Upon the outbreak of Covid-19, students and teachers converted to using Canvas as a way to submit and assign classwork and homework. This decision was made as a way to be able to efficiently communicate with students who participated in online learning during the 2020-2021 school year. Now, the students of St, Pete High School are entering the second semester of the following year and using Canvas in many classes still. Is Canvas more efficient for receiving school work than physical assignments? Let’s find out.

Many students at St. Pete High made the choice of taking online learning last year while the rest of their peers were participating in Face-to-Face learning. These students joined their classes via Microsoft Teams video chat and submitted their work through Canvas. The Face-to-Face students submitted their work online as well to prevent the teachers from having to be in close proximity to their students and exchange papers. Many teachers used online learning websites for their classwork and homework. The continuation of this online learning, with all students back in the classroom, causes a problem to be recognized: not all students have access to electronic devices. To submit work through Canvas, it is important to have access to a phone and a laptop. Almost everything on Canvas is accessible with a phone, however, there are some applications and document files that simply do not function correctly on phones. The fortunate solution to this is the school laptops that students can request to borrow for the school year. As well as this, students can use the printer in the library for free by connecting to the school computers.

The lack of physical assignments given to students has also resulted in a decline in paper usage. This development helps to reduce the deforestation required to make the mass amounts of paper for schoolwork. According to the National Wildlife Federation’s study on textbook recycling, sixty percent of school waste is due to paper. This waste can be tremendously reduced if classrooms continue to participate in online submissions through Canvas. As well as a continuance of online submissions through applications like Canvas and Managebac, schools can also preserve the environment by taking advantage of online textbooks. Many of the textbooks used by students have digital copies available. Recycling and reusing physical textbooks is a good way that our school has been reducing paper waste already. Online learning is proving to be a great solution for easier communication with teachers and a sufficient way to help the environment.