Canvas Network vs Google Cloud Skills Boost

Canvas Network offers free professional development courses made by educators for K–12 and higher education educators. Subjects include teaching methods, technology skills for educators, student performance analysis, and leadership. Anyone with an email address can enroll, but learners need a separate Canvas Network account, even if they use another Canvas instance. Materials become available on or after the course start date; courses begin according to U.S. Mountain time. Learners can work through activities at their own pace, though an instructor may invite them to synchronous activities. Instructors or sponsoring institutions may provide completion certificates, but Canvas Network does not issue them. It also does not charge eligible institutions to offer courses. Powered by Canvas LMS, the service is available on the web, Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its Android and iOS apps support course access, assignment submission, discussions, and grade viewing, though not every Canvas feature is available in the apps. Offline learning is available. Course settings may hide an individual course after it ends.

Google Cloud Skills Boost, also called Google Skills, is a web learning platform for building skills including Google Cloud and AI. Its catalog combines courses and labs with videos, documents, practical activities, and quizzes. Cloud labs provide temporary credentials for practice using real cloud resources. Guided learning paths bring together selected courses or labs around a role, use case, or solution. Completing learning content can earn learners shareable skill badges and certificates. Subscription content includes material from Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, Google for Education, Google Marketing, and more. Labs require a laptop or desktop, an internet connection, and a supported browser, and a subscription permits one lab at a time. Current versions of popular browsers are supported; Firefox or Chrome are recommended. GEAR participants can claim 35 monthly learning credits at no cost. Google Cloud customers can request access to the Google Skills for Organizations catalog and other exclusive learning resources and programs.