What do your students really think about your VLE?

It’s estimated that the average young adult spends about six hours a day online. That’s almost half their waking day. Among these young adults, are the students, who are interacting with their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) more than any other system.

"The quality of the VLE directly impacts student satisfaction and engagement. And students will rate us pretty harshly if they're frustrated and if they don't feel engaged.”

- Martin Bean CBE, Former Vice Chancellor at the Open University and RMIT, a Canvas customer

Suffice to say, the student of today is more digitally discerning than ever before. So how do you know if they're happy with the VLE that your institution has on offer?

1. Do students trust your VLE?

Certain legacy VLEs function like digital treacle - slow, clunky and inconsistent. Security updates require manual upkeep, leading to planned downtime and unplanned outages. In short - students can’t trust the VLE to do what it should.

Students may silently suffer through disjointed interfaces, a bad UX and the risk of downtime. However, if you’re starting to notice things like declining NSS scores, negative word of mouth reviews and poor teaching evaluations - then your VLE could be the culprit. 

Canvas VLE provides a seamless, intuitive, and reliable experience. Students tell us that they actually enjoy using the platform because of its intuitive interface. And because we’re hosted by AWS, we can guarantee 99.9% uptime, giving students peace of mind that their VLE won’t let them down during those critical points - whether it’s the night before an exam or right before a submission deadline.

"I feel like Canvas has improved our accolades and our reputation here at Liverpool in several ways. We’ve seen things like our TEF rating move from silver to gold. And students have been more satisfied with the experience they’ve had through the LMS."

- Ben Mc Grae, Educational Developer, University of Liverpool

2. Can your students ride the wave of innovation?

As we said, the current cohort of students is the most digitally savvy to date. They want to improve their digital skills so that they’re ready to hit the ground running when they enter the world of work.

However, legacy VLEs have been known to hold students back, whether it’s because they’re running on yesterday’s technology, or because they lack the flexibility needed to integrate with the latest tools.

On the other hand, Canvas is built to digitally upskill the students of today and tomorrow. Students tell us that they love our AI-powered features like SmartSearch and translations, collaboration capabilities - from group assignments to messaging and forums, and the ability to play around with the newest LTIs installed by their institution. 

"I believe that Canvas has helped me to digitally upskill and prepare for the working world. The features include project management systems, which help me to stay organised - I think that's important when it comes to working."

- Sherley Admane, Student, University of Liverpool

3. Can your VLE meet students where they are?

Institutions recognise the need to provide adaptable remote learning to accommodate all students - from those working to fund their education to those managing family responsibilities. Outdated VLEs often fall short, offering inadequate mobile access and failing to provide the flexible, bitesized courses demanded by today's learners.

If a VLE doesn’t meet the “non-traditional” students where they are - that’s going to spell trouble for the reputation of the institution. 

"If you're like me, concerned about the overall student experience, you'll choose a VLE that's capable of supporting that 360 degree life of the student, not just when they're a student in a classroom."

- Martin Bean CBE, Former Vice Chancellor at the Open University and RMIT, a Canvas customer

As we mentioned earlier, with Canvas, students enjoy 99.9% uptime, allowing them to learn anywhere, anytime. Our offline feature lets them continue studying even when 'off the grid’, for instance, if they’re travelling to work or lack a reliable WiFi connection at home. We provide a flexible, on-demand learning experience through our modular design, and empower students to self-enrol in new online courses with Catalog and validate their skills with Credentials. 

"During my Undergraduate Degree, we used an on-premise, open-source VLE and I found the platform disorganised and difficult to use. Using Canvas for my Master’s Degree is a much better experience. It’s just so much easier to collaborate with my peers and learn remotely. I love the mobile app as well."

- Shreyas Gawande Master’s Student, University of Liverpool

So as you weigh your VLE options, ask yourself: Is your current system enhancing or hurting your reputation? Because our customers would agree that having Canvas is a huge differentiator in a digital-first world. 

Curious to learn more about how Canvas could boost your institution’s reputation? Book a demo here.