Great question.  We (Parchment) asked them (Instructure), and here is what they said.

Instructure is the maker of Canvas. But Instructure is not only the makers of a leading learning management system. We’re an education technology company with a mission to elevate student success, amplify the power of teaching, and inspire everyone to learn together.

Sparked in 2008 by two enterprising grad students, Instructure is the home of Canvas LMS and the Instructure Learning Platform that benefits millions of students and teachers worldwide, every single day. Our brand is quirky. And unexpected. And we’re all passionate and committed to our mission as we really do believe in inspiring everyone to learn together. We believe in the importance of Education for All. Why? We’re passionate about inspiring educators and learners to Dream Big and the true Power of our Platform to take us and education where we need to go next.

We have over 7,000 customers in Higher Ed, K-12 and corporate markets in more than 100 countries. Canvas is used by thousands of universities and colleges, including all of the Ivy Leagues in the US and more than 100 California Community Colleges. Canvas has K-12 customers and users in all 50 states. And boasts a 2 million strong member Community.

The Instructure Learning Platform is a set of deeply integrated solutions empowering institutions to address every aspect of the learning cycle. Deliver core teaching and learning, assess skills and competencies, facilitate flexible lifelong learning, gain actionable insights for better decision making, and optimize effectiveness of  your edtech ecosystem in a single platform that provides everyone with a seamless, connected experience—all designed to support positive teaching and learning outcomes to help learners achieve their academic and career goals.

We made the decision to combine Parchment into Instructure because we believe it will accelerate realization of our mission to help turn credentials into opportunities. Whether on the credential issuing side, or the learner mobility side, we believe the Instructure network of Canvas schools and universities worldwide is perfectly aligned with our mission and the services we provide.

The combination of Parchment and the Instructure Learning Platform will provide a verifiable and comprehensive digital passport of achievement records and outcomes for all learners. Together with Parchment’s scaled network of school districts, colleges, and universities, the companies coming together means greater value for existing Parchment members and learners alike, while opening up opportunities with multiple new product categories.

We are committed to the Parchment Award, Parchment Digitary, and Parchment Pathways platforms.  This announcement adds yet another reason to consider working with Parchment.  Our comprehensive credential management platform helps learners, academic institutions, and employers request, verify, and share transcripts and other credentials as well as support course sharing, transfer articulation, and dual enrollment by facilitating the translation of credentials into credits. The powerful network created — millions of learners, over 13K districts, U.S. and non-U.S. higher education institutions, state education agencies, and receivers — has enabled the seamless exchange and transfer of transcripts and other credentials globally.  Parchment is committed to continuing on delivering its core services. If you’d like to learn more about our solutions, fill out the form here.

Yes, and more! Until the acquisition closes we remain two separate companies, and once it closes we will have even more resources to bring to serving our members, worldwide.

We want to hear from you. The voice of our community is crucial to our continued success and partnership. While you are welcome to contact your primary relationship at either organization, we encourage you to use the form below to submit your questions. By using the form you allow us to quickly and accurately answer your questions, as well as better understand the types of questions and feedback we are receiving, which will help inform our communication plan going forward.

Our goal is to make credit transfer more accessible, transparent, efficient, and reliable to increase learner equity, access, and achievement. We see opportunities to innovate in the automation of transcript data consumption at the start of the process, all the way through to algorithmic approaches to recommended course equivalencies based on machine learning. Ultimately we think the biggest leverage point for improving transfer is applying a system-level approach among networks of institutions through a common technology platform, something Parchment has unique experience with in the context of credential exchange.

We want to hear from you. The voice of our community is crucial to our continued success and partnership. While you are welcome to contact your primary relationship at either organization, we encourage you to use the form below to submit your questions. By using the form you allow us to quickly and accurately answer your questions, as well as better understand the types of questions and feedback we are receiving, which will help inform our communication plan going forward.

You can start a conversation with one of Parchment’s team members through the form here. To learn more about Instructure’s solutions, fill out the form here.