The Three Questions That Stayed With Us After D2L Fusion

D2L Fusion wrapped in Phoenix earlier this month, and our CEO, Brandon Smith, spent the week doing what he does best: showing up on the floor, listening to educators, and bringing ideas about the future of assessment back to the team.

Brandon recorded a short recap video at the end of each day. But what stuck with him most happened during D2L’s product keynote, when Chief Product Officer Christian Pantel challenged the room with three questions he couldn’t stop thinking about. So he worked through what each one means for how he leads Integrity Advocate.

Here’s that video:

The Three Questions

• How do we embrace technology responsibly?
• How do we safeguard learner data?
• How do we earn and maintain our stakeholders’ trust?

Embrace Technology Responsibly

The first question isn’t really about AI. It’s about responsibility. Are we solving a real problem, or adding technology simply because we can? AI is already changing education, and it has tremendous potential to help educators and institutions make better decisions. But it shouldn’t replace human judgment when those decisions have meaningful consequences.

That’s one of the reasons we’ve doubled down on Verified by Human Review™. AI can identify patterns and surface potential concerns, but people provide the context, judgment, and accountability that technology alone can’t.

Safeguard Learner Data

This was probably the easiest question for Brandon to answer, because privacy is foundational to why Integrity Advocate exists. It isn’t something you add after a product is built; it shapes how the product gets built from the beginning. That means carefully considering what information is collected, why it’s needed, how it’s protected, and how long it’s retained. It also means continuing to evaluate those decisions as expectations and regulations evolve.

In practice, that shows up in specific choices: minimizing what’s captured during a proctored session in the first place, giving institutions control over retention windows rather than defaulting to “keep everything,” and building review workflows so human reviewers see only what’s relevant to a flagged concern. Integrity Advocate was built around Privacy by Design, and it remains one of our core principles.

Earn and Maintain Trust

This was the question that made Brandon think the longest. It’s easy to say trust is important. It’s much harder to earn it every day. For him, trust comes down to transparency and accountability. Sometimes that means celebrating what’s working. Sometimes it means picking up the phone when something isn’t.

One of his first experiences as CEO was joining an outage call with a customer. The team didn’t have all the answers yet, but they were honest about what had happened, what they were doing to fix it, and how they’d prevent it from happening again. That’s what earning trust looks like. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about showing up, taking ownership, and continuously improving.

---

Day by day on the ground in Phoenix

Alongside the reflection above, Brandon recorded a short recap after each day of Fusion. Here’s a quick look back at all three.

Day 1 — AI Needs People

The opening keynote reinforced something I’ve believed for a long time: AI has incredible potential, but it isn’t a replacement for educators or human expertise. Technology should support better learning experiences, not try to replace the people responsible for them.

John Baker said something that really stuck with me: that technology cannot run education. It should empower educators, not replace them. That aligns closely with how we think at Integrity Advocate. AI is an incredibly valuable tool, but it works best when paired with human judgment. Whether it’s proctoring, identity verification, or reviewing assessment outcomes, people still need to be part of the decision-making process.

Key takeaway: The future isn’t AI versus humans: it’s AI supported by humans.

Watch Brandon’s Day 1 recap here:

Day 2: Innovation Must Earn Trust

Day two shifted the conversation from what technology can do to how organizations should build and use it responsibly. One session framed the challenge around three important questions: How do we embrace innovation responsibly? How do we safeguard learner data? And how do we earn and maintain trust?

Those themes came up throughout the day in conversations about accessibility, user experience, privacy, and AI. They also made receiving D2L’s Customer Trust Award especially meaningful. The recognition reflects the work our team puts into supporting customers, building dependable partnerships, and creating technology people can trust.

The award was an honor, but it also reinforced the responsibility that comes with trust: to keep listening, keep improving, and continue putting learners and customers at the centre of how we build.

Key takeaway: Trust is not something a product claims. It is something a company earns through every interaction.

Day 3: Trust Will Be the Competitive Advantage

As Fusion wrapped up, one theme stood above everything else: organizations that succeed with AI will be the ones that balance innovation with privacy and trust.

The conversations weren’t just about online proctoring anymore. We spoke with educators about broader assessment challenges and with partners about new applications for our technology. Those discussions reinforced that the opportunity extends beyond protecting exams, it’s about helping organizations create trusted learning experiences wherever assessment happens.

The three questions introduced during the keynote stayed with me all week because they reflect the direction our industry is heading. As learning continues to evolve, technology alone won’t be enough. Success will belong to organizations that combine responsible AI, strong privacy practices, and meaningful human oversight.

Key takeaway: The future of assessment integrity will be built on innovation, privacy, and trust—not technology alone.

Brandon shares his closing thoughts from the floor here:

---

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, sat in on Brandon’s session, or caught up with the team in Phoenix. Christian’s three questions are worth sitting with, however you answer them.

Some of our favorite moments from D2L Fusion: