Course Content at Scale: USU’s Secret to LMS Cleanup Success
What Happened When 13,000 Canvas Links Broke at Utah State University
When Utah State University discovered a single online student resource URL had changed, the impact was massive: over 13,000 links across Canvas courses instantly broke.
For a school deeply committed to providing accessible, high-quality learning experiences, this was more than a minor inconvenience: it was a content crisis. Without a scalable fix, the USU instructional design team would have faced weeks of tedious manual updates with a high risk of human error.
However, thanks to Atomic Search’s Find & Replace tool, USU was able to update all 13,000 links in just two days.
A Better Way to Manage LMS Content
Elisa Taylor, Assistant Director of USU’s Center for Instructional Design and Innovation, led the effort. Her team used Atomic Search to:
- Run one simple Find & Replace query
- Automate the update across thousands of courses
- Eliminate hours of manual work
- Gain new visibility into course content and institutional knowledge
“This was huge for us,” said Taylor. “We know that if an instructor pulls in an old version of a course, we can still trust that students will get accurate, updated information.”
Smart, Scalable Course Design Starts Here
USU’s case highlights a growing reality for institutions managing years of evolving content: maintaining a clean and current LMS requires the right tools.
Atomic Search’s Find & Replace is helping higher education teams, such as USU’s, make bulk content changes in minutes, not months. Whether it’s broken links, outdated policies, or evolving course templates, the tool empowers instructional designers to act fast, without sacrificing quality or accuracy.
As Taylor’s team found, the benefits extend beyond efficiency. Atomic Search is also changing how they audit courses, manage change, and plan for the future of learning at scale.
Read the full USU case study to see how Atomic Search helped solve a 13,000-link problem—and laid the foundation for long-term instructional excellence.
Want to see how Atomic Search can support your institution? Book a demo today.
