You can lead a horse to water...

[josh_emmitt]

We are now well into teaching Canvas to all the staff in preparation for next year at my institution. In my Faculty, the overwhelming response has been positive to the switch to Canvas, with people getting very excited about what they will be able to do with their courses in Canvas. But, and yes you knew there was a "but" coming, this is not always the case. Some staff simply do not want to put any more effort into their courses than what they currently do, which is to upload a few pdf's and maybe some power-points and call it a day. This response mostly comes from tired and jaded staff, but also surprisingly from some people who you would assume would be excited. To them, the prospect of putting in a bit of extra time to set up their courses is unthinkable. I have tried to sell it to them as an investment of time, if they put it in now to make an awesome course, it can be copied over to the next time they teach it, but that line only works about half the time.

Along with Canvas, my institution is introducing Talis Aspire to help manage our copyrighted content, which again brings a collective groan from those same staff. In one case, a staff member suggested that they may retire instead of deal with adding the copyright to all of their 30,000 images that they have. Whether or not they use all 30,000 images in their course I never did ascertain.

I was a bit disheartened at some of these responses, I couldn't see why people would not want to make their courses a bit better, which is part of their jobs after all. While my initial response to these negative attitudes was that of disappointment, I have come to see the situation another way. The people who don't want to learn Canvas or put in any time at all, probably weren't doing it in the first place with our old LMS. I have done my job and tried to get them enthusiastic about Canvas and what it can do, but at the end of the day I can't do much more than that. All I can do is help those people who want it to make their courses as good as they can be.

You can lead a horse to water... but you can't make it drink.

[kedgecomb]

 @josh_emmitt ​,

Your story sounds all too familiar!  I was intrigued by your title and assumed it was about this exact topic.  I have compared notes with other trainers from other institutions about these issues.  You are right about those that were probably not putting a lot of effort into your previous LMS, and therefore, are carrying on the tradition.  We are on our fourth year of Canvas, and there are still those that won't "drink."  However, I have seen some users take their sweet time in getting on the Canvas train.  It sounds like you are on the right track, and there is only so much you can do.  Differing personalities and work ethics will deter some users.  Remember, there are things you cannot control, and there are things you can control.  Don't dwell on the "non-user snoozers" - focus on the positives and those that want to learn!  That's what makes your job rewarding!

Hang in there!  It will get better! 

[jwalford]

I actually call my professional development lessons in my Canvas 101 course "Jane's Crazy Train" hoping that more of my teachers will jump onboard.  This is year two for us.  I have a few more this year than we did last year.  I keep telling myself to expect baby steps from some of my teachers and others will be able to drive the train.  All we can do... is do all we can do. They have to take it from there. 

[CindiKerns]

I would agree. Some profs see no value in adding content to an LMS course, especially if they are teaching in a traditional environment. But we are seeing a trend in late adopters. Student course evaluations are remarking on the lack of use of the LMS, especially for course materials and grades. Ultimately adoption may be driven by student expectations. We didn't have much luck with training sessions but have done well with individual appointments. That way we can tailor instruction to just one component at a time. What we find is that once they see how easy it is they add components. Even during the semester! Hang in there, "if you build it they will come." It just might take more time than you like.

[watsonnk]

Staff uptake seems pretty positive in our department, and the ease of import of material from other systems helps too.  There may be reasons why not all staff are doing more than the minimal uploading of content for their courses, e.g. they are not convinced how long Canvas will remain in use in the institute, so are holding back before investing any time in developing for a transient system. 

Students in our institution certainly like Canvas and are giving genuinely helpful feedback to us: students see many courses and are aware of where it is used well, whereas staff typically experience only courses that they run and do not see how others are using Canvas.

Having their grades and feedback returned via Canvas is very popular, as is having assignments and submission dates on the same platform as course material.  From an instructor's perspective, one problem I see is reliability of grades when multiple staff/TA are responsible for uploading then to a single course: Canvas has very poor auditing of grades (no history of who uploaded/changed marks, at least by the person running the course, once you exceed a pretty trivial number of grades uploaded).  I don't know if you have experienced this yet, but if not, it's something perhaps to worry about if you need to be sure your grades are reliable.  With apologies for promoting an idea that is in the voting phase, you may be interested to look at:

Good luck with increasing the uptake at your institute!

All the best,

             Nigel

[cwendt]

People are not always intrinsically motivated—not even educators. Whenever I'm "in charge" (of my kids, students . . . the cats, sorta), I try to subsidize the behavior I like and tax the behavior I don't.

To that end, what are you doing to "subsidize" (reward) those who get on board and "tax" those who don't,  @josh_emmitt ​?

[josh_emmitt]

Currently we are not rewarding or taxing anyone who doesn't get on board. We see a lot of people who have the view that "I'm not going to change what I do anyway so I don't need to do this". Incentives may be a good idea, but I don't really think they would work. The most of an incentive that is offered is the ability to not be too stressed out right before the beginning of semester while trying to learn a new system and get all your courses ready.

I would have a chuckle at those people who don't want to learn and the hole they are digging themselves, but it is my job to dig them out later on so I shouldn't chuckle too audibly...

[cwendt]

Yes,  @josh_emmitt ​, there are always those who dig a whole for themselves. I cannot imagine trying to figure out a new LMS on the fly, at the start of the school year. That right there is their "tax"—the fact that they will be disorganized, needy, confused and even worse, that their students will notice it unless they are *really* good at faking. As a professional, I would not want to risk it.

Even with the idea of self-preservation in mind, it is in the best interest of the institution that the faculty is well prepared and believe me, your job will be safe because they will still have plenty of needs. Here are some suggestions for incentives, should you decide to offer them:

- Offer professional growth points for workshops.

- OR offer a stipend or other monetary reward (we don't do this, but it might work somewhere).

- For workshops, provide lunch.

- Make it clear that the opportunity exists for early learners to be leaders within their school or department (yes, there are some of us who actually love this idea and I am one of them).

- Offer drop-in sessions for guided practice (works for the kids, so we need it sometimes, too).

- Give constant reminders that the old LMS will be gone on x date. Everyone is not quick and just because they are educators does not mean that they are listening or that it sank in. You can catch some late joiners with each reminder that the "sink or swim" ending will probably generate quite a few "sinkers". Some are banking on you being there to save them, but

1. it stinks to depend that heavily on someone,
2. who knows when your specialist might retire or otherwise disappear and
3. the replacement might not be well-versed in Canvas.

- Lastly, make it so that they have plenty of choices for when to do the workshops: after school, before school, during *all* prep hours, online as a webinars (available live for questions during and recorded for later viewing).

[chun_li]

They will drink when they are thirsty.

[fabianm]

Obviously, you've struck a chord here,  @josh_emmitt ​. Keep up the fight! Higher Ed can't keep treading water, reusing what worked 10-20 years ago. We need to push/pull people out toward the cutting edge of innovation. We need to do it for our institutions, and we need to do it for our students' futures! Technology in and of itself does not equal innovation. But technology can provide a foundation/launching pad for innovation.

In the training I have been doing in person and in the training materials I have produced for our faculty, I have been starting with the "Why?" question. How does using this or that tool make teaching more efficient and learning more effective?
For instance, I was invited to speak to a group of faculty on the topic of online assessment. I started with "Why?" I talked about how online quizzes in Canvas open up new options for assessments. I talked about how quiz statistics can reveal proficiency (or deficiency) in students' understanding of the material. I explained how online assessment do more than provide a grade; they actually inform your teaching. This inspired some (stubborn) faculty to forego the scantron and try an online quiz. That's a win!

I'd be interested in how others in this group help their faculty understand the "Why?" when it comes to LMS usage and digital learning.

[josh_emmitt]

 @chun_li ​ You just hit the nail on the head. Too bad we can't induce that thirst.

[bgibson]

• Do you have Teaching Assistants?  Work Study students?  See if you can generate some interest from students that want to learn a "marketable" skill, and teach them how to use Canvas from the "teacher" side.  Then farm them out to do some of the work for faculty.
• Reward those faculty that are doing the best work.  Sometimes "jealousy" is as much a motivator as "altruism."
• Can you better determine the faculty motivators?  Start with putting their syllabus online.  If you have printing costs, even a lazy teacher should be willing to pass the cost of printing on to their students;-)
• Maybe unmotivated faculty need to look at the situation totally opposite:  https://fsuwebtools.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/teaching-naked/ (See José Bowen's Teaching Naked)
• Do you have a newsletter that you can highlight the work that is being done by the good faculty?  A free WordPress site can be a good newsletter to highlight what others are doing.
• Are some of your faculty willing to be Canvas trainers for others in their department, or the whole institution?