#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. 

National Museum of Wales Education Leaders Summit Pre #ALTC26

Last week I was invited to contribute to a discussion among UK education leaders in the splendid surroundings of the Welsh National Museum Cardiff. This was an event pre Association For Learning Technology Conference #ALTC26 gathering hosted by Instructure. 

As we were in Wales the discussion was shaped by developments there, I was impressed by focus to push forward tertiary opportunities for all. In some respects they are ahead of Scotland in some other areas they are behind. I think difference may be that they do seem more prepared to make funding contingent on Universities and Colleges working more closely together. Check out MeDr developments and specifically current list of projects.

 In Scotland I'd make all tertiary activity  funded at the same level - that would correct the market and behaviours - and perhaps be much simpler than drip funding range of projects. 

It's interesting the theme of Life Long Learning is back on everyone's radar.

Here is a summary of the five key takeaways for supporting lifelong learners: You can read things in full on the Instructure Website

• Lifelong Learning as a Shared Societal Responsibility: Anchored in Wales’s Well-being of Future Generations Act, institutions and policymakers are encouraged to move past short-term priorities and collaborate on connected learning pathways. With AI reshaping the workforce, education must focus on long-term adaptability, creativity, and reducing inequality for underrepresented groups.
  
  
• Removing Barriers to Inclusion: To reach non-traditional learners, institutions need to make opportunities more visible and approachable. Examples include bringing education directly into local communities, libraries, schools, and remote areas to engage individuals who might not otherwise consider life long learning opportunities. I think there is massive role that Open Educational policies could play in this space. 
  
  
• Rethinking Traditional Institutional Structures: Current university administrative systems (enrolment, student records, course approvals) are designed for traditional 18-year-old undergraduates. To compete with agile commercial learning providers and adapt to policy changes (like England's Lifelong Learning Entitlement), institutions must simplify processes and embrace flexible, modular, or asynchronous online learning. Colleges in Scotland are much more agile here but lack funding. They could be a true engine of change. 
  
  
• Prioritising Collaboration Over Competition: Despite financial pressures and internal siloes between academic departments, stronger partnerships—both internally and externally with colleges and employers are essential to address changing workforce skill requirements. This is still a live issue in Scotland. In Wales the approach seems to be to use funding to incentivise collaboration between Colleges and Universities - I think a blunter instrument is still required in Scotland. 
  
  
• Redefining Success Metrics: Beyond standard metrics like enrolment, completion rates, and revenue, institutions need to evaluate success based on learner-centric outcomes. This includes career transitions, gaining confidence, social mobility, and supporting learners who move in and out of formal education over time. This remains really hard to track in Scotland while Universities resist adoption of Scottish Candidate Number etc. 

Where Scotland is Behind

• Funding Unitised and Short-Course Learning: The biggest area where Scotland falls behind is modular/Unitised  funding entitlement.

  • England is rolling out the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), allowing adult learners to take out loan funding for individual modules (30+ credits) or short courses throughout their lives.

  • Scotland’s non-tuition fee model relies heavily on full-time degree or full-award funding (via SAAS). It lacks a flexible, universal "credit bank" or modular loan system for adult upskilling, making it harder for mid-career adults to take single college or university courses without paying out-of-pocket.

• Institutional Agility & Admin Bottlenecks: Much like the UK-wide challenges raised in Cardiff, Scottish universities remain constrained by traditional multi-year degree structures and lengthy course-approval processes. Commercial providers and short-course online platforms often outpace Scottish universities and Colleges  in launching agile retraining programs. Though at least College and Training Provider provision is shaped around relevant occupational standards. SCQF Microcredentials have been a thing in Colleges since the last century - but things like part-time evening, saturday morning and or even flexible blended short course provision seem to lack support. 

Where is space for Open Education ? 

I rehearsed this in earlier posts - there is so much scope for collaboration around both course design and learning materials in Scotland. We need much more flexible models for all learners. 

Do you have a platform that really supports Life Long Learning ?

Too many institutions , despite COVID are still overly focused on old models of course development and delivery.  Perhaps as they are just easier to deliver ? 

College Funding in Scotland Revisted.

In 2024 I posted about the ongoing crisis around College funding. Things have not really got much better - so time for an update. 

Despite delivering essential vocational training and community social mobility, Scotland’s Further Education (FE) college sector is still facing an unprecedented financial crisis. While recent targeted, short-term funding streams (such as the New Flexible Workforce Development Fund and Defence Technical Excellence Colleges) provide welcome project opportunities, they do not close the sector’s core operational funding gap. Baseline funding cuts threaten the structural viability of local colleges across Scotland. Urgent policy rebalancing across tertiary funding is required.

Key Financial Realities

• 7%+ Real-Terms Cut this year  Audit Scotland reports that college sector funding has fallen by over 7% in real terms over the last five years. If you look over last 10 years there is  a greater funding collapse. Audit Scotland's briefing paper, Scotland's Colleges 2025 shows that Scottish Government revenue funding for colleges decreased by 20 per cent in real terms over the five-year period from 2021/22 to 2025/26.
• Widespread Operating Deficits: More than half of Scotland’s colleges operate in deficit, relying on emergency Scottish Funding Council (SFC) cash advances to maintain short-term liquidity. They can't plan ahead. 
• Diminishing Provision: Workforce contraction via voluntary severance has coincided with course credits and student headcounts dropping to 10-year lows. That basically means less places for prospective students.  Part time learning numbers have plummeted.  Evening provision for reskilling adults has almost entirely disappeared.  

The Policy Disparity: Colleges vs. Universities

• Fiscal Control & Governance: Colleges operate as direct instruments of government policy under SFC control. Unlike universities—which enjoy greater fiscal freedom and research autonomy college boards and leadership face direct Scottish Government intervention during fiscal distress. 

• Targeted Grants vs. Baseline Stability: Short-term, ring-fenced initiatives (e.g., £10m New FWDF or £20m DTECs) enable rapid, employer-led upskilling, but cannot cover permanent staff costs, rising energy bills, or essential campus maintenance.

• Equitable Distribution: The commitment to "free" higher education has created an unintended structural imbalance, diverting core tertiary resources away from lifelong vocational learning and local college pathways.

Key Action Recommendations for Policy Makers

• Equalise Core Tertiary Funding Rates : Establish rate parity per candidate across Further Education, Higher Education, and work-based learning to ensure public funds follow the learner fairly and make the system make full use of SCQF.  Track learners across life long learning by full adoption of the Scottish Candidate Number SCN.

• Re-evaluate Regional Governance & Autonomy : Re-evaluate Regional Governance & Learn from Glasgow’s De-regionalisation. The dissolution of the Glasgow Colleges Regional Board (GCRB) proved that adding an administrative "middle tier" above colleges creates unnecessary overhead without protecting frontline budgets. Remaining regional structures across Scotland must either be given genuine, ring-fenced budget autonomy to serve their local economies, or be streamlined to allow direct SFC funding to frontline college delivery. 

• Align University Funding to National Standards: Differentiate public university subsidies by tying funding formulas to national occupational standards and articulation pathways from regional colleges. Academic autonomy should not extend to ignoring national occupational standards and SCQF. 

• Mandate FE Inclusion in National Capital & Innovation Projects : Ensure major economic and innovation investments (e.g., NMIS, Data Lab, DTECs) structurally embed regional colleges as core funded partners, not secondary outputs

• Expand Open Educational Resources (OER): Drive cross-sector adoption of UNESCO open education principles to widen access across regional communities. Ensure that all Colleges and Universities share all learning materials through open respositories and practice. To foster mutual support and collaboration and ultimately to support learners and teachers - wherever they are. 

• Stop the pretence that the patient(s) can heal itself :  There are currently two projects going on in Scotland, both sponsored by the Scottish Govt - The College Sector of the Future ( for Colleges) and for Universities the  Future Framework for the Sustainability and Success of Scotland's Universities.  In isolation neither of the sectors can find a solution on their own.  As they are both in the new tertiary system scope here for one project. 

Joe Wilson has 40 years experience of the College sector and  among other roles spent 15 years serving on three different College Boards of management.