$100K in Canvas Grants Around Lossless Learning

Instructure, the creator of the Canvas learning management system (LMS) for K-12 and higher education, announced at the EDUCAUSE conference in Orlando, FL the return of Canvas Grants, a program that awards $100,000 in grants to projects that spur innovation in learning. Instructure invited innovators in both K-12 and higher ed to submit proposals that further “lossless learning,” this year’s Canvas Grants theme.

Lossless learning, a concept Instructure introduced at its annual InstructureCon this summer, is the pursuit of perfect feedback loops between learners and educators. The Canvas Grants program aims to spark ideas that eliminate the loss of information — such as lost instruction, participation, engagement or assessment — in the learning environment, be it in face-to-face, blended, hybrid or flipped classrooms.

“Everyone has great ideas for improving learning,” said Jared Stein, vice president of Research and Education at Instructure. “Canvas Grants is aimed at helping anyone turn a great idea into reality, whether that’s by designing new technology or testing instructional strategies that move us one step closer toward lossless learning.”

An independent panel comprising educators in K-12, higher ed and the nonprofit sector will evaluate the proposals and award five $10,000 grants to higher ed projects and ten $5,000 grants to K-12 projects.

Canvas Grants is the latest in a series of efforts by Instructure to promote innovation from within the educational community. Last year’s program brought in more than 400 proposals, including winning submissions from a Philadelphia administrator looking to help inner-city students record stories from their communities and air them on TV; a librarian who wanted to outfit a makerspace at her school with Legos, Little Bits and MinecraftEdu; and a Carnegie Mellon University faculty member who planned to build personalized dashboards for students to track their own educational and career objectives.

Submissions are now open through January 23, 2015. Winners will be announced in March 2015. Ideas can be shared on social media using the hashtag #CanvasGrants. For more information or to submit a Canvas Grants proposal, visit http://www.canvaslms.com/canvasgrants.