The question posed to me was:  How can we improve our usage of Canvas?

My response:  Make a long-term commitment/contract with Canvas, for example, sign a 3-year to 5-year deal to keep Canvas as our online system for storing course content and more importantly, our resources.  

When I’ve stated this out loud, it seems that I’m catching people off guard.  Sometimes the response back is the opposite approach, “We need to shop around to see if we can find something better.”

My response, “We did shop – and we could shop every year for a newer, better system…. but that will only help a few people.  If we want to help everyone, we need to build consistency by staying with a solution for the long term.”

We know Canvas is NOT perfect.  In my opinion, no learning management system is perfect. In fact, no piece of software is perfect.  Every solution has benefits and concerns –  and shopping for something new only gets you a new set of benefits, as well as a new set of concerns.  

By looking at a long-term deal, we create stability and consistency that will help us. A long-term deal would help assure our staff that we aren’t going to pull the rug out from under them and make a sudden switch to the next new shiny thing that comes along.  It takes a lot of time to load course materials and resources into an online system – and nothing is more frustrating than conversations about possibly changing systems.  Providing this consistency is not only a benefit for staff,  I believe it also provides consistency for students, administrators, and parents in the long term.

Thoughts or reactions?   Either drop me a line at abelingb@wdmcs.org or leave a comment on this post.