Instructure and Pearson Join Forces to Integrate Learning Management with Student Information System

SALT LAKE CITY, March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure, the creator of the Canvas learning management system (LMS) for K-12, today announced at SXSWedu that it has partnered with Pearson to integrate the Canvas LMS with PowerSchool, the largest student information system in the U.S. The independent software vendor (ISV) partnership agreement will enable two-way integration between the PowerSchool student information system and the Canvas LMS, allowing teachers to eliminate time-wasting duplicate data entry between the two systems.

PowerSchool, the most widely used Web-based student information system, supports more than 13 million students globally. PowerSchool enables today's educators to make timely decisions that impact student performance while creating a collaborative environment for parents, teachers and students to work together in preparing 21st century learners for the future.

"This bi-directional integration with PowerSchool has been the most common feature request from Canvas K-12 customers," said Mitch Benson, vice president of K-12 for Instructure. "We already have more than 30 school districts who've been working with us and successfully implemented the integration. By providing a more seamless Canvas experience for PowerSchool users, we're giving educators the flexibility to choose the best tools for teaching, assessing and grading."

More than 30 percent of U.S. school districts use PowerSchool, including more than 80 current Canvas customers. Starting immediately, any K-12 institution that uses the two systems can enable the passback feature, which allows teachers to automatically transfer assignments and grade data from Canvas directly into the SIS. Institutions can enable this feature through an implementation consultant. Following the implementation, teachers can simply click the "Post to SIS" button in their Canvas grades page.

The two-way integration between the systems also allows for schools to easily provision a Canvas account using the information they already have stored in PowerSchool. This new feature eliminates the usual struggle educators have when trying to make student information systems and learning management systems work together. Now any K-12 institution can get Canvas accounts and courses up and running instantly using their PowerSchool data. 

VP of Product and Marketing for Pearson School Systems group, Oliver Wreford, stated, "Through our partnership with Instructure and our collaborative efforts to integrate PowerSchool with Canvas, we will enable teachers to more easily manage the instructional process, allowing them to spend more time working directly with their students."

For more information about Instructure, visit instructure.com.

For more information on Pearson's ISV program, visit www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/partners/current.