Case Study: Montana University System expands course access with Instructure’s Parchment Course Sharing

Montana University System more than doubles lower-division course access with Instructure

The Montana University System, serving students across a vast geographic area, faced significant challenges in providing access to essential courses due to its many small, resource-constrained campuses. Students often found required classes unavailable at their home institution, risking delayed degrees and a diminished local talent pool. To solve this, they partnered with Instructure to implement its Parchment Course Sharing service, aiming to create a seamless cross-enrollment system that would integrate with their existing Canvas learning management system.

Instructure's solution integrated Parchment Course Sharing natively within the familiar Canvas environment, allowing students to find and enroll in courses from other campuses while maintaining a single bill and a consistent learning experience. This implementation by Instructure dramatically expanded course access for students, more than doubling the unique lower-division courses available at most institutions. The results included helping students stay on track with their degrees, creating a scalable operational model for the university system, and moving toward more strategic program coordination across the state.

Montana University System