There are a number of factors influencing this undertaking. Most importantly, the campus’ Student Success Initiative identified that the proliferation of LMS and LMS-like systems was complicated for students to navigate, and that streamlining the LMS experience would have a significant impact on the student experience. Additionally, our current hosting environment of Compass, a Blackboard product, faces an end of life by the company in 2022 and a migration is necessary. A unified LMS ecosystem will allow us to reduce costs, reduce frustrations, streamline support, and allow us to maximize resources for the future.
We engaged with many student, instructor, and administrator stakeholders, many of whom expressed enthusiasm about moving to a new system, but many shared concerns about the expected disruption and level of effort required to move to a new LMS. The project team and campus leadership are confident that Canvas will significantly improve the user experience and system functionality—our two highest-priority evaluation criteria.