• No results found

Canvas by Instructure

N/A
N/A
Protected

Academic year: 2021

Share "Canvas by Instructure"

Copied!
8
0
0

Loading.... (view fulltext now)

Full text

(1)

Overview

Canvas by Instructure

Instructure, Inc.

(2)

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

(3)

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

(4)

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

(5)

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

(6)

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

(7)

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

(8)

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

References

Related documents

This includes local venue Edith + Arthur Public House in Surrey, which is open exclusively for private dining opportunities over the holidays.. Additionally Clover Sixty Seven

She graduated from MA Narrative Environment (Central Saint Martins, London), studying the unique synergy between spatial design and narrative theory.. Graduated with her BFA

If an institution that is a Canvas client wants parents to observe a student via linked accounts, that institution must create user accounts for parents or guardians, or they

- BM improvement refers to changes of a major number of business model elements (e.g. customer relationship approaches, infrastructure elements), except the value proposition is

Living Benefits included at no additional premium cost Our living benefits give you the choice to accelerate the death benefit in the event of a Terminal, Critical or Chronic

Because the death benefit is being paid months or even years before it would usually be paid, the death benefit that you accelerate in the event of a Terminal, Critical or

This course introduces you to how to teach using the Canvas learning management system (LMS) by Instructure as well as exploring pedagogy and best practices for teaching online.. You

pol.html and http://www.united.com/web/enUS/content/travel/specialneeds/minors/default.aspx as of July 2015. 32