Canvas by Instructure, (NYSE:INST), the open online learning management system (LMS) that makes teaching and learning easier, announced today a five-year contract with Broward County School District in Florida, the sixth largest public school system in the country with 265,000 students.

The collaboration between Canvas and Broward County School District will enable educators, students, and parents to take advantage of learning management system (LMS) technology. Canvas will replace all of Broward's existing LMS platforms and standardize the education technology used in thousands of classrooms throughout the second most populous county in Florida.

"Canvas is all about helping teachers teach and helping students learn more effectively," said Mitch Benson, vice president of Canvas product. "We're thrilled to give these educators, students, administrators, and parents an opportunity to dramatically improve the educational experience through our technology. We can't wait to see how Canvas benefits the hundreds of thousands of people involved in the learning process within the Broward County School District."

Foregoing the traditional RFP process, Broward County School District began its exploration for a new LMS platform in January 2015.Broward spent considerable time evaluating different vendors and weighing the pros and cons of different capabilities. With the help of an outside consultant, who sent trained observers to classrooms to measure where/how technology was being used and where it wasn't, the district's administrators were able to identify the needs of educators and students and search for a platform that catered to these pain points. After a rigorous evaluation process, Canvas was selected not only for its robust and intuitive features, but also because of its ability to adapt and grow with Broward County SD over time.

"The acquisition of Canvas will support the district as we strive to personalize the learning experiences of both our students and our teachers in its use as a tool to deliver instruction and professional development. It will help to encourage students to take ownership over their own learning while also developing deep, personal connections with each other, their teachers and other adults. We anticipate that the use of Canvas will sustain students' enthusiasm by fueling engagement in lessons that apply students' interests and choice," said Dr. Daryl Diamond, Broward's director of innovative learning. "Canvas also facilitates learning by enabling teachers to design and deliver instruction, and then act on the results. It helps teachers orchestrate their instruction by creating learner pathways, synchronizing learning activities and fostering meaningful dialogue between students and teachers."

With Canvas, Broward isn't just purchasing a product, but entering into a partnership that allows the district to expand the platform even further to accommodate custom requirements. Broward County School District has a large variety of student learning styles and requirements, including 34,000 students in the special education system and 32,000 English language learners.

"Canvas provides a central place to access information about our diverse student population and to implement specific strategies for unique individuals, such as our special needs population with accommodations from their individual education plans and the implementation of WIDA instructional strategies for our English language learners," said Diamond. "When proficiency levels vary significantly between groups of learners, additional online modules can be created to help remediate. Through the use of multimedia content and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model Canvas can help us in developing flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences."