What is the difference between Canvas and Skyward?

Canvas is a learning management system and primarily used for course materials and student communication. Skyward is the official student information system used for grading and reporting. The majority of our students are expected to use both systems. Parents/Guardians frequently used Skyward for school and district notifications/messaging, and monitoring student progress & grades. Canvas gives parents/guardians more detailed information about course events and student course work. See below for more information.

  • Frequently Used Resources

  • Daily Learning Intentions/Objectives

  • Digital Course Materials

  • Upcoming Assignments & Details (dependent on type of assignment)

  • Assignment Feedback (dependent on type of assignment)

  • Course Announcements


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  • Individual and overall assignment grades

  • Schedules

  • Attendance

  • Message Center

What is a Learning Management System?

A LMS is a digital learning environment that can manage all aspects of the learning process.

Why are teachers choosing to use Canvas? Because they want to:

  • Receive and grade student assignments, discussions, and quizzes with SpeedGrader

  • Easily align assignments, quiz items, and rubrics to standards and/or learning targets

  • Utilize robust analytics to track student/class/course standards and targets-aligned data

  • Utilize web tools (like Dropbox, Google Drive, Twitter, etc.) all within the Canvas interface

  • Provide students with written, audio, or video feedback, peer-review, and multiple revision/submission opportunities

  • Synthesize all work and course related events into one calendar

  • Push notifications to students with one click (via email and text)

How does a student benefit from working in Canvas? They are able to:

  • Interact with class content, assignments, quizzes, etc. online, on any device, with any browser . . .

  • Integrate their Google Drive account with Canvas to allow for easy access / sharing of documents AND/OR utilize Canvas to host student files

  • Track their progress through ongoing and powerful teacher feedback tools and data analytics

  • Receive course announcements, grade notifications, etc. instantaneously on their preferred device(s)

  • Easily collaborate with peers and their teacher via system messaging, conferences, chat and other communication tools