Free Canva platform designed to empower the education sector in visual literacy

Creating classroom materials using Canva For Education allows teachers to save time and effort

Popular online design platform, Canva, last week announced the global launch of Canva for Education, a free product for teachers and students all over the world, at the first educational technology industry show of the year, Bett, in London.

• Free Canva for Education platform to empower education sector; builds visual literacy in students and facilitates project-based learning
• Product includes Canva’s premium features, plus add-ons such as education-specific content and templates, an all-new collaboration space, a review workflow, version history plus much more
• Canva announces partnership with Google for Education

As highlighted in 2019’s Digital Internet Trends report, the global growth of visual content has been accelerated by image-based digital platforms, fueled by the adoption of social media. The ability to interpret, communicate and present ideas visually is critical for students to thrive in today’s world and tomorrow’s workforce.

With Canva’s intuitive drag-and-drop design tools, Canva for Education empowers students to create and communicate their learning visually through posters, worksheets and animated presentations. It also aids educators and school administration to create teaching material, event posters, infographics and reports – just to name a few.

Georgia Vidler, Director of Product at Canva, explained the new Canva for Education offering is tailored to the needs and requirements of schools worldwide, calling out Canva as a “one-stop-shop” for creating and collaborating in the classroom.

“Of the estimated 139,874 educational institutions across the US, over 10,000 are already using Canva. To make Canva for Education a real value-add tool we tailored the content, features and integrations to ensure it solved many pain points for teachers and students all around the world.”

Yani Hornilla-Donato, Philippines Country Manager at Canva, expressed her excitement for the product.

“With Canva for Education, teachers and students are provided a platform for project-based learning. The free access to the tool will also make creating classroom materials even more convenient for teachers. Utilizing our classroom-friendly templates relevant to specific learning goals also allows them to save time and effort.”

Canva for Education provides teachers and students with:

• Canva Pro – which includes access to millions of premium images, fonts, videos and templates
• access to an all-new collaboration space for the whole class to design and discuss in one place
• folders to manage content and to keep track of progress
• version history
• animations to help bring student creations to life
• more educational-specific content
• a review workflow for teachers to give students feedback
• peace of mind as Canva for Education is compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• a whole new raft of add-ons perfectly aligned to everyday learning including Google Drive, Google Slides, YouTube, Giphy, Websites and PowerPoint presentations
• integrations with Google Classroom and Google sign-in methods for class setup

“Through our research, teachers also told us a significant number of their students are bilingual. Because Canva for Education is available in over 100 languages – including five right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew – teachers are now able to encourage digital, visual and design literacy while enhancing cultural diversity and inclusion in the classroom,” Vidler further highlighted.

Canva has also provided an integration with Google for Education to further streamline access to all classrooms.

Emma Fish from Google for Education stated the collaboration was a welcomed addition to the organization’s education suite.

“We are very excited to welcome Canva as a Google for Education Partner and include Canva in the Chromebook App Hub. Enabling the use of Canva for Education will provide a seamless, free experience and unleash the creative potential of students on Chromebooks. Canva has deeply integrated with Google across the platform including Google sign-in, integrations with Google Maps and Google Drive, and optimizing for touch Chrome devices.”

“There are 40 million teachers and students actively using Google Classroom. Canva for Education enables teachers to import Classroom class lists to manage their classes globally and has also enhanced classroom collaboration through the development of a dedicated Google Classroom share button,” explained Fish.

With the number of Canva users around the world compounding daily, the development of this offering was not only in response to the needs of educators as a whole, but also aligned with the organization’s most important core value – to be a force for good in the world.

“It’s vital we invest in education – students are our future. We need to do whatever we can to give them the tools they need to stay ahead. Students today are born in image-saturated environments – the era of internet, digital technologies and touchscreens. Through Canva for Education we are doing our bit to help educators teach visual, digital and design literacy to ensure each and every student is well-equipped for their future,” concluded Vidler.

Schools are encouraged to get started and register their free Canva for Education account at: https://www.canva.com/education/