Canvas Statewide Consortium

Nebraska Canvas Logo

Schools that are having issues with their SIS integration should go to the Canvas Support and Training page linked on the left!

Nebraska’s Canvas Consortium

Starting in June of 2020, the NDE announced it had entered into a contract with Instructure to provide its Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) to all Nebraska public and non-public schools and districts. At the time of the announcement Canvas was already the most widely used LMS in Nebraska’s K – 12 schools and districts through a statewide contract. Canvas is also the current learning management system for Nebraska’s universities and many of its state colleges. It is a collaborative platform used to manage online learning—including reporting, resource-sharing, grading, feedback, discussions, content creation, outcomes and tasks. An LMS simplifies teaching and learning by connecting all the digital tools teachers use in one easy place. For more information about LMS’s in general check out this PDF “Why a Learning Management System is Useful

About the Nebraska Statewide Contract

For interested schools and districts, the statewide contract is for 3 years and offers 24/7 Tier 1 technical support from Canvas as well as access to the 24/7 training portal for staff. Schools and districts will also have access to local trainers and local help desk ticketing system for additional support during the contract. Currently, all implementation fees and other fees will be covered by the NDE and the annual seat license cost for the district is $3.00 per user (includes both staff and student seats). For answers to other common questions a district or school may have about Nebraska’s Canvas Consortium, please refer to this FAQ’s Document. If you have other questions please contact, Dorann Avey via email at dorann.avey@nebraska.gov.

2022 – 2023 School year sign up opportunities

There will be another opportunity to sign-up to participate in Nebraska’s Canvas Consortium during the 2022 – 2023 school year. Sign-up is offered year round however, the NDE will have an annual sign-up opening in March each year. Districts or schools that currently are in a Canvas contract will need to wait until their current contract expires before they can sign-up to join the Nebraska Canvas Consortium. A district that chooses to sign-up will be committed for the time remaining in the contract. The current contract statewide contract with Canvas will expire in June 2023. NDE will be negotiating a second contract following the 2023 expiration date. Details on the new contract will be shared but, our hope is to keep everything EXCEPT free implementation. Free implementation will not be included after June of 2023. We STRONGLY encourage districts to implement by June 2023 and then plan when they wish to roll out Canvas within their district to staff and students when they are ready. Districts do not have to roll out Canvas until they are ready. If districts wait to implement and create their new instance until after June 2023 they will incur the additional cost of the implementation themselves.

Next Opportunity: SIGN UP due by March 1 2023. Be Ready for Fall of 2023!

  • Sign up begins in February 1, 2023 and the link to sign up can be accessed below on February 1, 2023.
  • Weekly Implementation meetings with Canvas begin the first couple of weeks of April 2023 (actual day will be finalized once we know how many will be participating).
  • Implementation/Set-up is a 6 week process, includes once-a-week meetings with Canvas team members who work with your technology and leadership staff (no teaching staff yet) to build out your instance and integrate Canvas with other district systems and platforms, your SIS being most important.
  • ALL Staff trainings can begin after the 6 week implementation process is complete and your system is set up and working properly.

Is your district looking to sign-up for the March/April 2023 implementation?

SIGN-UP is available beginning February 1, 2023; SIGN-UP ends March 1, 2023.

Spring 2023 Sign-up Form

THIS IS THE LAST SCHOOL YEAR TO GET FREE IMPLEMENTATION!!!!! BE SURE TO HAVE YOUR INSTANCE CREATED ASAP.

If your district needs implementation PRIOR to March 2023, contact Dorann Avey (Dorann.Avey@nebraska.gov) or Heather Fastenau (hfastenau@esu2.org). Schools can implement anytime throughout the school year.

Next Steps

After completing the NDE Canvas sign-up form, Canvas will contact each NEW district/school to begin the 6 week process of implementation with district leaders and technology staff. Below is the topics that will be covered each week. These 6 weeks are focused on backend creation of the Canvas instance and should be completed by district leadership and technical support teams. Teacher and staff training is not included during this part of the implementation.

To start the process, Canvas will email each participating district or school’s indicated contact person a Google Form to collect information Canvas needs to prepare for the 6 week implementation process they will be doing with each district. The Google form will ask many technical questions so it is advised that you also include your technology staff when completing the Google Form. Here is a link to a video that goes through that Google form so you can see the questions before you begin:

Canvas Video

New to Canvas districts/schools MUST fill this form as soon as possible in order to begin the work of creating the district/school’s Canvas instance. There may be multiple cohorts of districts/schools completing this process so the sooner we have the information gathered the sooner districts/school can get started on the implementation process with your team.

Once your Canvas instance is implemented and running, district/schools can request training for staff. A district MUST have an implemented Canvas system before they can schedule any local training.

Updated January 31, 2023 3:19pm