NET+ Canvas Newsletter

August 2022

In this version of the NET+ Canvas Newsletter, learn about the latest updates from Instructure about Canvas, comments and feedback from the Canvas Advisory Board, as well as best practices in Canvas use around the Internet2 Community.

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Instructure Updates

Updates from Instructure regarding Canvas product offerings. 

Narrowing the Digital Divide in Higher Education

The digital divide is an issue that has long plagued higher education—but closing the digital divide isn't just about providing access to the internet; it's also about giving students access to the learning resources and devices they need to succeed. 

With half of all college students enrolled in at least one virtual class, the upward trend in online and hybrid learning in higher education continues to highlight the importance of creating flexible and equitable learning environments. Click here to learn more.

12 New Higher Ed Enhancements for Canvas LMS

Canvas is Higher Ed’s favorite LMS for a reason – we listen and take advice! New Canvas LMS innovations were shared at InstructureCon '22. Learn more here or Watch here to review all of the new functionality in Canvas LMS.

Hope Through Education

Learn more about the partnership between Canvas LMS and BigBlueButton.

It’s incredible to think that 1.5 billion students saw their in-class education disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the span of weeks in early 2020, educators around the globe moved their physical classrooms and in-person learning to virtual classrooms and virtual learning. To adapt, educators and policy-makers brought together a myriad of existing virtual platforms and tools to bridge the education delivery gap, often relying on corporate video conferencing tools to make it happen. Click here to learn more.

Louisiana State University

Explore how Louisiana State University's Online & Continuing Education program partnered with Canvas Credentials (formerly Badgr Pro) to expand its online platform and let students take ownership of their education. Learn more here

Readying Learners for the New World of Work

Higher education is having a moment of truth. Denying or embracing the macrotrends driven by ever more sophisticated technologies and rapidly changing demands in the workforce is likely to separate which institutions thrive, survive or struggle in the decades ahead. Click here to learn more.

Click here for all things Higher Education by Instructure.


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Canvas Advisory Board Updates


Upcoming Meeting: September 14th, 2022

The next Canvas Advisory Board meeting will be on September 14th, 2022. Agenda items will be finalized and posted during the 2 weeks leading up to the meeting.

A complete listing of all Canvas Advisory Board meeting agendas can be found here.


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August Meeting Recap


The agendas for our upcoming 2022 meetings have been published for your viewing. Please note, these are working documents and subject to change so please check back for any updates on a regular basis.

Thank you to all who participated in this month’s meeting for your insightful feedback, ideas, and discussion! Should you have any questions or want further information around the work being done by the NET+ Canvas Service Advisory Board or a copy of the Partner Program Report, please don’t hesitate to visit us at https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/x/7BOJCQ or contact us at netplus@internet2.edu and we will be happy to respond.

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NET+ Canvas Program Update


Service Advisory Board Goals for 2021

These are the goals that the advisory board is looking to perfect at the January 2021 meeting: 

Goal #1

Develop with Instructure a customer success culture that:

  • identifies service and support best practices and next steps
  • benchmarks Instructure's service and support appropriately for universities
  • aligns Instructure's  service and support to best help universities achieve their  strategic goals for teaching and learning 

Decision: Quarterly check-in, beginning in February, with a focus on how we measure success for Instructure's customer success culture. 

Goal #2

Develop a foundational construct with Instructure that outs in place a predictable process for the board to advise and offer insights on future product development or acquisition including cadence, structure, and practice for exchanging ideas.

  • Deliverable: 3 “exchange” activities using/iterating this process on things that Jared, Shaun, or product owners are thinking about during 2021 
  • Deliverable: one of these “exchange” activities is to initiate a Contributing Team for Canvas Data/Live Events


Goal #3

Continue to develop and refine, with Shaun, a strategy and process for I2 and R1 Peer universities to provide Instructure with actionable information on pain points and unmet needs.  The strategy and process should be synced with Instructure's product development cycle and allow Instructure to clearly communicate status and progress back to the universities.

Goal #4

Decision: Instructure cannot reasonably do the actual data sharing piece at this point, and universities are likely not ready to use/share de-identified data.  And, we're all waiting to see what Unizin is doing in this space.  So, we've decided to refocus on (a) what questions we want to answer with Canvas data, and (2) the best way we might answer those questions with the data.  We'll tackle this topic in March with Oxana's replacement. 1/27 update: We may also want to explore a de-identified data sharing program thorough I2.




Around the Community

Commentary from I2 Canvas users: advice, best practices, feedback.

R1 Peers


The Canvas Peers Research Universities Group (or R1 Peers Group) brings together representatives from large public and private research universities to share best practices around using Canvas and the surrounding ed tech ecosystem to support teaching and learning. They also collaborate closely with Instructure (Canvas vendor) and sit on the Internet2 NET+ Canvas Service Advisory Board to improve the Canvas platform and user experience for research universities. This group represents more than 250 members from 45 institutions of higher education and research across the United States, and around the world.

For context, recently the R1 Peers Group has collaborated in the following areas:

  • Tier 1 support
  • Archiving
  • 3rd party integrations
  • Pain points
  • Data privacy


LRS Standards SIG


The Learning Records Store (LRS) Special Interest Group (SIG) assembles use cases for an LRS, creates an LRS reference architecture, and develops implementation/engineering best practices. The SIG promotes open standards that enable data from a variety of teaching and learning tools to be included in the LRS.

This group is chaired by the University of Washington and meets monthly on the fourth Wednesday of the month, however the LRS SIG is currently on hold until May 2022.  For more information or to join this group, please reach out to Matthew Buss (mbuss@internet2.edu).  Thank you.

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