OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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Reporting period September 2017 – September 2018
The Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee guides the design, implementation and development of the Learn@OregonState ecosystem in alignment with OSU’s strategic goals as defined by the IT Instructional Governance Committee. Members serve on the Unizin Teaching and Learning Group and bring OSU’s needs and goals to the Unizin development process. The committee’s charter is to review, evaluate and prioritize proposed changes to the Learn@OregonState platform. Evaluation criteria are based on impact to learners, instructors and data, as well as potential legal, technical, FERPA and disability access issues.
The Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee works in partnership with a standing team called the Learn@OregonState Task Force. This team works directly with tools in the platform; they meet bi-weekly throughout the year to review new features, upgrades, integrations, user communication and support, vendor relationships and product management, and ongoing evaluation and assessment of current and new learning tools.
In spring term Academic Technology led an evaluation of OSU’s needs for a classroom response system; Turning Technologies had been the centrally-supported product since 2011. Based on a combination of Top Hat adoption by OSU faculty, surveys of students and faculty, faculty focus groups, and support tickets, Academic Technology recommended switching to Top Hat as the centrally supported classroom response system in time for fall 2018. This move brought a major shift from requiring separate clicker device (Turning) to a service in which students use their personal devices (laptops; tablets; phone). Academic Technology also arranged a subsidy of the license for the first year of our contract, which reduced the cost of a 5-year license by 39% (in comparison to Turning). Integration with Canvas and single sign-on were completed in mid-September. Top Hat and the Academic Technology classroom response team worked with individual faculty to provide training and to help them prepare for fall term.
A small team of faculty, University Information and Technology, and Extended Campus personnel conducted an exploration of the Barnes and Noble Education learning analytics tool, LoudSight. This exploration involved five faculty members with five courses, plus 86 Ecampus courses and three Ecampus success counselors. Technical implementation began in winter 2018; the exploration ran during spring term. The exploration team observed dashboards and the types of data available as a means of learning more about the tool and learning analytics in general. A major element of this work entailed the vendor developing a model and tool that predict student success at an individual course level. Potential next steps for a further, potentially expanded, exploration of LoudSight are under review.
In early 2017 the OSU Canvas team began experimenting with ways to make it easier for instructors to manage cross-listed and combined course sites. It took a few months to design and develop changes to the Banner integration so that sections coming from Banner enrolled students and instructors in corresponding Canvas sections. The Canvas team performed extensive testing during the summer of 2018, and implemented the changes in time for fall classes. The new integration has made it possible for instructors to leverage native Canvas tools for section-specific assignments, grades and communications, and also provides section-specific access for graduate teaching assistants. This was a technically complex effort, and required programmatic changes to ancillary tools and services. The Canvas team provided training, webinars and brief videos to assist instructors with the changes; resources are available on the Learn@OregonState Web site.
On April 30, the Bridge learning management system went live to deliver mandatory training to approximately 8,500 OSU employees. Academic Technology is managing Bridge (an Instructure product) as part of the Learn@OregonState suite of services. More information on the critical training and Bridge is available on HR’s Web site. Bridge will be available for a wider array of training in 2019.
In April the Learning Platform Services team welcomed David Rios to serve as the application administrator for Bridge and provide backup support for Canvas. David’s programming skills made it possible for us to finalize the development and delivery of Sections and related tools.
The Solutions Architecture task force and the Learn@OregonState advisory committee have reviewed and approved the following tools and updates in Canvas.
Akindi is a web-based assessment system that automates the creation and grading of multiple choice exams. Unlike the Scantron system that relies on proprietary scanners and paper, Akindi allows instructors to use any scanner and any sheet of paper. It also provides assessment and student performance analytics. Purchased and used by College of Business. Implemented March 2018.
Gradescope offers online grading for paper-based exams; instructors can grade efficiently and consistently, with meaningful feedback. It also allows instructors to create bubble sheet exams. Approved in September 2018; Canvas integration completed in October.
Since Canvas was implemented at OSU we did not had a way to manage accounts or access for “non-ONID” users. The Canvas team leveraged a way for users to create “just-in-time” accounts using social media credentials; OSU staff can enroll these users in Studio sites and invite them to collaborate on projects, deliver training materials, etc. Implemented December 2017.
Canvas does not provide a way to programmatically locate and download course syllabus documents from course sites. Given that, the Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee approved a new “syllabus wrangler” role, which grants an individual read-only access to a courses within a specific College (based on the Canvas account structure). “Syllabus wrangler” is a descriptive name; it is not visible to Canvas users – only to the system administrator. Implemented February 2018.
Instructure developed a way to enable Turnitin originality checks on Canvas file upload assignments. Instructors can use all of the Canvas File Upload features in the assignment, including rubrics, group assignments, and peer review. Instructors can view Turnitin scores and reports from the Canvas gradebook or from SpeedGrader. Students can view their reports and assignment scores from their Grades page in Canvas. Implemented June 2018.
Through our partnership in the Unizin consortium, OSU received a competitive licensing rate for a tool called NameCoach, which allows users to record their names so that faculty (and potentially other students) can hear correct pronunciation. It was integrated with Canvas in time for Winter term 2018. Gender pronouns, which allow users to enter their preferred pronouns in individual course sites, were enabled in Fall term.
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Lynn Greenough (chair) | Academic Technology |
| Alex Axelsson | Disability Access Services |
| Mike Bailey | Computer Science and Faculty Senate |
| Tasha Biesinger | Academic Technology |
| Raffaele de Amicis | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty |
| Jon Dorbolo | Technology Across the Curriculum |
| Dianna Fisher | Open Oregon State |
| Lindy Foster | Enterprise Computing Services |
| David Goodrum | Academic Technology |
| Julie Greenwood | Undergraduate Studies |
| Jacob Jones / Mike Jefferis | Associate Registrar |
| Cub Kahn | Center for Teaching and Learning |
| Brian Lindsley | Extended Campus Research Analyst |
| Tamara Mitchell | College of Science |
| Jane Nichols | Libraries |
| Robin Pappas | Information Services |
| Malgorzata Peszynska | Faculty Senate Computing Resources Committee |
| Tabitha Pitzer | Associated Students of Oregon State University |
| Rene Reitsma | College of Business Faculty |
| Shannon Riggs/Karen Watte | Ecampus – Course Development and Training |
| Derek Whiteside | Information and Technology – Web and Mobile Services |
| Kara Witzke | OSU-Cascades |
The Solutions Architecture task force reviews and approves the majority of proposed updates to Canvas. The following table illustrates the criteria that generally determine whether a request falls within the purview of the task force, or whether it should be reviewed by the larger advisory committee:
| Criteria for Task Force decision (i.e., authority to act on request, and report results to Learn@OS Advisory Committee) | Criteria for escalating to Learn@OS Advisory Committee for review and disposition |
|---|---|
| Canvas feature (developed by Instructure) that is Optional (either for a defined time or on-going) | Tool/feature not intended for all Learn@OS users |
| OSU has existing contract with 3rd party provider | Requires review of academic or other policies |
| No contractual or functional impact if used/accessed by non-ONID users | OSU development resources needed (beyond LMS admin capacity) |
| Publisher with LTI integration | License or resources supplied by department outside of Information Services |
| Technical requirements won’t exceed capacity of LMS admins’ routine work | Significant impact to Learn@OS users (training, functionality, technical support. . . ) |
| Product manager identified (if 3rd party system) |
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