THE BEGINNING of the Canvas era in the University was marred by a false alarm, as an announcement declaring the suspension of classes was mistakenly sent to faculty members.
Canvas will be UST’s learning management system (LMS) starting Academic Year 2023-2024 after the University ended a deal with Blackboard, its LMS for two decades.
At 9:45 a.m., faculty members received an email from notifications@instructure.com with the subject line “Walang Pasok!: Canvas Faculty Training Sandbox.”
The email claimed that an “announcement from the secretary general” had suspended classes, citing “inclement weather.” An unspecified “summative examination” would be rescheduled for the “next meeting,” the erroneous announcement stated.
The Office of the Secretary General did not make such an announcement, however. The weather remained favorable throughout the entire day.
It took nearly two hours before the false announcement was retracted.
At 11:11 a.m., faculty members were told to “disregard” the previous message, with the clarification that it was “not an official announcement from the LGU and the University.”
“We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this post may have caused,” the email read.
In the email, it was clarified that the EdTech Center registered all faculty members for the Canvas Training course and organized them into specific “sections” based on their academic units.
Organizers wrongly assumed that the suspension message would solely be seen by those involved in the training. The “post to sections” setting was omitted during an exploratory session, resulting in the message being sent to all course participants by mistake.
Instructure, Canvas’s developer and publisher, announced its partnership with UST and seven other schools under the Dominican Province of the Philippines in late April.
“[UST] will move from its previous LMS to Canvas, prompted by the need to improve content sharing and collaboration between their network and increase efficiency in grading and achievement of learning outcomes,” Instructure said in a press release.
