Change is hard. When something familiar suddenly changes into something else, it can be daunting. This is especially so with big changes, like moving out of a family home or starting a new job. Change can be uncomfortable, unpleasant, and unwanted.
But sometimes, change is good.
With the start of the 2025-26 academic year, LBCC has retired Moodle and begun using Canvas as its learning management system. While some instructors had already been using Canvas to manage their courses since 2024, now all classes at LBCC will use Canvas for any online components they may have.
With such a massive change, it would not be surprising to see things such as students panicking about not knowing where their online classes are, instructors grumbling about the amount of extra work they have to do to set up their course this term, or the college’s Help Desk pulling their hair out over the amount of new tickets they are receiving.
But such things haven’t really happened; in fact, the reception among students and faculty alike has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I was impressed at how little resistance overall both students and faculty demonstrated with the change,” said Jess Winans, the dean of Teaching and Learning Support at LBCC. “Teaching and learning wise, people were very pleased.”
So how did such a big change get met with universal support? What does this transition mean for students and teachers? Why was this deemed necessary at all?
And the most important question of all…
“Where are my classes?!”
Once they have registered for courses, students will navigate to https://linnbenton.instructure.com and log in with their LBCC-provided email account. This will bring them to the Canvas Dashboard, where there will be links to all their courses once the term begins (or earlier, if their instructor has made the material available in advance).
That’s it.
Putting it in perspective for new students or those otherwise unfamiliar: to access courses previously, students had to go to LBCC’s main website, log in to My LB Single Sign-On, confirm the login with Duo’s two-factor authentication, and then go to Moodle from their single sign-on portal. While this is undoubtedly quite secure and eventually became muscle memory for current students, the entire process was fairly cumbersome, required multiple redirects, and left many unused tabs open on the browser once they actually got to Moodle. Bookmarking Moodle in their browser didn’t always work either, often redirecting them back to the SSO portal login.
This made for a lengthy process just to find a due date or check a recent grade. Now all of that information is two clicks away, and they can even bookmark the Canvas link for maximum efficiency (or laziness)! And if they have to go through SSO for other reasons, such as checking registration status or financial aid information, there is a tile for Canvas on the main SSO portal as well.
Note that the registration process itself hasn’t changed; students still go through WebRunner to register for classes like they always have. Dropping courses, registering from a waitlist, and other related processes are also unchanged. It is now simply less work to actually get to their courses during the term, especially for quick tasks.
Reasons for the Change
LBCC began this transition in 2023, after an evaluation from their latest accreditation process suggested a renewed strategy for online learning. Winans led the LMS review process from her previous role in LBCC’s Center for Teaching Excellence, which is focused on helping faculty to improve teaching and learning through collaborative effort. Then, in June 2024, they began tackling the project of improving the college’s online presence by taking a long look at the current LMS, Moodle.
“We did an official survey of students to see their preferences of Moodle compared to other learning management systems,” she recalled. And while students didn’t appear to have a preference for a specific program, one response was universal: “Students wanted a single LMS.”
While the majority of LBCC’s classes were offered through Moodle, this wasn’t something that was mandated. Some instructors already used Canvas or other systems, with a Moodle page that simply consisted of a link to such. What was important to students was not which specific LMS they needed to use, but the consistency of everyone using the same thing.
In the end, it was the faculty support that made LBCC decide to settle on Canvas going forward.
“I cannot say enough good things about Canvas,” said one faculty member, who preferred to remain anonymous. This sentiment seems to be universal, with faculty overwhelmingly preferring Canvas over Moodle despite the amount of extra work involved. One particular point that kept coming up was how much more engaged students seemed to be with Canvas, especially when it came to reviewing grades and deadlines.
“People have been doing [this work] willingly, they’re doing it early, and they’re getting it done because there’s a general excitement to switch to Canvas,” said Winans.
Bumps in the Road
Not everything has been sunshine and roses, though many of these issues weren’t actually with Canvas itself. For instance, a few instructors had become quite proficient “power users” with Moodle, using its framework in ways that aren’t able to be replicated in the more standardized Canvas interface. Others still were simply resistant to change in any form; it wouldn’t have mattered what system they were moving to.
A concern from some students was how the course material was presented in Canvas. However, these complaints existed for Moodle as well; this speaks more to how the course itself is set up, or perhaps the learning style of the student. This is something that is being continually reviewed by the Center for Teaching Excellence in the hopes of improving course design.
In addition, widespread technological changes in any organization can be fickle. While major issues have been fixed in the current implementation of Canvas, Winans encourages students to be proactive about contacting the Student Help Desk for assistance. The sooner they report something wrong, in Canvas or otherwise, the sooner they can be prepared for fall term.
Moving Ahead on a New Canvas
A small pilot launch for Canvas consisting of 24 classes was done in spring 2025 as an “alpha test” ahead of the full changeover. This allowed Winans and her department to fix any major issues and get crucial feedback ahead of a full launch, minimizing the impact on the college as a whole.
And while the official launch was technically last term (summer 2025), it still had the feel of a “beta test” due to the much lower volume of traffic LBCC typically has in the summer. Slowly increasing the scope over multiple academic terms allows for a smoother transition, as more people get eyes on the new processes and provide different perspectives.
Fall term will be the real test, when the majority of students will have returned to resume their studies. As with spring and summer, surveys will be sent to students regarding their experience with Canvas as the fall term comes to close, and Winans encourages students to reach out to her directly as well.
Through the entire process, Winans and her colleagues have been the most thankful for how supportive both students and faculty have been. Referring to an incident where an error reduced access to courses for both students and faculty:
“What I loved about that was that people were just really gracious. What we’re seeing from both faculty and students is everyone knows that we’re making this really big change, and that it’s a lot of hard work on everyone’s part. And people are being kind and patient as we’re making those mistakes.”