Partner Updates from Instructure New & Next | October 2025

SarahCornelius
Instructure
Instructure
a week ago
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Instructure New & Next is our quarterly program to keep our customers updated on recent releases and upcoming roadmap items. We recognize our Partners are equally interested in these updates–and want to know how they will impact integrations. This post summarizes at a high level updates shared in the live webinars on October 14 and 15 for K12 and Higher Education customers and provides detail on key impacts for Integration Partners. 

To learn more about all of the release and roadmap items discussed, access the webinar recordings here: https://www.instructure.com/events/webinar/new-and-next

IgniteAI

Announced at InstructureCon, IgniteAI is Instructure’s coordinated ecosystem of AI-powered features and trusted partner integrations for Canvas LMS surfaced exactly where educators need assistance. We are currently running five Early Adopter Programs related to IgniteAIwith institution customers participants, targeting general availability and additional opportunities for Partner involvement early in 2026:

  • IgniteAI Insights for Discussions (Canvas LMS)
  • IgniteAI Review for Captions (Canvas Studio)
  • IgniteAI Grading Assistance (Canvas LMS)
  • IgniteAI Question Authoring Assistance for Quizzes (Canvas LMS & Mastery)
  • IgniteAI Criteria Authoring for Rubrics (Canvas LMS)

Canvas LMS

The most recent and soon-to-release Canvas LMS enhancements improve the LMS experience for learners, instructors, and administrators. The Canvas team has been focused on simplified learner experiences, improving assessment and feedback mechanisms for instructors, and course, content, and access management enhancements for both instructors and administrators, to name a few. Release highlights include:

Canvas Career

Another InstructureCon announcement, Canvas Career is our new learning experience designed specifically for adult learners in order to meet the rising demand for workforce-aligned, skills-first education in a rapidly changing job market. At this time, Canvas Career is in Product Preview with select customers. Additional information about integration options and Partner licensing opportunities will be shared in early 2026.

Key Impacts for Integration Partners

Several new and upcoming release items have specific impact for Integration Partners. Those features, their impacts, and suggested next steps are detailed below:

  • Availability and Exceptions for Canvas Apps (In Feature Preview, Coming to GA)
    • What Changed: With Availability and Exceptions, Admins can easily:
      • deploy an app with a shared deployment ID across the root account, sub-accounts, and courses. This empowers admins to enable an app in specific, pedagogically appropriate contexts and where the institution has licenses to support its use. 
      • view/edit app details in an updated review page.
      • make an app available in specific subaccounts or courses.
    • Why?: This enhancement enables centralized control, streamlining app deployment and management. It also saves admins time and improves visibility into where their apps are available.
    • Integration Partner Benefit: Some integrated tools require that the institution provide them with the individual deployment IDs being used. In the past this meant admins had to send multiple deployment ids for every time they deployed the integrated tool in a new placement. This was time consuming for everyone involved, and could be highly manual for partners customer service teams.
  • Plagiarism Detection (In Feature Preview, Coming to GA)
    • What Changed: With plagiarism detection in assignments, instructors can utilize 3rd party LTI 1.3 apps directly within Canvas to easily vet for plagiarism and AI usage. These results will show in SpeedGrader.
    • Why?: Plagiarism and AI detection helps instructors maintain fair grading standards. Both students and instructors can detect improper citing and learn how to better use AI.
    • Integration Partner Benefit: Integration partners using LTI 1.3 will be able to process learner submitted work asynchronously and give a report to the instructor directly within SpeedGrader. 
  • Enforcing User-Agent Header for Canvas API Requests (In Feature Preview, Coming to GA)
    • What Changed: beginning October 1, the Canvas LMS Beta environment will reject any HTTP requests that do not include a User-Agent header. This change will be deployed to our Production environment on January 1, 2026:
      • Automated tools, scripts, or cron jobs that don’t explicitly set a User-Agent will begin failing with a 403 error code.
      • Standard browsers and many HTTP clients already include a User-Agent—so most normal interactions remain unaffected.
    • Why?: This enforces a best practice across our platform and throughout the software industry aligning with our broader goals for API governance, observability, and security.
    • Integration Partner Benefit:
      • Enhanced Security -  Requests lacking a User-Agent often come from automation or misconfigured scripts—and can signal scraping or other unwanted behaviors. Blocking these helps reduce our threat surface and better protects the platform.
      • Improved Observability & Governance - A valid User-Agent is crucial for attributing requests to their source. This enables better audit trails, usage insights, and accountability—essential elements of a robust API governance model.
      • Operational Efficiency - Having clean, traceable API traffic allows for faster debugging, usage pattern analysis, and resource allocation. It helps us support teams more effectively while maintaining system reliability.

LearnPlatform Updates: Increasing Partner Visibility and Streamlining Communication

LearnPlatform, Instructure’s edtech management solution for K12 districts, is releasing updates that will increase Partner product visibility within the LearnPlatform Community Library and streamline communication between LearnPlatform users and all Partners who have claimed their Partner Portal product page(s). 

  • Provider Applications Summary Page 
    • What Changed: The Provider Applications feature makes it easier for LearnPlatform Administrators to manage the applications from each edtech tool provider.  When evaluating for vetting compliance, renewals or new contracts, admins can easily view the applications that Partners have submitted through LearnPlatform. For partners, these requests will continue to appear inside the Partner Portal. 
    • Why?: This update streamlines the application review workflow by reducing the time and number of clicks. It makes application summaries more accessible by placing them alongside other relevant product information.
    • Partner Benefit: Simplifying to process of tracking applications will increase adoption of this feature amongst LearnPlatform users, and reinforce Provider Applications as a valuable product vetting and sales channel for Partners.
    • Why?: This update enhances user confidence by adding new certifications, ensuring that badges are based on current, accurate, and relevant data.
    • Partner Benefit: Partners who have earned any of these Digital Promise credentials will now benefit from additional visibility to LearnPlatform users. Having these badges displayed on LearnPlatform product profiles (which are informed via the Partner Portal) will help communicate tool quality and value, and serve as a valuable data point for LearnPlatform users who are evaluating your edtech solution(s).

 

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