Even without a pandemic, Instructure faced a transformative 2020. The learning management system provider—best known for its Canvas product popular among colleges—is officially under private equity ownership.
One of the benefits of this change is a focus on long-term planning over displays of quarterly growth to impress shareholders, says Mitch Benson, the company’s chief product officer.
For example, despite increased activity on the platform—concurrent users on the Canvas LMS were up 60 percent from typical use patterns and video submissions are up tenfold from typical use patterns pre-Covid-19—the costs of moving more data and training more educators will keep the company from a short-term windfall, Benson says. That information might have scared stockholders months ago. But it’s OK by Instructure and its new owner, Thoma Bravo.
“To meet the expectation of demands is priority,” Benson says. “I guarantee that will come at an opportunity cost.”