In Fall 2023, the Office of the Provost announced the Learning Management System (LMS) of the Future, a two-year, university-wide project to replace the Moodle (eClass) infrastructure that supports credit and non-credit courses by Fall 2025. Our current LMS, Moodle (eClass), is not aligned with industry standards and the University of Alberta will be moving to a new LMS to shape a modern teaching and learning experience while supporting the changing needs of our institution.
Following a broad consultation process, the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) is pleased to announce that Canvas by Instructure has been selected as the next vendor for the U of A's LMS. Canvas will replace Moodle (eClass) for all academic courses by Fall 2025. This decision included a thorough evaluation process with dozens of engagement sessions and input from students, faculty, instructors, staff and committees from July through December 2023.
This is an important milestone for this initiative. With our new LMS vendor partnership now in place, our focus can shift to planning the onboarding experience and timing for people to start using the new LMS. This transition will happen in stages to minimize disruption to instructors and their students, and more details on timing will be shared in March 2024. No action is needed at this time, and no Spring and Summer 2024 courses will be impacted.
Since 2010, Canvas has been the fastest growing LMS in the marketplace worldwide. This award-winning software-as-a-service solution is used by some of the largest and most prestigious post-secondary institutions in Canada, North America and around the world including Top U15 institutions University of British Columbia, University of Toronto and University of Saskatchewan. This new LMS will not only improve the student experience, but also offer faculty and staff a more user-friendly experience. As shared by our peer institution, University of Toronto, “[Canvas] offers a number of advantages for students and faculty. It boasts a more intuitive, user-friendly interface and an operating system that functions more like a smartphone. More importantly, it paves the way for more flexible and engaging approaches to teaching and learning.”
I encourage you to review the LMS project website which has been updated with more information about this change including how it will help us achieve the goals of U of A's strategic plans, the benefits to students and faculty and plans for its two-year rollout.
Thank you to the project sponsors, project managers and the LMS of the Future advisory committee for their continued efforts in creating world-class learning experiences within our classrooms and beyond.
We recognize that additional efforts will be needed from everyone to transition to a new LMS, and the project team will ensure that supports are in place. Thank you in advance, I appreciate your time, effort and patience with this important work.
Verna Yiu
Provost and Vice-President (Academic)