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Ohio University's Canvas learning management system (LMS) implementation is progressing steadily, now in its second year and on track for completion before the June 2026 expiration of OHIO’s contract with Blackboard Learn.
A notable contributor to this project’s success has been the introduction of 24/7 support for students, faculty, and staff through OHIO’s partnership with Canvas Support.
Users can now access help anytime they need it, ensuring continuous support as the University fully transitions to Canvas. The utilization of this support has grown alongside the rapid adoption of Canvas, reflecting the platform’s expanding role in OHIO’s teaching and learning tools.
Prior to the start of Fall 2024, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) conducted a pulse survey of 700+ students to determine student awareness and perceptions about the transition to Canvas. Virtually all students (99%) were aware of the new platform, and 90% expressed positive feelings about the transition to Canvas.
Throughout the LMS transition, the guiding principles for OIT and its college partners have been to provide a positive student experience and a consistent learning environment. To achieve this and minimize the need for students to navigate multiple platforms, seven academic units committed to moving all courses to Canvas by Fall 2024.
This collaborative effort resulted in 83% of courses that leveraged an OHIO-supported LMS, being taught in Canvas as of October 2024. Student focus groups conducted in late fall showed that student sentiments regarding Canvas remain positive.
Canvas usage rose to 93% in January 2025, with the vast majority of programs having moved to Canvas as their primary learning management system.
Faculty feedback
The migration to Canvas has been met with positive feedback from faculty, who say in their feedback that they appreciate the platform’s intuitive design and access to training and support opportunities throughout the transition.
Dr. Jennifer Lisy, a member of the Canvas Expert Faculty group, praised the helpful responses to questions that arose while building new courses in Canvas, noting, “Every time I had a question, someone was available and happy to help."
Dr. Marci Shepard, who, like Lisy, participated in the Phase 1 launch of Canvas, found the initial training opportunities valuable for their “clear, step-by-step guidance on saving and organizing materials, setting up courses, and embedding quality instruction within Canvas.”
Shepard highlighted the benefits of requesting a manually created course, emphasizing it as a low-stakes environment for exploring Canvas features, as well as the ability to share content across multiple courses once developed. According to Shepard, OID-developed Canvas templates have also played a crucial role in ensuring a consistent and accessible student experience.
Additionally, Canvas’ SpeedGrader has been recognized as a top feature, for allowing instructors to view and comment on student work efficiently.
Moving toward full implementation
Summer 2025 marks a pivotal milestone in the LMS implementation, with Canvas becoming OHIO’s default LMS and no courses being automatically loaded into Blackboard, except for a single department using Blackboard in summer. Colleges and departments actively support this goal, as evidenced by the increased Canvas adoption rate of 93% as of January 2025.
With most colleges already fully migrated to Canvas, the final Blackboard courses are scheduled for Fall 2025.
To prepare for Blackboard's retirement, instructors and staff are strongly encouraged to save, migrate, or delete Blackboard content before the end of Spring 2026, as all content will be permanently deleted from Blackboard in June 2026. Throughout this process, faculty and students are encouraged to utilize the 24/7 Canvas support available within Canvas.
Additional resources to assist faculty and staff with the LMS migration can be found on the Canvas Faculty Hub and Blackboard Retirement pages .
Students, faculty, and staff are invited to join the Teaching and Learning Advisory Community to learn more and share feedback about the Canvas migration or any other OIT Teaching and Learning tools.
We have come a long way in our Canvas transition journey, and with your continued support, we are excited about the future and the completion of this significant project. Let's keep moving forward together.