Mansfield figures he can get “at least two semesters’ worth” of conversation starters out of this one.
Forgoing his usual stream of awkward and uncomfortable quips, eye-contact, and downright silent pauses, sociology professor Skylar Mansfield instead spent the ten minutes between 11:30 a.m. and the start of class last Monday making sure everyone in class was having no problem accessing the Canvas site for the class.
“Was everybody able to find the discussion section and get their reading responses up OK?” said Mansfield, instead of milling through his papers and looking up at the clock every few minutes as usual. “It can be a bit confusing. I know we’re all so accustomed to CTools.”
Mansfield reportedly went on to give the class another rundown of how the readings for class would be divided into different folders for each week so that he would not succumb to commenting on the weather, a football game he did not watch, or how hard it is to “get going” on a Monday.
“The readings should be easy enough to find. They are just divided up by week,” said Mansfield. “Just go into the week for the readings you need and then check the syllabus to make sure you’re reading for the right day.”
“Oh and the syllabus is up on the site too,” added Manfield.
According to some professors, socially awkward students are also benefitting from the transition to Canvas.
“After my Witchcraft seminar ended last Tuesday, one of my quieter students realized he was the last person in the room with me,” said History Professor Christopher Snow. “Instead of scurrying out and mumbling, he came up and asked me if I would be uploading that day’s PowerPoint to Canvas.”
At press time, Mansfield was pulling the class Canvas site up on the projector to give the class a “walk-through” of the assignments tab again.
