by Zack Voll
My first article in Issue 2 of the MCT eMagazine was highlighting the learning management system introduced in 2014 by Google called Google Classroom. It was still in its infancy, but it had many nice features which laid a foundation for schools to begin working in an online environment without having any cost or additional resources to obtain. In my own school district, a few teachers began to use Google Classroom but found they wanted to do more than the basic features of Classroom would allow. This is what made me want to explore using Canvas within our district and for the next few years I have gone through the process of implementing Canvas as our paid LMS. After speaking with the teachers who have used both, along with my own experiences, I have created a comparison chart to help other districts that might be going through the same thing.
These are just a few of the highlighted differences, but there are more as you dig deeper into these learning management systems. Also, both of these companies are constantly updating and advancing their systems, adding new features on a regular basis. Many of these differences fail in impacting the argument as much as the cost factor. If your district already has Google Apps for Education (now called G Suite), then Classroom is free while Canvas comes with a hefty price tag. For 3 years commitment with 600 users, our contract with Canvas is over $17,000.00 and many districts may find it hard to justify spending that money. One of the selling points I used is that at that price, it breaks down to costing less than $10.00 per student per year.