Situation
In 2023 Fareham, Eastleigh and Southampton College merged into South Hampshire College Group (SHCG) creating a unique opportunity to improve college collaboration, learning opportunities, and employability in the region. But first, the college group would need to solve a common post-merger problem: how to deliver consistent teaching standards across colleges, without losing the flexibility required to support different learners and modes of study.
Insights
The merger brought together learners aged 16 through to adulthood, studying on site, online and in blended formats. To support this diversity at scale, SHCG needed strong, consistent teaching frameworks that could be applied across all colleges while remaining flexible in delivery. Multiple LMS platforms across each college made that consistency difficult to achieve in practice.
Specifically, supporting three different LMS platforms led to the following:
- Inconsistent teaching frameworks and varying standards of online delivery, with the non-Canvas users experiencing unreliable connectivity and downtime.
- An over-reliance on individual staff at each college running a heavily customised, onpremise LMS.
- GDPR and access risks to students and staff.
Solution
Within two years of merging, South Hampshire College Group moved all colleges to Canvas LMS and Canvas Studio. Through Canvas LMS, SHCG created a common standard for course design and access across all colleges. Canvas Studio helped enable flexibility, allowing staff to deliver and assess learning in ways that suited different subjects, students and delivery models.
We were able to ensure successful change management through clear baseline standards, targeted training from Instructure’s services team and strong internal advocacy for a move to Canvas LMS.
Tanya Richardson
Assistant Principal, Quality and Student Experience, South Hampshire College Group
Outcomes
Canvas LMS and Canvas Studio helped South Hampshire College Group to achieve what had initially felt like a trade-off: consistent teaching standards across a merged group, while enabling flexible, personalised learning experiences that meet students where they are.
Consistency at scale
- Shared Canvas content supports consistent course standards and improves collaboration by allowing staff to adapt previous years’ existing course materials rather than rebuild from scratch.
- Students and educators move more easily between sites and delivery models, with one clear digital entry point that removes confusion and keeps learning on track across all three colleges.
Flexibility for diverse students
- Canvas mobile access puts learning in students’ hands, enabling younger students to study confidently on phones and tablets while giving adult and online students the flexibility to engage around work and life commitments.
- Students receive richer, evidence-led assessment through video and observational submissions with in-context marking, powered by Canvas Studio, supporting vocational, technical, and adult provisions.
- Canvas supports SHCG’s competency-based delivery model for T Level students, using outcomes and mastery views to track skills development over time and prepare students for synoptic assessment and progression.
Confidence for Leadership and IT
- Leadership and IT teams now operate with greater confidence and clarity, supported by a single LMS that removes duplication of effort, reduces administrative overhead, and eliminates reliance on locally maintained systems.
- SHCG can be assured their data is protected through enterprise-level cloud security, alongside centralised access via single sign-on and role-based permissions.
With a secure, scalable digital foundation in place, South Hampshire College Group has turned the complexity of the merger into an opportunity to raise standards, support diverse students, and build a more resilient digital future.
Canvas LMS elevated our online learning environment, while providing security and consistency across three colleges. Canvas significantly helped us reduce the complexities that came with navigating multiple LMS platforms during merger.
Tanya Richardson
Assistant Principal, Quality
and Student Experience, South Hampshire
College Group
