The Challenge
The Utah Education Network (UEN) connects all Utah public schools, colleges, universities, and libraries to a robust network and quality educational resources. UEN makes education more accessible to people throughout the state by building partnerships and finding e ciencies that stretch every dollar. Conceived in 1956 to research how closed circuit television could benefit education, UEN was formally established by the Utah State Legislature in 1989.
The Decision
After a highly-competitive RFP process, UEN selected Canvas in 2010 as the LMS for its statewide educational programs. It also negotiated consortium licensing to provide Canvas for all Utah public institutions of higher ed and applied technology. By implementing a single statewide learning platform, UEN could help connect students across the state to a rich network of learning resources.
In summer 2011, Canvas was successfully rolled out to more than 100,000 students at every public college and university throughout the state, including the University of Utah, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College, Weber State University, Snow College, Southern Utah University, Dixie State University, and the Utah College of Applied Technology.
Because of funding constraints, only those K-12 schools and districts that could find creative ways to afford Canvas on their own were able to take advantage of consortium pricing. That’s why in 2015, UEN began focusing its efforts on securing state-appropriated funding to implement Canvas in all K-12 public schools.
Key Findings
Canvas continually supports UEN’s rapidly expanding dual enrollment and remote learning initiatives.
Canvas provides a seamless statewide learning solution for students in kindergarten through college.
For UEN, the benefits of implementing a statewide LMS for K-20 include significant cost savings, opportunities for collaboration, and consistency for users.
The Results
At the start of the 2015-2016 school year 89,710 students in Utah K-12 schools were using Canvas in the classroom. Working closely with the Utah State Legislature to secure funding, UEN expanded this number to include all districts and charter schools statewide.
“We can serve our students better if we can bridge their high school to postsecondary experience,” says Dr. Laura Hunter, chief operations o cer at UEN. “By choosing and implementing systems that are transparent, students can concentrate on the content and the learning, as opposed to the system.”
There is an intrinsically high degree of collaboration between public and higher education in Utah, so the idea that Canvas works as a statewide, kindergarten through college solution is truly consistent with the DNA of UEN; we’re not about one or the other—we’re about the synergy that occurs when you put them together.
Dr. Laura Hunter
Chief Operations Officer
For Utah colleges and universities, Canvas provides a modern learning platform that can be customized to meet the unique needs of each institution, while maintaining a consistent, intuitive user experience.
For UEN, Canvas supports students, teachers, schools, institutions, content, resources, tools, apps, and interactive video courses. The network also uses the LMS to provide online professional development and endorsement programs to more than 3,500 Utah teachers annually.
As Dr. Hunter says, “Canvas is the platform that brings it all together and facilitates learning from anywhere. It leverages our state’s investment in different systems that impact education.”
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