We can all remember a time before canvas, when every assignment was done on paper and there were turn-in-bins at the front of classes. An effect of the COVID-19 virus has been the elimination of the majority of those bins. Canvas is now the new norm for a lot of schools and because of this change, the way classes work has changed for the better. With digital innovation, school can become much easier and far more streamlined.

Often times when I don’t submit work, it’s because I forget when its due so a tool like canvas (which displays due dates on the assignment) can be very useful. This also applies to things like tests and quizzes and helps prevent people from walking into a class not knowing they have a quiz. Furthermore, this adds a certain level of credibility because canvas has a to-do list automatically made so it’s much harder to accidentally forget your homework.

Another good thing about canvas is that it helps to keep student on-top of their work. If you’ve ever missed a lot of school at once, you know it can be very stressful to try to make that up. You either have to ask for the work in advance or try to catch up afterwards, both of which are very inconvenient. If classes have all their assignments on canvas, it eliminates this because now students can know exactly what they’re missing and plan their time out accordingly.

Some people might say otherwise and bring up that fact that if somebody is absent or sick, they most likely wouldn’t want to do their work while they’re out. All of that is totally valid, however, I think it’s better that they can at least know what they have to do and have the recourses to do it rather than having to ask for all of the work the day they come back with no idea what to expect.

Canvas also allows you to see your grades updated in real time. You can see exactly what you get on a test or an assignment and your overall grade for that class. It also allows you to use a feature called “predicted grades” where you can see how a certain grade will affect your overall average in a certain class. This way there is no more guess work involved with estimating your final grades and it can help speed up the grading process, allowing you to see what you got earlier.

Additionally, when teachers reject using canvas it can make things a whole lot harder. When I have 5 classes that use canvas and one that doesn’t it causes a lot of unnecessary stress, and some things are just easier when they’re done digitally. Everyone has a phone to submit assignments, but a lot of people don’t have printers. I know that some people might prefer paper assignments, but overall, I believe that the benefits of online work outpace the downsides.

Overall, a lot of the benefits that canvas provides comes down to its ability to speed things up and when you think about it, this makes sense. In every other facet of our lives, technology has been created to provide convenience, so why shouldn’t we adapt to a more tech-friendly way of running schools?