BetterCanvas, now called BetterCampus, is a Canvas extension on the Chrome Web Store. As of recently, the district unblocked it for a few weeks, allowing students to be able to use it. Within the weeks of it being available, students started to customize their Canvas pages to be just right for them.
The Chrome Web Store has many extensions offered and I remember looking into BetterCampus in the past and being sad I wasn’t able to use it. Before the brief unban, the only Canvas extension available for students was Tasks for Canvas, where it showed the to-do list in a ring rather than the original checklist, and I tried it out. For me, Tasks for Canvas was not it because it is easier for me to see what assignments I need to do without the ring.
BetterCampus has a to-do list similar to Tasks for Canvas, which I am still not a huge fan of, and many other options for students to be able to truly make their Canvas their own.
The extension offers a variety of themes with different designs on the Canvas tiles, colors and basically anything one could think of. There is even a LeBron James themed one, which I would recommend everyone to check out if it ever becomes available again because it is definitely…something.
Along with the preset themes, there is an option for one to make their own. I liked how it offered the student complete creative control for their Canvas page, however the amount of options to change was obsessive. For example, there was the option to change the fonts, background color, add a picture in for the Canvas tiles themselves and so much more than that, and at least for me, it was not worth my time or effort.
While I am not a fan of the extension myself, I appreciate the amount of effort that went into making it. Whether it be the option to round the corners of a Canvas tile more or to set up assignment reminders, a lot of time was taken to make this perfect for students. I understand it may satisfy some people, and feel bad it is blocked again as of Sept. 25 for them, but I am fine with it going away.
