Using Canvas to Increase Satisfaction & Minimise Workload Among Teachers
Strawberry Solutions
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There’s no question: a motivated teacher will always bring out the best in a student. Unfortunately, a 2022 study from Monash University suggests a decline in teacher satisfaction in recent years. Compared to 2019, they measured 31% decrease in the percentage of teachers who felt satisfied with their role in 2022. Some of the barriers mentioned included unrealistic expectations, workload, and stress.?
Fortunately, some modern problems call for modern solutions. This guide will look into how top-notch learning management systems (LMS) like Canvas can help reduce teachers’ workload and allow educators to focus on things that matter to them most.
A Sysiphian endeavour
Teachers around the country are experiencing a number of difficulties throughout the day-to-day performance of their tasks. According to the same Monash University study, their current environment can be described as an:
?“imbalance between the enjoyable aspects of teaching (e.g., classroom and student interactions, designing learning experiences) and the draining aspects of teaching (e.g., accountability paperwork, parent complaints, Nationally Consistent Collection of Data [NCCD] requirements, paperwork, record keeping et cetera)”?
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The study continues:
?“According to them, the draining aspects outweigh the enjoyable aspects. They went on to say, “the time taken in keeping records of everything has increased exponentially.”?
This comes at the heels of a teacher shortage in Australia in 2022. According to an article by O’ Connor (2022),
“Federal government projections anticipate a shortfall of around 4,000 secondary teachers by 2025. This is likely to be a gross underestimate. In each state in Australia, there are already hundreds and sometimes thousands of advertised teaching positions that are being unfilled.”
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The underrated benefits of happy teachers
There are many factors that contribute to a successful education system, but one of the most important is having engaged and motivated teachers. Teachers who are passionate about their work and invested in their student's success are essential to providing high-quality education.
?Engaged teachers create a positive learning environment in their classrooms and make learning enjoyable for their students. They are constantly looking for new ways to improve their teaching and make sure their students are getting the most out of their education. Motivated teachers are also more likely to go above and beyond for their students, whether it’s staying after school to help with homework or working with students one-on-one to make sure they understand the material.
?Invested and motivated teachers are essential to ensuring that all students have access to a high-quality education. Students of all ages tend to excel more when their teacher (or in the case of VET, the trainer) is more devoted to the task of teaching, and this is why it is important to keep staff morale high in any learning environment.
?When teachers are engaged in their work and committed to their student's success, everyone benefits.
How technology helps
One way technology can help is by providing teachers with more engaging and interactive content. This can help keep teachers interested and motivated in their work, and can also help them better connect with their students. Additionally, technology can help teachers create more engaging and effective lesson plans, and can provide them with access to more resources and information.
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?The flip side of this challenge is in decreasing their workload. For example, technology can help automate some of the more repetitive and time-consuming tasks that teachers have to do, such as grading and lesson planning. Additionally, technology can help teachers better organize their work and can provide them with tools and resources to make their jobs easier.
?In a world where more and more learning avenues are becoming digital, it is more important than ever to make sure that satisfaction is high, even for the instructors responsible for the planning and coordination of various courses.
Case in point: Canvas LMS
With a platform like Canvas integrated into your RTO, you can increase your trainer satisfaction. This is because Canvas is not only a tool for students but an LMS for instructors and trainers alike. Long-time trainers in the VET environment can tell you the joy of working on an easy-to-use system like Canvas. The platform goes the extra step in ensuring that trainers have the easiest time possible when delivering their content to their respective students. Some of the features it offers VET trainers include:
Canvas, as a platform, is incredibly easy to use. Lesson plans can be organised and rescheduled through the simple drag-and-drop feature, making it easy for Trainers s to make changes to their lesson plans quickly. It also makes communication easy! With the ability for a trainer to send a mobile or social notification to their students in one click. Ensuring students stay informed on any more of these changes.
With a feature that makes it possible to embed audio and video clips, trainers can easily integrate outside content into their lessons, adding to the wealth of teaching material available to their students. This gives the educator freedom to customise their own lesson, making it a unique and enriching experience for the students. When I was training, we use to photocopy handouts or even overhead projector slides and save them in big folders in the staff room, this is the digital equivalent.
With a well-equipped resource centre, Trainers can make use of the myriad of tools and apps that they can simply download and include in their lesson plans to make them more engaging or less time-consuming. This means that materials can be adjusted and used for different student cohorts. You can have a different set of resources for CRICOS students to Domestic students. Different for blended students to trainees. The contextualisation possibilities are endless. This means you are catering to your specific group of students easily and with less effort. A sure way to keep students engaged and trainers motivated.
Any well-working LMS needs a capable support system for its staff, and Canvas has its trainers covered on that front very well. The capable experts and support professionals will tirelessly address any issue instructors face, making their experience while teaching all the more satisfactory.
?Long gone are the countless days of frustration over issues that can now be solved through the click of a button. Very little time is wasted and a trainer can genuinely focus on what they need to do, which is to help the student learn as best as they can. It truly speaks to its ability to guarantee that trainers working within the VET system are satisfied with the service and can go on to do their best for their respective students.
Perfect Tandem: Strawberry Solutions + Canvas
Open, intuitive, and born in the cloud, Canvas streamlines all the digital tools and content that teachers and students love, for a simpler and more connected learning experience. Strawberry Solutions is an authorised Canvas partner. We’ll bring your lessons to life.
If you want to know how Strawberry Solutions can help your RTO discover the benefits of Canvas for your RTO, contact us today.
Reach us at [email protected].