The First Higher Ed Edition
SALT LAKE CITY — Instructure, the maker of Canvas LMS, has released the first higher education edition of its EdTech Top 40 research, based on de-identified Canvas LTI launch data from 19.5 million U.S. higher education users between September 2025 and April 2026 — an unusually data-grounded picture of which digital tools are actually used in American higher education.
The Headline Finding: No Dedicated AI Tool in the Top 100
Despite intense attention on AI in education, no dedicated AI tool ranks among the 100 most used. The most widely adopted — Google Gemini — reached nearly 88,000 users across 211 institutions, still outside the Top 100. Because the analysis measures LTI integrations, it captures tools formally built into the learning environment, not consumer AI that students and faculty use on their own. Separate Instructure research found that only 11% of higher education instructors have received comprehensive AI training.
“Formal AI adoption requires a higher bar than individual pilots or experimentation,” said Mary Styers, director of evidence and learning strategy at Instructure. “Institutions weigh accessibility, data privacy, interoperability and existing research before a tool becomes part of the learning environment.”
What Actually Dominates the Stack
- Content: 27.5% of the Top 40 — all ten leading tools are commercial publishers and distributors.
- Collaboration and video: 25% — Zoom leads with more than 9 million users, followed by Kaltura (8.59 million) and Panopto (8.33 million).
- Student information systems and administration: 15%. Institutions averaged 28 LTI integrations, versus four per instructor and five per student.
“Higher education leaders need to look at the learning environment as a whole and ask how each tool fits into the experience they're creating,” said Melissa Loble, chief learning officer at Instructure.
A Different Mix Than K-12
Compared with the K-12 Top 40, two contrasts stand out: personalized learning accounts for 27.5% in K-12 but just 2.5% in higher education, while SIS and administrative tools run the other way (2.5% versus 15%). Collaboration and video — a quarter of the higher education list — don't appear as a category in K-12 at all.
The Procurement Bar
For vendors, the numbers are unambiguous: 90% of Top 40 tools have a public VPAT, 75% reference SOC 2 compliance and 58% reference HECVAT. But only 43% have evidence beyond customer case studies. One institutional technology leader put it plainly at InstructureCon's Partner Summit: a vetted VPAT is “a non-negotiable” and data security agreements are “table stakes” before any conversation can begin. AI tools aiming for institutional scale will need to clear the same gates — with documentation, interoperability and demonstrated effect.