In today’s dynamic, knowledge-driven economy, quality education and
constant learning are critical to the success of people and organizations. Academic
institutions recognize that for students to reach their maximum potential, they
require an interactive and accessible learning environment. Similarly, companies
strive to compete by delivering continuous learning and feedback to better attract,
develop, retain and promote the best people. Organizations in both markets—education
and corporate—also require actionable data to measure, track and improve
individual and organizational performance.
With applications for learning, assessment and performance management, Instructure
enables organizations worldwide to develop, deliver, manage and track engaging
academic and employee development programs. Built on our innovative, cloud-based
platform, our applications combine powerful, elegant and easy-to-use functionality
with the reliability, security, scalability and support our customers require.
They include:
Canvas. Learning management system, or LMS, for K–12 and higher education;
Bridge. Learning and performance management suite for businesses;
Arc. Next-generation online video learning platform for academic and corporate
learning; and
Gauge. Assessment management system or AMS, for K–12.
For the millions of students, teachers and employees who use our applications
to achieve their educational and professional goals, we provide a native-cloud,
engaging and intuitive user experience designed for frequent and open interactions,
a streamlined workflow and the creation and sharing of content. Our open standards
allow for integration with third-party publishers and software providers to
deliver additional learning content and applications. We also provide data analytics
capabilities, enabling real-time reaction to information and benchmarking in
order to personalize curricula and goal setting; and to increase the efficacy
of the learning, assessment and performance management processes.
We deliver our applications through a Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, business
model. Customers can rapidly deploy our systems with minimal upfront implementation.
They also benefit from regular software updates and 99.9% uptime. Our SaaS business
model reduces the need for our customers to buy and support a broad range of
IT infrastructure, and reduces the cost, complexity and disruptions associated
with implementations and upgrades of on-premise software.
We launched our first offering, Canvas, in February 2011 and have experienced
rapid customer adoption in the education market. To better meet the needs of
the corporate market, we leveraged a portion of the foundational code underlying
Canvas to develop Bridge, which we launched in February 2015. Subsequent offerings
include Arc, which we launched in 2016, and Gauge, which we launched in 2017.
We designed our platform from the ground up with modern, web-based design features
that enable users to teach, learn and collaborate anytime, anywhere, across
a wide variety of application environments, operating systems, devices and locations.
We believe our platform offers the following key benefits:
Intuitive User Experience. Our research-driven approach creates a differentiated
user experience with elegant and intuitive user interfaces that leverage familiar,
consumer web navigation techniques, such as drag and drop, to make using the
applications built on our platform easy and intuitive. We enable seamless collaboration
among instructors and learners to share feedback and encourage online discussion.
These interactive features extend beyond the physical location and facilitate
a more engaging experience.
Optimized for Mobile. Our mobile-optimized platform allows users to access
their applications anytime and anywhere. We offer a responsive design to ensure
an optimal experience on most mobile devices and, for Canvas, we also offer
iOS and Android native mobile applications for free download on both phones
and tablets.
High Availability and Uptime. Our software is mission-critical for our users
and customers and we focus on maintaining enterprise-grade and industry leading
reliability with 99.9% uptime.
High Utilization. Millions of instructors, students and employees have used
our software. We believe that the intuitive user experience enabled by our platform
helps increase organization-wide adoption and utilization of our applications,
which increases the return on investment for our customers.
Native Cloud-based Software. Our cloud-based delivery model enables customers
to rapidly deploy our platform to experience immediate benefit. Software updates
are implemented regularly and transparently. Our single-instance, multi-tenant
architecture is designed to scale for rapid growth. Our cloud-based platform
provides upfront cost savings over on-premise solutions by reducing the need
for expensive IT resources and hardware infrastructure.
Open Access to Data Analytics. For Canvas and Bridge, we provide users with
access to data analytics through open application programming interfaces, or
API. We deliver the analytics in a way that is easy-to-understand, consumable
and optimized for independent analysis. This open visibility allows users to
view their own progress in real-time, educators to adjust programs and personalize
curricula for maximum effectiveness and organizations to benchmark user data
internally and respond to patterns observed.
Open Platform. We are committed to collaboration and openness. Our open standards
allow organizations to easily deliver additional content and applications from
third-party publishers and software providers. This extends the content, tools
and services necessary to satisfy the diverse needs of our customers without
sacrificing the innate simplicity of our platform. Canvas users can deploy third-party
content and software applications within the application interface or browse
our growing catalog of approximately 300 integrations at EduAppCenter.com. Bridge
was specifically designed to integrate easily via open APIs with a variety of
enterprise resource planning and human resources information systems.
Our applications enhance academic and corporate learning by providing a system
of engagement for teachers and learners, enabling frequent and open interactions,
a streamlined workflow and the creation and sharing of content with anytime,
anywhere access to information. Our applications also provide users with powerful,
easy-to-use functionality for intuitive interactions with course content and
activities. All of our applications run on our extensible platform, which allows
us to easily deploy new applications and features to support the needs of our
customers. We use modern, mobile technology to provide anytime, anywhere access
to our applications from a wide array of devices, including personal computers,
tablets and smartphones. We offer native mobile applications for Canvas on iOS
and Android for free download.
Canvas
Canvas is a learning management system designed to give our K–12 and
higher education customers an extensive set of flexible tools to support and
enhance content creation, management and delivery of face-to-face and online
instruction.
Canvas enables instructors and learners to:
communicate through announcements, messages and conferences;
interact with content and collaborate with peers through group assignments
and discussions;
create, deliver and analyze quizzes and assignments;
perform outcomes-based assessments;
choose, manage and change courses;
automate classroom activities, including the syllabus, attendance and calendar
of course events;
grade assignments, using SpeedGrader, and post grades online;
facilitate audio and video communications for enhanced teacher and student
engagement;
access an integrated learning object repository;
analyze course and student data to improve learning outcomes and teaching methods;
set personalized academic goals and track performance;
provide parental or advisor access to assignments and grades;
find and add third-party activities and content from the Edu App Center; and
exchange data and integrate with popular student information systems.
Canvas provides access to a critical set of user and course activity data,
including user and device characteristics, discrete page views, user engagement,
individual curricula and assessments and evaluations. Data is delivered to administrators
in a format optimized for warehousing, performing queries, reporting and making
it easier for administrators to benchmark, customize teaching and improve learning
outcomes.
Additionally, Canvas supports standards-based integration with hundreds of
third-party publishers and software providers. The extensibility of the Canvas
application enables our customers to build a learning and teaching environment
that meets their unique organizational needs.
Canvas Network
Canvas Network allows anyone around the world access to open online courses
for personal and professional development. Through Canvas Network, academic
institutions have the flexibility to offer and deliver courses over the internet
to a much broader audience than just their own employees or on-campus students.
Some institutions choose to pursue a massive open online course (MOOC) format,
and some choose to pursue a smaller online course format with more interaction.
Institutions already using Canvas can easily move courses onto Canvas Network,
extending their reach and enhancing their brand.
Canvas Catalog
Canvas Catalog is a white-label, web-based course catalog and registration
system built on top of the Canvas LMS that enables organizations to create and
maintain a branded marketplace for their online course offerings. Catalog provides
a searchable course index, online payment gateways for student registration
and enrollment, custom course landing pages, collections of courses in specialized
programs, automatically distributed certificates and other ways to recognize
completion.
Bridge
Bridge is a learning and performance management suite designed to enable our
corporate customers to develop, retain and promote employees by improving performance
and engagement. The Bridge suite includes:
Bridge Learn. A complete learning solution, Bridge Learn helps companies focus
on the strategic and innovative side of talent development. Informed by learning
science, Bridge Learn gives companies a competitive advantage with a learning
program that aligns to business goals.
Bridge Perform. An impactful talent development solution, Bridge Perform expands
the manager-employee relationship through meaningful dialogue and continuous
feedback based on targeted 1:1 exchanges, providing data that empowers leadership
to make critical business decisions.
Bridge Practice. An on-demand assessment and video microlearning practice solution,
Bridge Practice facilitates untethered, collaborative, peer-to-peer assessment
and coaching opportunities that empower learners to actively master their professional
skills and competencies.
Bridge enables organizations to:
provide continuous feedback and development for employees inside the 1:1 tool;
create and align individual goals with company-wide goals and initiatives;
reinforce skills and provide feedback through peer-to-peer video assessment
and coaching;
create, organize, group and assign courses and training content;
deliver and track compliance and regulatory requirements;
administer quizzes and provide instant feedback to increase employee retention
of training content;
track employee learning, performance and progress, including milestones, tasks,
areas for improvement and goals;
identify training gaps and growth opportunities for individuals or teams with
peer and skills assessments;
provide a mobile experience to allow access and management anywhere, from any
device; and
extend training to reseller channels and other distribution networks.
Arc
Arc is a next-generation online video platform designed to enable corporate,
K–12 and higher education customers to host, manage and deliver impactful
video learning experiences. Our customers who also use Canvas or Bridge can
seamlessly integrate Arc for a modern, streamlined, easy-to-use video learning
solution that provides the interactivity, insights and reliability organizations
need to engage their employees and students.
Arc enables instructors and learners to:
easily upload media and publish videos to courses that can be viewed across
devices and in multiple playback formats;
experience high-quality, low-latency video playback around the world;
seamlessly create content through integrated webcam and screen capture tools;
interact directly with video content through real-time contextual commenting;
understand exactly how students and employees are engaging with media to help
inform video strategy effectiveness;
make video content fully accessible through automatic speech recognition, or
ASR, captioning technology; and
manage and share videos between educators, students or employees.
Gauge
Gauge is a comprehensive assessment management system that empowers K–12
schools and districts to measure student learning and preparedness for high-stakes
exams mandated by federal and state regulations. With our simple, elegant and
scalable testing platform, educators can create and deliver effective benchmark
exams with simple deployment workflows, leveraging data collected to guide instruction
and enhance curricula school- or district-wide. Our customers who also use Canvas
can integrate Gauge for a seamless user experience.
Gauge enables schools to:
create online assessments with rich multimedia, linked course content and a
variety of attempt, grading, viewing and moderation settings;
automatically import user profile demographics from student information systems,
or SIS;
use intelligent item banks to create, manage and update items used across courses;
integrate third-party content, applications and standards-based QTI importing
and exporting;
link questions to Common Core or state standards to facilitate modern competency-
or standards-based grading models;
deploy district-wide, device-agnostic assessments on modern, cloud-based architecture,
which allows for nearly unlimited scale and prevents data loss; and
generate reports showing the performance and progress of entire districts,
schools or individual students.
Technology and Standards
Built on a modern technology stack, our native-cloud, multi-tenant platform
and applications scale to millions of users and enable us to leverage advancements
in web design, open source technologies and security. We adhere to industry-standard
best security practices to protect our servers and our customers’ critical
information.
We host our platform and applications on cloud infrastructure provided by Amazon
Web Services, or AWS. We primarily use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or Amazon
EC2, along with load balancing, auto scaling and storage services provided by
AWS. Our hosting services provide full support, rolling release upgrades/updates,
backup and disaster recovery services. Our infrastructure enables us to scale
both horizontally and vertically in order to rapidly adjust to variances in
usage at the server, database and file store level. Our applications run on
virtualized instances in Tier III and Tier IV AWS data center facilities, which
provide industry-standard best security practices. As of December 31, 2017,
we used domestic AWS data center facilities in Oregon and Virginia, and international
facilities in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Singapore. We intend to
expand operations into other regions based on market conditions. These AWS managed
facilities have earned multiple certifications including, but not limited to,
SOC 2 Type II, ISO9001 and ISO27001.
We designed our platform for resilience and rapid recovery from component failure.
We apply a wide variety of strategies to achieve enterprise-grade reliability
and durability. We have automated procedures in place to handle coordinated
changes across our various instances and store backups of key data stores in
multiple redundant and geographically isolated locations.
Our technology stack is a dynamic web application built with our own automated
scaling and provisioning technologies. We use Web 2.0 technologies like Ruby
on Rails, Java and Node.js, which provide users a familiar web experience. Our
platform was built on underlying open source technologies, allowing us to take
full advantage of advancements in scalability and flexibility. We utilize the
Linux operating system, Postgres and Cassandra databases, and Redis data structure
store. Our platform also provides an API that third-parties can use to add new
features and functionality.
Keeping our platform secure is a primary focus of our dedicated enterprise
security team due to the sensitive nature of the data contained within the applications.
We are diligent about data security and have adopted the AICPA SOC 2 set of
security controls. We demonstrate compliance with these controls through annual
audits and web application vulnerability assessments.