Instructure

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Instructure, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Educational Technology Learning Management Systems Assessment Management Systems Assessment
Founded	2008
Headquarters	Salt Lake City, Utah , US
Number of locations	10
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Steve Daly (CEO)
Products	Canvas, Catalog, Studio, Portfolium, MasteryConnect, Videri, CASE Benchmarks and Item Bank, Navigate Item Bank, Academic Benchmarks, Certify, DataConnect
Revenue	$209.5 million (2018)[1]
Number of employees	1,291 (2019)
Parent	Thoma Bravo
Website	www.instructure.com

Instructure, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a Web-based learning management system, and MasteryConnect, an Assessment Management System. The company is owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

History[]

Instructure was founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley,^[2] with initial funding from Mozy founder Josh Coates (currently the executive chairman of the Board)^[3] and Epic Ventures.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2010 the Utah Education Network (UEN), which represents a number of Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard as their preferred LMS^[4] supplier. By January 2013, Instructure's platform was in use by more than 300 colleges, universities and K–12 districts, and the company's customer base had increased to 9 million users by the end of 2013.^[5][6]

In February 2011 Instructure announced that they were making their flagship product, Canvas, freely available under an AGPL license as open source software. The announcement received coverage in the press.^{[7][8][9][10]} As of 2020, while the core remains open source, according to its GitHub FAQ many of its functions and add-ons are proprietary.^[11]

In June 2013 Instructure secured $30 Million in Series D Funding, bringing their lifetime funding total to $50M.^[12] In February 2015, it raised another $40 Million in Series E Funding, raising their lifetime funding total to $90M. CEO Josh Coates described it as "a pre-IPO round."^[13] On November 13, 2015, the firm began trading as a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange.^[14]

In 2016 Glassdoor named the firm #4 on its Best Places to Work list.^[15] In 2018, the Salt Lake Tribune named it its #6 "Top Work Places" for large businesses.^[16]

In December 2019 Instructure announced that Thoma Bravo would acquire the company for $2 billion.^[17]

In June 2021, Instructure again filed for an Initial Public Offering. ^[18]

Products[]

Canvas[]

Canvas

Developer(s)	Instructure
Written in	Ruby on Rails
License	AGPLv3
Website	www.instructure.com

Instructure Inc. was created to support the continued development of a learning management system (LMS) originally named Instructure. Once incorporated, the founders changed the name of the software to Canvas. The Utah-based company tested the LMS at several local schools including Utah State University and Brigham Young University before officially launching the system. As of 2020, it is used in approximately 4,000 institutions around the world.^[19][20]

In 2011 Canvas launched its iOS app, and in 2013, its Android app, enabling mobile access to the platform.^[21] The apps were eventually split into Canvas Student and Canvas Teacher, separating features for students and instructors. In 2016, the firm launched Canvas Parent, their mobile app for parents, for both iOS and Android, allowing parents of K–12 students to stay informed on their children's assignments, grades, and overall schooling.^[22][23]

In August 2020, 16 states across the United States confirmed a partnership with Instructure in order to adopt its Canvas LMS platform for their educational institutions. The states said that, by adopting Canvas as a statewide solution to the challenges raised by the global COVID-19 pandemic, they hoped to provide stronger support to educators and students.^[24]

Canvas Catalog[]

In 2014 Instructure launched Canvas Catalog, a course catalog tool designed to help schools market their course offerings to non-traditional learners and for professional development.

Canvas Studio[]

In 2016 Instructure launched Canvas Studio (originally branded as Arc) a video learning platform tightly integrated with Canvas LMS designed to deliver asynchronous video content and video quizzing, as well as video editing and archiving functionality.

Portfolium[]

In 2019 Instructure acquired Portfolium and integrated their Pathways, Program Assessment and ePortfolio network into the Canvas learning management platform. Portfolium is designed to simplify the assessment of student learning, showcase evidence of learning, and keep students engaged along pathways to prepare them for careers.

MasteryConnect[]

In 2019 Instructure also acquired MasteryConnect. MasteryConnect is a K-12 assessment management system that enables data-driven instruction and personalized learning with tools for formative and interim assessments, teacher collaboration, and curriculum planning.

Certica[]

In 2020 Instructure acquired Certica Solutions, an industry leader in K12 assessment content and analytics, and longtime partner of Canvas and MasteryConnect. Products added through this acquisition include the Navigate Item Bank, CASE Benchmarks, CASE Item Banks, Videri, Academic Benchmarks, Certify, DataConnect, and prebuilt formative offerings. Instructure now provides the comprehensive and open set of tools educators need to drive student outcomes by bringing together a learning management system, assessment management system, assessment content, and data analytics into one streamlined K12 learning experience.

Bridge[]

On February 18, 2015, Instructure officially launched Bridge,^[25] a cloud-based corporate LMS. This launch followed $40 million raised in Series E funding, led by Insight Venture Partners. EPIC Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated in the funding.^[26] This round raised their total lifetime funding to close to $90 million. At launch, Bridge served six corporate clients, including Oregon State University, which had also been using Instructure's Canvas LMS for their students since fall 2015.^[13] Bridge now serves more than 500 clients. On February 15, 2021 it was announced that Bridge was acquired by Learning Technologies Group (LTG). [33][34]

See also[]

• History of virtual learning environments
• Virtual learning environment

References[]