Canvas LMS
Instructure's open-source LMS — a strong LTI platform, with no SCORM engine in the repo
The facts
- Licence
- AGPL-3.0
- Pricing
- Open source Price source for Canvas LMS, opens in a new tab
- Deployment
- Self-hosted
- Platforms
- Web
- Vendor
- Instructure, Inc.
- Headquarters
- United States
Standards support
Every line says where the claim came from. We do not test conformance ourselves and we issue no badge of our own.
| Standard | Supported | Provenance | Checked | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCORM 1.2 | No | editor-checked · 24 Aug 2026— source, opens in a new tab | The open-source code recognises a SCORM 1.1, 1.2 or 2004 manifest by namespace, but no converter plugin is registered for those types — only QTI, Moodle and Academic Benchmark are — so the import raises UnsupportedPackage. SCORM playback on Instructure's hosted Canvas is a separately licensed add-on and is not this repository. | |
| SCORM 2004 | No | editor-checked · 24 Aug 2026— source, opens in a new tab | — | |
| xAPI | Not stated | — | — | — |
| cmi5 | Not stated | — | — | — |
| AICC | Not stated | — | — | — |
| LTIVersions 1.1, 1.3 | Yes | editor-checked · 24 Aug 2026— source, opens in a new tab | lib/lti carries both a v1p1 signing path and the 1.3 stack — OIDC login, key storage, deep linking and LTI Advantage access tokens. |
- Claimed
- — the vendor states it. We have not confirmed it.
- Checked
- — an editor confirmed it on the date shown.
- Verified
- — an official registry lists it, and we link to the entry.
Editor's notes
Canvas is the LMS with the largest open-source footprint in higher education, developed in the open by Instructure under AGPL-3.0 and pushed to daily. For a directory concerned with standards, the interesting question is not whether it is good software — it plainly is — but which standards the published code actually implements.
The answer is LTI, thoroughly. Both the legacy 1.1 signing path and the full 1.3 stack are present: OIDC login, JWK storage, deep linking, and LTI Advantage services including grade passback. If you are building a SCORM or cmi5 player and want it to appear inside a mainstream LMS, Canvas is one of the best-documented platforms to certify against.
SCORM is the gap, and it is a widely misreported one. Canvas identifies SCORM 1.1, 1.2 and 2004 manifests during content migration, then fails, because no converter is registered for them in the open-source tree. Content packaging support here means Common Cartridge, not SCORM.
For a buyer that distinction is the whole decision. Canvas plus a SCORM player registered over LTI is a normal, well-trodden architecture — but it is two products, two licences and two support relationships, and anyone who costed the deployment on the assumption that SCORM came in the box has costed it wrong.
Listed on scorm-tools.com
Maintainers and vendors are welcome to show the listing badge in a README or on a product page. It is free, it does not require a claim, and there is nothing to buy.
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