Learning Management Systems

Does the Educause Exhibitor’s Floor Plan Reflect Market Trends in HigherEd IT? The 2022 Update
This week, it’s Educause annual conference with its second in-person participation after the online-only pandemic year. After the 2021 conference, we wrote about the floor plan possibly reflecting the market trend. Will this year’s floor plan show the same results? Research Methodology I first retrieved all floor plans and exhibitors’ lists since 2012 (except for ... Does the Educause Exhibitor’s Floor Plan Reflect Market Trends in HigherEd IT? The 2022 Update Read More
Update on the K-12 LMS Historical Market
In June 2021, we published an update on the K-12 learning management systems. At the time, we had not noticed that some numbers did not adequately represent the market. Having adjusted our scrapers at the end of 2021, we then published an update. This post presents the most recent data we amassed on K-12 LMS ... Update on the K-12 LMS Historical Market Read More
Shifting Enrollments in US Colleges During the Pandemic: Going Online
With the late August release of IPEDS enrollment data, we have new, important views into the enrolment shifts that have occurred across US higher education. Specifically, another year of 12-month enrollment data was released- allowing for more segmented measurements of how the impact of the pandemic has been playing out in terms of shifting enrollments ... Shifting Enrollments in US Colleges During the Pandemic: Going Online Read More
itslearning Exits the US Market
Last week, we found a document that said: “During the 2021-2022 school year, itsLearing [sic] announced it was ending service to all of North America.” At first, we were surprised but tried to understand the announcement. We contacted Phil Hill to get his input on the itslearning move. “[I] knew they were exploring options but ... itslearning Exits the US Market Read More
Farewell, Edmodo!
On August 15, 2022, the learning management system community learned it was about to lose one of its members. As mentioned in the Twitter announcement, Edmodo will sunset its LMS portal (its only product) on September 22, 2022. What led to this decision? At first, we tried to understand why NetDragon (the owner of Edmodo ... Farewell, Edmodo! Read More
My Take Away From the D2L Fusion Conference
I was invited to attend this year’s D2L Fusion Conference. This was my first D2L conference. It was held in Boston (Mass.), July 20-22, 2022. Instead of welcoming the regular 1,000 participants, the conference hosted around 700 attendees. The attendance drop is due, you guess it, to the COVID-19 virus and the travel difficulties it brings. ... My Take Away From the D2L Fusion Conference Read More
Justin’s Thoughts on Anthology Together
Earlier this month, I was invited to attend the annual Anthology/Blackboard conference, entitled Anthology Together. This was my first time attending an Anthology or a Blackboard conference. The conference took place at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando (Florida) from July 11th to July 14th, 2022 and had about 2,200 total attendees. I must say that ... Justin’s Thoughts on Anthology Together Read More
Class Acquires Collaborate: Two Visions Emerge
On May 19, 2022, Class and Anthology announced they have signed a definitive agreement for Class to acquire Anthology’s Blackboard Collaborate virtual classroom tool. While Class doubles down on a future with Zoom and Blackboard Collaborate as a virtual classroom tool, Anthology goes all-in on its Blackboard Ultra LMS. Collaborate and Class: The Numbers Before ... Class Acquires Collaborate: Two Visions Emerge Read More
A Brief History of Blackboard
It’s time for another company profile. For this post, we want to paint the picture of one of the first LMS companies: Blackboard. Once the leading company in this product category, Blackboard diversified its corporate assets to curb the decline of revenues and to explore new business opportunities. To understand how Blackboard started, we need ... A Brief History of Blackboard Read More
Instructure’s Impressive Implementations Record
In the many product categories we track, we often spot a player who has unique characteristics and who pushes us to dig a little deeper into our data. In the learning management system category, this company is Instructure, with its product Canvas. Since its inception in 2008, Instructure has seen an impressive and unmatched run ... Instructure’s Impressive Implementations Record Read More
PowerSchool: The Path to Dominate the K-12 Market
Like many IT stories in the 1980s and 1990s, the creation of PowerSchool initiated from one specific need: getting attendance tracking (as well as other information) to be sent through the school district’s network. From this initial class project, Greg Porter (founder of PowerSchool) worked on his project to build the first version of PowerSchool ... PowerSchool: The Path to Dominate the K-12 Market Read More