Congruence is Key

by Victoria Martinez ‘23

This school year started quite differently than ever before due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. While I am able to understand and empathize with teachers and students who are doing their best during these difficult times to adjust to the new online learning environment, I believe it would be exceedingly useful and helpful for students and teachers alike, if all the teachers placed their assignments in one area of CANVAS: the “Assignments” tab.  

This year logging onto a zoom for the first day of school was already drastically different from walking into school at 7:45 AM. And on top of trying to learn how to properly use Zoom and the new strictly CANVAS based learning set-up, students were thrust into a sort of puzzle of trying to navigate all of their assignments for each of their classes, in various tabs in CANVAS. In my opinion, it is essential for teachers to place all assignments in the Assignments tab, because its layout provides students with vital information, such as “Upcoming assignments”, “Overdue Assignments”, “Undated Assignments” and “Past Assignments”. If all assignments were placed in the “Assignments” tab in CANVAS, it would be more time-efficient for students to quickly understand what is expected of them, and it would eradicate some of the stress that comes along with trying to hunt down what assignments are due, and by when.