMS have come along and made a good thing better.
In our district no one is required or obligated to use Canvas but it is avaliable for all our teachers to use. Our recent stats indicate that approximately 73% of our teachers are using it and 88% of our students. As I compare notes with surrounding districts, this is much higher than what they are seeing. I think the biggest factor for this is that it was the teachers who drove the selection process and then the training and rollout. They were the ones who wanted Canvas based on their own use of it in the Free for Teachers accounts. For us this made all the difference, so I'd always recommend you empower your teacher leaders to test the waters and define the process. Take sales presentations with a grain of salt. Usually all that will tell you is who can make a better pitch. Teacher & Student feedback should be what is most important.
It's been a while, but I presented a session at a the E-Learning Strategies Symposium- Selecting the Right Tool on how to select the right LMS. Here is a link to my resource document that I shared with everyone at the session. I do not presume to ever recommend what LMS another school should use so you won't see me saying one is better than the other, but I hope this will help you find the right fit and that it may offer a few useful nuggets for you and your team.
Best on your LMS quest! If you have any updates or further questions feel free to share them here or contact me.
PS-- our SIS doesn't play nice with other tools either, but thanks to the Canvas API and a great programer we have our own portal tool that teachers can use to transfer the grades from Canvas to our SIS, so don't underestimate the power of the APIs.
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