Before students arrive in Williamstown, they must first become acquainted with the College’s puzzlingly-named online platforms. To access assignments and syllabi, they need to log onto GLOW, the College’s learning management system (LMS). To view their class schedule and register for courses, they need to find Sarah. It soon becomes clear, however, that GLOW is just Canvas with another name. Similarly, Sarah is just PeopleSoft. Students may wonder: What’s with the new names?
Tattiya Maruco, director of academic technology services at the Office of Information Technology (OIT), explained that although its all-caps appearance suggests an acronym, GLOW doesn’t stand for anything — it’s simply a nickname for Canvas.
“There’s so many things that are related to the noun ‘glow’ – being illuminated, brightness that emanates from within, glowing up as in a dramatic positive change – but the truth is there’s no lore behind the name — it’s not an acronym,” Maruco wrote in an email to the Record. “We know it’s an unsatisfying answer. We guess we could also make it an acronym now – send your suggestions.”
The College began using Canvas in 2013, but the name GLOW predates Canvas’ very existence. In fall 2010, the College transitioned from Blackboard to the Moodle platform — two competing systems — and nicknamed the new system “GLOW.” When moving on from Moodle to Canvas, the name stuck.
“GLOW is intended to be the name of [the College’s] learning management system, ensuring continuity no matter which company provides this service,” Maruco wrote.
“I am shocked GLOW doesn’t stand for anything,” Avi Kahn ’26 told the Record.
While the name GLOW is unique to the College, the use of Canvas is not. Half of college and university students in the United States rely on the platform for access to assignments, lecture notes, discussion boards, and other online-learning features.
Despite Canvas’ nationwide prevalence, many of the College’s peers use other platforms. Amherst, Bates, and Wesleyan all use Moodle. Bates has also given a nickname to its LMS: Lyceum.
Though other schools like Yale and Harvard also use Canvas, not all systems are identical. “Over time, OIT staff have developed in-house, custom features that are unique to our installation at Williams,” Maruco wrote. One example is GLOW’s “face book,” a feature that allows faculty to practice student names with accompanying pictures.
While GLOW is not an acronym, its sister system, Sarah, is. Sarah stands for “Student Academic Records and Human Resources,” according to Maruco. Academic records and human resources (HR) were originally housed on the same software, but they split into two platforms in 2013, she added. The College replaced Ephr, the PeopleSoft-based HR system, with Workday in June 2024. Academic records remain on PeopleSoft, which has been the College’s HR platform for over 25 years. In 2022, however, the College announced that it would transition away from PeopleSoft by 2026, as the software will no longer be supported by its developer. The College will transition the academic records system to Workday, according to last week’s faculty meeting agenda. All that remains to be seen is whether the name Sarah will stick after PeopleSoft is gone.
“Sarah is culture, and they should keep it,” Kahn said.
“They should choose another biblical name,” Mica Calzolaio ’26 added.
