Imperial College London has moved its digital teaching onto a single virtual learning environment, switching to Instructure’s Canvas platform and phasing out the various separate systems that had been in use across the institution.
Canvas went live on 14 September, in time for the start of the academic year. Around 28,000 people, 24,000 students and 4,000 staff, will now use it for accessing course materials, delivering teaching and working together.
The switch was roughly 10 months in the making. Alongside migrating existing courses onto the new platform, the university ran a change management programme and put in place a data strategy designed to help staff retrieve and adapt their existing teaching materials.
The work was delivered through Imperial’s Digital Education Platform Project (DEPP), a central programme that brought together teams from across the university. DEPP’s goal is to establish a single VLE as the backbone of Imperial’s digital education offering.
Imperial says the consolidation should give students a more consistent experience from one department to the next, without removing the flexibility required by its wide mix of disciplines and programmes. The platform also comes with built-in accessibility tools, including screen reader support, alternative text and adjustable settings.
Professor Alan Spivey, Vice Provost (Education and Student Experience) at Imperial College, said: “At Imperial, we are continually investing in the learning experiences we provide our students. Our move to Canvas marks an important step in strengthening the digital foundations that support world-class teaching across the university.”
“As a global leader in science, engineering, medicine and business, we require a learning platform that is intuitive, reliable and capable of supporting innovative teaching at scale. This transition is about ensuring that our learning environment reflects Imperial’s ambition to equip students with the knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.”
For Instructure, the deal is evidence of a broader shift in higher education.
Henry Clifford-Jones, Managing Director of EMEA at Instructure, said: “Imperial’s decision reflects a broader shift we are seeing across higher education; institutions are looking beyond individual digital tools and thinking about how technology can create a more connected and consistent learning experience.
“We are proud to support Imperial as they consolidate multiple legacy systems and nearly 100 integrations into a single Canvas ecosystem, streamlining internal workflows and staff training while retaining the flexibility to support the unique needs of different faculties.”
The rollout is being delivered through Imperial’s centrally based Digital Education Platform Project (DEPP), which has brought together teams from across the institution to prepare Canvas for its university-wide launch. The project aims to establish a single VLE as the foundation for an improved, user-centred digital education service.
Instructure, which also owns the Mastery and Parchment platforms, says its products are used by schools, universities and employers in over 100 countries.