ACADEMIC PROJECT — 2025
Building a personal research library for Canvas LMS
PROBLEM
You remember the reading. You just can't find it.
Canvas LMS, launched in 2011 by Instructure, has become the world's leading learning management system. With Blackboard, it dominates the LMS market in the US—serving 30 million educators across 6,000 organizations. However, students face a critical gap despite its widespread adoption. They can't access past materials after courses end—trapping years of knowledge in closed course silos—just when they need it most.
SOLUTION
Files is a permanent, searchable library of all your Canvas materials—organized by context, accessible forever.
Smart Search
Find materials by content, tags, or context
Context Preservation
Course info, dates, and summaries stay attached
Permanent Access
Your library remains accessible to you after graduation
PROCESS
Why students can remember academic materials but not always locate them?
We remember meaning and context, not file names and course paths
Tracing where the search falls apart
The two structural problems preventing the retrieval of materials
Impossible navigation
Finding materials requires remembering exact course locations instead of content—students can't search across courses or use natural memory cues like "that paper about emotional construction"
Temporary access
Finding materials requires remembering exact course locations instead of content—students can't search across courses or use natural memory cues like "that paper about emotional construction"
My main insight
Students don't just need a bunch of folders—they deserve a system that aligns with how they actually think
USER TESTING
Testing and adapting the solution based on what students actually need…
Users see searching/filtering as one task—they just want to find
Finding
Users don't distinguish between search and filters when asked to locate materials, viewing them as parts of the same task.
Impact
This revealed the need for unified search that understands courses, tags, semesters, and content in one input.
Students also create valuable work that gets lost in submissions
Finding
Users wanted to retrieve their own submitted artifacts (assignments, group projects, decks) just as much as course readings.
Impact
Expanded the feature to include "Student Files" to preserve the work students create, not just what they consume.
FINAL DESIGNS
AI-Powered Summaries
Visualizing the feature beyond mobile
Smart Search & Discovery
