Edtech summit emphasises commitment to lifelong learning through partnerships and AI innovations

At its annual InstructureCon event, Instructure showcased its dedication to the education sector by launching several initiatives – from a global network of edtech organisations designed to address sector challenges to a series of AI-powered features to help improve efficiencies among educators 

LONDON — 18 July 2024 — Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Instructure) (NYSE: INST), the leading learning technology ecosystem and maker of Canvas VLE, has launched an “EdCo Partner Programme” - a collaborative industry partnership made up of global edtech organisations aiming to enhance educational impact and solve some of the biggest issues facing educators. During its InstructureCon conference (9-11 July), the organisation also introduced new AI-powered features designed to increase efficiencies among educators and provide targeted intervention and personalised learning for students.

The EdCo Partner Programme – including organisations such as Grammarly and Inspera – provides opportunities for edtechs to connect directly with educators and students within the Instructure Learning Ecosystem; share and learn best practices from one another; and benefit from evidence-based studies into the efficacy of their edtech tools to provide the very best value for educators and learners. The new EdCo Partner Programme is an extension of Instructure’s existing EdTech Collective, which involves more than 1,000 global edtech companies.

Sidharth Oberoi, VP of Partnerships, Instructure, said:

“The creation of the Instructure EdCo Partner Programme extends our long-held belief in the power of the ecosystem by connecting a broad partner community with our education users in ways that allow them to jointly create learning environments that address their most pressing challenges. The programme helps our partners build integrations seamlessly, drive adoption of their tools and grow their impact.”

At the conference, the organisation also announced several initiatives and product innovations linked to AI, recognising the importance of helping institutions develop their AI policies and plans, accelerate teaching and learning practices and implement their own transformative AI solutions, fostering a responsible integration of AI tools that enhance learning through personal connection. The company is making many of its new AI-powered features freely available for Canvas virtual learning environment (VLE) customers, including those for multilingual communication support with automatic translation across 100 languages, smart searches and AI assistants.

Instructure also launched ‘Intelligent Insights’, a new stand-alone product that leverages AI and analytics allowing administrators to customise criteria and alert educators when students fall below a certain threshold and help them make data-informed decisions that improve teaching and learning outcomes. Key features of Intelligent Insights include: 

• Ask Your Data: Uses intuitive, conversational AI so that users can ask questions about their data, for which insights are then automatically generated, allowing them to access simplified analysis. This helps make data more accessible to all, regardless of technical expertise. 
• Students in Need of Attention: Enables proactive monitoring of specific indicators set by schools or institutions to highlight students in need of additional support. 
• Course Readiness: Assesses the preparedness of courses to ensure consistent, high-quality educational delivery. 
• LTI Usage Reporting: Offers insights into third-party tool utilisation for better resource management.

More than 35 customers worldwide beta-tested Intelligent Insights, including Oxford University in the UK and Cornell University in the United States.

Mark Bramwell, CIO of Oxford Said Business School and Director of Strategic Digital Partnerships, said:  

"We're proud to be an early adopter of Intelligent Insights. We understand the value and importance of data in addressing student needs and measuring and enhancing educational impact. With this, we look to enable and empower our people with the latest digital capabilities so they can continue to deliver world-leading teaching and innovation and best equip and prepare our students with the digital skills they will need in the workplace.” 

InstructureCon 2024  took place 9-11 July at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas and featured prominent keynotes from Jimmy Chin, Mary Murphy and Dr. Jordan Nguyen to address some of the most impactful edtech trends and how to adapt to the modern learner journey. With more than 228 sessions attendees learnt about classroom-tested best practices, received updates on the latest innovations and had the chance to collaborate with other Instructure community members focused on driving student success. 

For more information, visit: www.instructure.com/en-gb/resources/journalist.