US higher education institutions continue to evolve and adapt their technology strategies to meet changing realities and expectations, and this is reflected in our most recent analysis of LMS usage trends. Student enrollments in some areas are beginning to recover from pandemic lows, and more institutions are offering flexibility by delivering courses in online, hybrid, and synchronous virtual modes.
The trends in LMS usage remain consistent with a few notable developments. Instructure’s Canvas increased its lead position since last fall experiencing growth from both new implementations and migrations from all other LMS platforms. Its market share is now almost double compared to Blackboard’s, the previous industry leader, and exceeds Blackboard’s all-time high. No other single LMS in US higher education has achieved this level of adoption. Blackboard’s decline appeared to slow last fall but accelerated again this spring. Despite losing institutions overall, Blackboard has attracted net-new institutions to its Ultra LMS.
Adoption of D2L’s Brightspace also increased by a noticeable amount despite a slight dip last fall. While it is already the third-most popular LMS in US higher education by number of student enrollments, it is poised to overtake Moodle by number of adopting institutions. Moodle and Sakai continue a slow, gradual decline with few-to-no new adopters. No “Other” LMS has made significant inroads, and solutions in this category continue to struggle to retain market share.