Going through the process of the analyst report for Canvas was educational but did come with some challenges. I learned a lot about researching Canvas from an investors perspective as opposed to a user. I tried to look at it from the point of view that I was trying to have investors continue to want to put money and interest into Canvas by Instructure. For me this meant looking at the market, future growth and investment in LMS as well as some of the financials. I was less concerned at features of Canvas and what it could do unless that meant it would be different and stand out against competitors in the same market.
The financials had me a bit confused, how could a company have larger revenues but still be recording a loss, that must be bad. Turns out maybe it is not, this could be mean they have a lot of costs associated to them and that could look like operating costs but it could be things like investments and things that are actually going to benefit the product overall. I was a bit concerned that Canvas was showing loss but from my research the fact that they are continuing to grow and reducing the lost by over 30% could suggest they have made some cost saving adjustments but are continuing to focus on the upgrades to their product and continued market expansion.
The one thing that struck me as a potential strength was not only the impressive list of names that are using Canvas but the fact they have not had a major partner stop or switch LMS systems in more than 8 years. For me, evidence of partner retention is a great indicator of the quality and satisfaction Canvas is providing.
Overall, this was an assignment that provided me with new learnings and another way to continually analyze and assess educational technology.