Case Study: Canvas LMS Administration and Instructional Design Consultation

Broward County Public Schools, 2022 - 2026

The Challenge

Supporting a Canvas LMS environment serving more than 200,000 users across one of the largest school districts in the nation requires both technical precision and instructional expertise. As a Canvas administrator for Broward County Public Schools, I was requested by name from our director by the field administrator at the time to join the Canvas administration team as his second. When he transitioned into a new role and was replaced by another colleague within our department, I was asked to continue in that capacity. Over the following three years, I developed into a trusted collaborative partner with the new field administrator, working closely together on decisions, changes, and projects to ensure we remained aligned on platform direction and strategy.

The Approach

As one of Broward County's Canvas administrators, I was part of the team responsible for maintaining a seamless digital learning environment for more than 200,000 users across 240 schools. My contributions spanned instructional quality assurance, district-wide communication, course design consultation, and technical troubleshooting and support.

The platform supported a wide variety of account types beyond district staff and students, including parent observer accounts, student teacher and intern accounts, and provisioned access for outside vendors, charter school employees, and private school employees who were taking district professional development offerings. 

I authored and published district-wide Global Announcements communicating instructional technology updates and providing resources to staff across all 240 schools. I also led quality assurance for Canvas-based learning experiences within our department, and became the point of contact when other departments sought guidance on course design, learning layout, interactive options, and workflow improvement.

When one of the cabinet-level leaders requested assistance from our director helping one of their facilitators build an asynchronous Canvas course from scratch, our Broward County Canvas administration team led the engagement. The facilitator had very little prior experience building in Canvas. The district's move toward asynchronous learning meant his department needed to transition entirely away from live and in-person formats. Working within a tight launch window, I facilitated six structured sessions over six weeks, guiding him through course architecture, design decisions, and interactive options while providing action items between sessions to keep development moving. The course launched on schedule and was designed to reach more than 500 staff members across the district. I also coached the facilitator on the importance of iterating based on participant feedback after each run, setting him up to maintain and improve the course independently going forward.

The Solution

One of the most complex issues I helped resolve occurred at the start of a school year when multiple schools reported that students were missing their current Canvas courses. After receiving several escalations from ITFs, I conducted a thorough review of the affected accounts and identified the one setting every impacted student account had in common, a configuration that existed outside of Canvas entirely and could only be adjusted at the school level.

I brought the finding to my colleague and we tested the fix by having a school adjust the setting. Within 24 hours the affected students' courses reappeared, confirming the diagnosis. We then executed a tiered communication strategy, first notifying ITFs as our tier one support, then reaching out directly to all affected schools, and finally partnering with our district IT contact to ensure the resolution was communicated across all schools district-wide.

In the 2025-2026 school year, I also supported the quality assurance and oversight of more than thirty district-wide professional learning courses built in Canvas, ensuring alignment with adult learning principles and district standards.

The Outcome

Through this work Canvas remained a reliable, high quality platform supporting curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and digital innovation across Broward County Public Schools. My contributions spanned technical troubleshooting, instructional design consultation, district-wide communication, and course quality assurance, reflecting the full breadth of what effective LMS administration requires at scale.

Being asked to continue as a Canvas administrator, and continuing to grow into a trusted collaborative partner over the years that followed, reflected the value of that contribution and the relationships built along the way.

Read more and see samples on the Canvas Admin page.