At the beginning of the 2024 school year, Rockhurst High School students made the change from Google Classroom to Canvas. This change in the learning management system (LMS), as it is known, means students now view and turn in most of their work on a different platform. This change was felt by each and every student as most had previously been using Classroom.
“It’s a much more robust system than Google Classroom, which means it can do more, both on the teacher side, on the student side, but it’s also [accessible] where people can see more,” assistant principal for academics Mike Wickenhauser said.
With Canvas being more complex than Classroom, the learning curve has been steep for students—especially given the fact that they didn’t receive formal training on the system.
“The hope, maybe more than an expectation, would be as students start to kind of learn what they need to do–access their grades, access their assignments, upload their assignments–that the teachers would walk them through that process, to the extent that they were able,” Wickenhauser said. “Students would support one another in that process.”
Student reactions have mixed, because the platform is new.
“To be honest, it is chill,” junior Sebastian Russell said. “I find it difficult to see what is due.”
Russell hits on one of the main complaints about Canvas among students: They feel it’s more difficult to find what they should be doing for a respective class than it was on Google Classroom.
“I don’t like the layout,” Russell said. “It is hard to learn.”
With the system being new for teachers as well, they extended grace to the students who grappled with the challenges of it. However, while some have struggled, others have adapted well.
“I guess it was relatively easy to learn,” freshman Peter Frerker said. “The teachers were there to help.”
“It was incredibly easy, and I have a solid hang of it now,” said junior Xavier Clemons.
Even if they’re getting the hang of it, some students still prefer the previous LMS.
“Google Classroom would be more simple and manageable,” Clemons said.
“Yes, 100%, Google Classroom would be better. I don’t like having to open my browser,” Russell said.
This is another common complaint of students: The inconvenience of opening a web browser rather than opening an app. While Canvas does have an app, it doesn’t give students the ability to see assignments the same or provide the same options for turning in work. That last point, in particular, gave students and teachers alike fits early in the semester.
A big reason Rockhurst switched to the Canvas LMS was because it gave parents better and more complete access to grades and assignments.
“Parents have long wanted access to essentially what’s going on in the classroom,” Wickenhauser said. “Oftentimes what would happen is an assignment would…occur, and then a student wouldn’t turn it in, and then there’s this lag before the parents are aware that the assignment even exists, much less we didn’t turn it in.
“So that desire, along with many other desires, forced or encouraged us to explore the systems.”
But students Prep News talked to say they’re not sure their parents are taking advantage.
“I don’t know if my parents like it,” Clemons said. “I know they don’t look at it.”
“My parents have no idea what I am even using,” Russell said. “I don’t think they look at it at all.”
Another reason for changing to Canvas gets at one of the core elements of Rockhurst as an institution: It prepares them for their post-secondary life.
“It’s also an LMS… that’s the most prominent one used by colleges,” Wickenhauser said. “And so, it’s a college prep school getting students exposed to it here so that hopefully they come up the learning curve, and are able to maximize its benefits when they move.”
Regardless of how students feel about it, they will need to get used to Canvas, because it’s not going anywhere.
