Working with Canvas LMS to embrace the adult learner

The University for Continuing Education Krems is a public university in Austria dedicated exclusively to lifelong learning. With an average learner age of roughly 39, its programmes are designed for people already in work, many of whom study at weekends and prefer hybrid delivery. Many of these learners also prefer short, stackable courses that can fit around their busy lives and potentially build towards a degree.

Krems had long delivered teaching using a legacy, on-premise competitor LMS. Following significant national reforms to continuing education in Austria, the university re-designed its curricula and recognised that the old LMS was no longer able to accommodate hybrid, stackable learning at scale. 

The Learning and Teaching team analysed where specifically their previous LMS was falling short, and what the new solution needed to deliver: 

• Simple, low-threshold learning. Krems’s students arrive with rich professional experience but varying tech skills. The LMS needed to be as intuitive as possible.
• Reliability for hybrid and remote teaching. The LMS and any third-party integrations needed to allow for remote and hybrid connection and collaboration.
• Decentralised operations: The Learning and Teaching team needed ways to standardise course essentials to avoid duplicated efforts, while giving departments the freedom to create their own courses.
• Future-proofing without the heavy IT lift: As a public university, recruiting developers to constantly build and maintain a bespoke and modern LMS is costly and unsustainable. Krems needed a dependable, fully managed cloud platform with a clear product roadmap. 

Krems selected Canvas as their new LMS in 2022 and is currently rolling out the following across the campus:

• A cloud-based, fully managed Canvas LMS instance
• Stackable programs with Canvas courses 
• An integrated hybrid communication software toolkit
• Sub-accounts for departments

Although the implementation is still in progress, Krems is already seeing clear benefits:

Intuitive, accessible and stackable courses for adult learners.

Adult learners enjoy a more flexible and intuitive experience in Canvas. The platform allows them to complete bitesized units of study at a pace that suits them. What’s more, the design and navigation is consistent across the short, stackable courses, reducing onboarding friction when learners begin a new course.

Flexible connection and collaboration

Thanks to Canvas’s integration capabilities, Krems was able to seamlessly embed videoconferencing, interactive content and remote assessment within their Canvas instance. This means that learners can connect and collaborate anytime anywhere. 

Quicker course production across departments

Sub-accounts allow for department managers and educators to keep creative control of their courses. At the same time, shared banks for rubrics, quizzes and templates ensure consistent course quality. What’s more, these content banks reduce duplicated work and make it easier for new colleagues to get courses ready fast.

Good LMS hygiene, without the heavy lift. 

The university no longer has to rely on internal developers to maintain or update the LMS or worry that it has the latest features. This frees time and resources to focus on pedagogy, instructional design, and lecturer support rather than system administration.