Highbury College Selects Canvas as New Virtual Learning Environment

-- After Evaluation Process, Highbury College, Portsmouth is the first Further Education College to Adopt Canvas in the UK

LONDON, Oct. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Highbury College, Portsmouth, today announced that they have selected Canvas by Instructure as their virtual learning environment (VLE). As part of Highbury College's new 'Digital Futures Strategy', the institution weighed up a number of options to provide a better learning experience for students and decided to move all full-time courses from a legacy learning management system to Canvas.

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Highbury College started the process of reviewing its e-strategy in 2013-2014, involving staff and students in an appraisal of its existing Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and a review of current and emerging solutions. This appraisal was partly prompted by recommendations from the government's Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG), a BIS sponsored initiative aimed at informing the future digital journey for the FE sector.

As a leading college for use of technology in learning, Highbury prioritised a reliable learning platform which could promise ease-of-use and smooth integration into its existing systems. The Canvas platform was chosen to be integrated with other enterprise systems to maximise the efficiency and usability of TEL resources. Highbury College plans to fully implement the new system by June 2015.

Explaining why the College selected Canvas, Stella Mbubaegbu CBE, Principal & Chief Executive at Highbury College commented, "There is a whole spectrum of technology driven options for the learner and educator to engage with and Highbury College has built a reputation for itself as a pioneer for digital tools that enable new ways of learning. Highbury's 'Digital Futures Strategy' recognises the impact that making use of digital technologies can have on the way you learn, and prepares you for future study and work. This is just the beginning of a strategic partnership between Instructure and Highbury which will see us moving ahead with our digital goals as the College transforms education programmes through investment in IT."

Highbury identified several Canvas tools that were particularly relevant to its needs, including:

• The reliable and secure systems offered by Instructure which reduce barriers to adoption among tutors who are demanding ease-of-use as well as a more sophisticated organisation of student records.
• Canvas' range of efficient communication and collaboration tools which were judged by tutors to be user-friendly, intuitive and relevant for students.
• Strong pedagogical features within Canvas such as the SpeedGrader™ Tool which supports tutors in their assessment and feedback of student work in a way which lecturers considered to be highly engaging and effective.
• The cloud-based hosted architecture offered by Instructure which will enable scalability and easy integration with other enterprise systems to support Highbury's Digital Futures ambitions.

"As a leading institution which pioneers cutting edge technologies, we're delighted to be working with Highbury College to deliver a VLE which suits their educational needs. In the competitive education market, digital tools will be the catalyst for a more personalised and flexible education and so supporting a college which has its sights set on delivering ground-breaking learning experiences is very exciting," says Director EMEA at Instructure, Kenny Nicholl.

Instructure launched Canvas in February 2011 and has since attracted more than 950 institutions. Today it services more than 12 million teachers and students from around the world, ranging from community colleges to leading universities.

About Highbury College
Highbury College, Portsmouth is a general further education college with 50 years teaching and learning experience.The college provides a vast range of vocational and academic programmes in and around Portsmouth, from entry level training courses to university level  qualifications,  specialised  services for business and learning in the community. In 2011 the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) judged Highbury to be a Grade 1 outstanding College.

About Instructure
Instructure, Inc. developed the Canvas virtual learning environment to make teaching and learning easier for everyone, everywhere. Canvas empowers learning in every context with open, usable SaaS technologies. And through Canvas Network, Instructure provides a cloud platform where teachers, learners, and institutions worldwide can connect and chart their own course for personal growth, professional development, and academic inquiry. Instructure Global Ltd. is headquartered in London, UK and provides its products and services worldwide.

Learn more at www.canvasvle.co.uk.

Copyright © 2014, Instructure, Inc. All rights reserved. Instructure, Canvas and their respective logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

Contacts

Devin Knighton, Director of Public Relations at Instructure 
+1 (801) 722-8187 | devin@instructure.com 
Twitter: @devinknighton | www.instructure.com 

Katie Tidmarsh, Hotwire PR
Tel: 0207 608 8368 |katie.tidmarsh@hotwirepr.com