The Canvas LMS , a product of Instructure, is the campuswide learning management system supported by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The instance of Canvas used to support degree-program courses is “Canvas @ Illinois” and is used to support both face-to-face and online courses to enrolled students. The Canvas LMS can also be used to make course materials available as non-credit courses, to enrolled students as well as the general public, through a variety of different Canvas instances.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides several options for offering online non-credit courses using the Canvas LMS. The preferred option is Canvas Catalog, which allows instructors to make non-credit courses available to the general public. Canvas Catalog courses can be offered for free or can require a registration fee through its credit-card payment system. The Provost’s Office makes Canvas Catalog available without charge to support non-credit offerings from traditional self-supporting programs designed to reinvest revenues into professional education activities. A new “pilot” self-supporting fund is available that allows revenues to be utilized more generally, but such programs are required to reimburse the Provost’s Office for their use of the Canvas Catalog platform. Non-credit courses that are intended to be offered for free can also use Canvas Free-for-Teachers if offered to the general public, or the Canvas @ Illinois if offered only to UIUC faculty, staff and/or students.
| Canvas Catalog | Canvas Free-for-Teachers | Canvas @ Illinois | |
|---|---|---|---|
| URL | illinois.instructure.com | canvas.instructure.com | canvas.illinois.edu |
| Description | Non-credit (e.g. MOOC, certification, boot camp) courses available to the general public. | Non-credit (e.g. MOOC, certification, boot camp) courses available to the general public for free. | Non-credit (e.g. professional development) or credit-bearing certificate courses available only to faculty, staff and enrolled students at UIUC. |
| Instructor Accounts | Instructure account using illinois.edu e-mail address. Contact the Canvas Catalog support team to request an instructor account. | Instructure account using illinois.edu e-mail address. Instructors create their own account at this Use Canvas for Free page. . | Instructors already have accounts through their netID. |
| Course Creation | Contact the Canvas Catalog support team to request a new course shell. | See the Making Courses Public section in this Canvas FFT FAQ. | Use this UIUC Tech Services form and select either Open Learning Space or Training Space. |
| Course Launch | Open registration managed by Canvas Catalog. Use this form to set up the listing on Canvas Catalog. | Once course is complete, click Publish on the home page. Course is then available by link and join code. | Course offering restricted to only students, faculty and staff, so will need to use programmatic resources for communication of the offering. |
| Registration Fees | Learner registration fees might be required, depending on program (traditional self-supporting of pilot self-supporting). Contact Anne Marshall (marshal@illinois.edu) for more details. | Not required. Covered by Instructure’s Canvas Free-for-Teachers program. | Not required. Included in UIUC agreement with Instructure. |
| Support | Learners provided 24-7 Tier 1 support by Instructure. | Provided by Instructure knowledge base, community postings and general public support structure. | Tech support request to Tech Services. |
| Administration | Office for Professional Education | Instructure | UIUC Tech Services |
| Functionality | Canvas Catalog utilizes a full-functionality instance of the Canvas LMS. | Canvas Free for Teachers is hosted on a basis of limited functionality, but many instructors may find it has all they need. Consult the comparison chart for Free for Teachers for more information. | Canvas @ Illinois is a full-functionality instance of the Canvas LMS. |