AI tools in Canvas improve learning while creating possibilities to transform how employers will use performance data to evaluate students for jobs.
Canvas, the ubiquitous learning management system from Instructure, is well positioned at the center of the AI transformation of education. At InstructureCon 2024, an event featuring over 3,000 attendees and 500 employees, I spoke with Mitch Benson, Instructure’s Chief Strategy Officer, who had announced the release of over 200 AI-related innovations, partnerships, and product enhancements focused on educational effectiveness and the learner journey. These AI tools will be freely available to Canvas customers, constituting tens of millions of educators across over 7,000 organizations.
While expansive in reach, Instructure has taken a measured approach to deploying AI, wanting to ensure that any tool deployed satisfies primary educational objectives, preserves safety and data privacy, and brings identifiable benefits to students and instructors. AI needs to do more than just generate content; it needs to improve the underlying learning.
The Emerging AI Marketplace showcases products and services that work seamlessly within Canvas. All products come with an “AI nutrition fact” label that provides transparency into LLMs and data policies, helping institutions keep AI within policy. Featured tools include discussion summaries for complex discussion threads, summaries of inbox messages, and semantic search tools—tools helping students and educators cut through the proliferation of information help with navigation are becoming essential counterparts to the rapid deployment of generative AI.AI Supporting Education Beyond Content Generation
When evaluating AI in education, the question that must be asked is “how is it improving education?” Is it scaling quality? Is it driving efficiency? Is it keeping the teacher-centered in the instructional process, deepening relationships with students, or displacing the teacher?
Mitch Benson gave the example of assessing student papers.
