Evaluation of Teaching Through Online Tools and Canvas Learning-management System at Morgan State University

With a rapid shift to remote online learning to meet social distancing goals, Morgan State University (MSU), a historically black college and university in Baltimore, Maryland, has transformed the majority of on-campus face-to-face courses to online (asynchronous) or remote (synchronous) courses. After switching to a new learning management system in Summer 2019, the specialty-trained faculty known as Canvas Ambassadors were activated to provide emergency support due to COVID-19. Despite rapid response through professional development for instructors, trainings for learners, and technical support for content development, there still exist issues related to changing faculty roles, transitioning from face-to-face to online, time management, technology limitations, and teaching styles. Using Canvas Learning Management (LMS) report analytics, this paper compares three semesters: Fall 2019 (pre-pandemic), Spring 2020 (emergency transition to remote), and Fall 2020 (fully remote). The switch to remote learning in Spring 2020 resulted in approximately double the number of views per course and triple the number of actions by students each week. The increase in page views aligns with faculty use of Canvas features. Faculty engaged students with the use of discussion boards and uploaded more files and media, which spurred more module and page views. An important finding from this study was that between Fall 2019 and Spring 2020, faculty did not significantly increase their use of Canvas LMS features, as indicated by the number of page views and student actions. Thus the authors can conclude that faculty lacked the readiness and motivation to improve their courses until faced with the prospect of long-term remote instruction.