Instructure Launches Open, Vendor-Neutral Website for Education App Catalog

-New Resource Catalog Currently Houses More than 130 Education Apps

-Additional Administrative Capabilities Added to Canvas App Center for Improved App Management

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Apr 23, 2014, 01:00 ET

SALT LAKE CITY, April 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure, the technology company serving the learning market through its cloud software platform, today announced it has launched EduAppCenter.com, an open resource Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) catalog that currently houses more than 130 education apps. These apps integrate with most major Learning Management System (LMS) vendors in K-12 and higher education, enabling the development of a technology ecosystem for education.

"An open education technology ecosystem creates more opportunities for innovation to thrive," said Jared Stein, vice president of research and education at Instructure. "The new EduAppCenter.com website encourages startups and innovators to create apps that work across LMS providers. This means less time integrating one-off technology and more time designing tools and curriculum for new ways of learning."

EduAppCenter.com will replace edu-apps.org, which served as Instructure's first vendor-neutral website when it was launched last year. The new site, along with Instructure's recent release of its SIS-SIF integration, is meant to increase openness and collaboration among education vendors — a crucial step toward streamlining the technological processes that sometimes distracts from learning.

Instructure is also releasing improvements to Canvas App Center, an app library launched last year that allows teachers, administrators and students to install third-party apps in Canvas with just one click. This allows Canvas users to add and manage their education apps from a central location.

Other new features that have been rolled out for the App Center include:

Improved search – The new site has a search box and filters, which makes it easier to browse and pinpoint apps.

Whitelist Management – Schools can manage their own whitelist of apps that appear in their instance of the Canvas App Center.

Private Apps – Schools can add their own homegrown LTI apps to EduAppCenter. This new infrastructure makes it easier to tailor a unique app experience through Canvas.

Improved LTI App Management – Canvas partners, community and institutional LTI developers now have more options for managing apps they submit to eduappcenter.com. All apps are viewable to the app owner in one place and developers are now able to share base configuration settings between multiple apps or use the integrated tools to assist with building LTI configuration XML and app options.

Improved apps — Newly refactored and improved apps include Redirect Tool, Quizlet, YouTube, Vimeo, Kahn Academy, Twitter and SchoolTube

Anyone may submit an education app to EduAppCenter.com. To keep learning, visit www.instructure.com/partners.

About Instructure

Instructure, Inc. developed the Canvas learning management system to make teaching and learning easier for everyone, everywhere. Canvas empowers learning in every context with open, usable SaaS technologies. And through Canvas Network, Instructure provides a cloud platform where teachers, learners, and institutions worldwide can connect and chart their own course for personal growth, professional development, and academic inquiry. Learn more at www.instructure.com.

Contacts

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

Matt Reichman, Method Communications
(801) 461-9778 | [email protected]

Copyright © 2014, 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.

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SOURCE Instructure