 |
| Company type | Privately-held Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education Learning Management Systems |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Products | Canvas |
| Website | http://www.instructure.com |
Instructure is an educational software company based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. It is the developer of the Canvas learning management system, which is similar to the Blackboard Learning System, Moodle, and the Sakai Project.
History
editInstructure was founded in 2008 by two BYU graduates[1] with initial funding from Mozy founder Josh Coates (currently the CEO) and Epic Ventures.[2]
In December 2010, the Utah Education Network (UEN), which represents a number of Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard as their preferred LMS.[3]
In February 2011 Instructure announced that they were making their flagship product, Canvas, freely available under an AGPL license as open source software. This move received widespread coverage in the press.[4][5][6][7]
Canvas
editInstructure Inc. was created in order to support the continued development of a new learning management system (LMS) originally named Instructure. Once incorporated, the founders changed the name of the software to Canvas. The Utah-based company tested the LMS at several local schools including Utah State University and Brigham Young University before officially launching Canvas.
Canvas was built using Ruby on Rails as the web application framework backed by a PostgreSQL database. It incorporates JQuery, HTML5, and CSS3 to provide a modern user interface. OAuth is used to provide limited access to a user's information on certain social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to allow for collaboration between sites. Canvas operates as a Software as a Service using Amazon Web Services in the "Cloud". This methodology is intended to provide maximum scalability, security and back-up protection.
Desire2Learn Lawsuit Controversy
editIn January 2011, Desire2Learn filed a lawsuit against the Utah Education Network (UEN) consortium after losing a bid for a course management system to Instructure, stating that UEN had "misapplied the evaluation factors set forth in the RFP or erroneously considered factors or criteria not set forth."[8] After some criticism from press and bloggers, Desire2Learn withdrew the suit.[9][10]
See Also
editReferences
edit- ^ Sara Israelsen-Hartley (June 20, 2010). "BYU grads introduce education-savvy software". Deseret News. Retrieved February 23, 2011.
- ^ "Instructure CrunchBase Profile". CrunchBase. Interserve dba TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2011.
- ^ "UEN committee selects Instructure to provide statewide Learning Management System for state colleges and universities". UEN News. Utah Education Network. December 14, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ Dan Dzombak (February 2, 2011). "A Fiery New Competitor". The Motley Fool. The Motley Fool, LLC. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ "Instructure Launches To Root Blackboard Out Of Universities". January 31, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ "Upstart Course-Management Provider Goes Open Source". January 31, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ "There are alternatives to Blackboard and Moodle: Instructure Canvas goes open source". February 1, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51072915-76/utah-contract-instructure-uen.html.csp
- ^ http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/irony-alert-desire2learn-critic-of-litigation-sues-over-utah-contract/29118
- ^ http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/01/20/desire2learn-backs-away-from-customer-lawsuit.aspx
External links
edit
Category:learning management systems
Category:Companies based in Utah
Learning management systems