In this episode of Who Made That Decision, Elaina Polsen speaks with Dustin Hardin and Kelly Lane about the upcoming learning management system switch from itslearning to Canvas. Together they discuss the reason behind the switch, the process taken to select Canvas, and what to expect with the upcoming switch.
00;00;04;08 - 00;00;33;10
Speaker 1
Welcome to who made that decision. I'm Elaina Polsen, Chief Communications Officer with Clear Creek, ISD. This podcast is designed to help fill in the why behind decisions we make and Clear Creek. I'm very excited about this topic as it really will improve the lesson design, collaboration and communication between teachers. We're talking all about Canvas today. Canvas is a popular learning management system used in school districts and universities all over the country and it is coming to Clear Creek ISD next year.
00;00;33;20 - 00;00;44;12
Speaker 1
To help us fill in the blanks. Today we have Dustin Harden, Chief Technology Officer, and Kelly Lane Director of Learning Technology. So Dustin why are we moving away from it's learning to canvas.
00;00;44;29 - 00;01;19;14
Speaker 2
At very simple we are being forced to. Back in 2019, the parent company of its learning was bought out by another company and I believe early 20, 20, they made the decision to exit out of the United States in full. This put many districts, not just Clear Creek ISD still in the same position of scrambling to find a new system that thankfully I'm happy to report that nearly all of those districts that are using its learning across the United States have moved to canvas.
00;01;19;18 - 00;01;31;07
Speaker 2
So it was phenomenal to see. It wasn't a split that some went to canvas and some went to others. It seems that most of the districts across the U.S. saw this sort of natural progression.
00;01;32;11 - 00;01;50;00
Speaker 1
And Kelly, first, we have 5000 employees in Clear Creek ISD and they may not necessarily know of our procurement process. And this was a very lengthy. Tell us a little bit about the committee that you put together to examine all different platforms. And who did that include?
00;01;50;17 - 00;02;27;00
Speaker 3
Well, it included lots of our teachers, our administrators, district leaders and staff members. We really wanted to be inclusive in this decision making process so that we could make sure that this was meeting the needs of all of our staff members so that we can provide the best learning tool for our students and Clear Creek ISD. So we started as soon as we heard this was going to happen, we started the process of getting to see all the different types of of LMSs or learning management systems that were available to school districts.
00;02;27;01 - 00;02;47;00
Speaker 3
We were looking for a K12 platform. We wanted to have some consistency for our students all the way from kindergarten through high school and then the plus with campus is that it is often used in the higher ed, so it will continue to be a tool that our students will use when they move on to other great things that they plan on doing.
00;02;47;10 - 00;03;15;28
Speaker 3
And then from there, we worked with district leaders, then we worked with our our curriculum coordinators and other administrators. But the best part of the entire process was when we asked teachers from each campus we had over added to our total over 150 teachers and participants to be able to hear the demonstrations from all of the ones that we were looking at before we finally made the decision to go with canvas
00;03;16;07 - 00;03;26;02
Speaker 3
And so we felt like this before. Above all, those were the most important voices that we listened to, to help us make this decision.
00;03;26;28 - 00;03;37;19
Speaker 1
Dustin from your end, what do you think would be the sort of the evolution of what I don't want to say better than it's learning because that's because learning was a great platform.
00;03;37;19 - 00;03;37;27
Speaker 2
Great.
00;03;38;03 - 00;03;43;00
Speaker 1
But this has taken us to another level. What sort of features or enhancements will teachers experience?
00;03;43;09 - 00;04;11;28
Speaker 2
I mean, that's probably the greatest part when we start looking at the list of things that Canvas offers. It took the best parts of probably of it's learning like take the grade pass back that teachers love, the fact they can do grades and it's learning and it pushes it into skyward Clear Creek built that with its learning canvas reached out has reached out four years ago and worked with skyward and have as a much more robust, grade pass back tool.
00;04;12;07 - 00;04;35;29
Speaker 2
That's not going away. The parent feature where parents can see the the content and see the courses that's actually more enhanced. So that best features the best parts of its learning canvas has those, but the list goes on. There is a speed grader that canvas offers to help teachers save some time. Annotating assignments directly from within the system.
00;04;36;22 - 00;05;04;23
Speaker 2
The Microsoft 365 integration is the strongest. Microsoft actually highlights Canvas on their own website because no other LMS has that kind of integration with that. There's an integrated to do list on the as a dashboard for students to look at. And the list I mean, the list goes on. Kelly, there are some things that you got a you wanted to highlight as well.
00;05;04;23 - 00;05;34;29
Speaker 3
Absolutely. Even thinking about they have a type of adaptive release path that students can take within the modules and there are some prerequisites and there are also some requirements. So based off of a student's need and their personalized need, the teacher can create a path for that student that can help them either review, extend, enhance or just strengthen knowledge in that content area so that we are really appreciative of.
00;05;35;08 - 00;06;12;03
Speaker 3
We also like the comments, which is a library area so that we can share resources with one another. They can be from the curriculum coordinators or teachers sharing resources or even templates with one another. That is it's very robust. It's very easy. There are ones that are already built. But what's great about the comments is it gives teachers this really natural, authentic way to go and make it their own so that it reinforces what they're doing in the classroom and not what someone else is saying they should do in the classroom specific to what their students need and.
00;06;12;03 - 00;06;28;25
Speaker 1
We heard that overwhelming lead during our listening sessions across campuses of this desire to break down those silos beyond the school building, to get teachers to be collaborating across the districts grade levels, subjects. So that's very exciting.
00;06;29;04 - 00;06;54;18
Speaker 3
And there are even other methods to be able to do that teachers can share directly. If they've created a campus page, they can just share it directly with another teacher. They don't even have to put it in the Comments. They can just share it with their teams. It doesn't require any extra steps other than a send to share and the teachers will have it in there under their notifications area and they can then start customizing it the way they want it in their classroom.
00;06;54;25 - 00;07;09;01
Speaker 3
So it is definitely going to open up ways for our teachers to collaborate and just be more efficient with their and give them more give them time back because they're not having to work harder to create the same resources that other teachers are creating.
00;07;09;06 - 00;07;16;09
Speaker 1
And you've been out introducing canvas to leaders, instructional leaders, and what feedback have you been receiving from them?
00;07;16;20 - 00;07;47;04
Speaker 3
We is been incredibly positive. They are so excited about it. I'm getting text emails. They are excited about its potential and the possibilities that it can offer for not only providing professional learning on campus, but what it's going to mean for our end users, for our students, and for their parents to be able to build this community of learners so that we are supporting what all kids need.
00;07;47;13 - 00;08;21;13
Speaker 3
There is an amazing when we talk about features that it offers, canvas is driven by accessibility. So they're accessibility tools even within inside of canvas are incredible. They have an accessibility tracker, our checker, they even have immersive reader. So we feel with Canvas we are going to be able to reach all students and I always stress all with ALL capitalize because we want to meet the needs of all students no matter where they are in their learning journey.
00;08;21;13 - 00;08;23;26
Speaker 3
And we feel canvas is going to help us get there.
00;08;24;17 - 00;08;37;19
Speaker 1
And the training side of it you have, you and your team have created multiple pathways to be trained on campus. I've seen it. And I mean, your team is amazing. You talk a little bit about the different pathways that teachers can take to Master Canvas.
00;08;37;22 - 00;09;13;06
Speaker 3
Absolutely. And thank you. We're super excited about our canvas success plan that we created this year. We we looked at our entire we have we were very lucky. We have an entire year to transition to our new learning management system. So we wanted to maximize our opportunities. So in the fall of this year, we focused on helping our gain, giving access to all of our district leaders, our campus leaders, our administrators, our coaches, anyone that our teacher is going to interact with on a daily basis.
00;09;13;13 - 00;09;47;22
Speaker 3
We want everyone to feel comfortable so that we open up conversations about what canvas can mean for students in their when they're in class and then from there. So we have had canvas moments and administrator meetings so that we can just give little tidbits. So it's face to face. We've had virtual conversations and trainings. We are also opening up to where we're creating an early adopter for mission specialist teams so that we can identify teaching teachers who operate on different learning styles.
00;09;47;29 - 00;10;13;04
Speaker 3
It's not just one way that our teachers learn either. So we're trying to find ways for our teachers to meet the needs of all teachers in as they get to know canvas as well. Then in January, we're very super excited. We're kicking it off. All teachers will have access to canvas and our learning technology coaches alongside all of the instructional coaches, will be reaching out and working with teachers.
00;10;13;24 - 00;10;35;28
Speaker 3
And so we hope it will just continue to go in full circle so that if a teacher has a question and they're talking with a librarian, it's timely, it's relevant. And that librarian who's already been who's already been given access will be able to have a conversation with them. It's a collective ownership to the learning process and gaining knowledge of how canvas can work for our students.
00;10;36;18 - 00;10;40;00
Speaker 1
So Dustin what is the next major milestone?
00;10;40;00 - 00;10;44;16
Speaker 2
I believe the next one's going to be January getting the teachers involved.
00;10;44;17 - 00;10;45;03
Speaker 3
Yes.
00;10;45;19 - 00;11;08;28
Speaker 2
Just this week, you know, we've met with high school librarians and special education instructional leaders. And every year after Thanksgiving, we're going to probably hit some more key groups. But the big ones going to be hitting in January and releasing this to everyone, which really excited as well, is that when teachers log in, they're not going to have a blank slate.
00;11;08;28 - 00;11;33;21
Speaker 2
We've already finished the skyward integration, so whenever the teachers log in in January to receive their training, they're going to have their current rosters, their current classes or current students, and their students won't be able to access it. But there won't just be a blank slate of nothing. They're going to actually see the courses in there. It also helps some troubleshooting throughout the spring to make sure that integration is correct that they can help us with.
00;11;33;28 - 00;11;36;08
Speaker 1
So when does its learning officially go away?
00;11;36;17 - 00;11;57;06
Speaker 2
It's learning goes away. May 31st. It will be the very last day we that's going to be well communicated out to everybody in the trainings as well as gives teachers quite a few months to take what they feel is important. If they would like to move it into canvas, they're going to have quite a few months to do so.
00;11;57;12 - 00;12;02;27
Speaker 2
And during those trainings they'll be some opportunities to ask questions to the learning technology coaches for assistance.
00;12;03;19 - 00;12;21;10
Speaker 1
Well, this is very exciting. I know we Kelly, we were talking about taking this on the road to really just do have the bells and whistles of canvas because there's so much to be excited about. And that schedule will be coming out shortly as we wrap up, is there anything else the two of you would like to add about our move to canvas?
00;12;21;21 - 00;12;44;20
Speaker 3
It's probably the main thing. If there is any way that we could sum this up is we really believe that at the time it's learning was exactly what our teachers and our students needed and our parents. But now that our now that we have kind of moved forward, what we're finding is canvas is going to offer us more a it's going to help us reach a ceiling.
00;12;44;20 - 00;13;15;19
Speaker 3
We never wanted to be in a program or an in a tool that wasn't going to allow us to exceed what we expected it to do. And we believe with Canvas, we're going to be able to exceed our own expectations right now because we have such amazing teachers who are going to find ways to really help our students find their strengths and their passions and and just be excited about learning.
00;13;16;05 - 00;13;23;02
Speaker 1
It's amazing that a platform can do that, but I know I've seen some of those demos and that's very exciting. What about you Dustin.
00;13;23;08 - 00;13;42;20
Speaker 2
I just want to echo that. I think any teacher or staff member who has any sort of fears about this big change, just take a deep breath. It's it's not going to be that the people who've had access to it already, it's not going to be that different. You know, all the things that they know when it's learning, it's all there.
00;13;42;21 - 00;14;01;17
Speaker 2
So the any any kind of anxiety they would have about this being a new implementation, it's just not going to be a huge change. It'll be a little, little learning curve there. But everyone that we've interacted with at the to this point, they have just really been impressed with the program.
00;14;02;09 - 00;14;25;06
Speaker 1
You bring up a good point. I remember when we moved into is learning and having a learning management system was relatively new. Of course we didn't. We had some adopters into it in Blackboard and now there's not. And I think COVID forced us all in exactly the importance of having an online presence for students and parents. And so now I can't even imagine if a teacher was there.
00;14;25;06 - 00;14;33;07
Speaker 1
I can live without it's learning. And to be able to create a whole new ecosystem for them to set up life in is exciting.
00;14;33;18 - 00;14;34;07
Speaker 2
Very much so.
00;14;34;12 - 00;14;47;24
Speaker 1
Okay, well, we look forward to learning more about Canvas Thank you so much, Dustin and Kelly, for joining us today. And you'll all of our teachers, we'll hear more about it after the holidays. Yes. So be sure to listen to this podcast and more on this topic. Thank you.
00;14;48;19 - 00;14;50;24
Speaker 3
Thank you.