The Florida Board of Governors surveyed faculty and students in the spring of 2016 about whether or not Blackboard should still be used.

In the end, the board decided to switch to Canvas education software systems.

Canvas’ implementation will continue until the summer of 2017, when the school’s contract with Blackboard ends. In the meantime, the new software is receiving mixed reviews from students.

Sabrina Otero, first year master’s of business,
arts major,
Canvas representative

“It’s more user friendly. It’s easier to keep track of assignments since Canvas has a calendar feature.”

Andrea Jimeno, junior,
biochemistry major

“Canvas is new to professors so they have to go through a lot of tutorials and it must be annoying to them, especially since they’re already used to Blackboard. They have to add more time to learn the program.”

Holly Rand, Senior,
accounting major

Canvas representative

“Emails sent through BlackBoard had glitches, but with Canvas, any email sent by your professor goes straight to your FAU email, and you can respond through your FAU email instead of having to login to Canvas to respond.”

Manny Rodriguez
senior,

mechanical engineering major

“I don’t think [the school prepared students for Canvas]. It was more like at the end of the semester, ‘we’re switching to Canvas.’”

Nate Nkumbu is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @FoureyedNate.