Business schools are accustomed to competition. We compete for students, faculty, rankings, resources, and recognition. But when a group of teaching and learning with technology professionals from leading business schools who use Canvas began gathering in 2012 to discuss our shared needs, something unexpected happened: we stopped acting like competitors. We became collaborators, thought partners, problem-solvers, and, over time, friends.
The Canvas Business School Advisory Council, or BSAC, brings together instructional designers, educational technologists, administrators, support professionals, and other leaders from business schools across the United States that use Canvas. In partnership with Instructure, the council provides a forum for identifying shared challenges and opportunities, exploring how Canvas and related technologies can better support business education, and informing Instructure’s priorities and product direction.
Our collaboration is sustained through regular opportunities to connect. The full council meets throughout the year, both virtually and in person. One annual gathering is hosted by a member institution, giving us the opportunity to learn about that school’s programs, facilities, technologies, and practices. We also meet in conjunction with InstructureCon, while a core group meets monthly with Instructure to guide the council’s work and maintain momentum between larger gatherings and the larger group meets at least quarterly online.
That is the formal description, and it is accurate. But it does not fully capture what BSAC has become.
Why Business Schools Need a Space of Their Own
Business schools often use Canvas in ways that reflect the distinctive nature of business education. We support undergraduate, graduate, executive education, professional development, and nondegree programs, sometimes within the same school. Our courses may enroll 20 executives or more than 1,000 undergraduates. They may rely heavily on case-based learning, simulations, team projects, peer evaluations, complex grading workflows, experiential learning, and integrations with an extensive collection of external tools.
Business schools are also frequently early adopters. Our faculty and programs want to experiment with things like emerging technologies, new forms of assessment, artificial intelligence, learning analytics, and tools that reflect rapidly changing business practices. That willingness to innovate creates exciting possibilities, but it also creates questions that our central university technology units may not encounter in quite the same way.
How are other schools managing large-scale assessments? Which tools work well with Canvas, and which introduce unexpected problems? How are institutions preparing for digital accessibility requirements? What approaches are schools taking toward generative AI? What about technologies to support hybrid learning and how to pivot when vendors change in high-profile, “white glove” programs? How do we support group assignments, simulations, attendance, peer review, executive learners, international programs, or highly customized course experiences?
Within BSAC, someone has usually wrestled with a similar question, and we support one another and offer our own experiences, perspectives, and recommendations to one another.
From Advisory Council to Community of Practice
BSAC was created in part to provide Instructure with focused feedback about the needs of business schools. That role remains important. Council members have participated in roadmap conversations, product discovery sessions, early-adopter opportunities, design reviews, and candid discussions about assessment, accessibility, data, integrations, user experience, support, and other priorities.
The partnership is most effective when it functions as a genuine two-way conversation between BSAC members and Instructure. Together, BSAC members identify shared priorities across our institutions, while Instructure representatives provide insight into the goals, possibilities, and constraints that shape Canvas development. In turn, we bring the institutional context behind those priorities, explaining how particular features and workflows affect educators and learners, why certain challenges are especially significant for business schools, and where a change could benefit multiple institutions. This ongoing exchange helps translate our collective experiences into focused, meaningful conversations with Instructure.
Over time, however, BSAC grew into far more than a feedback group. Our conversations expanded beyond Canvas to include integrated tools, institutional policies, staffing models, faculty development, assessment practices, accessibility initiatives, AI strategies, technology outage planning, and the many operational challenges that arise from the distinctive teaching and learning needs of business schools. Some of our most valuable exchanges begin with a simple question: “Is anyone else dealing with this?” More often than not, the answer is yes.
One institution may have developed a workaround. Another may have piloted a promising tool. Someone else may share a cautionary story that saves colleagues months of effort. Members compare approaches, troubleshoot problems, exchange resources, and connect colleagues with specialized expertise. We do not have to solve every challenge independently because we have access to the collective experience of the group.
The Power of Trust Among Competitors
A community like this does not thrive simply because meetings are placed on a calendar. It depends on trust. BSAC members are willing to speak honestly about what has worked, what has fallen short, and what remains unresolved. Our ongoing conversations about Canvas New Quizzes are a good example. Members have compared migration strategies, shared faculty and student experiences, identified challenges involving assessment workflows and large-enrollment courses, and discussed institutional concerns directly with Instructure. These exchanges help individual schools make better-informed decisions while giving Instructure a clearer picture of how a product functions across varied and complex learning environments. The same openness allows us to discuss a tool that did not deliver what we expected, a process that faculty resisted, an integration that caused problems, or a promising experiment that is still taking shape.
That candor is possible because the group has developed an ethos of generosity and candid sharing. Members share resources, practices, lessons learned, technical knowledge, and sometimes hard-won institutional wisdom. The underlying question is not, “How do we protect our advantage?” It is, “How can what we learned help someone else?”
The result is a rare kind of professional community. These are people we can contact when we are stuck, when we need an honest assessment, or when we simply want to know whether an idea makes sense before investing significant time and resources in it.
Those professional relationships have also become personal ones. Annual gatherings and InstructureCon meetings feel less like conventional advisory sessions and more like reunions. We celebrate one another’s successes, welcome new colleagues, navigate transitions together, and maintain friendships that reach far beyond the work that first brought us together.
Honoring the People Who Built the Foundation
BSAC exists because several early members recognized that business schools needed a dedicated space for collaboration and were willing to invest the time and energy required to create it.
One of those foundational leaders was Rob Ditto of the Wharton School, who retired at the end of June 2026. Rob brought to the council not only deep knowledge of Canvas and educational technology, but also intellectual curiosity, institutional memory, generosity, and an enduring willingness to help colleagues think through difficult problems. His questions frequently pushed conversations beyond the immediate issue and toward the larger implications for educators and learners. As Rob begins his well-earned retirement, we offer our profound gratitude for his leadership and friendship.
We are equally grateful to the other original members who helped establish the council’s collaborative culture. They created more than an advisory body. They modeled how professionals from competing institutions can become trusted partners when they recognize that improving education is not a zero-sum endeavor. The strongest tribute we can offer them is to continue building the kind of community they envisioned: curious, candid, generous, practical, and grounded in a shared commitment to learners and the greater good.
What We Have Learned About Sustaining Community
Our experience suggests several principles that may help other educators build cross-institutional communities of practice:
Begin with real, shared problems
Communities gain momentum when members can bring questions that matter to their daily work. Broad networking has value, but a specific challenge often creates the most meaningful collaboration.
Make room for both structure and spontaneity
Quarterly meetings, working groups, school updates, and focused discussions provide continuity. Open forums and informal conversations (often via Slack) create space for the unexpected question that may prove most valuable.
Include the people closest to the work
Different topics require different expertise. A productive community may need instructional designers, developers, technologists, accessibility specialists, support professionals, administrators, and others who understand how policies and platforms affect actual users.
Create something members can take home
A conversation becomes more useful when it produces a resource, comparison, recommended practice, shared repository, or set of questions that members can adapt at their institutions.
Invest in relationships, not only agendas
The work becomes stronger when people know and trust one another. Meals, informal conversations, humor, and personal connections are not distractions from the community’s purpose. They help make candid collaboration possible.
Give partners honest and actionable feedback
An advisory relationship should include appreciation for progress as well as clarity about unmet needs. Effective feedback explains the situation, the pain point, and its impact on educators and learners.
The Community Is the Real Innovation
Canvas brought us together, and our partnership with Instructure continues to provide meaningful opportunities to influence, learn, and improve. We are deeply grateful to the Instructure colleagues who have listened to our concerns, invited us into product conversations, connected us with experts, and helped sustain this community, but perhaps the most important outcome of BSAC cannot be found on a product roadmap…It is the realization that none of our institutions has to navigate the future of business education alone.
The challenges ahead are significant. Artificial intelligence is changing teaching, learning, and work. Accessibility expectations require institution-wide change. Assessment practices are evolving. Educators are being asked to accomplish more while navigating increasingly complex (and constrained) technology ecosystems. BSAC gives us a place to face those challenges together.
We may represent competing business schools, but inside this community, we are colleagues first. We share what we know. We ask for help when we need it. We learn from one another’s experiments and mistakes. We advocate collectively for the educators and students we serve. And somewhere along the way, a council became a community, and a community became a circle of friends.
That may be BSAC’s most meaningful accomplishment of all.
BSAC began with colleagues willing to ask honest questions, share what they were learning, and help one another solve problems. More than a decade later, that spirit continues to shape our community. If you work at a business school that uses Canvas and would like to learn more or explore ways to participate, please complete the BSAC Interest Form. Together, we can navigate the changing landscape of business education and learn from the questions, experiences, and solutions each institution brings.
