How Hoang Viet School delivers Cambridge at scale with Canvas

Bringing an international curriculum into a school is one decision. Making it work across thousands of learners, hundreds of teachers, and every stage of a K–12 journey requires a different level of coordination.

That was the challenge Hoang Viet School, a bilingual private school in Vietnam serving around 3,600 learners from primary through high school, set out to solve as it expanded its Cambridge programme over the past five years. The framework introduced clearer expectations for learning, progression, and assessment, while also increasing the need for alignment across subjects and year levels.

Under Principal Trần Đức Huyên, this shift formed part of a broader change in how the school approached teaching and learning. He described a move toward “liberal education,” focused on developing both knowledge and character, alongside more student-centred teaching.

As Cambridge expanded, multiple teachers were delivering the same curriculum across parallel classes. Keeping those experiences aligned required greater consistency in how courses were structured, how resources were organised, and how assessment was designed.

The school had already adopted Microsoft Teams to support communication and coordination. Principal Huyên described it as “a very strong platform,” while also making a clear distinction: “Microsoft Teams is not a LMS learning management system.” It wasn’t designed to structure curriculum delivery or support consistency across a programme like Cambridge.

That gap became more visible as expectations increased. “We needed Canvas when scaling Cambridge programs,” Principal Huyên said. “The challenge was ensuring consistency, managing resources, and supporting flipped learning across many classes and teachers.”

The challenge was less about capability and more about coordination at scale.

Cambridge strengthened the academic model, though it also made variation between classes more visible. When different teachers delivered the same curriculum in different ways, learners experienced that inconsistency directly. As the programme expanded, informal alignment became harder to maintain.

At the same time, the school was placing more emphasis on how learners engaged with content beyond the classroom. This increased the importance of clear course design and a consistent structure across subjects, so learners could navigate materials independently and arrive prepared for class.

In response, Hoang Viet School began thinking more deliberately about how its digital environment supported teaching and learning. Rather than relying on separate tools, the school moved toward a more connected approach, where communication, content, and curriculum delivery each had a defined role.

Microsoft Teams continued to support communication, while Canvas was used to organise curriculum delivery and provide a consistent structure across classes. The priority was ensuring these elements worked together in a way that could scale with the school.

Hoang Viet School built a more consistent approach to delivering Cambridge by using Canvas to support a shared model for course design.

Rather than starting from scratch in each classroom, the school developed templates aligned to Cambridge expectations, with modules organised around clear learning objectives and progression. Shared rubrics and central guidelines helped ensure that assessment aligned across classes, even when different teachers were involved.

“Our teachers have shifted from content delivery to learning design,” Principal Huyên explained.

Teachers now plan learning as a structured sequence, sharing materials and preparatory work in advance so that classroom time can be used for discussion, collaboration, and problem-solving. This approach provides a consistent framework across subjects, while still allowing teachers to shape how learning is delivered.

Canvas works alongside the tools the school already had in place. Microsoft Teams continues to support communication and coordination, while Canvas provides the structure for curriculum delivery, assessment, and progression.

Flexidata, Instructure’s partner in Vietnam, supported this process from implementation through to ongoing use. Principal Huyên pointed to their training and technical guidance as important in helping teachers adopt Canvas and continue refining how it is used over time.

This has enabled the school to establish a shared foundation for delivering Cambridge, with enough flexibility for teachers to adapt their approach within that structure.

As Canvas became embedded across the school, the impact showed up in how teaching and learning were experienced day to day.

For teachers, the most visible change is in how learning is planned and delivered across the week. What was once centred on in-class instruction is now organised as a structured sequence that includes preparation before class, active learning during class, and follow-up after class. Teachers design this flow in advance, sharing videos, guiding questions, and preparatory tasks so that learners arrive ready to engage.

This has changed how classroom time is used. Lessons now focus more consistently on discussion, collaboration, and problem-solving, supported by a clearer structure for how learning progresses across each unit.

For learners, this has led to more active participation in class. In English lessons following the Cambridge curriculum, students who previously waited for explanations now come prepared, with questions and ideas already in mind.

“Students now come to class prepared, with questions and ideas already in mind,” Principal Huyên noted.

Classroom activities increasingly involve discussion, peer feedback, and presentations, with teachers observing greater participation and a stronger sense of ownership over learning.

Consistency across the Cambridge programme has also become more visible. All classes follow a shared structure in Canvas, with aligned objectives, materials, and assessment tasks. School leaders are able to monitor teaching and learning in real time, supporting a more consistent pace and standard of delivery across classes.

At the same time, student performance data is easier to compare across year levels, making it possible to identify gaps earlier and provide more targeted support.

Cambridge now runs at Hoang Viet School through a shared approach to course design, where expectations are aligned across classes and teachers work from a common structure that supports consistent delivery.