159 MEASURING THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATING CANVA

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

159

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

MEASURING THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATING CANVA APPLICATION ON GRAPHIC ABILITY

AND DESIGN PRODUCTIVITY OF UNDERGRADUATES

AJAYI OLAYEMI AND

OJELABI ELIZABETH

DEPARTMENT OF ART AND DESIGN,

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY,

1&2

SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES,

THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, ILARO, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA.

[email protected]; +2347031638176

[email protected]; +2347061502322

ABSTRACT

The essence of education at tertiary level is to empower the youths to be technically skilled in order to be

relevant at workplace which is sine-qua-non to boosting shared prosperity. But in contrary, it becomes

worrisome to keep seeing the Nigerian graduates in design courses, such as art, architecture, to mention but

a few, especially graphics, with the inability to cope with the fast-rising digital expertise in art and

architecture industries cum multimedia agencies; which is already creating an eyesore in the creative

industry. This panel study, which is anchored by uses and gratification cum technological determinism

theories, carried out a prolonged experiment on 90 respondents. While interview, observations and review of

literatures were deployed as instruments of data collection. The intent was tailored towards examining the

respondents’ level of Canva usage at the inception of a semester and same respondents were exposed to the

teaching of the use of the application for 15 weeks; to test the usability and learnability facets of the app.

Among others, the result showed that only 3% of the respondents had known about the application as at the

inception of the semester while at the end of the semester, 93% of the respondents exposed to the teachings of

Canva could use the application effectively. Consequently, this study informed the feasibility of integrating

the app as a practicable teaching aid in graphic art scholarship and to enhance their productivity; as it will

broaden their horizons technologically, improving workplace productivity from the use of Canva application.

KEYWORDS: Canva, Design, Curriculum, Architecture, Graphics, Technology

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Since the emergence of personal computer with the

underlying technological innovations in 1970s,

which expressly paved way for the digital age

otherwise known as information age in the 1980s,

the imperativeness of digital skills has become

inevitable for national development. The global

phenomenon which sparked into existence in the

1990s as a result of the digital revolution in most

industries allowed many companies of the

industrialized world to record economic affluence.

Hence, since that period till present day, digital skills

have been evolving and have become part and parcel

of human’s daily routine which are now thriving

perhaps as a requirement to be integrated into the

urbanized world that is full of dissimilar

opportunities. In similitude of the first industrial

revolution of mechanization, steam and water power,

as well as the second revolution that brought about

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

160

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

mass production and electricity not exempting the

third revolution that sparked the emergence of

automation, electronic and information technology

systems, the information and digital revolution has

been unfolding newer challenges and global

reawakening, the industry 4.0 otherwise known as

the fourth industrial revolution has unearthed

stupendous digital reawakening and will be thriving

all through the 21

century; and beyond. All of this

has given rise to the need of digital skills; as a study

puts forward that about 35% to 45% jobs in Nigeria

and few other African countries would require

digital skills by 2030 (Schwab, nd). Therefore, the

necessity of digital skills and computer literacy has

become a sine-qua-non to workplace relevance and a

tool most organizations consider as a cogent

requirement for employee(s) to be inoculated into

the artificial intelligence (AI) and multimedia

industries. Hence, this calls for a pressing need for

curriculum enhancement and modification,

especially in graphic art cum architecture courses

across all the three tiers of tertiary education in

Nigeria; so as to expose both faculty members and

graphic art cum architecture students to the

acquisition of the required digitally-inclined skills in

the disciplines. This will prune the situation where a

professionally and scholastically trained graphic

designers and architects would end up as apprentices

to a 3-month quack designer. While the scope of this

study will be to inform the untapped benefits of the

Canva app, the significance of this study, which is

an improved version of a conference paper by Ajayi

and Soyemi, (2020), is the fact that it will be

instrumental for goading improved curriculum

delivery for graphic art educators in Nigeria; while

the students would also be exposed to the knowledge

of acclimatizing the judicious use of the application

and eventually enhance their digital skills to an

extent and facilitate skill acquisition in them which

could be monetized for financial empowerment. This

study, in contrast to the conference paper, deployed

empirical mechanism to inform more about the

importance of Canva application, by testing its

awareness rate among the selected respondents as

well as knowing how feasible is the application not

exempting the knowledge of understanding the

potential impacts of the proposed application on

graduates' design abilities cum productivity.

Furthermore, this study is also anchored by two

worthwhile theories; uses and gratification as well as

technology determinism theories of media

communication, which were not included in the

conference paper.

Synoptically, this study provided answers to the

following main research questions; using the

students of the departments of art and design as well

as architecture technology, the Federal Polytechnic,

Ilaro as the population for the study; from which 90

respondents were retrieved. The research questions

are:

Research Question 1:

What is the awareness rate of Canva application

usage among the selected respondents?

Research Question 2:

How practicable is Canva as a teaching aid for

Graphic Design?

Research Question 3:

To what extent are the potential impacts of the canva

usage on graduates’ design abilities and

productivity?

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

161

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

1.1 Statement of Problem

The purpose of postsecondary education is to equip

young people with the technical skills they need in

order to be relevant in both national and global

markets, which is essential to fostering shared

prosperity. On the other hand, it is pitiful to see

Nigerian graduates of design programs, such as art

and architecture, to name a few, struggle to keep up

with the rapidly advancing technical know-how in

the art and architecture industries and/or multimedia

agencies. This has already become a blemish

defacing the Nigerian educational sector with great

negative effects on the visual economy. Therefore, it

is imperative to implement curriculum modification

by incorporating technological innovation into the

current curricula delivery at all levels of tertiary

education in Nigeria in order to eradicate the

technical shortfalls embattling the most industries in

the country and across borders.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Heraclitus, the great Greek philosopher, once said

“change is the only constant in life” (Lucy, 2019)

which means that, every nation that desires

economic development and growth must prioritize

the enhancement and modifications of its academic

curriculum from time to time to suit the current

trends in global markets which will consequently

determine the quality of manpower it produces for

the available job opportunities and for economic

boost. The absence of this in many underdeveloped

nations is what has brought many into the deplorable

situations of being irrevocably in economic

meltdown. The dynamics of any society that thirsts

for economic growth is to ensure that a continuum of

interrelated changes is carried out from time to time.

Ozovehe, (2016), validates the goal of this study

which seeks not to displace the long existing

handmade form of Graphic arts but to further

integrate a technological input that Canva

application has to offer to enhance the teaching of

the modules and give the students an up-to-date

knowledge and keep pace with the present

technology in this wise.

The emergence of modern art education in Nigeria in

1923 through the indefatigable individual efforts of

Aina Onabolu and Murray as well as the emergence

of the term graphic design in 1922 which came to

existence when William Dwiggins employed the

term to describe the art of designing with graphics

all came hand-in-hand as a double faceted good

tiding (Chidum, 2001; Crowder, 1976; Wangboje,

1968; Daily, 1948).

Since their emergences, societies have been evolving

in accordance with the growth or deplorable state of

art in such societies. Tracing it all the way from the

period of drawings on the cave walls which

controversially were considered a form of ancient

graphics fast forward till 1900s when visual signs

were considered as a form of expression, as

technology evolve with changes and wide

availability globally, graphic design began to evolve

(Chidum, 2001). The impacts of art education and its

adaptability to technological innovations cannot be

overstressed. Art education which has an all-

encompassing modules that promote self-

empowerment and entrepreneurial skills (Ajayi,

2017; Egbedokun, Badru, Adeyanju and Idowu,

2006) must be patterned to be receptive to

technological enhancement at all levels of education;

especially, tertiary level (Ajayi & Seyi-Gbangbayau,

2020). The definition of graphics by (Ajayi &

Siyanbola, 2020) suggests that it is a facet of art that

manifests itself to be the art or process of creating

prints media and audiovisual communication by

combining typographic components, audio, motion

and/or photographic components for the purpose of

conveying messages to a target audience.

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

162

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

Moreover, the course modules for the National

Diploma (ND), Higher National Diploma (HND) in

the currently used National Board for Technical

Education (NBTE) curriculum cum the National

Universities Commission (NUC) curriculum for

Bachelor’s degree in graphics art not exempting that

of the colleges of education cum technical colleges

suggest that the students be taught elements and

principles of design, symmetric and asymmetric

types of balance, publicity and advertising, logo

design, among others. Fortunately, almost all of the

above contents are deeply rooted in the mobile

application called Canva. The application is a drag-

and-drop graphic design platform, for creating

graphic visuals for social media, presentations,

posters, documents and other visual contents.

Beyond the usefulness of creating designs either by

choosing from already existing templates or creating

a design from scratch, Canva and other mobile

phone/PC software/applications for visual creations

spanned beyond creating contents to connect with

social media friends but also could be maximized for

research explorations not exempting academic

functions (Mao, Tian, Li, Wei and Liang, 2017).

Meanwhile, it is worthy to note that as technology

began to change and become available to more

people, the entire industry that would become known

as multimedia agencies began to emerge.

According to dissimilar studies, almost every college

student nowadays owns a smartphone. While some

are channeling the use towards research and

scholarly activities some are predominantly using

the mobile phones for social and networking. Also,

in almost all the tertiary institutions in Nigeria, there

is an availability of bandwidth that enhance the

supply and use of internet-enabled wireless fidelity

for every fully registered student/scholar (Kim and

Altmaann 2012; Payne et.al. 2012; Mohtar et al.

2013; Ajagbe et.al. 2013; Alfawareh and Jusoh,

2014; Soyemi, Oloruntoba and Okafor, 2015). This

makes the integration of Canva as an enhancement

for teaching graphics plausible among the students.

2.1. The Canva Application

Canva is a graphic design platform, used to create

social media graphics, presentations, posters,

documents and other visual contents. The app

already includes drag-and-drop templates for

designers to use. The platform is free to use but

offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva

for Enterprise for additional functionality and more

creative and advanced contents. Impressively, Canva

can be used on both smartphones and personal

computers. That is, it is compatible for both phone

and computers (windows, android and apple).

Hence, irrespective of the brand of phone/computer,

Canva will be accessible for all. The latest version of

Canva has features that enable users to remove

background in a single tap, add text effects that

enable designs to pop, embed GIFS, music, and

videos in designs, and can also switch to the old app

and having the existing designs intact.

Fig. 1: Screen shot of Canva at home mode.

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

163

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

Fig. 2: Screen shot of Canva at Designs mode

Figures 1 and 2 are the three different navigation

snapshots of the Canva App: Home page, Designs

page and Menu. The Home mode contains thousands

of free and payable templates to modify in a way to

suit one’s choice. The Designs mode contains all the

previously modified designs and they are usually

editable and reusable (without necessarily using the

internet connection), while the Menu mode contains

pieces of general information about user and allows

user to modify some settings and view all the created

folders for one’s modified visuals. The payable

templates allow editing/modification. Thousands of

different templates are available on the application

and have been classified into different groups such

as: instagram posts, logos, flyers, posters, instagram

stories, animated social media, fashion logos,

facebook post, your stories, infographics,

presentations, instagram story highlights, phone

wallpapers, gaming logos, video presentations,

animated logos, YouTube thumbnails, photo

collages, invitations, YouTube channel art, videos,

Facebook covers, cards, mind maps, brochures,

beauty logos, Facebook shops logos, business cards,

sale Instagram posts, food/drink logos, love

instagram posts, WhatsApp stories, food instagram

posts, clean minimalist instagram stories, birthday

invitations, posters (landscape), birthday cards,

presentations (4:3), comic strips, education

presentations, menus, concept maps, social media,

YouTube intros, YouTube icons, Zoom virtual

backgrounds, magazines covers, education

infographics, book covers and T-shirts. Judging from

the diverse categories of graphic visuals covered by

Canva, it gives an indication that it is an all-

encompassing graphics platform that can easily be

used for both teaching and learning.

2.2. Designing with Canva Application

As a beginner, and as students who may not afford

paying for some templates, choose from the existing

design templates available on the Canva platform. It

is advisable for beginners to usually click on the

templates that has “free” inscription in order to be

able to edit/modify it without payment. The

following icons usually show when editing or

modifying a design template.

Fig 3: A screenshot of Canva at Home mode

displaying few free templates

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

164

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

Fig. 4: Canva workspace in Edit mode.

Fig. 5: Canva workspace in adding new elements

mode

In the Fig. 4, the first icon is the Home icon which is

the dashboard for displaying diverse design

templates (free and payable). The second icon

indicates undo, that is to go back to previous

action(s), while the three dots icon links user to

different options such as save, save to folder, share,

and so on. The arrow down icon, if clicked, would

save the modified template and the last icon “arrow

up” will export an edited template if clicked. On the

other hand, as shown in the Fig. 5, the circled plus

sign is usually shown at the lower right side of the

Canva platform, and enables user to add contents to

the templates or start a design from the scratch.

Once any of the existing templates is clicked, one

will have to click on any part of the template in order

to start modifying the template. The text can be

edited to carry a new caption or textual feats, the text

can be reduced and/or increased and the color of the

text can be changed also. The background colors can

be changed to either solid color or a pictorial

background. Among other modifications that can be

done on the design platform.

2.3 Challenges with Canva App

As a way of improving some of the existing

applications, software and other technological

innovations users' reviews have always been

instrumental for the developers in improving the

functionality and usability of such product(s).

Hence, while probing into the users’ reviews for

Canva, asides millions of positive reviews that

earned the product a 4.7-star rating, the focus was

shifted to the challenges and modifications oozing

from millions of Canva users. Few modifications

suggested by users were selected randomly. This

further authenticates the goal of this study as it

relates to the need for continuum enhancement and

modifications in curriculum delivery for art

disciplines and equals. Few randomly selected

remarks about Canva are; the need for data to access

existing templates, limitation in phone storage, tiny

screen as it to phones, lack of guidelines, absence of

search function, high rate of paid template, among

other (trustradius, 2020). The essence of the

randomly selected reviews is to intimate the

beginners with some plausible challenges that are

likely to be encountered while using the application.

Hence, it will prepare users who are beginners ahead

of time to be able to know how to cope with the

array of templates embedded in Canva.

2.4 Generating Income with Canva App

Asides the fact that students would be exposed to

trending technological innovations if Canva and

other computer applications/software could be

integrated to further enhance the curriculum delivery

of the educators in Graphic arts, the knowledge of

Canva can also be utilized to generate income by the

students as a way of empowering themselves

financially and easing their parents of some financial

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

165

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

responsibilities. With few feats embedded in the

platform coming in dissimilar categories previously

analyzed, it makes it quite possible for students to

generate income from the skill developed. Few of

the categories of design templates on Canva that

could be maximized for financial empowerment are

but not limited to logo design (still and animated),

comic strips, t-shirts branding, birthday cards, and

business cards. With several templates of both still

and animated logos, the students who are to use

same phone for networking as posited in the

previously cited studies, the possibility of getting

potential customers to design such creative logos

would be realistic. The same thing applicable to

comic strips which can be leveraged for product

marketing and equals. This can further offer a succor

to art scholars as a remedy to challenges facing the

art scholars and affecting their academic

productivity as theorized by Ajayi and Seyi-

Gbangbayau, (2021)

2.5 How to Maximize Canva as a Teaching Aid

With lots of diverse categories of editable graphics,

visual templates strategically grouped in Canva,

indicating the availability of more than enough

working templates that could be used by educators to

enhance the teaching of graphic arts and enable the

students to be technologically skilled and also save

time in executing their various coursework rather

than predominantly being exposed to the archaic

style of constructing letters manually for weeks all in

a bid to creating simple visuals using stenciling cum

dabbing approaches; a service which is barely

patronized in this fast advancing computer age. That

is to say, in lieu of the students spending lots of

hours constructing letters or simple captions to be

used to create a handmade poster, the Canva app.

can be used to create the caption(s) and even plan

the entire design, then print and trace on the

cardboard before applying poster colour, et.al. not

exempting other individualistic handmade cum

indigenous creativity. This will also make the

students to learn how to blend the past

(analog/handmade) into the present (digital age) in

order to create good designs faster and better.

2.6 Theoretical Framework

This study proudly anchors itself on the uses and

gratification as well as technology determinism

theories of media communication.

2.6.1 Uses and Gratification Theory:

This theory evolved firstly in 1940s. It was the

period when the scholars started investigating the

morale backing the people’s choice of various media

consumption. This theory is attributed to Jay

Blumler and Elihu Katz’s research in 1974 and it

wholly idealizes the fact that the power of the

individual overshadows the power of the media. As

(Vinney, 2019), would have us believe, parts of the

assumption that propelled the theory are:

 It was believed media use is goal-directed.

People are motivated to consume media

 It was also believed that media is selected based

on the expectation that will satisfy specific needs

and desires.

 Personality and social context impact the media

choices one makes and one’s interpretations of

media and messages.

 Media are competitively striving with other

forms of communication to attract individual’s

attention.

 And in a clear contrast from the cultivation

theory, this theory upholds that people are

usually in control of media and not necessarily

be influenced by it.

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

166

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

This theory enthralls the context of this study as the

Canva app is also a technological medium through

which people get gratification from its uses. With the

use of Canva app, users are exposed to a form of

satisfaction they get especially when they see their

dull images now been effortlessly doctored and

improved with some graphical elements that could

make an amateur vaunt himself/herself as a

professional designer. Also, those that would use the

application to produce a simple creative design for

online or physical clients would end up having a

multifaceted satisfaction which is crested in both the

one that the designers get from the remuneration

received for the design service as well as the

satisfaction on the part of the client. In contrast, the

use of this application may vary as it has various

ways through which it is being used. While some use

it for creating tutorial for fresh learners and get

remunerated, another similar use could be for non-

commercial purpose which has to do with self-

consumption, among other species of usage. That is

using it for individualistic predilections.

2.6.2 Technological Determinism Theory:

This reductionist theory devised by Thorstein

Veblen advocates the idea of believing the

technology is influential on people’s lives. This

theory posits that the internet is revolutionizing

economy cum the society. Simply put, this theory

maintains the position that technology determines

the type of society we live.

The criticism that attempts to refocus the theory of

technological determinism upholds the position that

the technology does not impose itself on members of

the society; as the technology did not create itself,

but the man does. Just as God creates man and the

man cannot determine the specificity of what

happens to God or in the Heavenly places. So, also

man invents umbrella and chooses not to use it even

when it rains yet the umbrella cannot impose its

usage on the man, similarly, man invents television

yet he chooses not to use it. Hence, it is no

gainsaying that the technology’s influence is within

controllable context of its inventor/creator. This

theory impacts this study on the premise of one of its

assumptions that the internet is revolutionizing the

economy and the society. This is evident as the

Canva app is an internet based application that

revolutionizes its users positively; which eventually

avails them (users) multifaceted gratifications.

3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

This study researched into the essence of integrating

a digital design platform (Canva) as a means of

teaching aid by graphic art trainers/educators in the

academia, especially those in the TVET tertiary

institutions, which 9 in turn, enhance the expertise of

graphic art students and abridging the students to the

technology age. Therefore this study did adopt the

descriptive research method. Hence, the analysis of

contents tenable under descriptive research was

embraced all in a bid to mining data to avail viable

responses to the various research questions for this

study.

3.2 Population of the Study

The population of this study consists of the students

of art and design cum architectural technology

departments from which 90 respondents were

randomly selected from. The samples were randomly

selected from the four levels (ND 1, ND II, HND 1

and HND II) of both departments and exposed to

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

167

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

groupthink discussions and applied experiment that

lasted intermittently for 15 weeks of an academic

semester; aimed at investigating the feasibility of

Canva app. being easy to learn and teach graphics;

all in a bid to checking the number of the samples

that could operate the application after the end of the

semester.

3.3 Method of Data Analysis:

This study adopted a method of simple descriptive

for its data presentation and analysis.

3.3.1 Results from Interview and Groupthink

Discussions:

While carrying out this study, the researchers

interrogated the students of the two selected

departments on their familiarities with the use of

Canva; at a frequency of 6 students per week

totaling 90 students throughout 15 weeks. The table

1 below narrates their responses. The interview was

organized at the inception of an academic semester,

90 students were indiscriminately selected for the

interview, discussion and prolonged experiment. The

selection of the respondents varied as a result of the

differences of each of the levels.

Summary of Interviewed Respondents

Table 1: Numbers of Interviewed Respondents

Level

Respondents

Number of selected

respondents per class

Percentage

Male

Female

Total

ND 1

46.7

ND II

36.7

HND 1

6.6

HND II

Total

100

Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022.

The results in table 1 inform that 90 respondents

were randomly engaged for the prolonged

experiment, systematic groupthink discussion cum

interview employed in receiving the students’

feedbacks. The ND 1 students were the largest

number of students interviewed. 42 students were

selected from the ND 1 classes occupying 46.7% of

the samples, while 33 randomly selected ND II

students were also engaged in the groupthink

discussion, experiment cum interview; which occupy

36.7% of the samples. Then 9 from HND II

occupying the 10% of the samples and another 6

HND 1 students were also interviewed; occupying

the 6.6% of the samples.

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

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A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

How many students have a prior knowledge or no knowledge of Canva at the inception of the semester?

Table 2: Assessment of Students’ prior knowledge about Canva as at the inception of semester

Information

Frequency of Respondents

Percentage (%)

No prior knowledge of use of

Canva app.

Prior knowledge of Canva

Total

100

Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022.

The table 2 shows the percentage of how the

respondents responded about their prior knowledge

of the use of Canva app. 97% of the respondents

admitted not to have a prior knowledge about the

existence of the application while only 3% had the

prior knowledge.

Similarly, the same samples were also interviewed

and put on groupthink discussion at the end of the

same semester to probe their level of Canva app

dexterity and to deduce the number of students that

could now operate the app to create simple designs

seamlessly after the experiment.

How many students can now operate Canva by the end of the semester?

Table 3: Samples that can operate Canva or not at the end of the session

Information

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Number of students who can

operate Canva app.

Number of students who

cannot operate Canva app.

Total

100

Source: Authors’ Field Survey, 2022.

Ilaro Journal of Environmental Research & Development (2022) (6), (1) 159 – 173

Ajayi, O., &

Ojelabi, E.

ISSN: 2736-0814

169

A Publication of the School of Environmental Studies, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Nigeria.

Available templates and Visual Components on Canva application

Table 4: Visual design templates on Canva.

Features

Frequency of Existing

Templates on canva

Visual Creation Components on

Canva

Whiteboard

Text to Image (AI)/Website

Social Media

6,890

Curved Tect

Presentations

11, 426

PDF Converter

Websites

838

Video Trimmer

Videos

11, 430

Text Animations

Animated Templates

8, 640

Design & Photo grids

Illustration Sticker Templates

2, 297

Free Icons to enhance designs

Logo templates

58, 411

Textures/Stickers

Overall free templates

60, 000+

Speech Bubble/Transparent Images

Source: Canva.con (As at December 20, 2022)

4.0 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

This research is anchored by few research questions:

Research Question 1:

What is the awareness rate of Canva application

usage among the selected samples?

Answering this question is in the table 2. The table

shows that 97% of the samples did not have a prior

knowledge about the existence of the application

while only 3% only have a prior knowledge of its

existence. This reveals the rate of weak digital

knowledge of the students even right from the

secondary school level. As it is evident from the

study, that majority of the respondents ND 1

students have no idea about the use and/or existence

of the application before gaining admission into the

institution. Consequently, there is tendency such

situation is prevalent in other tertiary institutions in

Nigeria, African nations and perhaps other parts of

the world.

Research Question 2:

How practicable is Canva as a teaching aid for

Graphic Design?

In respect to this question, as it is palpable in the

table 3, 93% of the samples were able to operate the

application at the end of the semester while the 7%

of the samples were unable to operate it as a result of

various reasons ranging from the type of phones they

are using which were not good enough having

Canva to operate on it, while other part of the 7%

occupy those whose phones were faulty. What this

implies is that it (i) further established the study of

(Soyemi, et.al. 2015) on the index rate of

smartphone usage among the undergraduates (ii)

established the fact that the application is really

practicable and easy to use and this finding validate

that the integration of this application as a teaching

aid is viable and realistic; if properly considered.

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Research Question 3:

To what extent are the potential impacts of the

canva usage on graduates’ design abilities and

productivity?

We now thrive and work in a visual economy,

therefore understanding the nitty-gritty of visual

communication as graphics professionals is

imperative as the effects of that are sine-qua-non to

both national and global development. Therefore, the

exposure of the students to the use of Canva cannot

be overemphasized. The table 4 above analyzed

various features that are currently on the application.

The simplified features and components of visual

design creation templates on the application will

inform the students a basic idea of the important

media attributes which are usually what most

multimedia agency usually offer to their clients. The

exposure of the students to the media cum digital

components on the Canva application would

broaden the horizons of the students rather than

applying for media jobs without having any digital

skills cum media dexterities that could give them a

foundation upon which reskilling can be achieved by

the company where the students may apply to. For

instance, during a lecture with HND II students by

the lead author of this study, the students were

exposed to the creation of websites which were

created using the Canva application, hence, the

students have been able to have an idea of generating

contents, and arranging them strategically for

website creation, the task was for them to create a

website portfolio for all their works. In the end, the

task exposed them to the idea of free hostage of

website and its design procedures. The knowledge

will go a long way to be with them as they are the

administrative handlers of their individual’s website

and they could later manipulate the website to their

taste and use as a means of selling their artworks and

even sending the link of their portfolios for job

applications, project bidding, et.al. Similarly, the

newly introduced feat of Artificial Intelligence into

the Canva application which will allow the students

to create stunning artworks just by typing a simple

word or group of words could also improve the

technical and digital skills of the students as against

the backdrop of spending years in the tertiary

institutions strictly doing handmade graphics that no

longer have market prospects. The impacts of the use

of Canva application will increase the digital skills

of the graduates students and give them a basic

understanding of required knowledge, information,

terminologies, hands-on experience, among others; if

they would use the application consistently for two

or more years while in school. The user-friendliness

and simplicity of the tools on the application can

also enhance fast assimilation of the use of the

application.

5.0. CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

Having probed into the working features embedded

in the proposed graphics platform (Canva App)

alongside the rate at which smartphones are

commonly used by students and it was uncovered

that the rate is impressively good, this makes the

essence of this study plausible and viable. Hence, the

recommendation to integrate Canva Application and

other graphic arts applications into the curriculum

delivery in all the tiers of tertiary education where

graphic art is offered, to complement the curriculum

delivery should be treated pertinent for the economic

regurgitation of this nation. With the artificial

intelligence feat now integrated into the Canva

application, website development cum free hosting,

among others, both art and design students as well as

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architectural technology students can now have

meaningful use of the application to project their

varying skills and intellectual properties to the

world. This will unarguably even make them

industry potentials and perhaps reckoned with in

their respective fields.

Similarly, with the rate of the respondents who were

in the category of those who could not operate the

app or aware of its existence (Table 2), it means this

type of worrisome circumstance may be prevalent in

other technical and/or conventional tertiary

institutions within the country and beyond border.

Therefore, the need for the graphic educators to be

abreast of technological information cum digital

skills is imperative in order to expose the intellectual

assets (manpower) of the nation to technical, digital

cum emotional intelligence skills. This will propel a

viable panacea to the fast rising lacuna of digital

unskillfulness of most learned graphic graduates

being demeaned by quack designers in the creative

industry and it will inhibit the blemish staining and

ridiculing the products of educational sector in

various industries.

Similarly, there is a need for prompt review and

modification of the currently used NBTE and NUC

curricular, etc. especially in Art and Design as well

as Architectural Technology programme to imbibe

the trending impacts of technological innovations

and digital influence so as to increase employability

rate in the country. Therefore with the experiment

carried out in this study which proved the user-

friendliness of the application (Table 3), it makes it

more significant for this application to be juxtaposed

and maximized as a teaching aid in curriculum

delivery for graphics at ND, HND, B.A. and even

postgraduate levels. After all, the application allows

new designs to be originally created by users without

necessarily being constrained to the existing

templates on the platform. Therefore, while ND level

may be allowed to use the existing design templates,

HND and other levels could also integrate the app as

a design platform to complement other design

applications cum software expedient for digital

knowledge. The higher classes could be prompted to

generate new designs as well as review, improve,

critique the existing designs, on the application.

Since, they are proposed designs created by likely

professionals in the field.

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