Does anyone have experience with Canvas, ARU's online learning portal?

QforUK2020

Hi,

I hold an offer to ARU for Creative Writing but I might not be able to travel as early as January, hence I am considering taking up the first trimester entirely online. The portal for online learning is Canvas, and I'm trying to peruse it but so far no luck, none of the sample videos seem to be playing, and it keeps asking me to log in.

I am unable to get a feel of the portal, so I'm opening it up here to folks who have experience actually studying their course on it? How has it been going and is it a worthy replacement until face-to-face teaching becomes viable again?

Reply 1

ARUStudents

Official Rep

Original post by QforUK2020

Hi QforUK2020,

I am a student and I have been using Canvas for all our online learning for almost three semesters now. Alongside Canvas, our Tutors use Microsoft Teams and Stream to record lectures and hold seminars - it works really well. The lectures for my course were pre-recorded and loaded through Canvas so you could watch it when it was most convenient for you (including the ability to pause them to be able to take notes, which is great) and then our Seminars were at set times in the week which was on Teams and gave us the ability to interact and ask questions. It has worked really well in place of face-to-face teaching and, while it's not the same, it's the best replacement.

On Canvas, your tutors will detail any pre and post lecture work, and they can link to other videos, upload documents, etc - it really is a good platform.

I hope this answers your question, but do feel free to ask anything else you would like to know.

All the best,

Katrina

Reply 2

hetvyy

Original post by ARUStudents

Hi QforUK2020,
I am a student and I have been using Canvas for all our online learning for almost three semesters now. Alongside Canvas, our Tutors use Microsoft Teams and Stream to record lectures and hold seminars - it works really well. The lectures for my course were pre-recorded and loaded through Canvas so you could watch it when it was most convenient for you (including the ability to pause them to be able to take notes, which is great) and then our Seminars were at set times in the week which was on Teams and gave us the ability to interact and ask questions. It has worked really well in place of face-to-face teaching and, while it's not the same, it's the best replacement.
On Canvas, your tutors will detail any pre and post lecture work, and they can link to other videos, upload documents, etc - it really is a good platform.
I hope this answers your question, but do feel free to ask anything else you would like to know.
All the best,
Katrina

Are the practical sessions recorded which are held at the computer labs because I missed one and I can't see it on Canvas?