Learning Continuity Built into the LMS Withstands Cloud or Cybersecurity Interruptions

A Q&A with Instructure's Ryan Lufkin

• By Mary Grush
• 09/14/26

Joining a discussion of learning continuity we're immediately concerned with two main areas: institutional administration and communications; and pedagogy and student success.

When your institution's LMS is challenged by outside events and the normal range of administrative and communication capabilities are temporarily disrupted, what learning continuity measures does your LMS offer to ensure a "business as usual" operating environment?

And from a pedagogical perspective, learning continuity built into the LMS provides uninterrupted instruction despite potential technical problems that may occur in a crisis. It supports instructors who are prepared to adjust their teaching practices seamlessly.

Here, Instructure's vice president of global learning strategy reveals the resilience of learning platform product security and cloud performance, and considers LMS essentials for learning continuity.

 

Mary Grush: Many institutions have experienced the disruption of critical operations stemming from cloud outages, cybersecurity issues, and other digital dangers in our working and learning environments. What are colleges and universities bracing against now, and how has that changed over time?

Ryan Lufkin: When we talk about learning continuity, one of the things we forget is that only 15, even 10 years ago, there was a very different expectation around continuity. Our learning management systems were prone to going down every time we did an update, which is usually on a monthly basis. And anytime we had localized weather issues, that could be disruptive.

What changed was that about 15 years ago, Instructure launched Canvas as the first Software as a Service (SaaS) LMS. Over those 15 years or so since, we've really changed expectations. Remarkably, the 99.99 percent uptime and the level of security that we've been able to deliver over the past 15 years has really changed those basic expectations.

So, now, when people go to log into their LMS, they expect it to be there. It's both incredibly humbling and powerful, but we've still got to raise the bar — because we continue to experience disruptions, some new and novel.

We've still got to raise the bar — because we continue to experience disruptions, some new and novel.

For example, we've had, especially in areas like the Philippines or Latin America, and parts of the United States, power and Internet disrupted by extraordinary weather events. That's a major issue globally. And we are still seeing increased cyber attacks everywhere. And we've seen cloud outages that impacted not just the LMS itself, but also all of the cloud-based software. But when you put all of that in the context of the experience from 10 to 20 years ago, it looks remarkable: It's much less disruptive now than it has been. We've changed expectations, which is pretty exciting.

Grush: Related to all of that, how would you define "learning continuity"?

Lufkin: Above all it's trying to maintain the engagement between teacher and student that keeps a student on track to achieve their learning goals. What they're looking for in terms of continuity can be anything from coping with natural disasters to withstanding potential disruption of technology.

I've always looked at all this through the lens of my own children. When I started working for Instructure eight years ago, my kids were mad at me because, as they said, "We don't have snow days anymore, and now we have distance learning days… It's all your fault!"

And that really speaks to the heart of learning continuity; the fact that even if they couldn't be in a classroom in front of their educator, they could still access their course materials. They could still engage with their peers through discussions. They could still have that school experience, even if it wasn't the exact same modality.

When you look at intentionally developed hybrid or online content, the engagement with students is almost on par with traditional in-person courses. It's very nearly the same. But it takes intentionally designed course content and an awareness of learning continuity up front.

It takes intentionally designed course content and an awareness of learning continuity up front.

That means, as you know, instructional designers supporting educators, and educators having the bandwidth to create that material. And so there are challenges, and a commitment to the work to create that continuity. But the schools that invest in that see the benefits when a disruption of any kind occurs.

Grush: So would you say that Instructure emphasizes the engagement, the student-instructor engagement, if you will, over administration?

Lufkin: Yes, student-instructor engagement is the holy grail, I have to say, rather than administrative continuity.

But administrative continuity does play a part in the picture, especially given the data-driven world that we live in: capturing that underlying data so that we can optimize the student experience, the program outcomes, and the institutional outcomes. Data is forever important in all of that.

Student-instructor engagement is the holy grail, I have to say, rather than administrative continuity.

Again, over the past 15 years we've shifted the underlying expectation for continuity across the education space — in institutional administration and communications, as well as in pedagogy and student success.

Grush: Fred Rogers, of the much-loved "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" TV program that ran 1968-2001, used to tell children to "Look for the helpers." Despite some criticism of that statement that I never really understood, I think it was good advice and a way to encourage children to have confidence in the grownups who would be there to help. How can institutions create a culture of "look for the helpers" so everyone on campus knows what to do when an incident occurs?

How can institutions create a culture of "look for the helpers" so everyone on campus knows what to do when an incident occurs?

Lufkin: What we've seen, over time, is more focus on student health and the student experience. We all carry a little supercomputer in our pockets every day, everywhere we go, making help just a short reach away. We've seen some amazing impacts of that. For example, at Wayne State University, where the university put the scheduling calendar for its tutoring center directly in the right-hand nav of its Canvas instance. Because it was right there, the university saw a crazy jump in engagement with the tutoring center: The students who were in need, instead of just slamming the computer shut and walking away, were able to see that help was right there, and they could schedule a tutoring appointment and go get help directly in that moment of need.

And then we've seen a lot more similar applications, whether it's in mental health, or student success, or student retention, and more. By delivering that technology, or the course content, or the ability to reach out for help directly where you are, through the LMS, that's incredibly impactful. Again, that's the goal: to make "reaching out to the helpers," as you put it, just one click away.

And that's something that we, because of the flexibility of the Canvas learning platform, pride ourselves on: that ability to surface those different support materials directly where students are and where they're learning.

Grush: Why is the LMS the perfect platform for deploying a learning continuity strategy, and how is Instructure committed to making learning continuity an ongoing priority?

Lufkin: As we look at the student user experience, one of the things that students ask most is: What do I do next? What's coming down from an assignment pipeline? How do I make sure I'm not surprised by that? Just tell me what I need to do next so I can plan my day and make sure I accomplish the tasks that are necessary.

We're committed to building a framework that allows educators and students to navigate their day and know what they need to do next while keeping those guardrails in place around privacy, security, and accessibility… and then collecting the underlying data that the school can use to improve the experience across the board.

We're committed to building a framework that allows educators and students to navigate their day and know what they need to do next while keeping those guardrails in place around privacy, security, and accessibility.

The resilience of today's LMS is seen in its cybersecurity and cloud performance — especially on the impact for learners.

One of the most important conversations we've had with our customers globally, is, "How do we support the new expectations for learning continuity?" We are constantly pushing out new features, and constantly evolving the product. Much of that evolution, especially over the past couple of years is exactly in the realm of learning continuity.