E-LEARNING WEBSITE OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS
https://www.canvas.net/
SAMKELISIWE DLAMINI
NATIONAL TSING HUA UNIVERSITY
8TH NOVEMBER 2015
Introduction
Canvas Network is a massive open online courses (MOOC) platform that has recently
been launched in 2012 by an American educational software company called
Instructure. The platform seeks to build up educational resources and break down
barriers of learning. Canvas Network sought to differentiate itself from existing MOOCs
by offering online learning while leaving massive part to the institutions’ discretion. The
platform thrives on the intersection of education, innovation, and technology to offer
21st century classroom experience to over 200,000 students worldwide who have
access to its e-learning website in about 20 diverse languages. By the year 2014,
Canvas Network was able to offer over 164 courses which are primarily delivered
through videos and open web readings. Although Canvas Network is commercial, it
has partnered with over 117 colleges, universities, non-profit making organisations
and government agencies worldwide with an education or public service mission to
provide open, online courses for free. Canvas Network powered by the open, easy-touse, cloud-native Canvas learning management system (LMS) to provide a place and
platform where educators, students and institutions worldwide can connect and chat
their own course for personal growth, professional development, and academic
inquiry.
History
The history of Canvas Network dates back 2008 where Instructure, a software-as-aservice (SaaS) or an educational technology company based in the United States was
founded by two Brigham Young University graduate students and was initially funded
by its current Chief Executive Officer, Josh Coates. The privately held corporation
developed and launched Canvas, in 2011, and later entered the MOOC market by
launching Canvas Network in November 2012. Instructure brought a unique...