#Canvascon26 CanvasCon Europe 2026: Notes from London

I spent a couple of really interesting days at Instructure's CanvasCon, held on 2-3 November at Convene Sancroft near St Paul's under the theme "Future-Ready Education in the Making".

A declaration of bias

I should say up front that I'm biased: I supported the introduction of Canvas into two Colleges in Scotland. ( it was great to catch up with Clyde and City of Glasgow Colleges) and many Association for Learning Technology colleagues at the event and I attended as a guest of Instructure.

I've worked with various LMS tools since the last century - anyone remember Lotus Learning Space ? and no the VLE is not dead, if you remember that short lived movement.

I believe that if you want a platform that will support your institution into the future, Canvas is the best choice. Other options exist, but they come with different price points, different development pain points and don't offer the same holistic approach to lifelong learning. 

The pieces I value (over and above the high platform reliability) are:

• Open sharing of resources through Canvas Commons.
•  Microcredentials and badges, built on the Open Badges 3.0 standard.
• A digital portfolio and certified qualifications that learners can take away after their formal learning ends.
• Delivering courses and support beyond the institution through Canvas Catalog.
• A sound platform for modelling good learning design and accessibility.
• How Instructure embraces and supports open standards Edu.Api, Open Badge Standard3.0 and many more. 

One thing I'm unsure about is the new three-tier pricing model. I understand why AI isn't free and has to be paid for, but for many Colleges tier one will be as far as they can stretch. I'll be watching how this plays out for the FE sector.

Above all the conference was a great opportunity to polish up my product knowledge and network with the ever growing Instructure user base across UK and Europe. 

Student voices open the conference

The opening session put students front and centre. They know they shouldn't outsource their learning to AI, but they feel teaching staff are still in denial and aren't modelling their own use of AI. What they want is:

• Worked examples of the best approaches for specific challenges
• Enough understanding to use different AI models economically and sustainably

Other delegates picked up the same thread. Several noted that AI shouldn't be treated as taboo, that assessment needs redesigning around authentic tasks, and that staff need time to learn. Access has to be open to everyone, not just those who can afford it. Sue Turner's keynote framed the question well: what does "No AI use" actually mean in practice?. Spoiler, that approach doesn't work.  

During proceedings I ducked out to deliver a one hour online Workshop to Newham College London and all credit to staff there who are already tackling this AI challenge.

Product updates

The product session from Zac Pendleton and Joel Silvera was a useful one. The main threads were:

• Making learning more personal
• An improved block content editor
• The impact of IgniteAI across the platform, from learning design to student experience
• Better dashboards for tracking across all courses
• An improved accessibility checker
• New learner dashboards so students can track their own progress

The link between the IgniteAI agent and MCP servers particularly interested me. You can connect your preferred agent, such as Microsoft Copilot, and generate personalised experiences using only the information held in Canvas. That is a sensible approach to the data and privacy questions that worry so many institutions.

Parchment and the skills agenda

Kristie Lindell described developments at Instructure's Parchment, built around learner personas. Administrators can create pathways using the Open Badges 3.0 standard. Parchment now links to a global marketplace showing which skills are in demand, and the underlying framework will reflect ESCO and the developing European skills wallet. For anyone working in vocational education, this is where the skills and employer-recognition conversation is heading. Great too to see UK labour market and job opportunities appearing at back end of this system. 

Partners worth a look

I didn't get round all the partner stands, but CidiLabs caught my eye. I particularly liked their tools for turning PDF documents into course materials, and their design plugins such as TidyUp and UDoIt. Some of their other tools could make them an alternative to Anthology Ally.

Feedbackfruits for moving on the oral assessment debate and EDF for supporting really large organisations moving from one platform to another. It was good to see a strong overlap with the vendors attending the ALT Conference in Cardiff two weeks ago.

Free training: the On-Demand Training Portal

Alongside the product news, it's worth knowing what Instructure offers for free, especially given my worry about the pricing tiers.

The On-Demand Training Portal is accessible directly through Canvas. Instructure launched it for clients in EMEA and APAC through the LMS itself. All Canvas users except Free for Teacher users have access, and the free subscription level includes the Portal Walkthrough Course, Canvas Basics and Fundamentals of Accessible Digital Content.

What's in the free tier

• Canvas Basics: a course on the core features of Canvas. It replaced the older Canvas Field Guide course.
• Fundamentals of Accessible Digital Content in Canvas: launched in April 2025 and available in every tier, including the free one. It covers what digital accessibility means, checking accessibility in Canvas, best practices, and common mistakes.

Why it matters for Colleges: if tier one is as far as many Colleges can stretch, a free, structured route into accessibility and core Canvas skills is useful. It pairs well with the improved accessibility checker announced at the conference, and gives staff a low-cost way to build confidence before any paid AI features come into play.

Practice from the sector

Boston College, Lincolnshire (Peter Davis) gave a great example of cross-curricular recognition using credentials, badges and Canvas data. They created programmes recognising both staff digital skills and student digital progress. Competencies can be picked up automatically or awarded by staff for specific pieces of work. Canvas data feeds Power BI dashboards, including leaderboards for staff and students.

Edinburgh University / Saïd Business School stressed fast course development and smooth onboarding of learners. They showed good uses of Canvas Catalog, where courses can be free or paid for. They also use Drieam's Portflow and Eduframe, and good examples of open textbooks supporting open learning. A question from this session stayed with me: when learning becomes more modular and skills-based, what operating model holds it all together? Edu-API 1.0 (2026) may be part of the answer. It improves on OneRoster, could cure a lot of system-import headaches, and allows data to flow across multiple badges and credentials.

The award winners

• Innovative Technology: Prof. Uwe Stoklossa and the Carl Remigius Fresenius Education Group for NextGeneration 2.0, bringing secure, course-grounded AI to 18 institutions.
• Outstanding Course: University of Cambridge Advance Online for Creativity, Problem Solving and Design Thinking, with an impressive 94% completion rate.
• Transformative Programme: Gemma W. and Luke Westwood and the SAJE team at the University of Birmingham, who are rethinking assessment for nearly 10,000 first-year students.

Final Reflections

My overall impression is that Instructure takes a broader view than many competitors. It isn't narrowly focused on digital learning experiences, and increasingly contributes to discussions on lifelong learning, educational reform, credentialing and the future of work. It is out in front when it comes to working with global open standards.

It is getting itself into bigger, cross-cutting education themes, with products aligned to them. As colleagues noted, Canvas is evolving beyond being a place to host course content, with Canvas Next, IgniteAI and learning analytics all pointing that way.

The organisation undertands that too - next year's conference becomes Instructure Con a reflection that they manage a coherent set of tools to support lifelong learning. if you are new to all of this it is worth checking out Canvas Lite.

As always, the networking was brilliant. I've come home with plenty of ideas, a growing list of things to explore, perhaps a set of challenges in some Colleges for our IT colleagues. 

I had some useful side conversations around learning technologist  access to AI tools and even simply powerBI.  This does not bode well for possible discussion around MCP servers and or Edu.Api introduction into work flows. 

Generative AI and the Changing Nature of Assessment for DataLab Education Community

 

I enjoyed co presenting with Daire Maria Ni Uanachain . Daire's presentation and recording of session is now available on the Data Lab Education  Community Page 

If you are not a member of this community you should join. ( probably most relevant to folks in Scotland)   My own presentation is at foot of this blog post and I think complemented Daire's approach. 

I don't think we are at an inflection point yet. Changes to learning and assessment should have arrived when the internet and search engines became ubiquitous. 

Generative AI poses less of a threat to vocational training than to traditional academic sectors because vocational education relies on authentic assessment where learners must physically demonstrate practical capabilities rather than simply writing essays for these areas.  Digital evidence capture, such as video recording practical assessments (e.g. solar panel installation or working at height), work really well for verification and quality sampling.  Alternative assessments work in every other subject area too.   

To be clear, educational AI isn't about experimental frontier systems, it's about the accessible, everyday tools already at our students' fingertips. Keeping our focus on practical applications helps demystify the technology and prevents unnecessary anxiety from stalling essential digital skills development  (though the danger of armageddon will be this year's excuse for avoidance of any digital skills development) 

The truth is  getting teaching staff to change assessments rather than rely on 'AI Detection Engines' which don't work,  is massively challenging. Bad practice is deeply entrenched. We still have academic staff who ask generations of students the same questions and that should have changed long before the advent of AI.

Overcoming resistance to change is all about having the right governance, time and support in place. 

Unlocking the potential of these tools locally hinges on closer collaboration between IT departments,  academic and support staff. Building trust and dialogue between teams ensures we fully leverage the native AI features already sitting in our VLEs (like Canvas) and the enterprise platforms Microsoft or Google accounts. 

This is essential to prevent growth of shadow IT etc.   

There is useful support from Qualifications Scotland and a host of other sources. I've listed some current ones in slide deck. 

Hot of the press Glasgow Universities Toolkit for Reflecting on the Use of Digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in Learning and Teaching is included on this list. 

Launch of Toolkit for reflecting on the use of Digital and AI Technologies in Learning and Teaching

Last Monday, before heading up to Dundee University to move my son into student halls, I had the opportunity to attend the launch of an excellent new resource at the University of Glasgow.

The team at the School of Education has developed the Toolkit for Reflecting on the Use of Digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in Learning and Teaching. Rather than promoting specific tools or offering a rigid compliance checklist, the toolkit encourages structured reflection, professional dialogue, and active enquiry through self-assessment activities, real-world case studies, and guided reflective frameworks. It supports reflection across various dimensions of technology use and can be used individually or collaboratively, with the flexibility to adapt to different educational settings.

It is structured into four parts that move from examining personal pedagogical assumptions to analyzing mock case studies and planning future lessons. By utilising established academic frameworks like SAMR, TPACK, and the Conversational Framework, the resource encourages a shift from mere technology adoption to evidence-informed reflection. 

The materials also highlight ethical considerations, such as data privacy and accessibility, ensuring that tools serve human-centered learning goals.

Ultimately, the toolkit provides a staged scaffold for practitioner enquiry, helping teachers sustain a reflective digital practice as technology evolves.

It was good to meet some Education Scotland colleagues along at the launch and hear that they had been supportive in the development of this resource. 

The toolkit has several clear strengths:

• Sensible progression: It thoughtfully steps staff through selecting suitable technology based on actual learning needs, asking grounded questions about tech and AI along the way.

• Solid pedagogical focus: It grounds learning design effectively, with a particularly useful focus on the ABC model.

• Open access: It is published as an Open Educational Resource (OER), making it widely accessible. #OpenScot 

The overall approach is remarkably sound, and it is worth planning to use some of the slides and exercises with staff to help shape their approach to learning technology and AI. That said, to make the absolute most of it in practice, there are a few tweaks I'd make:

• Streamlining the activities: I’d likely cut down on some of the exercises. A few sections feel slightly wordy, and it can take a bit long to reach the practical next steps of selecting the right technology.

• Localising to institutional context: In an institutional setting, you need to explicitly point staff toward the specific tools supported by their institution. The toolkit omits this local layer to remain universally applicable, so I’d add that context back in.

• Critiquing misuse: It also presents a good opportunity to explore what might be missing, or address where educational technology and AI are being used inappropriately. Example I often use - a poor set of engineering lecturers being driven to distraction by an edtech trying to get them to adopt Powtoons of cuddily toys with powertools. 

• Expanding case study scope: The team is currently expanding the case studies at the back. Right now, they are heavily focused on primary schools, which opens up a great opportunity for colleges and HE institutions to collaborate with the university to develop further sector-specific examples.

Ultimately, I’d take the core slides and checklists and adapt them to fit a specific institutional context. Overall, the resources in this pack are a valuable addition to the toolkit of both Learning Technology teams and staff developer leads.

There are a lot of resources appearing in this space. (digital learning support with a focus on AI)  I didn't ask but was not sure where this resource fitted along side Glasgow University's lead on the Centre for Teaching Excellence and or work around digital learning appearing from the digital hub at Edinburgh University. 

Event was timely as I was doing a sector wide presentation later in the week with an AI focus and I was able to include this resource in references. 

There was a plug too for an 'International Symposium' on AI in summer 2027 

If you work in Learning Technology or a Learning and Teaching Academy worth downloading the PDF - and with proper attribution for orginal underpinning work perhaps running your own local AI model to repurpose some of the slides and resources in this pack.  My preferred model for this at moment is giving Notebook LM the PDF and asking it to create presentation slides that I can then edit. 

Here is a first pass at creating presentation from the PDF using Notebook LM - it is far too 'glossy' I would never use a deck like this - but great indication of what Notebook LM can do in under a minute.  Please note proper attribution. 

Get Involved

Download: Access the full Toolkit PDF on Glasgow ePrints.

Contribute Case Studies: If your college or university wants to contribute sector case studies, reach out to Dr. Mark Peart at the University of Glasgow School of Education.

Year Two over the Top : Post Summer Blog Catch Up #OER26

I am still pinching myself that I'm not back in the trenches for a fraught start of term.

I've moved on a lot since last year, and the work keeps evolving. 

All the very best to all who are back for a new session. 

I had a busy end to my part-time consulting year!  And then a useful chance to simply potter about and reflect. Had great fun watching World Cup too in Scotland and France. 

I am a few blog posts behind. 

Here is a quick look at what I’ve been up to:

• Holyrood Communications: I had the privilege of speaking on the transformative role of AI in Education, exploring both the opportunities and challenges it brings for learners and teachers. Mainly how assessment needs to change. But have a close look at the presentation on skills you and learners need to develop to make the most of AI tools.
  
  
• #OER26: Connected with the open education community to share ideas and insights on the future of open educational resources. I focused on the practical things that open education advocates and their organisations should be doing to be open. Extended blog to follow.

• Very timely as the Scottish Government has finally got behind Open Practice. Caught up too over the summer with the team leading on this work. Worth a read - if I was still working at a public body or at an institutional level I'd be figuring out how we start the journey towards sharing more resources publicly with an appropriate open licence and discussing this with all stakeholders. 
  
  
  The #openscot community and Association for Learning Technology have lots of experts on hand who could help.

• Quality Systems: Delivered a session for Northampton College on familiar territory of quality systems internal and external quality assurance for their engineering academic team. 

• Île de Ré: Balanced the busy schedule with a fantastic summer break on the French coast, enjoying the quiet beaches, cycling routes, food, wine, and plenty of sunshine (perhaps too hot this year).

• Glasgow Commonwealth Games: Spent an unforgettable time volunteering on the ground, soaking in the vibrant energy of the events. Some memorable moments: the Ugandan team (on a rainy day)  telling me how beautiful Scotland was in the autumn and being surprised it was summer.  The Cook Islands team singing and playing their music on their hotel balcony each evening.   Above all, working with a great set of volunteers and welcoming so many different people into the City of Glasgow. 

• RSA Scotland: Supported the Commonwealth Reception in Trades House of Glasgow, engaging in fantastic conversations with fellows and partners celebrating regional and international connections and handing the baton on to the Indian delegation. 

• Mentoring: Continued supporting senior leaders on driving change, leveraging digital tools while staying human, and leading authentically. If you role-play being a rotter, you risk getting stuck in that mode, and we have more than enough angry leaders in the world right now!

Looking forward to ALTC in Cardiff, meeting new ALT Scotland Exec members, and supporting Instructure Canvas (including Canvas Con in November) and moving on a few other projects that will keep me occupied into the new year.