Tag Archives: Canvas

#Canvascon26 CanvasCon Europe 2026: Notes from London⤴

from @ Experimental Blog

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. 

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

from @ Experimental Blog


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. 


Shaping The Future of Education Session with Martin Bean⤴

from @ ...........Experimental Blog

It was great to present alongside Professor Martin Bean To an audience of colleges and universities including some former colleagues. This was a busy session at City of Glasgow College around shaping the future of education. 

Thanks to the team at canvas by Instructure for facilitating this session. 

A summary below for folks who could not make it along.  

Martin laid out well the challenges facing global education. Generally we are far too slow to embrace innovation and deal with disruption. This has been familiar cry over the 38 years I have worked in the sector but more critical now than ever. 

We may not appreciate challenges like 

"Today is the slowest day of the rest of your working life"  But there is a truism here, change is becoming ever more rapid.

I summarise below some of Martin's gems but you really should get hold of his latest book ToolKit for Turbulance 

There is a re-skilling emergency across the world 

https://www.weforum.org/publications/putting-skills-first-a-framework-for-action/

While LinkedIn and others are busily mapping opportunities and candidates to skill descriptions and using AI to provide tailored learning solutions and microcredentials for learners. The established providers of learning are moving too slowly.

Knowledge and skills are a currency. The workforce need regular updates and current students need courses that are regularly reviewed, updated and delivered flexibly. Paper diplomas are old currency and current validation processes too slow.

Useful examples to have a look at 

Australia developing a digital skills passport to be used across life long learning.

https://www.education.gov.au/national-skills-passport-consultation

https://www.mypassglobal.com/

Even tied into migration policies 

https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/consultations/draft-core-skills-occupations-list

In Europe the Europass continues to be developed

https://europa.eu/europass/eportfolio/

These developments allow the true creation of learning pathways based on micro/meso and macro digital certifications than stack together. In Australia being built around digital competency national skills descriptors.  

Digitally native Learners are moving to online platforms - examples 8 million Google professional certificates through Coursera , Salesforce and their Trailhead Academy Futurelearn in UK with 14million users 

Institutions often spend to much time focusing on their physical estate and do not realise that investment in their digital estate can deliver real value to their learners. 

The final challenge - 

Surely, Scotland with a new tertiary system should be looking at a digitally enabled skills passport/digital wallet for learners in Colleges, Universities and work based learning.  It would support employers and life long learners and make candidate search and opportunity discovery easier for all.  ( I know a few Scottish innovators in this space who would agree) 

My own reflection too much time and energy has been spent in changing the policy landscape and not enough time has been spent on looking at some of these system level changes in Scotland. It's easier to shuffle around agencies and lines of responsibility than to deliver real change in system. 

I followed up with a session focussing on how these challenges could be picked up in Scotland and what solutions institutions should be putting in place.  On the day I focused on challenges and vanilla solutions for broad audience. The presentation also covers how we used Canvas by Instructure to future proof our delivery.  I've redacted delegates inputs on day - feedback was really positive. 

I look forward to supporting future sessions. 

#CanvasCon24 Barcelona #canvascon⤴

from @ ...........Experimental Blog


It was kind of the great folks at Instructure Canvas to invite me over to a very sunny Barcelona for their annual European conference and to enjoy their impeccable hospitality. I write this up with a certain sense of longing, as I have now left the College and won't be rolling out some of the great new developments. However, I will keep doing my bit to champion many of the themes and ideas that were discussed in the sessions.

I will also feed this back to my former colleagues at City of Glasgow College.  As ever with a large event, I could not be in all of the sessions, so apologies if I missed some other key nuggets.  The space themed conference hotel and venue very fitting for some really useful future gazing, though many of the issues are old and apparently intractable.

Me holding hand of astronaut and pretending to Moon Walk
Moon Walk 
 Here is my quick review.  Excellent keynotes, well organised and chaired by Dan Hill, MD EMEA.  Preconference, I enjoyed getting my brain being picked on what Colleges need next from their VLE platforms. 

Anne Marie Imafidon was a super opening speaker,  her work with Women into STEM is superb and it was great to hear her speak about the need to educate for the future and not for now. How important too that we inspire the next generation - gravitas is one of my pet hates - that as a young bright black girl she could only see images of serious looking dead white men with beards who had apparently invented the future - could have been a block to her own aspirations.  She is truly a great role model. 

This fitted well with later speaker Jóhanna Birna Bjartmarsdóttir (johannabirnabjartmars.com) a now confident, high achieving, young women who was initially rejected by the education system. A truly humbling story.  Interesting how much AI and other tools like Speechify and Grammarly enabled Johanna to re-engage with learning. 

 Ishan Kolhatkar from Inspera challenged us around the future of assessment. Exams will still be a thing, but in increasingly in smaller and more personalised bursts, and an old acquaintance and well known leader of digital learning Martin Bean - chaired some excellent panel sessions over the day. 

More on that later but hoping to see him in Scotland in December.  

Main messages here is that Generative AI means the end of lots of things and beginning of lots of new things particularly for learners and learning.  In twenty years time learners will scoff at old means of delivery of learning , just as they will be puzzled by computer keyboards and or even that in olden times people touched screens - voice and face recognition is future.

Here are my takeaways 

  1. What seemed to be fairly standard "what is AI session"  from AWS services suddenly became quite exciting when presenter demoed PartyRock. Worth a look.
  2. Mary McCooey of Queens University - has created a Canvas course for academics to make the most of data available to them to them at course level. Many teachers don't know how and don't access all the data they already have access to.  They have also pushed on with Canvas Data2. The analytics has enabled useful learning that has impacted on practice.  It seems counter intuitive but learners like doing as much as possible on the small screen on their phone. Has done a lot to link range of data and reports on usage of LTIs etc.  Also on when and what learners access and that they prefer interactive content. As COGC about to do some more work here would be useful follow up, there is also scope to work with Corry at Glasgow School of Art on Canvas data 2 in navigating this as she has very small team and would benefit from nearby critical friend. 
  3. Cidilabs  this platform blew me away perhaps worth having a look at but do that alongside the new page creation designer from Canvas . The UDoIT tool might be more useful than blackboard ally as more Canvas native . They even have a tool that takes a PDF and converts it into a Canvas page. City of Glasgow College does have a few courses where there are squinty old PDF images of text that would benefit from this converter. 
  4. Similarly worth having a look at Feedback Fruits some of their work around collaborative assessment particularly interesting and offers possibility of much more authentic assessment of group work and contributions of learners to team based assessments.
  5. From AI sessions - we have all policy etc in place at COGC what is needed next is a more technical road map around adoption across College operations. I think most institutions need that. 
  6. I met with Rosie Loyd of Tutello a platform that turns lecture notes and more into AI enabled agents - which looks just what many centres now need. 
  7. Ryan Lufkin ran a great session I will certainly start following his podcast  I wonder if COGC would be interested him as speaker for future Learning and Teaching Conference ? His vision around impactful eight is good and aligned to global change The Impactful Eight - Instructure Community - 599792 (canvaslms.com)
  8. Most Colleges in Northern Ireland and Sweden all use Canvas opening up more opportunities for national cooperation around Canvas Commons.
  9. Swedish institutional lead interested in how UHI manages online and blended learning will make relevant introductions to colleagues at UHI.
  10. Met EDF a development organisation who supported and continue to support Oxford Universities Canvas journey. I still think its amazing that we give Glasgow College students the platform used by most of the top global universities. EDF useful to know about if you need Canvas support.
  11. Encountered, a new to me, similarity detection engine and I will have a poke around and promote if it is as good as it looks.  Shame they have just missed the APUC framework window.
  12. Portflow by Driem - another portfolio solution not sure I need a deeper look .. but if you already have Canvas folio ? 
  13. Manchester University are where we were five years ago but giving themselves a very generous two year window to move across to Canvas.
  14. Had a useful conversation with Wiris  block in past to adoption is that they were always looking for an institutional licence which was just prohibitively expensive - suggests they may now be able to do smaller departmental deals.  If contact comes back will pass on to college. 
  15. Finally great overview of Canvas Product Road Map My favourites are the new block editor and ability to have differentiated content release along with in course smart search, the new AI discussion summary tool and for the teckie in me the new LTI management tools.

I hope this summary is useful I am now back in very cold Scotland.  Thanks again Instructure for a really useful conference. Thanks too to all the great folks I met at conference for making it rewarding and fun.  









#Canvas by #Instructure at City of Glasgow College⤴

from @ ...........Experimental Blog

Yes, it's a promotional video but it really does capture staff and student engagement in our continued Canvas journey!

It's a great advert for the teams across City of Glasgow College that made it happen, the teachers and our students. 

Testament too to the great support we continue to enjoy from Instructure.  Always happy to talk about our Canvas journey.


City of Glasgow College: Improved reliability and user experience with Canvas | Instructure

Summary of First Scottish #Canvas #Instructure Users Group. #SCUG⤴

from @ ...........Experimental Blog




It was great to meet the growing user base of Canvas by Instructure at Stirling University Business Centre.  Fitting too as Stirling was 2nd institutional Canvas user in Scotland. Glasgow School of Art (GSA) being the first. 

There were attendees from both institutions and folks from 

  • Clyde College
  • Borders College 
  • City of Glasgow College 
  • Data Lab (Edinburgh University) 
  • Edinburgh Business School (Edinburgh University)
  • Heriot Watt University 
  • QM University 
The community is growing fast - really as Canvas gives us a robust and user-friendly platform with global reach. Mainly, between excellent sessions, it was an opportunity for the system admins and users to exchange some great tips and experiences of rolling out Canvas or simply running the system.

Some of the themes of day went beyond Canvas.

How for instance do we get staff and users to make the most of Artificial Intelligence that is already present in Word and PowerPoint and a range of tools. How we use AI ethically in assessment and how our assessment processes need to change. We've been thinking about that already at City of Glasgow College.

How Canvas data can potentially help shape learner pathways. The new skill sets needed by teaching staff and learners around AI prompts and lots of new tools that will support learning materials become more accessible from better automatic transcription of video, to automatically creating assessments around all kind of artefacts including video and building and creating learning materials. There was some discussion of tools that prompt you to keep on task if you have ADHD (note to self must find that one) 

Some of the talk much more hard-core Canvas 

  1. How you manage, roll out and maintain a sensible Canvas template or templates. We have one at City of Glasgow College some Universities have undergraduate and postgraduate even faculty templates. Not a path we will go down. You can catch a glimpse here. Canvas allows you to publish open courses and we will be doing more of this.
  2. Everyone is enjoying using the new Canvas Icon Maker (though important for accessibility always include an appropriate ALT tag).
  3. Some institutions like ours have clear update cycles to allow everyone to review content. Some only do this for programmes that are targeted on basis of a range of factors. 
  4.  Generally, learners love the consistency of Canvas and templates. The challenges lie in ensuring there is cross faculty adoption and that staff come to have an understanding of very basic learning design. A course should not simply be a collection of PDF documents or PowerPoints. 
  5. One way to solve some of these issues is to build in content review to a college or University quality process. In colleges that might include sampling the appropriate use of the College template in internal verification processes. 
  6. For all ensuring the accessibility of content is continuing issue. There are lots of great tools in Canvas that support this. Our centre uses Ally to take this further but ultimately staff need to take ownership and publish learning materials in an accessible format. 

We showcased how we are using Canvas Folio and how it can give a learner a portfolio for life and can be built into normal assessment processes. We talked around how we could use Canvas Credentials as open badges/ micro credentials. Canvas have made two great acquisitions in Portfolium and Badgr. 

We highlighted the opportunity that we have as Scottish Canvas users to make more use of Canvas Commons and specifically to work together and share content through a consortium on Canvas Commons. Its available if you look for it under admin consortiums. Called "Scottish Canvas Users Group" We should all be sharing content here and to the wider global community to align to UNESCO principles around Open Educational Resources. We will share our template and some of our Canvas courses here.

Also. covered our approach to ABC learning design and the range of tools our staff have access to, to embed in their Canvas courses.

Some suggestions we will take back. 

  1. Use blueprints very sparingly and only update once or twice a year. 
  2. Look at some additional links that might be useful embedded in template - so always in front of learners - how to install canvas app - where to find Canvas essential course for students. Stirling has this as a Stirling essentials course covering just about everything a learner needs to know. Would be interesting to get student feedback on this. 
  3. Perhaps have link to instructions on accessing the Canvas App on front page of template - but mainly ensure that Canvas home screen/dashboard has key links that students need.
  4. We will have a sharing session with our graphics lecturers and GSA staff. 
  5. We all agreed to sign up for an online community so we can stay in touch more regularly and we will try and have a face to face gathering every six months.