Under Canvas: Guiding learning on a long-term expedition to outstanding student experience

Barefoot explained that the university’s previous in-house VLE, StudyNet, had served the institution effectively for many years but was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, offered limited opportunities for future development, and lacked key capabilities such as mobile access. Before selecting a replacement platform, the university undertook an extensive consultation exercise involving academic staff, students, online learners, postgraduate researchers, alumni, and the students’ union. This process led to the creation of a set of “Guided Learning Journey Principles” that defined the university’s requirements for a new platform. These principles prioritised simplicity, consistency, accessibility, personalised learning, communication, learning analytics, third-party integrations, and opportunities for student reflection and self-regulation.

Canvas was subsequently selected because it aligned closely with these principles and offered a platform capable of delivering a more coherent and student-centred learning experience. The implementation began with a phased rollout in 2017, initially focusing on first-year modules before expanding institution-wide. Barefoot highlighted the importance of staff development throughout the transition. Rather than simply migrating content, the university used the change programme as an opportunity to redesign teaching practice, assessment approaches, and module structures. Multidisciplinary teams comprising educational developers, librarians, learning technologists and teaching specialists worked with academic schools to support the transition. Training modules, drop-in sessions, workshops and one-to-one support ensured staff were equipped to make effective use of the new platform. Student technology mentors also played a prominent role, providing peer support and reviewing module design from a student perspective.

The university has seen significant benefits from this approach. National Student Survey data indicates substantial improvements in organisation and management, as well as assessment and feedback, with Hertfordshire moving from below-sector performance to consistently outperforming sector benchmarks in both areas. Barefoot attributed these gains to consistent module design, clearer learning pathways, improved assessment workflows and the university’s commitment to its guided learning principles. The integration of assessment tools and the use of Canvas as the central platform for coursework submission and feedback have been particularly influential.

A major theme of the session was the strategic use of data. Hertfordshire has developed a series of bespoke dashboards that surface information from Canvas, reading-list systems, attendance monitoring and assessment data. These tools provide students with a comprehensive view of their academic progress while enabling programme leaders and personal tutors to identify potential issues relating to engagement, assessment deadlines or academic performance. The university has also used engagement analytics to support student retention initiatives, including proactive outreach to students identified as being at risk of withdrawal. Barefoot reported that this intervention had contributed to a reduction of 165 student withdrawals over the previous year.

Looking ahead, Barefoot outlined plans to refresh the institution’s original guiding principles through a Canvas optimisation programme. Key priorities include increasing student engagement through discussions and quizzes, expanding the use of ePortfolios, embedding collaborative learning tools such as FeedbackFruits, fully adopting New Quizzes, and exploring opportunities associated with generative AI. Throughout the presentation, Barefoot emphasised that technology should support broader educational objectives and that the university’s continuing ambition is to create an inclusive, engaging and coherent digital learning environment that helps students understand, navigate and take ownership of their learning journey.