Abstract—The advancement of digital information and
communication technologies allowed the development of
Virtual Learning Environments, which are the spaces where
classes offered in distance education take place. Currently there
are several virtual learning environments, but the most
noteworthy are Moodle and Canvas, which are software that
have open programming codes and are freely accessible and
provide features such as usability, reliability and mobility. That
is why these virtual environments have been adopted by many
educational institutions in Brazil. Thus, the present study aimed
to compare the technological parameters of the Virtual
Learning Environments Moodle and Canvas, in order to
facilitate the choice of a virtual environment to be used for
educational purposes. It was chosen the qualitative, exploratory
and descriptive research which was carried out in 2017. At the
end of the research it was possible to realize that both Moodle
and Canvas present similar evaluations. However, Canvas was
more complete, collaborative and intuitive interface in the
results analyzed, in relation to Moodle. In addition, Canvas uses
a programming language more modern than Moodle,
presenting an updated technology: cloud computing, which
represents an advantage over Moodle.
Index Terms—Distance education, virtual learning
environments, moodle, canvas.
The authors are with the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
(e-mail: marciagrossi@terra.com.br, micheleng.bio@gmail.com,
cmchamon@gmail.com, deboracristinaleal@hotmail.com).
Cite: Márcia Gorett Ribeiro Grossi, Michelle Cristina Almeida de Souza Elias, Camila Macedo Chamon, and Débora Cristina Cordeiro Campos Leal, "The Educational Potentialities of the Virtual Learning Environments Moodle and Canvas: A Comparative Study," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 514-519, 2018.