Florida State University

At Florida State University (FSU), students took to Canvas “like fish to water” while the LMS addresses their needs now and as they progress through their academic careers. Teachers have transformed coursework by expanding a proactive, universal course design that provides greater accessibility and convenience for all learners and restructuring courses with Design Tools templates to have a consistent format that follows the Quality Matters Rubric

FSU is a highly regarded public research institution with multiple campuses, a large student enrollment, and a strong distance education program. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida.

In 2016, the State University System of Florida, governed by the Florida Board of Governors, decided to standardize its software platform as part of a 2025 Strategic Plan for Online Education. The purpose was to “enhance quality, access, and affordability of online courses and programs in state universities.” Students, many of whom attended school at multiple locations, said that using different online platforms caused confusion and hindered their learning.

The Board of Governors chose Canvas LMS because of the ability to customize curriculum, track student progress, and potentially bring every public institution in the state together on one platform. All twelve institutions in the system were given the choice to opt-in to Canvas.

For Florida State University, this would be a major change; the university had not only used the Blackboard LMS for 20 years, but it had also assisted in “beta testing” Blackboard before it entered the market.

“Blackboard was all we knew,” said John Braswell, an instructional technology faculty member at FSU, who was part of the group that launched Blackboard. “As a result, faculty expressed anxiety about the transition, but with training and support, these anxieties were alleviated.”

FSU had put together a committee of faculty and students to evaluate transitioning to Canvas. When they received Canvas’ support of the most critical digital tools and a dependable system with 99.9 percent uptime, the committee unanimously agreed that Canvas would meet its LMS needs.

Canvas is more modern and much better equipped to meet the needs of today's students and instructors.”

-John Braswell, Oce of Distance Learning, Florida State University

In fall 2016, FSU received approval to switch to Canvas and began using its “sandbox” testing environment. New and immediate benefits of Canvas included a cleaner, more flexible, and more user-friendly platform that allowed a more consistent presentation of courses. FSU administrators then focused on implementing Canvas by spring 2018.

“We wanted to start with the end in mind,” said Dr. John L. Crow, an instructional design faculty member at Florida State University. “Where did we want to go with the look, the integrations, the courses, and the goals? It was important to have positive first impressions from stakeholders.”

Making those impressions, administrators decided, would require setting strong expectations and committing to continuous training. With more than five million “legacy” files to handle, FSU avoided automated migration and had instructors evaluate their content for accessibility, quality, and necessity. As more instructors adopted Canvas, they could customize the look of those courses with school and department branding.

FSU’s Oce of Distance Learning launched “Canvas Weeks” to introduce faculty and sta to the new LMS, with development websites, orientations, training, and a Canvas support site. This outreach continued throughout implementation. “More than 100 faculty members showed up to our first training and filled the room. They are passionate about the transition,” said Braswell.

“I love how easy it is to set up a course site and manage all aspects of my courses. I think students and faculty will love how much more functional and reliable Canvas is.”

-Mia Lustria, Professor, Florida State University

By fall 2018, FSU had identified ways to take instructors’ use of Canvas to a higher level, including:

FSU administrators say the Canvas LMS and it’s Canvas Student mobile application have been very successful with students because they address their needs now and progress in their academic careers

Canvas provides a strong foundation for Florida State as it strives for sustained excellence.