Canvas Usage

Utah State University (USU) has one of the highest enrollments of Utah’s higher education institutions. It grants degrees from associates to doctorates, has 30 campuses across the state, supports dozens of departments and hundreds of programs, and educates nearly 30,000 students. This feat is possible only with a well-developed support structure, including USU’s Center for Instructional Design and Innovation (CIDI), and powerful tools like Canvas.

Neal Legler, director of CIDI, said, “Canvas is good at being something that can be integrated with multiple tools, something that we can script and add to and adjust. It’s very flexible and allows us to do the things that we need it to do.”

A course required across all of Utah’s universities teaches the fundamentals of one of the most in-demand skills in today’s economy: writing. The National Association of Colleges and Employers notes that 77% of employers they surveyed want job candidates with strong written communication skills.

To meet this need, USU is rolling out a tool called Aggie AI: Write that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and integrates with Canvas to help instructors coach students through different parts of the writing process. It helps students brainstorm ideas, conduct research, generate a draft, and assess their work. “Along the way, they can submit this material to Canvas, and the teacher is able to see the student’s interaction with the AI,” Legler said. This kind of coaching isn’t new in writing classes, but AI allows instructors to give more personalized support to each student.

Utah State University students benefit from the flexibility of Canvas, which allows them to interact with instructors, each other, course materials and helpful third-party software. Photo by Levi Sim, Utah State University.