At Blindside Networks, we’ve been working with Instructure since 2012, which is when they first embedded BigBlueButton into the core of Canvas. We are the creators of BigBlueButton and are very proud of our work to provide the world the best virtual classroom.
Since then, InstructureCon has grown, Instructure the company has grown, and so have we.
While we’ve both grown organically, there were a few inflection points. When the Covid-19 global hit, the demand for learning management systems and virtual classroom platforms skyrocketed. It accelerated both our growth.
Today, the inflection point is AI and its outsized effects on education, especially for learners, and especially for potentially nullifying the real learning that occurs for take-home assignments and essays.
With all the AI, we wanted to put forward a clear message of where we think AI and analytics belong in learning.
Our InstructureCon 2025 presentation: Enhancing Virtual Classrooms with Analytics: Supporting Instructors, Not Replacing Them
My presentation drew over 100+ attendees this year, and at the start I asked a simple question.
“Does AI help learners learn?”
The possible answers were “Yes”, “No”, and “No effect”. Take a moment and think about which one you believe is the correct answer.
I believe all three are correct answers depending on when and how you use AI. For when, I gave the following learning curve.
Think for a moment the effects of using GPS for driving. In the beginning, it helped drivers save time, but they still knew the familiar routes by heart. After a while, it helped to navigate to unfamiliar places without reading a map. Now, I’ve rarely seen drivers use a map anymore.
There is a similar progression for learning. If you start with something you already know, AI can strengthen learning by figuring out the gaps, checking over your work, or making helpful suggestions for improvement. AI is the coach, and it’s helping you strengthen the knowledge you already have.
However, there is a slippery slope. Every student has had that moment where they realize “Wow, once I learn the right prompts, I can have AI do my assignments and essays.” That’s when cognitive offloading occurs, and it’s seriously negative learning, especially for younger learners.
What happens if you follow cognitive offloading? There is no more learning (that’s the third section of the graph). I believe this is analogous to using a calculator: you punch in numbers without thinking, you take the answer at face value, and you move on. Minimal effort, no changes in your brain, and no learning.
And where does this trend in cognitive offloading assignments leave education?
If the value of take-home assignments continues to dwindle (and why wouldn’t students take the easier path?), then I believe the classroom will become even more important in our education system.
I’m impressed with all that Instructure is doing with AI to optimize the LMS to support educators, and we are certainly pulling hard to optimize BigBlueButton for the virtual classroom.
What can both of these optimizations do to counteract the reduced value of assignments?
I believe it’s to create more time for enabling authentic engagement with students in the classroom, physical or virtual, which is our focus as a company.
Customer Feedback: What Is Authentic Engagement?
We all have that teacher who inspired us, who was aware of us, and who cared about us. What a difference they made, and similar human-to-human experiences that would be beneficial for all learners.
At InstructureCon, we asked everyone who came to our booth to write down their answer to a simple question.
What would be a good example of authentic engagement in a virtual classroom?
We got a *lot* of responses (over 200 in fact!).
A key theme was collaboration with and between other students.
This theme was emphasized in one instructor highlighting the pedagogical think-pair-share model, which again emphasizes human-to-human learning that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills.
Our Response: Three New BigBlueButton Capabilities
1. Quizzing
You can now easily give students low-stakes quiz questions (these questions are not dependent on the Canvas Quiz, nor affect their grade). Both for formative assessment and encouraging students to have some skin in the game before instruction. Check out this video for how quizzing works and how it extends the Learning Analytics Dashboard to give greater insight on student learning during your live class.
2. Visual Submit
Instead of using computers, have you ever asked students to pull out a pen and paper, work on a problem, and then share with you the results?
Now it’s easy with BigBlueButton. With Visual Submit, BigBlueButton shows a QR code that students can use to take a picture and submit the work directly to you. You can see their authentic effort to solve a problem and give them direct feedback.
3. Student Insight
Canvas already knows about students’ past activity in the LMS (such as when the last logged in), and Blindside Networks has a product called Enterprise Learning Analytics Dashboard (ELAD), which aggregates all of a student’s past activity in BigBlueButton at a high-level for decision makers.
With Student Insight, we can now display both data sources together, in the live class, to educators. The benefit is it reduces the cognitive load on Educators and gives them analytics for greater insight and personalized feedback to their students.
(You could look up this data manually, but that takes valuable time away from … you guessed it .. more authentic engagement).
Summary
This was, by far, our best InstructureCon yet measured in attendance to our presentation, feedback from on improving authentic engagement in the virtual class, and reception to the above three features.
Want to try out BigBlueButton in Canvas?
The good news is you already have access to BigBlueButton for free! BigBlueButton is built into the core of Canvas as BigBlueButton Essentials. It’s free for up-to 5 concurrent sessions, and recordings expire after 7 days.
Why did Instructure build BigBlueButton into the core of Canvas? There are many more reasons, which are covered in this video.
Want more information? Reach out to your Canvas Success Manager on learning more about the difference between BigBlueButton and video conferencing systems (which have none of the above capabilities and tend to foster passive learning, not active participation).
Want a personalized overview of what we showed at the conference, or a copy of my slides from the presentation, contact us for more information.
