Canvas catches, & maybe passes, Blackboard — from by Lindsay McKenzie
Blackboard dominated the U.S. learning management system market for 20 years, but new data show its cloud-based competitor edging past it.

Excerpt:

Canvas has unseated Blackboard Learn as the leading LMS at U.S. colleges and universities, according to new data from MindWires Consulting.

In a blog post on [7/8/18], Michael Feldstein, partner at MindWires Consulting and co-publisher of the e-Literate blog, wrote that Canvas now has 1,218 installations at U.S. institutions, compared with Blackboard’s 1,216. Although the two-figure difference may seem insignificant — and Blackboard and some of its allies say the data don’t accurately reflect the two companies’ relative reach — most analysts agree that Canvas’s ascent, largely at Blackboard’s expense, is noteworthy.

“This is a stunning development for a company that seemed to have established an unbreakable market dominance a decade ago,” wrote Feldstein.

At its peak in 2006, Blackboard controlled approximately 70 percent of the U.S. and Canadian market, with its nearest competitors “far, far behind,” said Feldstein. But slowly Canvas, and others such as Moodle and D2L’s Brightspace, have closed the gap.

 

 

The market share for Learning Management Systems

 

 

 

Also, you might want to know about the upcoming FREE opportunity to learn more about Instructure (the maker of Canvas), where Canvas is heading, and some other keynotes re: K-12 and higher education.

Next week, Instructure is hosting a conference that’s focusing on Canvas, and it’s called InstructureCarn. You can register — for free — to watch the live stream of all 5 keynotes at InstructureCarn, and Instructure will send you an email reminder to tune into the following keynote speakers and sessions:

  • Tuesday, July 24 @ 5pm MST Josh Coates, CEO, Instructure
  • Wednesday, July 25 @ 9am MST Adora Svitak, Author, Speaker, Advocate
  • Wednesday, July 25 @ 1:30pm MST Jared Stein, VP of Higher Ed Strategy, Instructure
  • Thursday, July 26 @ 9am MST Michael Bonner, 2nd Grade Teacher, Visionary Leader
  • Thursday, JULY 26 @ 1:30PM MST Mitch Benson, SVP of Product, Instructure

Click here to attend virtually!
The times listed above are in Mountain Standard Time (MST)– so you may need to convert those times to your time zone.