In our Personal Experience Insights series, members of the Everspring Learning Design department share first-hand accounts of creating online learning content and meaningful takeaways from their professional experiences.
Bill Hutchison is a Faculty Engagement Specialist on the Learning Design team at Everspring. He has 15+ years of experience teaching high school, college, and working adult students. Bill has a PhD in English from the University of Chicago and lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Navigating through a new learning management system (LMS) can feel like walking around a big city in a country you’ve never been to. Sometimes it can be exciting, but just as often, it can be pretty daunting. As educators, we know the positive impact that a well-built and well-used LMS can have on both our courses and our students, but learning to use an LMS to its full potential can be challenging.
One of my own early encounters with a new LMS came when a university I was teaching at switched from Blackboard to Canvas. I was excited about the new features and tools that were now at my fingertips. At the same time, making my way through its capabilities felt overwhelming. I spent hours looking through different menus, caught between curiosity and consternation. Modules? Accommodation settings? Discussion groups? I didn’t know where to begin, and my enthusiasm was quickly replaced by anxiety. But as time went on, I found some strategies and resources that changed my experience for the better. I want to share these insights and help guide you through your own LMS journey, which I hope will be simpler, smoother, and more enjoyable as a result.
On my first day with Canvas, I spent most of an afternoon clicking my way through menus, mostly lost and uncertain about what I was looking for. If this was visiting a foreign city, it was like I had been dropped into the bustling town square without a map or a guidebook. New settings, new options, new tools—they went past me in a blur.
To avoid this situation for yourself, begin by exploring your new LMS at your own pace. Like our imaginary city, you wouldn’t try to see everything it has to offer all at once. Start your adventure by exploring the major landmarks: how the dashboard works, what course creation tools are there, and how you can communicate with students. Once you have a handle on those, you can start moving to more nuanced features and options.
One of the most effective strategies I used was setting aside brief but focused times for exploring my new LMS. Every day, I gave myself at least 30 minutes to explore another part of Canvas. I might focus on the Gradebook on Monday, discussions on Tuesday, quizzes on Wednesday, and so on. By approaching it gradually and with structure, I first gained familiarity, and then confidence, and avoided feeling quite as overwhelmed. I didn’t become an expert in those 30 minutes, but by approaching my journey in a more relaxed fashion, I got so much more out of those half-hour adventures.
Ever asked a fellow traveler for tips on a destination? Colleagues who know your LMS well can be a great source of wisdom. One of the best tips I got from a veteran teacher—who still used it herself—was to keep a notebook, either paper or digital, of what you discover in your LMS and, most importantly, what you still have questions about. I use a plain, wide-ruled, spiral notebook, and I’m on my sixth one. My LMS notebooks are like diaries of my travels, marking places I’ve been and amazing things I’ve learned and seen. Even for long-time users, notebooks help keep track of the inevitable changes as your LMS evolves, and it’s never too late to start one!
Some of the best resources at your fingertips are the documentation and help guides from your LMS—it’s just like visiting the tourism board of our imaginary foreign city! I vividly remember deciding I wanted to put images in my quizzes one night while I was preparing my courses in Canvas. It was too late in the evening to get in touch with my colleagues, but a couple of Google searches later, I was in the thick of Canvas’s extensive help library. It was a treasure trove, not only giving me a helpful guide for inserting images into quizzes with the Rich Content Editor but also inspiring me with its panoply of other help topics. I was getting answers to questions I didn’t even know I had yet!
My favorite part of learning my new LMS, however, was making my first test course. It was a virtual sandbox where I could build pages and assessments and try them out. I learned some of my favorite Canvas tricks and features just by playing around in my sandbox. For example, I learned how to embed YouTube videos right into my modules. Even though my class was mostly discussion-based, having a brief talk from a renowned expert in a video was a great way to increase student engagement! I also figured out how to automate as much of my grading as possible, from self-scoring quizzes to the joys of “speed grading.” By simply experimenting with my LMS in a test course, I learned how to save myself so much time.
If you want to get really nerdy about your new LMS like I did, start by exploring your institution's resources. They likely include tailored guides, tutorials, or other forms of support that reflect the specific features and tools available in your institution’s LMS. After that, head over to YouTube, where I found additional tutorials, walkthroughs, and even full-length webinars hosted by experienced educators. If your new LMS is a new city, these videos are like travelogues from seasoned explorers. I discovered videos on everything from basic course setup to more advanced features like creating my own detailed rubrics and using analytics to see what students engaged with most in the course. It became a bit of an obsession, but the payoff was huge. I discovered tips and tricks that made my courses more engaging and efficient. Plus, if you're anything like me, seeing how other educators utilize Canvas in their own unique ways can spark creative ideas for your own course design!
Remember, navigating a new LMS is less about knowing every street and alleyway right away and more about getting comfortable finding your way around, so give yourself the time and space to get oriented. Take little detours, celebrate new discoveries, and don’t forget to stop at the scenic overlooks to appreciate how far you have come. Now, each step you take, whether figuring out a complicated feature or just getting the slow confidence of expertise, brings you closer to feeling at home in the new landscape. So embrace the journey! There’s always more to explore, and with patience and curiosity as your traveling companions, you’ll be better able to focus on what really matters—being a supportive guide for your students through their own educational journeys.