If your LEA is new to Canvas, the first question you probably have is, "How do we start?" and we recommend Canvas be rolled out in phases to ensure long-term adoption success.

One of the most important places to begin is to identify building administrators and teacher leaders who can model and pilot Canvas expectations there are for faculty and staff. Leading by example helps all staff members take risks to incorporate Canvas into their school community. Often, these Canvas leaders may start with nontraditional use to help familiarize different audiences with important features.

Once Canvas has been fully implemented and important decisions like Terms, Subaccounts, and other settings have been completed, it is often beneficial to have an ongoing work group or committee that could consist of representatives from your IT department, Student Information System (SIS) staff, instructional technology coordinators, media specialists, teacher leaders, or other administrators. In short, the people who support technology use in your schools. This same group could also focus on a maintenance and professional learning calendar to optimize the use of Canvas and other EdTech tools.

Adopting Canvas can be completed at hyper-speed or through a series of focused steps. Since every LEA is unique, we encourage you to work with us to find a path that will work best for your learning environment. Below is a simplified example of a three-year phased rollout for Canvas usage.

Canvas as a Communication Tool - Year 1

SUMMER/FALL

Identify Canvas leaders at the district and building level who will learn the key features of Canvas to be used in the coming months.

Have Canvas leaders incrementally build courses (like a Principal's Corner, Student Government or Curricum Library) to model use.

Use Global Announcements for school-wide or district messaging.

Create resources and learning opportunities for all staff and students to understand the basic features to be used for the year. Begin with the Canvas Community and the Training Services Portal to identify up-to-date resources.

Advertise the Observer role and how it will be accessed by parents/caregivers.

At the beginning of the year agree upon what a teacher's course should look like. Start slowly! This could be a simple course structure with:

- - - - An introduction to the Rich Content Editor (RCE), the foundation for creating most content.
      - A front/home page with information like upcoming events, About Me, contact info, or key website links.
      - Template Page design or layout example for teachers to follow. (Can also be from the Commons.)
      - The Canvas Calendar for class activities and important schedules.
      - Course Card
      - Similar navigation in the course menu.
      - Ensure the student/observer experience is consistent from one teacher to the other.
      - Course Announcements to communicate with the students and Observers.

Assess Fall/Summer Year 1 and begin planning for Year 1 Spring and Year 2.

SPRING

Introduce the importance of Modules and their features.

Create Module shells arranged by curriculum units, themes, or timeframe, i.e. monthly, bi-weekly. Agree to consistency by subject area or school.

Have digital copies (i.e. PDFs, links to Google or Office 365 files, websites, etc.) of all assignments/activities within Modules to eliminate students losing their papers and increase classroom transparency for Observers.

Cover the basics of Canvas Studio.

Assess Year 1 and Begin planning for Year 2

Canvas as a Class Notebook - Year 2

SUMMER/FALL

Canvas leaders continue to model effective use and features along with demonstration courses.

Cover 'Best Practices' for importing/copying content for teachers to build upon the previous year's Canvas work for their new or repeated courses.

Continue to use Modules effectively (including posting digital copies of activities) and have teachers highlight examples.

Use Quizzes for formative and summative assessments when possible.

Explore using Blueprints for building-wide resource Pages like 'Homework Help,' 'Computer Information,' 'Counseling,' Etc.

Use Studio for instructional strategies like a flipped classroom model, recording lectures, activity demonstrations (ex. art, music, science lab, etc.), collection of video math tutorials, etc.

Continue to use Canvas as a communication tool through the Calendar and Announcements.

Assess Year 2 Summer/Fall successes and begin planning for Year 2 Spring identifying Canvas knowledge and use gaps.

SPRING

Refine the above approaches and encourage staff sharing during faculty meetings and other professional learning days.

Increase curriculum collaboration within Canvas.

Begin partnering with an expanded number of teachers to pilot the more in-depth Year 3 phase.

Assess Year 2 Spring and begin planning for Year 3.

Further develop maintenance and start/end of term processes.

Canvas as Your Teaching Assistant - Year 3 & Beyond

Use Canvas daily for students to submit Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Studio Quizzes, or other learning activities with teachers using SpeedGrader to provide feedback.

Fully utilize Grade Passback with SIS.

Once the above foundations have been created, subject specialists can begin collaborating to use the more advanced features of Canvas like Rubrics, Outcomes and Mastery Paths.

Utilize Canvas Course New Analytics to gain insight into student achievement.

Have Canvas leaders use Canvas Admin Analytics to comprehensively view student, teacher, and school activity.

Assess Year 3 successes and deepen the use of Canvas features for increased student and community engagement.

Plan for long-term continuous improvement and the integration of other Instructure products or services.

Resources

Course Evaluation Checklist

Adoption Success Toolkit

Canvas K-12 Study Hall - Content for educators, education leaders, and Edtech enthusiasts to help stay ahead of the learning curve. Jump into Articles, Case Studies, Videos, Research Reports, and more.

Global Priority Services Hub - Content from the Instructure Customer Success team including featured topics and future/past webinars.