Product announcements from InstructureCon 2025

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At Instructure, we believe the best learning experiences are built for a lifetime, and that both learners and creators of learning deserve tools that help them thrive at every step. That belief was front and center at InstructureCon 2025 in Spokane, where thousands of educators, technologists, and innovators came together with a shared purpose: to shape a more connected, empowering future for education.

From AI that supports classroom creativity and efficiency, to new ways of connecting skills to real-world opportunities, everything we’re building is designed to serve all sides of the learning journey. With reliable, scalable technology working in the background, educators can focus on teaching, learners can focus on growing, and institutions can focus on meaningful results.

IgniteAI: Secure, In-Context AI Across the Teaching and Learning Experience

Educators are cautiously optimistic about the role of generative AI in education. They’re curious about its potential, yet seeking guidance on how to harness it effectively. In today’s fragmented AI landscape, they often find themselves navigating a maze of isolated tools, each with its own risks, limitations, and steep learning curves. That’s why we’re proud to introduce IgniteAI: a new “conductor” for AI in education. IgniteAI unifies AI-powered capabilities across Instructure products and third-party tools, orchestrating them into a cohesive experience that empowers both educators and learners. Designed to build trust, drive adoption, and create educational value, IgniteAI enables institutions to:

• Seamlessly integrate AI into their workflows, with intuitive tools and openness at its core.
• Maintain control with clear data transparency and robust "AI Nutrition Facts" for every tool.
• Support teaching and learning with co-creative experiences that keep educator and learner relationships at the center.

We’re committed to offering as many IgniteAI features as possible within the subscriptions you already have. Across Canvas and Mastery, this includes AI-powered use cases releasing on a rolling basis throughout the remainder of the year, including:

• Streamlining content creation for educators without sacrificing quality by drawing on course materials and academic standards. 
• Meeting the needs of all learners by addressing barriers to success like language and accessibility. 
• Streamlining grading and feedback while always keeping the educator in the driver’s seat. 

We’ve heard a few questions about how our new AI features will be rolled out, so it’s worth underscoring: all AI capabilities are entirely opt-in. Institutions will have full control over which features they enable, with granular settings available down to the course level. 

For institutions looking to elevate their AI-powered workflows, we’re also introducing IgniteAgent—a new premium product designed to bring intelligent, conversational assistance to Canvas and beyond. IgniteAgent empowers educators to complete complex, multi-step tasks such as extending deadlines or converting PDFs using just a single prompt, drawing on personalized actions across more than 500 APIs.

But IgniteAgent is more than just an enhancement to Instructure tools, it’s an orchestrator for your entire edtech ecosystem. Using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard, trusted partners can seamlessly integrate their own agents and workflows, enabling IgniteAgent to coordinate actions across both Instructure and third-party platforms directly within the agent chat.

IgniteAgent will be available as an add-on in 2026, unlocking the ability to tackle even the most sophisticated educational challenges through natural conversation no matter where the tools or data reside.

➡️ Read the full announcement, stay in the know on early adopter programs, and keep an eye on release notes as features become broadly available.

Global Partnership with OpenAI: New LLM Assignment Type in Canvas

More than 70% of students already turn to ChatGPT as their LLM of choice, often without guardrails, guidance, or pedagogical intent, posing real risks to academic integrity and authentic learning. As part of the IgniteAI launch, we’re also proud to announce a strategic collaboration with OpenAI, forging a path toward embedded AI learning experiences within Canvas.

LLM-enabled assignments in Canvas integrate educator-led design with the power of LLMs to create dynamic, personalized learning experiences. Educators retain full control, aligning AI interactions with specific learning outcomes while gaining visibility into student engagement. Learners benefit from rich, adaptive conversations within Canvas, where their privacy is safeguarded and their progress is captured as meaningful learning evidence that is automatically integrated into the Gradebook. This AI-enhanced workflow reduces administrative overhead, so teachers can focus on nurturing critical thinking and higher-order skills through engaging, outcome-aligned assignments.

This collaboration will:

• Allow educators to create responsible, effective AI interactions in their courses.
  
  
• Provide students with personalized, ethical learning support through integrated AI agents.
  
  
• Advance research on AI’s impact on pedagogy, equity, and engagement in education.

OpenAI is the launch integration partner to power LLM-enabled assignments, with plans to support additional LLMs via a “bring your own LLM key” model. LLM-enabled assignments will be available to Canvas customers at no additional cost, but institutions will need to provide their own LLM API key. This feature is currently in development, with plans to start an early adopter program later this year.

To reiterate, this feature along with all AI capabilities are always opt-in. 

➡️ Read the full announcement

Introducing Canvas Career: The AI-Powered, Skills-First Learning Experience

As the half-life of skills shrinks and industries evolve at breakneck speed, learners need support that bridges the gap between education and employability. This year, we took a bold step forward in helping learners turn education into opportunity with the launch of Canvas Career. 

Canvas Career helps institutions bridge the gap between classroom and career by:

• Mapping course content and assessments to in-demand job skills using AI.
  
  
• Empowering learners to curate personal career portfolios and skill profiles.
  
  
• Enabling organizations to align learning pathways with real-world workforce needs.
  
  

This new offering empowers organizations to deliver scalable, skill based learning programs to learners and continuously prepare them for a rapidly changing job market. 

➡️ Read the full announcement

Meaningful improvements to everyday workflows across Canvas, Mastery, and Parchment

And last but not least, I’m pleased to share several key enhancements across our product suite that reflect our commitment to innovation, accessibility, and meaningful outcomes.

• Redesigned dashboards and modules in Canvas provide improved navigation and a seamless experience across devices, including mobile. To further support differentiated instruction at scale, we’ve introduced differentiation tags, which make it easier than ever for educators to effectively personalize learning pathways. We've also simplified the process of LTI tool discovery and management for administrators with a focus on evidence and efficiency.
• In the area of assessment, we continue to expand our capabilities to support authentic and equitable evaluation. New features include specialized STEM item types, enhanced proctoring within New Quizzes, and evaluation portfolios for students to demonstrate their learning. 
• We’re proud to share that the entire suite of Canvas products (Canvas LMS, Canvas Mobile, Commons, Credentials, Catalog, Impact, and Studio) have achieved WCAG 2.2 AA compliance following a recent Voluntary Product Accessibility Test (VPAT). This milestone reflects our ongoing efforts to exceed accessibility standards and ensure equitable access for all users.

• We’ve also introduced powerful updates to Mastery by Instructure, including streamlined item management, AI-driven item alignment and generation, support for Spanish-language assessments, and an enhanced home page designed to deliver actionable insights and support data-informed instruction.
• We are also deepening our commitment to learner mobility through updates to the Parchment experience, namely the transition of Canvas Credentials to the Parchment Award family. This change signifies an exciting future, one that includes a more holistic view of learner achievement across a unified platform. For more information on this change, please see our FAQs on the renaming of Canvas Credentials. 

These updates represent just a portion of our ongoing work to provide solutions that elevate teaching and learning. We’re grateful for your partnership as we continue to build the future of education together. For those who weren’t able to attend in person, join us for Instructure New & Next during the week of August 4th where we’ll dive deeper into these updates and answer your questions live.

At InstructureCon, it’s never just about products. It’s about people—your passion, your ideas, your relentless focus on helping every student thrive. That’s why so much of what we build starts with you.

From the packed product feedback workshops to hallway conversations about AI readiness and lifelong learning, one thing is clear: our community is ready to lead the future of education, together.

Whether you joined us in Spokane or tuned in from afar, thank you for being part of this movement. Stay tuned as we continue to roll out new capabilities throughout the year. And as always, keep sharing your voice, your vision, and your “what ifs.”