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Learning Management Systems and Scheduling Tools

Students will find most of their course materials on one of two Learning Management Systems (LMSs): Canvas or Stellar.

Instructors and advisors should communicate to students which, if any, LMS will be used in their subject. Students can find most class materials, updates, syllabi, assignments, and more on their subject’s LMS. Students should log in to both platforms at the start of the term to locate and explore the pages for their subjects. 

Canvas

Canvas is an LMS used by 3,000 Universities, that Sloan has used for 3 years, and that is now available for all MIT classes. Many first-year subjects will use Canvas, and students should be encouraged to use the discussion features, mobile app, calendar and other built-in features of Canvas to facilitate their learning. 

Stellar  

Stellar is a long-standing LMS for the MIT community. Stellar was used as the primary LMS at MIT in past years and will continue to be used for many subjects this fall. Many Stellar sites from past semesters are also accessible for students to reference. Stellar subjects often utilize other online tools such as Piazza or Gradescope, so students should check their syllabi to identify any other platforms they may need to access. 

CourseRoad

This is probably the overall best scheduling resource. It was developed by a team of students to provide every possible class available to students with a description, the day/time that itis held and the pre-requisites for the class. Students can compare potential schedules by creating numerous sample 4-year schedules; a great tool for long-term planning. It has the ability to: 

  • Import and export roads to a file. This means a student can work more closely with their advisor, sending drafts of their plan back and forth and improving it through that more interactive conversation.
  • Post “sample roads” on departments’ websites or email them to interested students so first-years don’t have to start from scratch when thinking about a plan. Instead, they could import the department’s example road and modify that, building it into something specialized for them.
  • View plans from their phone, using the application FireRoad for both Android and iOS.

WebSIS

WebSIS is MIT’s Online Student Information System.This is the official online tool for registration and is not replaced by any of the tools listed above.