EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Summit

EDUCAUSE Annual Conference | Denver, CO
Times: 8:00am - 4:00pm

**Registration for the 2026 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference is required.

Beyond the Outage: Building Institutional Readiness for Instructional Continuity

Higher education institutions increasingly depend on complex digital ecosystems to support teaching and learning. Yet, recent events, including the Instructure data breach and platform disruption, have exposed a difficult reality - many institutions remain under-prepared for large scale instructional disruption. Instructional continuity is not a new challenge. Higher ed has navigated major disruptions before, most notably during the rapid transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences have surfaced both institutional strengths and systemic vulnerabilities, yet many continuity conversations remain reactive, decentralized, or narrowly focused on technology operations rather than the broader teaching and learning ecosystem.

This one day, highly interactive experience emphasizes practical institutional strategy over abstract discussion. The summit brings together key stakeholders from cross-functional roles to frame instructional continuity as a shared institutional responsibility centered around a complex problem the sector continues to face.

By moving the conversation beyond incident response towards institutional readiness, participants will examine pressing questions facing colleges and universities today:

• Where are the greatest institutional risks, dependencies, and vulnerabilities in maintaining continuity of learning during disruption?
• What responsibilities do institutions, vendor partners, faculty, and leadership each hold around ensuring continuity of learning?
• How do decisions made during disruption shape faculty workload, student access and belonging, institutional trust, and the quality of the learning experience?
• What governance structures, communication strategies, and contingency planning models are needed now?
• How can institutions move from reactive response to durable readiness for disruptions that may be technological, operational, environmental, or policy related?

Whether institutions are just beginning these conversations or refining existing continuity plans, this summit is designed to help participants begin where they are today and build momentum for sustained cross campus collaboration.

Participants will return to their institution with practical ideas, peer-informed strategies, tools to help advance instructional continuity conversations and planning efforts at their own institutions, and a stronger peer network to support ongoing instructional continuity work.

By participating in this summit, attendees will be able to:

• Explore cross-functional approaches to instructional continuity planning that strengthen institutional readiness, communication, and coordination.
• Engage with peers across functional areas to examine institutional models, decision-making frameworks, and emerging practices that support resilient teaching and learning environments.
• Identify practical strategies to strengthen readiness and support sustainable instructional continuity during disruption.
• Develop actionable next steps for advancing institutional readiness within their own campus context.