2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report - Teaching and Learning Edition

The 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report - Teaching and Learning Edition was just released. I had the opportunity to serve on the “global panel of experts” that brainstormed topics and examples to shape this year’s report. The brainstorming activities were done asynchronously, and it was really interesting to see the ideas shape up and connect to examples from various institutions.

From the report’s Executive Summary:

The 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition reflects a higher education landscape shaped by intensifying pressures around value, trust, and transformation. Institutions are navigating declining enrollments and constrained resources while responding to rapid advances in artificial intelligence that are reshaping teaching and learning and the relationships at the core of the higher education experience. Growing concerns about data privacy, environmental sustainability, and regulatory landscapes are redefining institutional priorities and operations. These intersecting forces underscore a sector in transition where long-standing assumptions are being tested and new models of teaching and learning are beginning to emerge.

This year’s report captures these dynamics through an analysis of established trends and the introduction of signals of change. Using the structured STEEP framework¹, which includes social, technological, economic, environmental, and policy domains, a global panel of experts prioritized the trends most likely to influence teaching and learning at scale. These trends are paired with established examples of practice to illustrate how they are already taking shape across institutions. Building on this foundation, this year’s report introduces signals of change, or early indicators and emerging examples that surface nascent ideas and innovations at the edges of practice. Taken together, these perspectives provide both a clear view of the current landscape and a forward-looking lens on how teaching and learning may continue to evolve, helping institutions respond to current realities while also preparing for futures that are still unfolding.

Trends

To begin each Horizon Report process, we ask our panel of global experts to identify trends across the five STEEP domains¹. These are forces that are currently influencing teaching and learning in higher education at scale. They are observable across multiple institutions and contexts and have been demonstrated by sustained activity over time. The nominated trends are then voted on by the panel, and the following trends were identified as the most likely to impact the future of teaching and learning in the next 10 years:

Social Trends

• Higher education faces continued pressure to prove its value.
• AI is reshaping trust in information.
• AI is reshaping relationships between students and instructors.

Technological Trends

• AI is redefining teaching and instructional design.
• Cybersecurity and privacy threats to student and faculty data are growing.
• AI is transforming academic support and student success.

Economic Trends

• Declines in funding are straining institutional budgets and operations.
• Declining enrollments are accelerating financial strain across higher education.
• Credential ROI is redefining higher education value.

Environmental Trends

• Awareness of AI’s environmental cost is growing in higher education.
• Digital learning is becoming a sustainability strategy.
• Campuses are embedding climate literacy into learning and research.

Policy Trends

• Policy reforms are reshaping academic autonomy.
• New accessibility regulations are driving campus-wide digital accessibility compliance.
• Executive orders on immigration are creating uncertainty for international students and institutions.

This year, established examples of practice are aligned directly to the trends. These projects or initiatives provide strong evidence that these trends are already influencing higher education at scale or have immediate potential to scale. These examples of practice help us understand the trends concretely and provide a solid foundation for near-term planning and decision-making.

Now to go through the report in detail to see how the brainstorming came through…