Instructure(TM) ( www.instructure.com ) announced Canvas K-12(TM), a new learning management platform that co-enrolls parents with their students in schools, tracks state standards and provides actionable analytics to teachers and administrators. More than a dozen K-12 school districts, including Rockingham County School District in North Carolina and Park City School District in Utah, are now using Canvas.
"Rockingham held big expectations for Canvas, and I've been extremely pleased with its performance and the reaction of our teachers," said Dennis Frye, Director of Instructional Technology and Media at Rockingham County School District. "Our implementation process has been a huge success. We're looking forward to a long future with Canvas."
Instructure launched Canvas to post-secondary institutions in February 2011. Since that time, more than 100 institutions have chosen Canvas as their learning platform, including Brown University, Auburn University and the Maricopa Community College System.
Instructure saves teachers time and engages parents in education by co-enrolling parents in Canvas. Parents can opt for push notifications when their child misses an assignment or has a test scheduled. At any time, they can log in to view grades, see their child's participation in forums and communicate effortlessly with the teacher.
"With Canvas K-12, when a teacher makes a change to the calendar or to class assignments, parents are automatically notified through an email, a text message or a Facebook notification," said Brian Whitmer, Co-Founder and Vice President of Products at Instructure. "The days of teachers having to stuff backpacks with paper are over."
Instructure pre-populates Canvas with state standards and common core objectives, so teachers can select the objectives and align them with course assessments.
Learning analytics provides a way to monitor student engagement, track activity and predict success. Canvas employs predictive profiles to proactively assist at-risk students and creates a dashboard to identify trends and compare individuals, classes and schools.
