Instructure, the company behind Canvas Career LMS, has published new research highlighting a measurement gap in corporate learning and development: employers expect training to improve performance, productivity and workforce skills, but many struggle to demonstrate those results with data. Based on a survey of 1,166 U.S. professionals, the report examines barriers to measuring learning effectiveness and outlines how skills analytics and connected HR systems could help organizations make more evidence-based workforce decisions.

Instructure Report Examines Workforce Learning’s Outcomes Gap

Corporate learning programs are expected to do more than deliver courses. Employers increasingly want training to improve employee performance, close skills gaps and prepare teams for changing business needs. Yet measuring whether those investments produce tangible results remains a challenge, according to new research commissioned by Instructure.

The company, which develops the Canvas learning ecosystem and Canvas Career LMS, released a report titled Learning Programs Have an Outcomes Problem: Research Shows the Proof Is in the Skills. Developed with HR Dive’s studio by Informa TechTarget, the report draws on survey responses from 1,166 U.S. professionals across human resources, learning and development, technology, senior leadership and related roles.

The findings reveal a gap between expectations for workplace learning and organizations’ reported ability to demonstrate its impact. While most respondents expect learning initiatives to improve business and workforce outcomes, a smaller proportion say their organizations can communicate those outcomes using data.

Expectations exceed measurement capabilities

According to the report, 71% of respondents expect learning programs to improve on-the-job performance to a great or very great extent. Another 70% expect improvements in productivity or operational efficiency, while 69% anticipate stronger role readiness or skills mastery.

However, only 53% said their organizations could communicate learning-program impact using data to a great or very great extent. Meanwhile, 21% reported little to no ability to communicate that impact through data.

The difference matters for organizations deciding where to allocate training budgets. Course completion rates can show whether employees finished a program, but they do not necessarily establish whether participants acquired relevant skills, applied them at work or improved business performance.

For HR and learning leaders, the challenge is connecting learning activity to evidence that can support decisions about workforce development, internal mobility and future training needs.

Fragmented data complicates learning analytics

The report also identifies limitations in organizations’ ability to demonstrate credible learning outcomes. Twenty percent of respondents reported little to no credible evidence of program impact.

Respondents cited several barriers, including limited workforce data, reporting limitations, siloed systems and staffing constraints. Each of the seven barriers measured was identified by 42% to 46% of respondents as a limitation to a great or very great extent.

These findings suggest that the problem is not necessarily a lack of learning activity. Instead, organizations may lack the data infrastructure, analytical capacity or connected systems needed to understand what happens after training.

Learning management systems, human resources information systems and customer relationship management platforms often serve different operational purposes. Connecting their data can help employers examine learning alongside employee skills, role requirements and workforce outcomes. But integration alone does not establish causation: changes in performance may also reflect management practices, staffing, incentives or broader business conditions.

The survey provides a snapshot of respondents’ reported experiences rather than independently verified measurements of learning effectiveness across all U.S. employers. Its methodology combined three survey administrations, including a SurveyMonkey panel, Qualtrics surveys distributed through Instructure contacts and a survey of attendees at the 2026 ATD International Conference.

Instructure positions skills data as a solution

Instructure argues that organizations should start with the outcomes they want to achieve and work backward to identify the data needed to measure progress. Its report recommends four areas of focus: identifying current and future workforce skills, building evidence around intended outcomes, communicating results in business terms and using insights to adjust learning programs.

Canvas Career LMS is positioned as a technology option for implementing this approach. According to Instructure, the platform provides visibility into skills and learner progress, recommends learning aligned with priority skills and connects learning data with HRIS and CRM systems.

That combination is intended to help organizations identify skills gaps, track employee development and inform workforce planning. However, the announcement does not provide independent comparative evidence that Canvas Career delivers better learning outcomes than competing platforms.

The broader technology challenge is turning skills data into information that managers can act on. A useful system needs clear definitions of skills, reliable assessments and a way to relate progress to actual job requirements. Without those elements, dashboards can measure activity without revealing whether employees are better prepared to perform their roles.

Workforce development becomes a business measurement issue

The findings reflect a growing pressure on HR and learning teams to demonstrate how training supports operational priorities. Employers facing changing job requirements need to understand which capabilities exist across their workforce, where shortages are emerging and whether learning interventions are addressing those gaps.

Skills-based workforce planning can also inform internal mobility and succession planning, helping organizations identify employees who may be prepared for different responsibilities. Yet those applications depend on data quality, consistent assessment and managers’ willingness to use the information.

For technology providers, the report highlights an opportunity to connect learning platforms with wider workforce analytics and HR systems. For employers, the immediate priority is to define meaningful outcomes before selecting metrics or investing in new tools.

Instructure’s research does not prove that a particular learning platform resolves the measurement problem. It does, however, identify a practical issue for HR leaders: learning investments are harder to evaluate when organizations cannot connect training activity to credible evidence of skill development and performance.

The next step is moving beyond completion statistics toward measurement frameworks that combine skills assessments, workplace application and business-relevant indicators. That shift could help organizations make learning more accountable, provided the measures are transparent and the conclusions are supported by reliable data.

Market Landscape

Workforce learning technology is increasingly intersecting with skills intelligence, talent management and HR analytics. Employers want learning systems to show not only who completed training, but also whether employees developed capabilities that support current roles and future business needs.

Instructure’s report highlights three challenges:

• Measurement: Completion rates alone do not demonstrate improved skills or job performance.
• Data fragmentation: Disconnected HR, learning and business systems can make outcomes difficult to track.
• Actionable insights: Skills data is most useful when it informs training investments, internal mobility and workforce planning.

Canvas Career LMS is positioned around connected learning and skills visibility. Its competitive value will depend on integration quality, assessment reliability and evidence that customers can translate data into better workforce decisions.

Top Insights

• 71% of surveyed professionals expect learning programs to improve on-the-job performance, but organizations report uneven capabilities for measuring and communicating impact.
• Only 53% said their organizations could communicate learning-program impact through data to a great or very great extent.
• Limited workforce data, reporting constraints, siloed systems and staffing shortages were among the barriers identified by respondents.
• Instructure recommends connecting skills assessments and learning data with workforce outcomes to support training decisions, internal mobility and succession planning.
• Canvas Career LMS is positioned as a platform for skills visibility and connected learning analytics, although independent comparative performance evidence was not supplied.

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