Members

Attendees: Mike Bailey; David Goodrum; John Dorbolo; Nargas Oskui; Anne-Marie Deitering; Rebecca Mathern; Robin Pappas; Cub Kahn; Julie Greenwood; John Robertson; Lindy Foster; Tasha Biesinger; Raven Chakerian; Bill Loges; Lynn Greenough

Minutes/Notes

Introduce Dr. David Goodrum, new director of Academic Technology

  • Started at OSU on Dec. 7
  • 25 years at Indiana University, most recently as Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies

Review technical evaluation results of Unizin Snapshot (Canvas course analytics tool)

  • The Canvas team installed Snapshot on a handful of courses in Test Canvas; no errors or broken functionality
  • Other evaluation criteria look good (contract; FERPA; data security)
  • Unlike commercial products, it’s important to note that Unizin tools are released in a beta or formative state so that consortium members may review them and provide feedback both to Unizin and to other consortium members. Based on feedback, the tools will be developed and adapted to meet our needs. Unique opportunity for us to be involved early on in product development.
  • Committee discussion points about what they saw of Snapshot:
    • The text/indicator “student is at risk of failure” is very misleading, and needs to be changed. Snapshot uses standard deviations from the mean to populate the dashboard, which may not mean that a student is anywhere near failure
    • Q: Will students see Snapshot?
      A: No, not during beta/pilot investigations. Only at the point that it can be valid and useful for students.
    • Need a way to email students, based on filter results
    • Q: What does “Engagement” measure?
      A: Discussion board activity, at this point. There’s a rich discussion of what Engagement is and how it can be measured on the Unizin forums
    • It would be good to have a way to guide students on steps they can take to improve performance. Could be based on recommendation logic similar to Amazon/Netflix: ‘students like you were able to improved their scores by doing XYZ . . . ‘
    • Q: Are the dashboard scores thrown off by weighting of Canvas assignments/groups?
      A: No, because they are based on standard deviations
    • Recommend developing models of use for instructors, once the tool is ready to be rolled out campus wide
    • Q: How effective is Snapshot if instructors make minimal use of Canvas?
      A: Not very. That is an on-going challenge that Academic Technology is working to address
    • Canvas grades and grade calculations are very challenging for large enrollment STEM courses (this is a well-known issue)
    • Q: Can other institutions see OSU’s Canvas data in the Unizin data warehouse (the data source for Snapshot)?
      A: No. At a later time, the consortium will look into aggregating anonymized data for research purposes. We are not there yet.
    • Recommend doing a demo of Snapshot for Div. of Undergrad Studies’ Faculty Advisory Group (see action items)
    • Q: Could this tool be used to help track status of students with Incompletes, including goal deadlines and reminders?
  • Committee approved moving ahead with releasing Snapshot for evaluation in Production Canvas course sites
  • Next steps for Snapshot: review with selected faculty during winter term, and set up pilots for spring term (Robin Pappas and Lynn Greenough)

Overview of current requests for student progress/early warning reports

As a result of University Innovation Alliance Grant, OSU’s Division of Undergraduate Studies has developed an early-warning report that can be used for pro-active advising efforts. This is a pilot programmed designed for a specified group of students who may benefit from targeted support.

  • OSU Athletics has asked for an update to an early warning report developed for CORE so that advisors can reach out proactively to students during the first half of the term (Grades First requires manual updates by instructors)
  • Important to align and consolidate similar efforts where it makes sense, to maximize impact and make the best use of resources (e.g., IT programmers)
  • Mid-term grades now may be entered in Online Services – essentially using the same functionality used to collected ‘preliminary’ grades during spring term. Registrar’s office is not heavily promoting or advocating mid-term grade entry at this time; when the university has an approach/methodology for measuring progress, they will align with that effort

Overview of upcoming Canvas tools and potential integrations

Mastery paths

Canvas tool that allows instructors to conditionally release content and activities is now enabled in Production Canvas (instructors must enable as feature option). Ecampus and Academic Technology will work with tool, create documentation relevant to our instructors, and identify models of use

UDOIT accessibility tool

This open-source tool checks Canvas course sites for potential accessibility issues (missing alt text; poor color contrast) and makes it quick and efficient for instructors to make updates as they choose.

  • Committee recommended working with DAS, the Social Justice Learning & Engagement team, Disability Network, Advisor group (e.g., coffee talks, town halls), Angela Batista, and consider offering a demo at Center for Teaching and Learning winter symposium (Jan. 26).
Peerceptiv

Peer review and grading service that may be useful for large-enrollment writing intensive courses. We didn’t have time to discuss, but the question for the committee is how we can get faculty input/feedback on potential tools to see if there is interest or need. We will bring this up in a future advisory committee meeting

  • Q: Who will answer questions as they come up with the tools, particularly UDOIT? E.g., larger questions of accessibility, access, related teaching and learning strategies, etc. How might we collect, re-direct and follow up on these queries?
    A: committee did not have a definitive answer.

Questions about impact of instructor use of Canvas on student learning and success

Lynn working on getting Canvas usage statistics and improved reports

Walk-on agenda items

none

Action items

  • Arrange demo of Snapshot for Faculty Advisory group. Assigned to: Lynn Greenough
  • Connect with DAS, Jane Waite, Stephanie Jenkins and Angela Batista on UDOIT accessibility tool. Assigned to: Lynn Greenough