Greetings UF Campus Community!
Our Learning Management System (LMS) Review Task Force met yesterday (October 26, 2017) to consider the data we’ve collected thus far, to engage in discussion about the experiences we’ve had with the platforms we’ve interacted with, and to make a couple decisions:
- Is there sufficient interest to warrant piloting another platform, and, if so;
- Which platform (Canvas or Brightspace) should we pilot at this time?
After considering the feedback, the task force decided that there was indeed sufficient interest to pilot another learning management system. While there was some interest in Brightspace as a platform, Canvas was the overwhelming favorite, per the data collected and the discussion amongst the task force members.
Therefore, in the 2018 spring semester, we will run a pilot of the Canvas LMS with a select number of courses. We are limited in the number of users we can create in the pilot, so we will need to be strategic in which courses we select. Therefore, we will reserve a few spots for key stakeholders, while leaving several spots open for faculty to sign up.
Of particular interest for this pilot are the following scenarios:
- Fully online courses
- Multiple sections of a course taught by the same faculty member (1 in Canvas, the others in Blackboard, for direct comparison purposes)
- Traditional courses that heavily employ the LMS
Faculty, if you are interested in having a course that you teach considered for the Canvas pilot, please use the form below:
https://goo.gl/forms/vfzlbFryr4HA17Pa2
Students (if you’re still reading at this point) – you’re not off the hook yet. If you happen to be fortunate enough to take a course that is part of the pilot, our hope is that you will be a willing partner in our efforts to collect data in determining the success of this pilot. Essentially, this will mean filling out a survey or two, with the possibility of town hall type discussions as well.
Thank you for your attention and interest, please stay tuned for additional information as it becomes available!
C. Damon Osborne, Ph.D.Associate Vice President for Online and Alternative Delivery Programs