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The Division of Information Technology and Instructure, the parent company of the Canvas Learning Management System, hosted the first Ohio Canvas Users Group (OCUG) Conference in the Student Center on Friday, September 29.

93 Canvas administrators and instructors from across Ohio’s higher education landscape came together for a full day of learning. Attendees from thirty-two public and private universities joined representatives from ���ϳԹ���’s Lifelong Learning, Educational & Faculty Technology Management, ���ϳԹ��� Online and the Center for Teaching & Learning.

Jona Burton, Associate Director of Educational & Faculty Technology in the Division of Information Technology, had the original vision for this event. After learning of user groups in other states, Burton began discussing with Instructure a collaboration between Ohio Canvas admins.

Soon afterwards, Case Western University, Bowling Green University, the University of Cincinnati, and The Ohio State University joined forces as a steering committee, with ���ϳԹ��� at the helm.

“I wanted ���ϳԹ��� to be a thought leader in this space,” said Burton, “to build a community around our shared experiences as Canvas admins. Once we began planning the conference, we chose to build the sessions around discussion rather than presentations. We wanted to break down that fourth wall where there’s a one-way lecture from a speaker and make it much more interactive.” 

Ryan Lufkin, Vice President of Global Strategy at Instructure, delivered the keynote message. He covered Instructure’s efforts to address current global trends in education, notably the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).  Ryan believes that “spreading the good word, spreading positivity around the right technology, helps us all move forward productively.”

After the keynote, attendees broke into discussion groups around consuming Canvas data, creating custom apps that integrate with Canvas, building credit and non-credit ecosystems, establishing governance practices, and how to best train faculty.

Instructure flew in six team members to attend the first OCUG conference. Katie Coats, the account representative for Ohio, noted that this conference was groundbreaking in many ways: that it was in-person, so well attended, and so collaborative.

Coats said, “We need more of this! All these people face the same challenges no matter what school or state you’re in. Getting them all together in one place just breeds innovation.”

Burton plans to continue the conference in 2024 while also creating work groups around the liveliest discussions during the conference. He stated, “We want to build a place online where there's some sharing of solutions. Like, ‘Oh, we went through that. Here is what we did. Either take that idea, or conversely, whatever you do, don't do what we did, you know?’”

The Division of Information Technology will continue to maximize its relationship with Instructure and explore ways to share Canvas knowledge with peers across the state. The conference was only the first realization of the dream of a vibrant, collaborative Canvas User Group in Ohio.

Photo Credit: Jenna Patrick