California Online Education Initiative and Canvas: Streamlining the World’s Largest Education System

www.canvaslms.com As the largest educational system in the world, the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative (OEI) is a collaborative effort among 112 California colleges to provide online courses and services within a statewide Online Education Ecosystem (OEE). The goal of the initiative is to increase the number of students who earn associate degrees and transfer to four-year institutions. In 2015, an OEI Steering Committee unanimously selected Canvas as the common learning management system (LMS) to replace eight course management systems used throughout the OEE.

Students like Kelsie Hale from Sierra College showed overwhelming support for the selection of Canvas. ‰ŰĎI love Canvas. It‰ŰŞs super easy to use. I think my top favorite thing is the Canvas App. I have an iPhone and an iPad, so I use the Canvas App on both and it is amazing.‰Űť Instructors say many students who were reluctant to use previous systems are excited to use Canvas.

OEI Executive Director Pat James said Canvas has helped shift the focus ‰ŰĎaway from training on the tool to training people how to teach better online.‰Űť Instructors are also excited to use Canvas in on-ground classes. They say Canvas gives them more ‰ŰĎcontrol and creativity,‰Űť allowing them to focus on teaching instead of the technology. Additionally, Canvas has reduced training time because it‰ŰŞs easy to use.