Instructure Announces Release of AI Features, K-12 and Higher Ed U.S Access to Khanmigo Teacher Tools; AWS Powers Safe, Secure AI Tools at Scale

Major product innovations for the Instructure Learning Ecosystem support the lifelong learning journey with a focus on AI and enhancements to insights and edtech effectiveness 

SALT LAKE CITY — July 10, 2024 — Instructure, the leading learning ecosystem, announced major AI innovations, partnerships and significant core LMS enhancements to increase educator efficiency and improve student success at its annual InstructureCon conference. Product innovation is focused on key areas: AI, insights, edtech effectiveness and the lifelong learning journey. The company also announced the launch of a standalone product, Instructure Intelligent Insights. 

From responsible integration of AI tools that enhance learning through personal connection to a more cohesive user experience with Canvas serving as the hub of all teaching and learning, the innovation announced by Instructure is designed to power a lifelong learning journey and turn education into opportunities. At InstructureCon 2024, new AI product announcements included features developed directly within Instructure products, a number of well-tested partner integrations, including Khan Academy’s Khanmigo Teacher Tools and updates that enable partners to develop context-aware AI experiences within Canvas. 

“We’re excited to announce substantive innovations to the Instructure Learning Ecosystem, with a strong focus on Canvas built in close partnership with our customers,” said Shiren Vijiasingam, Instructure’s Chief Product Officer. “We started with equitability in mind, addressing use cases that would help create a more level playing field for all learners while honoring the expertise of the educator.”

A Rich Landscape of AI Content Generation

Instructure leverages internally developed tools and those of its network of over 1,000 partners to help educators harness the power of AI. One such area is AI-assisted content generation, with an ever-growing landscape of available tools. One way the company will meet the rapidly growing educator demand for AI-assisted content generation is by announcing the upcoming availability of a Canvas integration with a teacher favorite, Khanmigo Teacher Tools. 

• Khan Academy: Khanmigo Teacher Tools
  Instructure announced the seamless integration of Khanmigo Teacher Tools, directly within Canvas and available later this year for all customers in the United States. Khanmigo simplifies AI for teachers and generates high-quality, trustworthy outputs they can modify and co-edit with AI support. This integration includes access to over 20 tools in Canvas—helping educators plan lessons, generate questions, draft newsletters, write letters of recommendation, prep substitutes and more. By accessing Khanmigo from Canvas, educators can smoothly transition between planning, grading and student communication all within Canvas.

Updates to Move AI Beyond Content Generation 

Beyond content generation, Instructure also announced holistic updates that go even further in supporting institutions by partnering with them to develop their AI policies and plans, accelerate teaching and learning practices and implement their own transformative AI solutions. The company is making its new AI tools freely available for Canvas customers and working with AWS to safely, securely and efficiently scale to its community of tens of millions of educators and learners at more than 7,000 organizations around the world.

“With the LMS at the center of teaching and learning, Instructure is uniquely positioned to support institutions on their full AI journey,” said Vijiasingam. “Not only can we connect our customers with a vast ecosystem of integrated content and efficiency tools, but we can also accelerate key learning experience workflows and help them transform to a future where AI is a core part of everything they do.”

Tools that Prepare Institutions to Adopt AI

• Nutrition Facts
  Instructure has published “AI nutrition fact” labels on all first- and third-party AI tools that integrate with its products, providing an unprecedented level of transparency into the LLMs and data policies of the tools in use. Nutrition facts on third-party AI tools are available on the Emerging AI Marketplace, giving institutions greater decision-making capability in service of safe technology use.
   
• LTI Certification
  With the upcoming launch of the Instructure Certified LTI Apps program, Instructure announced its plans to enable integration partners to set themselves apart, meet integration best practices–including those for AI data privacy–and provide safe, seamless experiences with tools inside of Canvas.

AI Tools that Scale and Enhance Teaching and Learning

• Discussion Summaries 
  Educators can create customizable summaries of long and complex discussion threads, a feature especially useful for large-format classrooms.
• Translation of Inbox Messages and Discussions 
  Educators can leverage real-time, context-sensitive translation of content across 100 languages, an ideal feature for students who may not speak the language of instruction or for students who aren’t fluent in the course language.
• Smart Search 
  Smart Search allows users to search across Canvas course content while returning results that recognize the relationship between concepts—for example, searching for “guitar” will return results about violins because they’re both stringed instruments.

Tools that Enable Institutions to Adopt and Create Their Own AI Solutions

• Smart Search API 
  The Smart Search API vectorizes Canvas course content so that LLMs or third-party AI tools have the context they need to produce more relevant results. This API, the first of its kind in an LMS, is now available to customers and partners.
• Institutional LLM-powered Features 
  Instructors should have the flexibility to select the best tools for their instructional needs, so Instructure supports a seamless and safe experience as institutions integrate Canvas with their own LLMs. Instructure already enables several institution-driven self-hosted AI deployments, extending deeply embedded AI experiences within Canvas.
• Enhancing seamless AI assistant experiences in Canvas
  A new top navigation placement and postMessage API now allow students to interact with AI Assistants directly within their course content, without leaving their learning environment.

Intelligent Insights Product Launch

Instructure announced the launch of Intelligent Insights, which leverages AI and analytics to help educators make data-informed decisions that improve teaching and learning outcomes. With this new product, educators get insights about students in need of attention, course readiness, LTI usage and more. They can also use Ask Your Data, a conversational AI feature, to ask and answer questions in natural language.

Core Teaching & Learning Innovation

Instructure developed a customer innovation program to drive a series of improvements to the Canvas experience. Over 60 product enhancements resulted, including improvements to everyday educator workflows, an optimized feedback loop, increased personalization and streamlined communication within Canvas LMS. In addition, new features will be available throughout the year including: 

• Block Editor
  Currently in Beta, Block Editor includes a drag-and-drop editor interface for easy content creation and is free for all Canvas users.
• Selective Release of Modules 
  Educators can differentiate instruction and personalize learning content for students through the release of modules to individuals and sections.
• Canvas Rubric Enhancements 
  Canvas rubric enhancements pair a cleaner user interface with easier workflows for creation and marking, facilitating consistency and fair evaluation. The company plans to release student self-assessment capabilities by the end of the year. 
• Discussion Checkpoints
  Students can engage in deeper, more meaningful discussions with classmates with clear checkpoints to guide their way. 

Product Updates to Support EdTech Effectiveness

Education leaders need insights and tools to optimize edtech efficiency, adoption and impact, both within and outside the LMS. These new features will help institutions engage with the Instructure partner network and take full advantage of the openness and extensibility of Canvas:

• EdTech Collective Marketplace
  This public-facing Instructure EdTech Collective partner product directory will allow users to search for Canvas-integrated tools by relevant criteria including grade levels, subject and more. Listings for each product will include basic overviews plus important information about LTI configuration.
• Canvas Apps Page
  This central hub for LTI tool discovery and management will increase administrator efficiency and power informed edtech decision-making inside of Canvas. It includes comprehensive partner listings, recommendations and LTI configuration resources to help elevate the most effective tools as well as a streamlined LTI installation and management experience.
• Expanded LTI Tool Usage Data and Analytics for Impact Customers 
  By bringing LTI usage data into Impact, administrators will have access to actionable insights that help them drive engagement and best practices based on an understanding of how LTI tools are being used. Administrators can seamlessly launch campaigns within Impact to better support educators and students and get the most out of their edtech tools. 

Supporting the Lifelong Learner Journey: Portfolio and Journey

Instructure announced its vision for the lifelong learning experience, which includes an Integrated LMS, Portfolio, Credentialing and Journey (Learner Record). Instructure has been building this through the additions of Portfolium, Concentric Sky, Parchment and Scribbles. The company is continuing to invest in a new lifelong learning experience by bringing together portfolios and credentials into one learner view. This will enable achievements to be housed and ultimately recognized by institutions and employers. 

• Canvas Catalog - Enterprise Storefront
  Instructure is investing in Canvas Catalog to make lifelong learning initiatives more scalable and interoperable with customer CRMs, with Salesforce as its premier partner in this space. With user-defined fields designed to help identify monetization opportunities, institutions can better optimize course offerings. 

• Credentials - Industry Standards Alignment
  Instructure also reinforced its continued investment in standards alignment as it creates digital credentials. In the digital credentialing world, interoperability and compliance with industry standards will bolster scalability, security, privacy and validity. Instructure products will adhere to OB 3.0 and CLR 2.0 standards. 
• Scaling Credentials Programs
  Institutions need to scale credentialing programs across a wide range of courses and programs to better meet emerging learner needs. Instructure announced features to deliver more flexible, personalized lifelong learning experiences, including accessible pathways, removed badge requirements and removed course copy and blueprint. 
• Mastery View College Prep Assessments
  Institutions will save time and money otherwise spent on scanning, grading and printing by administering Mastery View College Prep Assessments online. Assessment item banks are immediately available for purchase separately as add-ons to Mastery Connect. Digital college readiness assessments are also now available, helping students prepare for high-stakes tests, such as the ACT, as they move to an online format.

The InstructureCon 2024 event takes place from July 9 to July 11 at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. It features prominent keynotes from Jimmy Chin, Mary Murphy and Dr. Jordan Nguyen and addresses some of the most impactful edtech trends and how to adapt to the modern learner journey. With over 260 sessions to choose from, attendees will learn classroom-tested best practices, dive into the latest innovation and collaborate with other Instructure community members focused on driving student success.

For more information about InstructureCon, check out the Frequently Asked Questions page and the event agenda.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. All statements other than statements of historical facts are “forward-looking statements” for purposes of these provisions, including those relating to future events or our future financial performance and financial guidance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “project,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “intend,” or “continued,” the negative of terms like these or other comparable terminology, and other words or terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. These statements are only predictions. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, or currently unknown to us. Our assumptions may turn out to be inaccurate and cause actual events or results to differ materially from our expectation or projections. We discuss many of these risks, uncertainties and other factors in greater detail in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 21, 2024 and as may be described from time to time in future reports we file with the SEC. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof, and we expressly disclaim any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

SOURCES: Instructure