From Adoption to Action:
What the 2026 Time for
Class Report Reveals
About Higher Ed
The Question Has Changed
Higher education spent the last few years asking whether AI belonged in the classroom. That debate has given way to something more pressing. The harder question, and the one this year’s Time for Class data is forcing into the open, is what happens now that it’s here. Institutions are building policies faster than ever, but most don’t yet believe those policies are working. Faculty are using AI daily, but only those who’ve crossed that threshold are seeing real relief. Students are moving forward with or without guidance.
The 2026 Time for Class report, produced by Tyton Partners in collaboration with D2L, draws on surveys of more than 300 administrators and 1,500 instructors across more than 250 unique institutions. Now in its fourth year of tracking, it doesn’t just describe where higher education stands. It shows which direction things are moving, and how fast.
What this year’s data reveals is a tension that runs through almost every finding: institutions are working hard to respond to AI, but many are responding to symptoms rather than root causes.
This site is organized around what the 2026 data is asking institutions to do, not just what it’s describing, which is why it’s organized around the action the data is asking institutions to consider.