Just a couple of thoughts. I'm a faculty who is a technophile (PC term for geek) and likes canvas. I am at a school where I got to meet an instructional designer once.
1) Build interest first.
* Find your early adopters, let them use it for a semester, and ask for their help. What did canvas make easier for them, what difference did it make to students, what is now possible that was not before... They can tell you how to effectively sell it to their peers.
* They can also serve as resources for those wondering what it is ~really~ like to use it for a whole semester.
* Have them make presentations to demo how they use it, and talk about why they like it.
Free time for them to do all this (let them out of committees or something...), because otherwise this kind of thing is, and is seen as, a burden, and all you will do is build resentment, not interest.
2) Make it easy to start using.
* Use a template. Every time my school has rolled out a new LMS, they set it up to always present a blank course. Most of my on-ground facultypeers log in, see this... and justlog out immediately, promising the Divine that they will fool with it later when they have a few hours free. One or two do.
* Offer to help departments make a canvas site to implement large assessments (like a pre and post course quiz for some large multi-section course, or a senior content knowledge exam to use for program assessment). It may be a one-time thing... but that might turn into a friendship with benefits.
3) Make friends with the early adopters. If this is impossible for administrative reasons, just try not to alienate them.
* Do not tell people that feature ~was~ available in the demo we showed you, but we turned it off because of possible security concerns we cannot explain.
* Do not tell people some administrator told us they had to approve that feature before anyone could use it, so we turned it off without warning anyone and have no idea when it will be reviewed and might be turned on again.
* Listen to what people are doing, and how they do it, and if some change in the next update or some feature you will turn off will break what they are doing, warn them inadvance. If you believe in reincarnation, earn some major karma points now by helping them figure out an alternative way to do what they are doing. No, maybe you can not do that once you have 100 users, but when all you have 10, it is not that hard, and it will build up support among the early adopters. If you fear building expectations you cannot meet later, think of this as training unofficial tech support people who in the future can help solvesome problems before they need to go to the help desk.
* Make it easyfor early adopters to port whatever they have been doing into the LMS to test it out. I know - the average user six months from now may not need to do that, but these are your early adopters and they ~do~ need to do that to test the system, so help them move from their old way to your new way. If they are geeky, and willing to do this, then others who wish they were geeky will figure canvas must be something worth taking seriously and follow their example... which is one way they build the community interest ~you~ want them to build.
* If they can't figure out how to do something, put some people on it and figure out how to do it. They will love you and will remember your help when a colleague asks if they know how to do or fix something... see point above about training unofficial tech support.
* Whenever you meet with early adopters, feed them King Cake. I know... you are thinking that doesn't make sense, but just trust me on this.
4) Think about the long term.
* Do not sell canvas as an LMS with no other possible uses. If you have nothing now, canvas offers you more than you realize:
** Don't assume canvas is only for online courses. I don't teach online, but I like the central place to put handouts, coordinate course emails, upload little things I've made (timelines, slideshows, interactive spreadsheets, gadgets, etc... Yes, I know, I can upload those things to a dozen other places, but I don't want them in a dozen places. I want them in one).
** We also have several committees using canvas sites to organize their work and documents, both for them as they work on things as well as for peers who want to see what the committee is doing.
** Our writing center uses it to allow students to easily submit things for review, and house helpful writing tutorials.
** I built a resource page for faculty in my last department using canvas. It was a place to put all the forms, weird new policies, copies of articles people sent out that later you might wish you had saved, links to something you could never find on the school website using the search bar.... that kinds of thing.
* Make a gentle implementation plan with people. Someone above noted faculty need to build the whole course website before the start of the semester for maximum benefit. That is a great deal of work (I do it every semester). However, you don't start that way.
** This semester, create a basic shell with an outline for the course and materials for one course. That's all.
** Next time you teach the course, add one feature you did not use before and test it out.
** Next time you teach it, add one more feature and test it.
** After a while... people will talk about what they are doing, and get impatient. They will start jumping ahead, creating additional course sites and trying more features. Others will ask to use the shells their peers have built. Building interest pays off over time.
* Remember that group of early adopters who showed what they were doing? Keep that group going so people can problem-solve, try new things and report back what worked well and didn't. Half of them will stop going after a while, but new people will replace them and keep the group active. See the point above about King Cake.
