By Prabhjot Bhamra, project coordinator, Learning Design, BC Emergency Health Services
On November 6, 2024, as part of the BCcampus EdTech Sandbox Series, we explored the powerful capabilities of Canva’s Magic Studio, a suite of AI-enhanced tools designed to transform educational content creation. This session attracted a diverse group of educators and instructional designers eager to integrate more innovative and efficient tools into their teaching practices.
Canva’s Magic Studio introduces a suite of AI tools such as Magic Write, Magic Design, and Magic Media, to name a few, which automate and enhance the design process. These features allow educators to quickly generate appealing educational materials, making the creative process both efficient and enjoyable. Canva for Education and Canva for Campus cater to K-12 and higher education needs, respectively.
Theoretical Frameworks
Canva’s AI tools support constructivism by allowing learners to construct knowledge through interactive experiences. It also fits the Triple E Framework by engaging and enhancing the learning experience, as well as the TPACK Framework by aligning technology with content and teaching methods. Considering the SAMR Model, Canva transforms traditional presentations and worksheets by enabling significant task redesign and the creation of new, innovative, educational activities, exemplifying the modification and e-definition stages.
Strengths
- Efficiency: automates routine design tasks, allowing educators to focus more on pedagogical effectiveness.
- Engagement: provides visually appealing templates, animations, and brand kit options that enhance the visual learning experience for students.
- Accessibility: Offers intuitive drag-and-drop functionality that is easy for users of all skill levels to adopt. The Translate feature supports 100+ languages. The accessibility checker and other features and published WCAG Accessibility Conformance Report also speak to their commitment to accessibility.
- Extensive asset library and AI media generation: can help cut down on time and money spent on stock images and videos.
- Privacy and security: Canva is compliant with FERPA, COPPA, and SOC2 Type I and ISO 27001. Canva Shield provides additional protections such as data encryption and advanced privacy settings. Canva is also transparent about the collection and use of student data and third-party app integrations.
- Admin controls and permissions: students are automatically restricted from accessing AI tools, with permissions granted only through administrator approval.
- Free versions: K-12 students and teachers, as well as higher education students whose institutions subscribe to Canva for Campus, enjoy free access to Canva Pro and advanced AI features. This benefit also extends to non-profit organizations.
- Alignment with guidelines: aligns fairly well with the UNESCO guidelines and has room to grow within the B.C. Post-secondary Digital Literacy Framework.
Weaknesses/Challenges
- Dependence on internet connectivity: Canva requires a stable internet connection and may need adequate RAM, which could be a limitation in less connected environments.
- Data privacy: We discussed how Canva handles user data and lays out AI use terms, emphasizing the importance of understanding these aspects to ensure the protection of students’ and teachers’ information. Security controls, however, vary across different account types.
- AI training transparency: needs more transparency on the data sets, methodologies, and bias and fairness mitigations in place.
- Design over pedagogy: The allure of graphic design features may risk overshadowing the educational intent. Educators and students must balance visual appeal with substantive learning to maintain educational integrity.
Some Suggested Practical Applications
- Student projects: encourage the use of digital portfolios and work kits.
- Lesson planning and delivery: use ready-to-go teaching resources and templates.
- Group collaboration: enable real-time editing and feedback among students and peers.
- Integrations: leverage the apps marketplace to integrate with popular learning management systems (LMS) and apps (with and without AI) to enhance workflow and functionality.
- Digital makerspaces: use a whiteboard or shared classroom/folder space for constructivist learning. Tip: use the sort function to sort sticky notes by colour, name, topic, or reactions.
Canva also has case studies and teacher guides for more inspiration.
Digital Literacy
Even if you haven’t used Canva personally, you’ve likely seen its impact given its reach. Canva offers tutorials to foster skill development and professional growth for educators and students alike. Canva’s Design School has several video tutorials and learning paths to help you get started.
Future Trends and Directions
It will be interesting to see the results from long-term use cases, especially in the higher ed space (e.g., the University of California partnership). Also, with its growing number of partnerships and acquisitions, it’ll be interesting to see what directions Canva chooses to grow in.
Reflections from Live Webinar
Participants in the live webinar did an introductory Magic Studio tutorial,(Canva account required for access), followed by a deep dive into ethical concerns regarding its use. A few key points that came up from the live webinar:
- Participants were interested in the accessibility options within Canva, such as checks for typography, color contrast, and alternative text. This shows a concern for making educational content accessible to all students.
- Most (if not all) of Canva’s in-house AI features are powered by OpenAI. While Canva is committed to not training on data from education and creator accounts, transparency around campus and non-profit accounts remains unclear.
- Looking at an example of using AI to redesign an infographic into a summary, participants observed that Canva adds voice and emotion to facts. Is this an enhancement? Or does it add bias?
- The ability to lock text fields on digital worksheets prevents students from copying and pasting answers, which promotes originality but potentially reduces accessibility for some students. The trade-off between security measures and accessibility needs further exploration to ensure equity.
Suggestions for Further Reading
- Can we do better explanations? A proposal of user-centred explainable AI – a paper on user-centred explainable AI.
- Empowering educators to be AI-ready – a suggested framework for getting educators ready for AI.
The best way to learn more about Canva’s AI is to go hands-on, of course. Dive into its features, experiment with its tools, and share your experiences. This will not only enhance your digital literacy, but also inspire creative educational strategies. Happy creating!
Webinar Recording and Transcript
If you missed the webinar, or want a quick refresher, you can access the webinar recordings and transcript below.
EdTech Sandbox Series: Design Smarter – Harnessing Canva’s AI for Enhanced Educational Outcomes