Latest news with #IgniteAI
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Teachers Get A New Assistant: Instructure Drops AI Into Canvas
AI in education Instructure and OpenAI have announced a new partnership to bring LLM-powered AI technology into Canvas, one of the most widely used learning platforms in education. The collaboration introduces IgniteAI, a built-in set of generative AI tools that will be released to Canvas users in stages over the coming year. Where AI is Adding Value in Canvas A key piece of the IgniteAI rollout is a new assignment builder that lets educators create AI-guided tasks. Teachers can write learning goals and sample prompts, set up how the chatbot will interact with students, and define how outcomes should be evaluated. At the same time, Canvas's grading system, analytics tools, and content creation features get new automation support, from faster feedback to AI-generated rubrics. Teachers stay in full control of how the AI behaves. They can customize each prompt and review all chatbot responses. Meanwhile, students get a chance to have focused conversations with the AI inside Canvas, working through ideas at their own pace. All chats are visible to the instructor, and the company says student data stays local and is not shared with OpenAI. The system also tracks each student's interaction. When learners show understanding or make progress, those moments are captured and added to the Gradebook. That lets teachers see not just the end result, but how a student arrived there. Repetitive tasks such as rewriting rubrics, responding to common requests and drafting feedback are handled by the system, allowing instructors to focus on discussion, coaching, and more complex teaching. "We're committed to delivering next-generation LMS technologies designed with an open ecosystem that empowers educators and learners to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world," said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. "This collaboration with OpenAI showcases our ambitious vision: creating a future-ready ecosystem that fosters meaningful learning and achievement at every stage of education.' Opportunities and Tradeoffs Daly says this partnership will free up time for educators and give students a more flexible way to engage with lessons. Leah Belsky, who oversees education strategy at OpenAI, describes the tools as a way to offer 'more personalized and connected learning experiences,' without removing human oversight. Schools are already moving quickly. Surveys show education leading all sectors in generative-AI adoption. Early feedback from pilots suggests students feel more confident when they can test ideas in a private chat, and some classroom studies point to modest gains in test scores among students using AI for practice. Still, the tools raise concerns. Nearly half of faculty respondents in recent polls say they worry about bias in model outputs. A similar number cite data privacy as a top issue. Those who work on academic integrity expect new forms of cheating to emerge. Others warn that expensive AI licenses could deepen gaps between well-funded and under-resourced schools. And until teachers are fully trained on how to use the tools, confusion and uneven results are likely. A university survey from May 2025 confirmed many of these fears among students. Respondents cited grading fairness, misuse of AI for shortcuts, and the risk of over-relying on automated suggestions as top concerns. Faculty echoed those points. They questioned whether AI nudges weaker writers toward overly similar phrasing and whether automated grading could undermine trust. To reduce those risks, campuses are already setting up review boards, bias checks, and clear opt-out options. Instructure, for its part, says that all student data stays within the institution, and that OpenAI has no access to individual records. Privacy teams are expected to monitor that closely. Where This Leads Canvas is now placing AI tools where teaching already happens—in assignments, discussions, and grading workflows. The chatbot becomes part of the lesson, not just an external add-on. If the systems work as intended, teachers could gain clearer feedback and students could move beyond generic answers into more thoughtful, process-based work. If the technology fails to live up to that promise, trust may erode. Either way, AI is no longer sitting outside the classroom door. It's embedded, logged, and learning alongside everyone else.
Korea Herald
7 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Instructure Launches IgniteAI to Simplify and Seamlessly Transform AI Integration in Education
Powered by AWS, IgniteAI sets the stage for a future-ready, open ecosystem with agentic support as the AI landscape continues to expand SALT LAKE CITY, July 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure, the world's leading edtech ecosystem and maker of Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), today announced the launch of IgniteAI,Instructure's next big leap in secure, in-context AI for education. Powered by AWS Bedrock, IgniteAI simplifies and streamlines the use of AI directly within Canvas and Mastery, enhancing efficiency and driving educational success. This advanced AI solution also seamlessly connects with hundreds of trusted partner tools, saving time and allowing educators to maintain confident control over the learning experience. Amid explosive growth in AI technologies, educators and administrators face significant challenges in navigating the role of AI in education and effectively implementing a variety of tools. IgniteAI addresses these pain points by delivering confidence, simplicity and substantial educational value, enabling educators and learners to leverage AI intuitively and safely. "Over the past year, we've listened as customers opened up about the real challenges and complexities they face in trying to deploy AI effectively," said Shiren Vijiasingam, chief product officer at Instructure. "By embedding AI transparently into the familiar Canvas environment and ensuring full interoperability with both our native AI functionality and that of our partners, IgniteAI brings powerful, vetted AI solutions directly into the daily workflows of educators and learners. Our technology removes barriers and protects data, allowing educators to confidently dedicate more of their time to providing an exceptional learning experience." Educators can use IgniteAI directly within Canvas or Mastery to conduct tasks such as creating quizzes, generating rubrics, summarizing discussions, aligning content to outcomes and more. IgniteAgent enables conversation-based completion of even the most complex workflows within Instructure products, and can orchestrate other partner AI right within the agent chat. Leveraging the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard, trusted partners can easily integrate their agents and workflows to work seamlessly with IgniteAgent. Educators will be able to generate solutions to even the most complex educational problems seamlessly across Instructure and partner products right within the Instructure learning ecosystem, with a single prompt. To date, many AI learning solutions are isolated point solutions confined to serving a single function within their product, adding to the noise and cognitive overload for educators. Instructure's strategic approach to AI focuses on extending the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) framework and facilitating connections across the educational ecosystem of over 1,100+ edtech partners and leading large language models (LLMs) via the established MCP standards. Existing partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI are enabling novel use cases in education. This results in greater interoperability, allowing AI to operate seamlessly across systems while keeping educators and learners within their institution's Instructure experience — the hub of all teaching and learning. Institutions can combine native Instructure IgniteAI features with other AI tools they know and love to confidently and securely achieve educational success. With this deliberate approach to AI, Instructure is well-positioned as AI evolves beyond generic content creation into more autonomous support that can help users complete previously time-consuming tasks, also known as "agentic AI." IgniteAI emphasizes three core tenets: "As testers of IgniteAI, we've been incredibly impressed with its potential to transform the learning experience," said Robert Romano, IT associate director at Florida International University (FIU). "Our staff, who are keen to embrace AI, particularly appreciated features like the translation capabilities, which offer a powerful way to make education accessible for our entire student body. What truly sets Instructure apart as a partner is the opportunity to collaborate directly with their research and development team to help shape the future of the product. At FIU, we pride ourselves on a culture of testing and innovation, and we're excited to be part of the journey in shaping a tool that will undoubtedly empower educators and students alike." Instructure customers will begin to see the IgniteAI icon in Canvas and Mastery immediately where AI is already integrated into the product experience. Additional features are launching on an opt-in basis in line with our approach to co-creating with our customers and preserving their agency in enabling AI capabilities and include support for automating content creation and remediation, streamlining grading and feedback, and building educator and learner AI skills with novel AI assignments. Additional Instructure product enhancements In addition, Instructure announced several significant updates to its product suite. Canvas, the central platform for learning, offers more intuitive and personalized experiences, featuring redesigned dashboards and modules that enhance usability and provide a cohesive mobile app experience across platforms. To support differentiated learning at scale, Canvas has introduced differentiation tags that enable personalized instruction and enhanced management and discovery of LTI tools through the new Canvas Apps experience. Innovations in assessment include specialized STEM items, enhanced proctoring capabilities in New Quizzes and new student portfolios that showcase diverse learning progress. Accessibility remains a top priority, with Canvas LMS, Canvas Studio, Canvas Catalog and Impact going above the minimum standard by achieving WCAG 2.2 AA compliance as part of a recent Voluntary Product Accessibility Test (VPAT). This is part of ongoing efforts to achieve high accessibility standards across all Instructure products, ensuring equitable access to content. Furthermore, Mastery by Instructure now offers streamlined assessment management, AI-powered item alignment and generation, assessment experiences in Spanish and deeper actionable insights through enhanced analytics dashboards designed to facilitate quick, data-driven instructional decisions. There are 18 new solutions launched as part of these enhancements, 10 of them leveraging AI to remove friction and drive learning success. About Instructure Instructure powers the delivery of education globally and reimagines the technologies that turn teaching and learning into opportunities. Today, the Instructure ecosystem of products connects the dots for educators and institutions by improving educational experiences at every age, every stage and every transitional moment—across K-12, higher education and the workforce. We encourage you to discover more at
