How Husson University Completed University-Wide Canvas Updates in Minutes with Atomic Search

Institution Overview

• Institution: Husson University
• Enrollment: ~4,000 students
• Scope: University‑wide (all departments)
• Canvas Tool: Atomic Search – Find & Replace

Husson University supports a diverse academic community with thousands of students and courses housed in Canvas. Maintaining consistency, accessibility, and accuracy across that volume of content can be a major challenge—especially when changes need to be applied everywhere at once. To meet this need, Husson leveraged Atomic Search’s Find & Replace functionality to make fast, large‑scale updates that would have otherwise required weeks of manual work.

Featured Voice 

David Barny, Learning & Technology Support Specialist
Division of Online and Distance Education, Husson University

David supports Canvas content management, accessibility initiatives, and the adoption of tools that streamline large-scale updates across Husson University’s online and distance education courses.

The Challenge

Husson faced two separate but related content management challenges:

1. Accessibility‑Driven Font Changes
   The university needed to update the default font used across Canvas courses to improve accessibility and formatting consistency. The existing font, Manrope, could not be reliably italicized or bolded, creating usability and readability issues for both instructors and students.
2. Program‑Wide Terminology Updates
   Husson also made a strategic decision to discontinue certain student badges due to the cost of maintaining accreditation with external organizations. While badging itself was being phased out, the university still wanted to recognize student achievement—requiring a terminology shift from “badging” to “certification” across many courses and pages.

Making either of these changes manually through the Canvas Rich Content Editor would have required opening and editing hundreds (if not thousands) of pages individually.

The Solution: Atomic Search Find & Replace

Instead of relying on manual edits, Husson used Atomic Search’s Find & Replace tool to apply consistent updates across all Canvas content.

For the font change, Find & Replace was used to locate every instance of the Manrope font in course HTML and replace it with Verdana. 

As David Barny explained:

“We were wanting to change the font we use on our Canvas courses to make it more accessible. Rather than using the Rich Content Editor (RCE) to do it manually, we used Find & Replace to find every page where the original font was, and replace it with the new font. It was a very easy way to change a large amount of code. Original font: Manrope. New font: Verdana. It would have taken us days or weeks to do, but we got it done very quickly.”

The same Find & Replace workflow was then used to update terminology related to student credentials, ensuring consistent language across all affected courses.

To support adoption and ensure consistent use, David also created a tutorial to help students and staff understand how to use Atomic Search effectively.

Speed and Impact

The results were immediate.

“Find & Replace was very fast—it worked within a few minutes.”

What could have taken weeks of repetitive, error‑prone manual updates was completed in a fraction of the time, with confidence that every instance had been updated consistently.

Key Outcomes

• Massive time savings across university‑wide content updates
• Improved accessibility through consistent, supported font usage
• Accurate terminology aligned with updated institutional policies
• Reduced risk of missed pages or inconsistent edits

As David summarized:

“It’s a big time change. It’s been a blessing to have. Enormous time saved.”

Why It Matters

For institutions like Husson University—where Canvas content spans thousands of students and countless pages—small changes quickly become big projects. Atomic Search’s Find & Replace empowers administrators to make confident, large‑scale updates quickly, ensuring 100% accuracy without burning staff time.

This case highlights how Find & Replace isn’t just a convenience—it’s a critical tool for sustainable content management in higher education.