InstructureCon 24 Conference Notes

ed. - July is the busiest month for LMS user conferences, and recently Morgan and I tag teamed to attend the users conferences for D2L Fusion in Toronto, InstructureCon in Las Vegas, and Anthology (Blackboard) Together in Orlando. As we did last year with our premium newsletter On EdTech+, we would like to avoid duplicate content, and to do so we are publishing our LMS conference coverage with free content above a paywall break followed by content for premium subscribers. This post covers InstructureCon.

Last week, Phil and I attended InstructureCon in sweltering Las Vegas. Well, I got more than three days cocooned in the AC while Phil dropped in for under a day. It was the largest InstructureCon yet, boasting over 3,000 attendees. For those of us who frequented the earlier conferences in Park City and Keystone, the Venetian felt like a world away – and it was, in both content and ambition.

The new stuff: AI

Instructure rolled out multiple updates and improvements - more than last year. These included many AI-based or focused tools and services as well as some functional improvements. I’ll describe the AI features first.

Sal Khan was a surprise visitor to the keynote stage to announce the September availability of the full suite of AI-enabled Khanmigo Teacher Tools for Canvas users. The suite includes 20 tools, such as tools to generate lesson plans and quiz questions and write letters of recommendation. Next year, they plan to roll out tools for students themselves to use.

Other AI-based features include.

• Discussion tool summaries and AI-generated responses. The summaries are updated as the discussion proceeds.

• Translation of inbox messages and discussions into one hundred different languages – though instructors can toggle this off if that is appropriate.

• Smart search which will enable users to search across Canvas content. There is also going to be a new Smart Search API that will make Canvas content available to other LLMs and third-party AI tools.

• Intelligent Insights, which uses AI to democratize access to analytics by allowing users to ask questions about the data via the Ask Your Data feature. This enables a conversational interface with the data, but users can also see and use the actual SQL code it generates. Intelligent Insights also allows for proactive monitoring of students who require attention.

As you can tell from the list above, compared to last year Instructure announced more substantive AI enhancements to the platform. However, in many ways, the AI announcements are a microcosm of some of the company's product-related challenges.

Take the big announcement about integrating Khanmigo for Teachers into the platform. This was significant enough to bring in Sal Khan himself to present it (but without the exploring costumes). While more substantial than last year's announcement of a Khanmigo collaboration, the additional details still left me questioning its value. It's an integration, but it doesn't seem to go beyond that. For starters, the Khanmigo partnership is primarily K12-focused, and K12 instructors who would use it probably already are. Further, I am unsure if this will strongly appeal to higher education, which has historically looked with suspicion on K-12 centric tools. And you don’t have to have Canvas to leverage Khanmigo for Teachers for free.

In some ways, this news feels like relinquishing too much responsibility for considering how AI might be used within teaching and administrative LMS functions to Khanmigo. Instead, I think Instructure needs to develop its vision for AI within the platform and decide what should be build it in-house, what should be provided through partners and integration, and what should be avoided.

I'm much more enthusiastic about the use of AI in Smart Search. This is something LMS users have long needed, and I suspect it will bring unexpected benefits, like students connecting different and unexpected courses and parts of courses. There was a real lack of specifics about the product's availability, usability, and initial appearance. But overall, this is a good move.

I'm even more excited about Intelligent Insights, especially Ask Your Data. This is a powerful use of technology, but caution and additional guardrails beyond those described in the sessions are necessary. Learning analytics and tools like Early Alerts have existed for a while, and they aren't self-explanatory; they require careful and considered use. Democratizing data is great, but when it comes to measuring student learning, data only go so far, and the message prompted by the data must be delivered correctly. That's a crucial aspect of the tool that needs further development.

The new stuff: Basics

In addition to the AI updates, Instructure announced the upcoming availability of the following features.

• Release of the Block Editor which is currently in Beta testing. This will allow drag-and-drop creation of content as well as much easier use of templates. It also allows for looking at the student view by the type of device, for example, tablet versus, mobile versus desktop access

• Improvements to rubrics, including a new user interface, the ability to sort and search, identify where the rubric is being used as well as archive rubrics.

• The forthcoming availability of email signatures and out-of-office messages within Canvas (this garnered a lot of applause)

• Improvements to Speed Grader, including the ability to personalize feedback and add screen capture.

• Improved selective release of modules, including the ability to differentiate which students get which modules and the ability to create content playlists.

• Over the past twelve months they have updated the entire product framework which will result in many improvements including those to the look and feel, accessibility, and the ease of transitioning from one product to another. Most notably, these changes will also mean speed enhancements to the platform, which will have a big impact, for example in the use of Speed Grader in large classes.

• The launch of a new EdTech Partner program with additional services, available in different tiers of membership. Services include greater access to data and technology help and a new Canvas Apps page. This new program was discussed at a recent Investor Day presentation and now there are more details about what it will look like and what it will mean for vendors.

These are interesting and useful updates in my opinion.

The future

In addition to the new and updated features announced above, Instructure also hinted at future services. The conference heavily focused on this vision of the future: facilitating student movement between K-12, higher education, and the workforce, and adding value throughout that journey. This future hinges on products like the newly acquired Parchment and pilot projects like those for lifelong learning and workforce needs.

Through products like Parchment, Instructure aims to play a much larger role in helping K-12 students transition into college. This includes course matching for dual enrollment and ultimately, college search. Connections between higher education and the workforce will be facilitated through features like CLR-enabled credential wallets and smart tools to help institutions design relevant programs.

The implications of this are enormous, especially given the kind of company Instructure has been, and the kind of focus it has had in the past. The focus on the workforce was a welcome change after so much AI hype in many contexts over the past couple of years. But it also raises several questions, at least for me.

The questions: End-to-end systems, fuzzy futures, and cost

On a ecosystem level, I would point out that Instructure is heading into more of an end-to-end systems approach than has been its historical focus. A student looks for dual enrollment options in Parchment, takes the courses in Canvas, and then explores colleges in Parchment with all of the associated data contained within this ecosystem. Instructure clearly supports open integrations and partnerships, but some of the strategic direction is different and opens up new questions.

Students' movement through and across different education levels relies on choices, and I worry that a move to more end-to-end systems could become too constrained by what is available on the in-house platforms as well as by the options identified by AI. At the conference, I did not hear anything from Instructure about the dangers of some of the choices that could be made, whether those be in identifying students at risk or choosing a college or a dual enrollment program. This is something that needs to be identified and addressed explicitly, particularly given the further move into more holistic, end-to-end systems.

The vagueness of the overall vision was troubling. The future was alluded to and discussed, but roadmap-level specifics – like timing and implementation – were absent and some slides didn't help. Much of the conference felt like brainstorming, particularly in comparison to Instructure’s competitors.

Several customers we spoke with were frustrated by the lack of specifics about release dates and what the products would look like once they arrived. This may explain the fact that the applause for some of the announcements was muted.

Cost was another lingering question. There was a more realistic acknowledgment of the cost associated with AI features than with other vendors and with last year’s event, but discussions about pricing for other new features were lacking. Again, customers expressed frustration at this, especially for features promising significant improvements. The problem is not that there will be additional costs - it is the unknowns in the process.

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