From Blackboard to Canvas

Question

My university is moving to Canvas 100% in January 2027.  What is the best way to market this news to the university community?  Are there any marketing strategies available in Canvas?

adam_c_voyton · Accepted Answer

If you speak with your CSM, I recall Instructure has on file adoption kits with lots of logos, generic messaging templates, sample press release, etc. Welcome to Canvas!

Nicole Riva Sarto · Accepted Answer

Hi @OctaviaDorsey! We actually built a resource to help you with this transition without starting from scratch: the Canvas Communication Strategy Toolkit: AI Generation Guide.

To use this, you can just paste the master prompt into your AI tool (like ChatGPT or Claude). It acts like your personal change management consultant—asking a few quick questions about your school, then automatically generating a custom, multi-month rollout plan complete with timelines and ready-to-use email drafts.

It’s a huge time-saver. Hope this helps jumpstart your strategy!

Greg · Accepted Answer

Thank you @OctaviaDorsey for asking this question. You've already made your transition a bit easier by asking the Instructure Community, and I hope you continue to be active here. As your university makes this transition, I encourage you to share your experiences here. Others in the Community will benefit from what you share, as will people making the transition in the future.

When my college made its transition to Canvas, I encouraged my fellow faculty to take the opportunity to remember why they are using an LMS. Then focus on learning how Canvas can help them achieve that why. Finally, they could then move their stuff from the prior LMS. I've been through two transitions, and in the first one I learned how and tried to help faculty make the new LMS work the same as the prior one. I recognized the effort spent trying to force continuity in the technical functionality would have been better spent in creating an environment that supports learning given the available toolset. A comparative phrase that my faculty appreciated was "fewer tools that work better together."