One Canvas, Two Audiences: How Faculty and Students use a Newly Adopted Learning Management System
James Madison University (JMU) adopted a new Learning Management System in the 2013 2014 academic year. In the 2014 2015 academic year, a small group of instructors and 2 instructional technologists conducted survey research to evaluate the faculty's and student body's experiences with the Canvas learning management system (LMS) roll out. The results of the study indicated that while faculty and students were generally satisfied with Canvas, there are distinct differences in the way each group uses technology: faculty design their courses for delivery on laptops, but students use smartphones to access Canvas. Unfortunately, the interface, navigation, and features on Canvas for mobile devices are very limited. In addition, the course structure and learning modules cannot be viewed on smartphones. This creates a usability issue for the students, and presents a distinct challenge for instructors who are unaware that their students are not able to see or use the course, as they intended.