An addition to the already chaotic school year is the transition from Edsby to Canvas. Edsby has been the standard grade book system in Hillsborough County since 2013. Naturally, many students are facing a big learning curve when it comes to the new system.

“I like all the different features, but they are harder to use than Edsby,” said Alaina Edwards, 12. Although Canvas has a different layout, the sudden shift from Edsby has left most students confused. Canvas’s layout has no similarities to Edsby, with specific features often being either renamed or completely removed.

“Canvas is not organized at all when it comes to grading, it’s annoying that Canvas doesn’t have the whole graph that shows your assignments,” complained Jakub Sztor, 12. As the students start to use Canvas, the differences become more glaring. For one, the ability to message staff members is entirely non-existent, causing students to have even more unanswered questions.

The question then becomes, why did we shift from Edsby to Canvas? The school board hasn’t given a reason behind this change. Still, it can be speculated that it had to do with standardization. Since Canvas is relied upon by most colleges in the US, it has adapted to provide all the essential features colleges need. “This is a very good app I can handle my workloads a lot more compared to Edsby,” noted Austin Eastman, 12.

The transition to Canvas was inevitable, but the timing has teachers and students confused. If it came out in a less chaotic year, it might have been a smoother transition.