Overview
Canvas by Instructure
Instructure, Inc.
CANVAS BY INSTRUCTURE
Canvas is a cloud-based education technology platform with advanced Learning Management
System (LMS) functionality. Instructure hosts Canvas as a subscription service on the
state-of-the-technology cloud infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Instructure’s
comprehensive implementation and hosting services include full system monitoring, automated
provisioning, “Hands-Free” update/upgrade services, Basic Support Package, online Standard
Training Package, beta environment, and a test/training instance. The Canvas architecture,
AWS infrastructure, and Instructure’s hosting and support services make Canvas the most
reliable, available, extensible, and scalable cloud-based LMS in the industry.
The tables in the subsections below provide overviews of:
•
The advanced LMS features and functions of Canvas (Table 1)
•
Instructure’s hosting and support services (Table 2)
•
Canvas’s architecture and the AWS cloud infrastructure (Table 3)
•
Supported third-party content, tools, and services integrations (Table 4)
1.1 Canvas Features and Functions
Canvas includes all of the LMS features and functionality identified in Table 1.
Table 1. Canvas Features and Functions
Feature Description
Accessibility Adheres to US Section 508 accessibility standards, and is committed to the Web
Accessibility Initiative's (WAI) guidelines for content (WCAG) and rich internet applications (ARIA) as documented in our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
Analytics Monitors student engagement, predicts success, and tracks students’ learning outcomes and
progress by pedagogical goals and desired outcomes
Announcements Delivered automatically to the course activity stream of all users and other communications
channels based on users’ individual notification preferences
Assignments Assignment submissions can include web pages, Word docs, video, audio, slide shows,
links, and more
Browser-enabled Compatible with the latest two versions of Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet
Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox
Calendar Drag-and-drop functionality to schedule and reschedule calendar events, plus automatic
event notifications and support for calendar feed subscription.
Chat Synchronous text chat within a learning community
Collaborations Enable users to collaborate on projects using shared Canvas work spaces leveraging
real-world tools such as Google Drive
Feature Description
Discussions Provides asynchronous, threaded, media-rich, gradable discussion forums for courses and
groups
ePortfolios Students can create public or private ePortfolios to display and reflect on notable coursework
FERPA and COPPA compliant
Complies with U.S. federal law regarding Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) and Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and gives schools the tools they need to maintain compliance
Files repository Hierarchical file folder creation and organization, zip file import and export, file locking,
drag-and-drop file reorganization, file renaming, file deletion, and other standard file management functionality
Gradebook Automatically generated and updated based on course assignments and assessments,
linked to gradebook scoring and the integrated with smart feedback and notification features
Grades Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes can be scored by points, rubrics, percentages, letter
grades, and complete/incomplete. Scoring can also reflect outcome performance and competencies.
Integrations Standards-based, pluggable platform for easy integration with a wide variety of external
technologies, systems, tools, and services Learning
outcomes
Learning outcomes can be aligned to rubrics for institution-wide initiatives such as academic standards and accreditation
Mobile access Highly-rated, native mobile apps for Apple iOS and Android provide a complete student
experience
Modules Can be thematic, focused on a specific topic, content type, or arranged chronologically to
provide a course sequence with support for selective release
Pages Create flexible, customizable course pages with wiki functionality using the Rich Content
Editor Parent
Co-Enrollment (K-12)
Enables parents to keep informed of class activities, school communications, and their child’s classwork and learning progress
Observer User role for class advisors and students mentors
People Includes the course roster and contact information for students, instructors, and TAs
Professional Learning
Create opportunities for teachers to learn online and support institution-wide resource sharing
Quizzes Rich-content, multi-featured, and robust assessment and quizzing system for online exams;
supports proctoring, question banks, and extensive question types. Canvas supports IMS QTI and Respondus integrations.
Reports Cover a wide variety of data needs, including learning outcomes that cover multiple courses,
departments, or the entire institution Rich Content
Editor
WYSIWYG and HTML editor modes used to create discussion topics, comments, and replies; supports video and audio, images, tables, math formulas, and web links
Rubrics Created from sets of instructor-defined criteria to provide a structured, consistent, and
Settings Instructors can select course start and end dates, preferred language, grading scheme, copyright attribution, public or private visibility, as well as cross-list sections, add users, reorder course navigation, and configure external tools
SpeedGrader™ Enables instructors to step through a set of assignments and, in conjunction with the
associated rubric, quickly and consistently grade each submission in just a few clicks
State standards Enables schools to align course objectives to Common Core/State Standards to meet
reporting requirements
Syllabus Course calendar changes automatically update the course syllabus generated automatically
by defined coursework
User profile Profile options include full name, display name, language preference, bio, photo, website
links, registered web services, contact methods, time zone, and other options.
1.2 Instructure Hosting and Support
Table 2 lists key benefits and features of Instructure’s hosting services and support for Canvas.
Table 2. . Instructure Hosting and Support
Feature Description
Comprehensive hosting services
Full system administration provided by Instructure—including performance monitoring, account management, and system maintenance—freeing up local institutional IT/IS resources
Native cloud service Architected for the cloud; fully hosted, and managed on the infrastructure provided by
Amazon Web Services with 99.9% guaranteed system availability “Hands-Free”
upgrade/update
Upgrades/updates are released on a regular schedule and typically deployed with no downtime incurred
Annual open security audits
Instructure contracts independent, third-party firms to conduct annual security audits of Canvas and publicly publishes the results
Backup and recovery Data is automatically backed up daily on secure, geographically-diverse servers
Disaster recovery In case of emergency or disaster, data is recovered from backups that span multiple
power grids and networks, with “offsite” backups in different geographical regions
Canvas Help Center Web-based support and knowledgebase, including links to Canvas Guides, video
tutorials, FAQs, user-groups, discussion board, and release notes
General forums Instructure Announcements, Ask a Question, The Water Cooler
Product forums Feature Requests, Feature Requests We’ve Implemented, Product Release Notes,
What’s New in Canvas, Security Notices
Community Resources Best Practice Webinar Topics (for vote), Best Practice Webinar Archive, Community
Feature Description
Incident reporting and tracking
Incidents reported via the integrated Help Tool, Canvas Help Center, email, and phone are tracked using Zendesk, a web-based help desk / support ticket system. Users can track their own reported incidents.
Three-tier support model Traditional three-tier incident reporting, escalation, and resolution help desk support
model
Basic Support Package 24/7/365 access to the online Canvas Help Center, email response within two
business days, M-F phone support from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. MT, plus one LMS admin account (included in subscription fee at no additional cost)
Optional Premium Support Package
24/7/365 access to the online Canvas Help Center, email response within 8 hours, 24/7/365 phone support, plus three LMS admin accounts (available at additional cost) Optional 24/7 live Tier I
Support for Students and Faculty
First-line help desk support to address and resolve end user issues such as logging in, questions about features and functions, and resolving other operational problems (available at additional cost)
Online Standard Training Package
Includes LMS Administrator, Support, and Instructor/User training webinars (included in the one-time Canvas implementation fee)
Optional training offerings Includes high-level course topics that can be delivered online or onsite including the Course Design Workshop, Migrating to Canvas Workshop, Training Strategies Workshop, Collaboration Workshop, and customized training tailored to the institution’s specific training needs
Professional Services Comprehensive deployment management and custom tool development can be
engaged at additional cost
1.3 Canvas Architecture and AWS Infrastructure
The Canvas cloud architecture—built on Amazon Web Services infrastructure—provides
unmatched availability, scalability, and reliability. The Canvas architecture and the AWS
infrastructure are fully horizontally scalable providing virtually limitless capacity via the
provisioning of additional resources. Canvas provides:
•
Redundancy of computing resources with active monitoring for failure detection and
automated fail-over
•
Real-time performance tuning via Automated Provisioning of resources to respond to
spikes and peak usage times to minimize performance degradation
•
Data protection through data replication, backup/restore, and disaster recovery
procedures
•
Load balanced application servers and aggressive data caching for superior web
performance
•
Rolling release schedule of upgrades and updates, rarely incurring system downtime
Canvas was specifically designed to play well with other standards-based technologies such as
IMS Global Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), enabling Canvas to integrate seamlessly with
position in the forefront of LMS innovations by readily incorporating new and better tools while
phasing out and replacing obsolete technologies.
Table 3 provides an overview of the Canvas architecture and AWS infrastructure.
Table 3. Canvas Architecture and AWS Infrastructure
Feature Description
Native cloud service Fully hosted and managed on the state-of-the-technology cloud-computing infrastructure
provided by the Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3)
Highly available 99.9% guaranteed system availability the least amount of scheduled maintenance
Highly reliable Redundant architecture with automatic failover
Highly scalable Horizontally scalable enabling increased capacity by simply provisioning additional
resources
Highly extensible Documented open representational state transfer (REST) application programming
interface (API) Automated
provisioning
Detection and accommodation of usage spikes to ensure efficient operations during peak times, such as the start of academic terms
Development environment
Agile development methodology, Ruby on Rails programming language, Ubuntu platform, PostgreSQL database, and Apache web server
Standards-based Open web standards, CSV, HTTP/HTTPS, iCalendar, IMS Enterprise XML, IMS LTI, IMS
QTI, JSON, REST API, RSS, HTML/HTML5, OAuth, jQuery, SCORM 1.2 and higher (content only), SMS, and SMTP
Highly secure All data traffic in and out of Canvas is 128-bit SSL-encrypted. The AWS cloud
infrastructure is SAS70 Type II audited, Service Organization Controls 1 (SOC 1) reported and published under both the SSAE 16 and the ISAE 3402 professional standards, ISO 27001 certified, Level 1 service provider under the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), and has achieved FISMA-Moderate operation level.
Message broker Integrated communication with real-time routing based on users’ notification preferences
Branding Support for institutional branding of interface is included in the one-time implementation
fee; more extensive theming via CSS SSO and
authentication
Support Single Sign-On (SSO) integration with CAS, SAML/Shibboleth, and external authentication through LDAP or Active Directory
Migration tools Automated migration tools for importing content from legacy LMSs, including Blackboard,
Vista, WebCT, Desire2Learn, ANGEL, Common Cartridge, and IMS QTI
LMS Administration Define organization-specific user roles, assign permissions, maintain question banks,
define institution-wide learning outcomes and rubrics, organizational hierarchy replicated in Canvas, perform SIS data imports, specify grading schemes, set up sub-accounts, view system usage statistics, manage authentication, view faculty journal
Browser-enabled Compatible with the latest two versions of Apple Safari , Google Chrome, Microsoft
Feature Description
Platform-neutral Compatible with Apple Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows
Mobile access Free mobile native apps for Apple iOS and Android
Accessibility Adheres to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation guidelines and is committed to the W3C's
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Suite as documented in our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
Internationalization Supports English, Spanish, Russian, French, Portuguese (Portuguese Brazil), Japanese,
Chinese (Simplified), Arabic, with German and Polish on the near-term product roadmap
1.4 Third-Party Integrations Support
Canvas is a standards-based platform with an open API and an extensive set of supported
third-party integrations enable institutions to easily extend the capabilities of Canvas to support their
specific requirements. Table 4 lists Canvas supported integrations with third-party content, tools,
and services. Note: Tools and services denoted with an asterisk (*) are provided and/or
supported by Canvas at no additional cost. Canvas support for integrations with the
non-asterisked third-party tools and services is included at no additional cost but institutions would
need to already have or need to obtain licensing for those products from their respective
vendors.
Table 4. Partial List of Third-Party Integrations Support
Content/Tool/Service Description
Box Content management and collaboration tools
EQUELLA Content management and digital repository
Facebook*, Twitter*, and LinkedIn*
Social networking site
Google Drive* and EtherPad* Creating, editing, storing, printing, and sharing documents, spreadsheets, and
presentations
IMS LTI Tools and Services All LTI-compliant tools and services including Mahara (ePortfolio), Cengage
Learning (content development), Campus Pack (ePortfolios, blogs, wikis), SoftChalk Cloud (open-licensed learning resources), WikiSpaces (education wikis), WordPress (blogs), and Khan Academy (courses). Please refer to the Canvas App Center http://www.edu-apps.org/index.html for over 120 supported LTI-compliant tools and services.
Kaltura* Media management, providing audio and video recording and streaming
McGraw-Hill Campus Digital learning resources
McGraw-Hill Connect Online learning assignment and assessment solution
Respondus Assessment development, management, and publishing and LockDown browser
SCORM Cloud Course and content standards conversion
Scribd* and Crocodoc* Online electronic document publication and sharing service providing in-line
document previews
SoftChalk and SoftChalk Cloud Content development and management
SonicFoundry MediaSite Enterprise webcasting, lecture capture, and hybrid event platform
Student Information Systems (SIS) and Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS)
Ellucian (formerly SunGard Banner or Datatel Colleague), PeopleSoft,
Jenzabar, CampusVue, Poise, PowerSchool, CampusKey, and other SIS/HRIS that can export data can be translated into the Canvas CSV format or sent directly to the Canvas SIS API.
Tegrity, Panopto, Echo360 Lecture capture
Third-party content and legacy LMS course/content import
Cengage ePack, Canvas Common Cartridge, McGraw Hill Common Cartridge, Pearson ePack, WW Norton packages, SCORM-compliant packages,
Blackboard 6-9x, WebCT CE 6+, WebCT Vista 1-4, ANGEL, Moodle, and Desire2Learn
TurningPoint Classroom response system (clicker)
Turnitin Plagiarism checking service
TypeWith.me* Document collaboration tool that synchronously displays text
BigBlueButton*, Wimba, Blackboard Collaborate, WizIQ
Web conferencing and collaboration tools Additional third-party systems,
applications, and services*
Flickr, Delicious, Diigo, Skype, Amazon, Google Calendar, RSS/Atom Feeds, iCal, YouTube, and mobile apps