HCA Canvas FAQ What is a Learning Management System (LMS)? A LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of educational content online. Why do we need a LMS? To better manage our learning environments, provide students and parents with a more transparent and easily navigable online learning environment, and to track the progress of students against learning goals and objectives. This last points allows HCA to make curriculum improvements when necessary and identify at risk students. How will this help with the ipad initiative? Teachers and students will have a protected environment for delivering and consuming educational content, minimizing the need to access other content or websites making classroom management easier, and it should minimize printing. Why Canvas? Functionality, ease of use, and cost are the main drivers. Moving content and grading to the LMS provides greater transparency to parents who can then log in to their student s Canvas profile and see all the information that was provided as well as the work their student has completed and/or submitted. Parents can also see rubrics provided for individual assignments as well as references and other resources. Parents also have greater choices for communication. For example, they can choose the criteria for their notifications.
Will this replace RenWeb? Yes and No. For the initial phase, teachers will still need to do attendance in RenWeb, but all other content, including assignments, communication, content, resources, and grades will be in Canvas. Grades will be transcribed into RenWeb for report cards and transcripts at the end of each term by Technology. RenWeb is currently being evaluated for replacement. Canvas integrates with many other School Management Software packages. How will it help students and parents? Students should never be at a loss for what assignments are due, what resources are to be used, the rubric for grading, or their current standing in any class. Parents can more closely monitor their student s progress and have real time information about their student s progress and be able to better help their student turn in work on time and encourage studying for tests and quizzes. All secondary grades will be tracked in Canvas, not RenWeb. How will it help HCA Administration? HCA Administration will be able to evaluate the progress of students against school wide learning objectives and goals as well as compare them with state wide learning objectives. Where students as a group struggle, HCA Administration can adjust curriculums and learning objectives to ensure that all students can master the subject material. Also, where curriculum content is not challenging enough, adjustments can be made. At risk students can be easily identified as well. What will this first year look like? Initial phase of the implementation will focus on moving existing content into Canvas and moving towards a base online delivery of that content. Student submission of work will be online as well as grading and feedback. Teachers will be trained and monthly meetings will be held to discuss challenges, successes, and areas for improvement. The implementation will evolve based on teacher, student, and parent feedback. Key focus is to use the product for proper reporting of assignments, grading, communication, and classroom management.
Instructions for Logging into Canvas 1. You will get a course invitation. You can click the link and will be navigated to the following screen. 2. Click on Create My Account. Enter a password and click Register. 3. You can also go to http://hcasaints.instructure.com and click the link Don t Know Your Password.
4. Enter the email address. This should be the email that your invitation to the course was received. This is how Canvas knows how to link you to your student. Select Request Password.
5. You can go to your email and you will see a link to set up a new password. Once you successfully log into Canvas, you can click the Accept button to accept the invitation to observe your student.