Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s lots of things to blame McPS for but this isn’t really one of them. Synergy (aka parentvue) and canvas (aka McPS) are both private companies that are sadly market dominant for what they do, even though they don’t do it well. And apparently neither one is functional for what the other one does, and they don’t speak to each other at all. It’s one of those places where a monopoly might be a better solution.

If you only want to see grades, you should look only at parentvue as the canvas grades sometimes auto populate incorrectly (eg only part of the assignment is graded by the computer and the computer fills in the grade based on that section). If you want to see work that has not yet been graded (eg what your kid needs to have done for tomorrow) you need to go to canvas as most teachers won’t input all the assignments into parentvue until they are graded. The teachers would absolutely love it if the two companies figured out a way for canvas to auto load into synergy.

It all sounds inane, and it is, but you do figure it out eventually. I personally would be happier if all the teachers put assignments on the canvas calendar but most don’t. You have to look under “modules” on canvas for each class.

Meh. Google classroom and PowerSchool are used by other large districts. This Synergy/Canvas mess is of McPS’s own choosing.

Many large districts use Synergy/Canvas.
School districts are going away from Google classroom because of the privacy reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s lots of things to blame McPS for but this isn’t really one of them. Synergy (aka parentvue) and canvas (aka McPS) are both private companies that are sadly market dominant for what they do, even though they don’t do it well. And apparently neither one is functional for what the other one does, and they don’t speak to each other at all. It’s one of those places where a monopoly might be a better solution.

If you only want to see grades, you should look only at parentvue as the canvas grades sometimes auto populate incorrectly (eg only part of the assignment is graded by the computer and the computer fills in the grade based on that section). If you want to see work that has not yet been graded (eg what your kid needs to have done for tomorrow) you need to go to canvas as most teachers won’t input all the assignments into parentvue until they are graded. The teachers would absolutely love it if the two companies figured out a way for canvas to auto load into synergy.

It all sounds inane, and it is, but you do figure it out eventually. I personally would be happier if all the teachers put assignments on the canvas calendar but most don’t. You have to look under “modules” on canvas for each class.

Meh. Google classroom and PowerSchool are used by other large districts. This Synergy/Canvas mess is of McPS’s own choosing.

Anonymous wrote:There’s lots of things to blame McPS for but this isn’t really one of them. Synergy (aka parentvue) and canvas (aka McPS) are both private companies that are sadly market dominant for what they do, even though they don’t do it well. And apparently neither one is functional for what the other one does, and they don’t speak to each other at all. It’s one of those places where a monopoly might be a better solution.

If you only want to see grades, you should look only at parentvue as the canvas grades sometimes auto populate incorrectly (eg only part of the assignment is graded by the computer and the computer fills in the grade based on that section). If you want to see work that has not yet been graded (eg what your kid needs to have done for tomorrow) you need to go to canvas as most teachers won’t input all the assignments into parentvue until they are graded. The teachers would absolutely love it if the two companies figured out a way for canvas to auto load into synergy.

It all sounds inane, and it is, but you do figure it out eventually. I personally would be happier if all the teachers put assignments on the canvas calendar but most don’t. You have to look under “modules” on canvas for each class.

Anonymous wrote:There’s lots of things to blame McPS for but this isn’t really one of them. Synergy (aka parentvue) and canvas (aka McPS) are both private companies that are sadly market dominant for what they do, even though they don’t do it well. And apparently neither one is functional for what the other one does, and they don’t speak to each other at all. It’s one of those places where a monopoly might be a better solution.

If you only want to see grades, you should look only at parentvue as the canvas grades sometimes auto populate incorrectly (eg only part of the assignment is graded by the computer and the computer fills in the grade based on that section). If you want to see work that has not yet been graded (eg what your kid needs to have done for tomorrow) you need to go to canvas as most teachers won’t input all the assignments into parentvue until they are graded. The teachers would absolutely love it if the two companies figured out a way for canvas to auto load into synergy.

It all sounds inane, and it is, but you do figure it out eventually. I personally would be happier if all the teachers put assignments on the canvas calendar but most don’t. You have to look under “modules” on canvas for each class.