The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) empowers outdoor enthusiasts with essential leadership and wilderness skills through immersive, hands-on education. With a mission to teach students how to live and lead in challenging environments, NOLS offers diverse programs across its pillars: Expeditions, Wilderness Medicine, Custom Education, and Risk Services. After nearly a decade on Canvas’s Free-for-Teacher platform, NOLS transitioned to the paid version, leveraging advanced features to expand access, streamline operations, and enhance hybrid learning—all while maintaining their commitment to high-quality outdoor education.
The Challenge
NOLS initially used Canvas’s Free-for-Teacher version to manage their Wilderness EMT program, exams, and other supplemental courses. As demand for hybrid learning surged during the pandemic, NOLS adopted the full Canvas LMS platform to better support its growing student base and provide flexible online learning experiences. This allowed the NOLS team to scale their hybrid programs quickly without losing the significant investment they had made in their free Canvas instance over the past decade. However, even with the right technology in place, transitioning the immersive, in-person experience of outdoor education to an online and hybrid format was no simple task.
Key Insights
Canvas LMS enabled NOLS to successfully transition to hybrid learning, increasing accessibility and allowing students to balance their education with other responsibilities, resulting in significant growth in their student base.
Tools like Canvas Studio and Blueprint courses simplified media management, course creation, and content updates, reducing administrative burdens and giving instructors more time to focus on engaging students and creating quality content.
Integrated tracking and dynamic assessment tools improved student engagement and accountability, while seamless third-party tool integrations created a unified learning experience, encouraging students to return for additional courses.
The Solution
To meet these challenges, NOLS turned to Canvas to provide continuity for instructors and students, reduce administrative overhead, and enhance accessibility. Transitioning to the paid version of Canvas unlocked advanced features that better supported their growing needs, streamlining course creation and management while boosting efficiency and consistency. Instructors gained tools for better collaboration and dynamic content delivery, while students enjoyed a more accessible, user-friendly platform that enhanced their learning experience.
Our goal is always to make our courses engaging and accessible for our students, and Canvas makes that pretty easy.
Kate,
LMS Administrator, National Outdoor Leadership School
Unlocking Efficient Course Tools
Canvas Free-for-Teacher offers the essential functionality needed for course creation, assignment grading, and basic student engagement tools. For NOLS, transitioning to the paid version unlocked powerful tools that enabled them to manage their expanding needs efficiently.
Canvas Studio has enabled the team to upload and edit media directly within the platform. This feature allowed them to streamline the addition of closed captions, a process that previously required reliance on external services, saving them valuable time. Studio also made it easy to share a single video across multiple courses, ensuring consistency and simplifying version control.
Blueprint courses streamlines content updates across dozens of hybrid courses running simultaneously. This tool allowed them to make seamless adjustments across multiple courses at once without the administrative burden of manual updates. With over 7,000 students enrolled in their programs, this efficiency was crucial.
New Quizzes provide a dynamic and engaging way to assess student understanding, while Canvas’ robust administrative tools streamline student support and provide greater insight into engagement levels, ensuring students remain accountable for completing modules and tasks. "The admin tools in the back end of Canvas are so much more powerful than when we were using Free-for-Teacher," said Kate, LMS Administrator at NOLS.
By streamlining processes, enhancing student engagement, and supporting hybrid learning, Canvas has allowed NOLS to stay true to its mission of making outdoor education accessible and impactful for all.
The Results
The adoption of Canvas LMS has had a transformative impact on NOLS, enabling them to deliver high-quality outdoor education to a broader audience through flexible hybrid schedules. With Canvas, instructors can focus more on student engagement and content development, while the platform’s integrations with third-party tools create a seamless, unified learning experience. As a result, NOLS has seen rapid growth in their hybrid offerings, meeting the increasing demand for accessible outdoor education.
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