Canvas

What Canvas does

Canvas is a mobile companion to the Canvas learning management system, used by schools and other education providers to organize courses. Students can use it to check course materials, follow deadlines, submit assignments, view grades and feedback, and take part in course discussions. It suits learners whose institution already runs its courses on Canvas; it is less useful as a standalone study planner without course access.

Who it suits

The app is aimed mainly at students who need to keep up with several courses from a phone, including when they are away from a computer. Instructors and other course participants may also use it to check course activity and communicate. A calendar and task list can bring deadlines from enrolled courses into one view, while notifications can flag updates. Their usefulness depends on how actively instructors use Canvas and how notification settings are configured.

What to expect on a phone

Canvas brings course pages, assignments, grades, messages and learning materials into a mobile interface. It needs an internet connection for current course information and online interactions. Submitting work from a phone can be convenient, but reviewing long documents or navigating detailed course content may be easier on a larger screen. Some course activities may work differently depending on how the institution has set them up.

Place among learning apps

With more than 10 million installs and a rating of 4.60 from about 219,000 ratings, Canvas has a substantial mobile audience. Its main alternative is usually the web version of Canvas, rather than a general-purpose education app: the mobile app is most relevant when a school has chosen this platform. Other learning management apps, such as Moodle, serve a similar role for institutions using different systems. Canvas is therefore best judged by how well it fits a learner’s courses, not as a universal classroom tool.