Instructure Releases Canvas App Center at InstructureCon 2013

PARK CITY, Utah, June 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure released today at InstructureCon 2013 its all-new Canvas App Center with more than 100 educational apps. The App Center is immediately available in the cloud to educational institutions using Canvas as their learning management system. The App Center allows individual teachers, administrators and students to install third-party apps on the Canvas platform with one click. Instructure also announced winners of the LTI App Bounty, in which representatives from Blackboard, Desire2Learn, IMS Global Learning Consortium and Hack Education participated as judges.

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"The Canvas App Center opens the door of possibilities for educators to build awesome learning experiences with the technology they want to use," said Brian Whitmer, co-founder and chief product officer at Instructure. "The learning management system needs to get out of the way of teaching. We built Canvas to be flexible, and the new app center makes it easy for teachers and students to use technology they're already familiar with and to experiment with new tools."

To encourage the development of a stronger app ecosystem for education, Instructure created an LTI App Bounty, which offers a $250 reward for each qualifying LTI app, plus an additional $1,000 for the best apps selected by the expert panel of judges.

As a result, 25 apps were submitted and the top eight winners were announced at InstructureCon 2013. The winners include:

• AspirEDU - Aspire Analytics
• Ayamel
• BigBlueButton
• CloudTime
• Code Embed
• QuestionPress
• StudyRoom
• Tandem

Instructure chose to focus on the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) standard developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium because it allows developers to create educational apps that operate cross-platform and on any learning management system.

While many of the apps are free, a few require purchase from vendors that created the apps. Instructure does not collect commissions or revenues from the installment or use of any apps. It remains a neutral partner and is focused on the business of making a platform for education.

Today, more than 6 million teachers and learners from 440 educational institutions use Canvas as their learning management system for traditional, tuition-based courses as well as for MOOCs. Instructure developed the Canvas App Center to provide users with a flexible platform to personalize their learning experience. In addition to providing a simple way to find and install apps, Canvas App Center enables users to rate the apps and write reviews. It also includes an algorithm that recommends apps based on the user's role, institution and previous app installments. To keep learning, visit www.instructure.com

About Instructure:
Instructure is a technology company committed to improving education. We provide instructors and students with modern tools and resources that empower and simplify the learning experience. Instructure offers Canvas, the open, easy-to-use, cloud-native learning management system, as well as Canvas Network, an index of open, online courses by educators everywhere — from Ivy League institutions to community colleges.

Copyright © 2013, Instructure, Inc.  All rights reserved. Instructure, Canvas and their respective logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

Contact:
Devin Knighton, Director of Public Relations
(801) 722-8187  |  [email protected]
Twitter: @devinknighton  |  www.instructure.com

SOURCE Instructure