Why is Canvas crashing so often this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's impossible for DC to get any work done. Why can't MCPS fix this? Teachers are also complaining.

Because it's a garbage LMS that the Jack Smith administration gleefully signed up for despite neighboring districts complaining about it. He got a free lunch and we've had a decade of an awful LMS for all stakeholders.

I thought the issue is that canvas has a near monopoly and there just aren’t any other real products on the market. My kid complained about McPS canvas for 9 years but now at college says her college uses it and it’s fine, so I think PP is right that it’s the McPS customizations that are crashing it.
As a parent, I would not mind assignments not being in canvas provided they were in synergy so we could see what assignments are coming up. My kid has one teacher that doesn’t put things either place so there’s no way for us to check what’s coming up or what is missing. Honestly even if he just sney out a weekly email with the assignments, I’d be thrilled.

I’m always hearing that the market is saturated for computer programmers but then there are all these cap products on the market — I’m a lawyer and our documentation retention software and billing software also stinks. Very glitchy and crashes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's impossible for DC to get any work done. Why can't MCPS fix this? Teachers are also complaining.

Because it's a garbage LMS that the Jack Smith administration gleefully signed up for despite neighboring districts complaining about it. He got a free lunch and we've had a decade of an awful LMS for all stakeholders.

I thought the issue is that canvas has a near monopoly and there just aren’t any other real products on the market. My kid complained about McPS canvas for 9 years but now at college says her college uses it and it’s fine, so I think PP is right that it’s the McPS customizations that are crashing it.
As a parent, I would not mind assignments not being in canvas provided they were in synergy so we could see what assignments are coming up. My kid has one teacher that doesn’t put things either place so there’s no way for us to check what’s coming up or what is missing. Honestly even if he just sney out a weekly email with the assignments, I’d be thrilled.

I’m always hearing that the market is saturated for computer programmers but then there are all these cap products on the market — I’m a lawyer and our documentation retention software and billing software also stinks. Very glitchy and crashes.

I don’t think so. We just moved from a school district (out of state) that had PowerSchool and Google Classroom. They weren’t perfect but they were miles better than the hot mess of Canvas/Synergy we’ve been using in McPS. Half the time the links don’t even connect.

[Anonymous]

There are many other competitors to Canvas. Is Blackboard still around? During the pandemic a lot of school districts were using Blackboard and liked it.
It is an MCPS issue. Sibling teaches in a different district with Canvas and their system works fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are many other competitors to Canvas. Is Blackboard still around? During the pandemic a lot of school districts were using Blackboard and liked it.
It is an MCPS issue. Sibling teaches in a different district with Canvas and their system works fine.

Blackboard is terrible and super expensive for what it is. Canvas works fine for me. It sounds like they have computer problems and are blaming it on Canvas to grind their axe with MCPS.

[Anonymous]

DD's teachers have stopped putting assignments in they are so frustrated. It's a total mess this quarter and I've heard there are some parents of special needs kids who are going to file a complaint because for a kid who needs organizational help not having the assignments online somewhere is not good and for some it's a violation of their accommodations.

But it puts teachers in a terrible situation. I can't sit there wasting time trying to log into Canvas multiple times a day to post an assignment but I can't also email every individual student who has an IEP that says they need written notice or description of assignments. Yet another reason why we are overworked and feeling beaten down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many other competitors to Canvas. Is Blackboard still around? During the pandemic a lot of school districts were using Blackboard and liked it.
It is an MCPS issue. Sibling teaches in a different district with Canvas and their system works fine.

Blackboard is terrible and super expensive for what it is. Canvas works fine for me. It sounds like they have computer problems and are blaming it on Canvas to grind their axe with MCPS.

Do you work for MCPS tech or something? Blackboard is similarly priced? Why are you spreading misinformation? You don't sound like you know a lot about computers. Many teachers in many schools are complaining they are having log in problems when they didn't have them before.

[Anonymous]

I work in a local private school that just started using Canvas this year. Canvas is working, but issues syncing to our alternative to Synergy. I think it’s mostly user error as admin learns about how the two systems can and can’t talk to each other

[Anonymous]

Canvas is by far the most used LMS in K12:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Canvas is by far the most used LMS in K12:

If you read the graph you posted, 30% market share still means 70% of other districts use something else. What MCPS has--with the Frankenstein of ParentVue, Synergy, and Canvas is crap and leads parents to not be able to follow what their kids are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canvas is by far the most used LMS in K12:

If you read the graph you posted, 30% market share still means 70% of other districts use something else. What MCPS has--with the Frankenstein of ParentVue, Synergy, and Canvas is crap and leads parents to not be able to follow what their kids are doing.

ParentVue and Synergy are the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many other competitors to Canvas. Is Blackboard still around? During the pandemic a lot of school districts were using Blackboard and liked it.
It is an MCPS issue. Sibling teaches in a different district with Canvas and their system works fine.

Blackboard is terrible and super expensive for what it is. Canvas works fine for me. It sounds like they have computer problems and are blaming it on Canvas to grind their axe with MCPS.

Do you work for MCPS tech or something? Blackboard is similarly priced? Why are you spreading misinformation? You don't sound like you know a lot about computers. Many teachers in many schools are complaining they are having log in problems when they didn't have them before.

That's not true. They charge a fortune for this simple website that my kids could write in weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canvas is by far the most used LMS in K12:

If you read the graph you posted, 30% market share still means 70% of other districts use something else. What MCPS has--with the Frankenstein of ParentVue, Synergy, and Canvas is crap and leads parents to not be able to follow what their kids are doing.

It's not fancy but it works pretty well. Sure, some people who have issues using tech may have problems but that would be true no matter what they used.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher and I can account for the fact that Canvas and Synergy have been very inconsistent this year. Not as terrible as the first year rollout, but something is going on that prevents many users from using the platform at the same time. When I have issues (almost daily) I check the status of Canvas on the company website and it’s always in green light, all systems go status. But I keep getting the spinning icon or timeout issue. 100% this is an MCPS issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canvas is by far the most used LMS in K12:

If you read the graph you posted, 30% market share still means 70% of other districts use something else. What MCPS has--with the Frankenstein of ParentVue, Synergy, and Canvas is crap and leads parents to not be able to follow what their kids are doing.

No, that's not what it means.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD's teachers have stopped putting assignments in they are so frustrated. It's a total mess this quarter and I've heard there are some parents of special needs kids who are going to file a complaint because for a kid who needs organizational help not having the assignments online somewhere is not good and for some it's a violation of their accommodations.

But it puts teachers in a terrible situation. I can't sit there wasting time trying to log into Canvas multiple times a day to post an assignment but I can't also email every individual student who has an IEP that says they need written notice or description of assignments. Yet another reason why we are overworked and feeling beaten down.

Create a distro list and email the assignment to the entire class. Done.