According to a news release, the deal will add LearnPlatform's functions to Instructure's suite of classroom tools, which include a learning management system, online programs, assessments, analytics and professional development tools.
Founded in 2014, LearnPlatform has served school districts, state education agencies and ed tech providers with tools and services to help with a variety of tasks, including ed tech effectiveness audits, policy drafting, communications with partners, contract and privacy management.
"The acquisition of LearnPlatform underscores Instructure's commitment to building an open global education platform," Instructure CEO Steve Daly said in a public statement. "K-12 and higher-ed institutions need an efficient, research-based, insight-rich solution that drives the selection and ongoing management of the sprawling learning technology landscape. We believe that adding these solutions gives our customers and partners even more ways to measure the impact of their investments and drive student outcomes for each and every student."
The acquisition of LearnPlatform is Instructure's eighth in five years, following the purchase of companies with various focuses including educational video, digital portfolios, curricula, compliance, technology adoption, data interoperability, and most recently micro-credentialing, with the purchase of Concentric Sky in April 2022.
The move comes as educators across the U.S. adopt new ed tech tools in a growing digital learning market, creating a need for evidence-based evaluations of new tools to gauge their efficacy.
According to a LearnPlatform report last fall assessing ed tech use in classrooms, students and teachers on average accessed 1,417 digital tools per month per school district between Aug. 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022. This has also led to initiatives such as the EdTech Evidence Exchange, a nonprofit research organization at the University of Virginia that offers a "buyer's guide" of unbiased evaluations of ed tech tools.
Details of Instructure's acquisition of LearnPlatform remained pending as of December.
"As institutions and districts seek to understand and improve the effectiveness of their digital learning environments, the combination of LearnPlatform and Instructure will accelerate access to the trustworthy, independent evidence they need to inform decisions, providing customers and partners unprecedented insight into the learning journey of students," LearnPlatform CEO Karl Rectanus said in a public statement.
