Utah State to Replace Blackboard Vista
Utah State University, in collaboration with the Utah Education Network, has chosen Utah-based Instructure to provide a statewide learning management system for Utah college students and faculty. It will replace Blackboard Vista.
More than 109,000 Utah college students and 29,000 higher education faculty and staff will have access to the system by June 2012. The system will also be available to about 40,000 public education students and their teachers.
Instructure's Canvas LMS is a software application that enables educational institutions to efficiently administer, document, track and report on classroom and online learning. The Utah Education Network will host and support the application from its facilities at the Eccles Broadcast Center on the University of Utah campus.
“The selection committee's decision is a win-win-win for the state of Utah,” said Michael Petersen, executive director of UEN. “It’s a win for Utah students and faculty who gain a state-of-the art learning management system at a competitive price, it’s a win for a Utah-based vendor that’s created an excellent product and it’s a win for all Utah citizens who benefit from the economic development made possible by a well-educated cadre of college students.”
A Request for Proposal was issued in October 2010, and eight competitors responded. That list was narrowed to three by a selection committee representing all nine of the state-owned colleges and universities in Utah. The committee included nine voting members, one from each institution, and numerous other technologists, instructional designers and administrators.
USU played an important role in the selection process by developing an extensive and detailed evaluation process for each of the LMS options. This took place from June to December 2010. During this time, USU students and faculty tested the systems and participated in focus groups and surveys. At the end of the evaluation process, Instructure had won USU’s vote.
“This new system will be much more functional than the current LMS,” said Robert Wagner, associate vice provost and executive director of Regional Campuses and Distance Education at USU. “Instructure’s Canvas LMS includes a host of practical and functional features for both students and faculty.”
USU faculty and students can stay updated online (http://fact.usu.edu/htm/canvas) and be involved on the migration process.
Some features of Canvas include:
- Significantly faster tools for grading
- Notification options for faculty and students using Facebook, Twitter, SMS and more
- Integration with Google docs
- Wikis, RSS feeds, web conferencing integrations and more
- Works on any modern browser, including mobile browsers; mobile apps are forthcoming
- Easy YouTube-like tools for posting video, available to faculty and students
- One-click recording and posting of webcam video, available to faculty and students
- Clean, intuitive user interface, featuring drag-and-drop usability throughout
- Rapid migration tool for pulling content (including quizzes and assignments) from Blackboard Vista
- Gold Star Certification for accessibility from the National Federation for the Blind
UEN will start to phase in the Canvas LMS during summer semester 2011 at Utah State University, University of Utah, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College, Weber State University, Snow College, Southern Utah University, Dixie State College and Utah College of Applied Technology.
“Although Instructure is relatively new to the market, the Canvas product is very innovative and the company is solid and poised for growth,” said Scott Allen, learning systems administrator at UEN. “The competitive bidding process is tough on vendors, and our selection committee was impressed with what Instructure could offer.”
Each Utah institution participated in evaluating the products from multiple vendors.
“The selection committee recommended Instructure's Canvas product because it offered the best match to higher education’s criteria for a learning management system,” Allen said. “By hosting the application at UEN, we will continue realizing the cost savings and other benefits we have been able to provide to state colleges and universities during the past several years with Blackboard Vista.”
Founded in 2008, Instructure set out to disrupt the complex, legacy LMS industry by creating Canvas — a simple, yet powerful software system that sets a new standard for open technology in education.
“We're excited about this opportunity to partner with UEN, higher education and public schools in Utah,” said Josh Coates, Instructure CEO. “With Canvas, a new standard for simplicity, usability and elegance has been set, and we believe this will have a direct and positive impact on education in Utah.”
The Canvas product is currently used by more than 20 universities. It provides compatibility with all web browsers across a variety of platforms ranging from Microsoft Windows through Mac OSX and Linux. It also functions on smartphones, including iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Android, Palm and Blackberry. The product is built on a multi-tenant architecture, which allows it to support multiple institutions from a single installation.
Source: Utah Education Network
Writer: Andy Yerka, (320) 224-1296, a.yerka@aggiemail.usu.edu
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