OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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Reporting period September 2019 – September 2020
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 2019 and 2020 Web browsers began changing security settings that affect the way content from one web site displays in another web site (also known as cross-domain browser issues). In OSU’s case, this change meant that Safari and Chrome users received errors when playing a Kaltura video that was embedded in Canvas (a workaround to play the video in a separate tab was effective for some users.
In order to resolve the issue with Kaltura and other tools integrated with Canvas tools (publishers, Add TA, etc.) the Canvas team needed to implement a ‘vanity url’ that changed our Canvas link from the old URL to the new vanity URL: canvas.oregonstate.edu
After implementing the Canvas vanity URL we also needed to move Kaltura to a vanity url in order to resolve browser security issues. This was done prior to the start of fall term, and involved coordinated work on the Kaltura > Canvas integration settings as well as updating each Kaltura media url in all past-term Canvas course sites. The change was successful in resolving cross-domain browser issues between the two systems.
Academic Technology had tested the Zoom integration with Canvas in December 2019 but with the unexpected move to remote teaching, moving ahead with the integration to simplify access between these two systems became a priority for spring term. Unfortunately a number of technical factors related to the new Canvas vanity URL and to Zoom configuration settings led to a bumpy start in spring term for faculty and students. Several faculty support units from across OSU jumped in to resolve service requests and offer a variety of help sessions and training materials throughout the term.
Effective fall 2019 upon recommendation from the Learn@OregonState advisory committee, combined (“C”) course sites in Canvas were no longer automatically generated. Faculty have been able to use a custom Course Merge tool in Canvas to select specific sections and merge them into a single Canvas site. There is no change to cross-listed “X” course sites; the cross-listing is configured in Banner upon request by faculty and departments.
“C” sites were problematic because:
Now that faculty can merge their own sections, the desire for auto-generated “C” sites has been significantly reduced. However, internships and a handful of other multi-campus courses relied on combined sites.
The OSU Canvas team updated our custom Course Merge tool in September to allow Ecampus sections to be merged. Prior to that, only non-Ecampus sections could be merged.
During the analysis of this change the Office of the Registrar confirmed that in order to maintain FERPA compliance course sections taught on different campuses should not be merged or cross-listed. OSU’s campuses are: Corvallis, OSU-Cascades, Ecampus, LaGrande/EOU, Newport/HMSC, and Portland.
With the move to remote learning in March a number of faculty requested a way to proctor final exams. Because of the sudden nationwide demand for remote proctoring, ProctorU and similar services that use live proctors were overwhelmed. Unrelated to the pandemic, Ecampus had planned a spring term pilot for automated Proctorio. After a careful analysis of proctoring options, OSU leveraged the Ecampus Proctorio contract so that we could expand availability to all OSU courses at no direct cost to students. Academic Technology also offered Zoom-based live proctoring as an alternative to Proctorio.
Instructure has been developing a new quizzing engine over the past few years that is intended to deliver a number of improvements over the current tool. “New Quizzes” are available now as optional in OSU course sites, but are not yet recommended for use until some key functionality is in place. Instructure is on-track to deliver most of the needed/required improvements. We anticipate using New Quizzes more widely in time for fall 2021 courses.
University Information and Technology negotiated terms for a three-year contract with Gradescope. Usage of the platform has remained strong during remote teaching. The vendor has released new features, including online assignments and integration with Respondus.
Use of the Top Hat student response system continued to grow over fall and winter term. During the summer Top Hat began developing a platform called Virtual Classroom, designed to improve remote learning for synchronous classes by offering web conferencing and communication features designed for teaching and learning.
The Colleges of Pharmacy and Education listed several continuing education and professional certification courses on Catalog. College of Business continues to have the largest presence on Catalog.
The Solutions Architecture task force and the Learn@OregonState advisory committee have reviewed and approved the following tools and updates in Canvas.
Instructure partnered with Portfolium and offers a free version of the eportfolio product, Folio, in Canvas (a full-featured version of Portfolium is available to institutions at additional cost). Canvas has a native tool called ePortolio, but its features are limited and users can’t retain access to their eportfolios after their ONID accounts are disabled. The native ePortfolio tool in Canvas was disabled at the end of fall term.
Ecampus replaced the NetTutor service with TutorMe. This integration was only enabled in Ecampus courses.
With Top Hat as the centrally supported student response system, usage of Turning Technologies ‘clickers’ dropped significantly. Academic Technology removed the integration from Canvas prior to the start of fall term.
Lumen Learning offers digital courseware based on OpenStax Educational Resources. Faculty can also adopt Lumen’s low-cost (<$40) homework and quizzing modules based on the textbook. Lumen was selected for all sections of PSY 201 and 202.
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Lynn Greenough (chair) | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Mike Bailey | Computer Science - Faculty Senate representative |
| Tasha Biesinger | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Stefanie Buck | Open Oregon State |
| Raffaele de Amicis | Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Faculty |
| Jon Dorbolo | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Lindy Foster | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Mike Jefferis | Associate Registrar |
| David Goodrum | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Cub Kahn | Center for Teaching and Learning |
| Brian Lindsley | Research Analyst - Extended Campus |
| Randy Ocampo | Disability Access Services |
| Robin Pappas | IT Innovation - UIT |
| Rene Reitsma | College of Business Faculty |
| David Rios | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Lyn Riverstone | Academic Technology - UIT |
| Karen Watte | Course Development and Training - Ecampus |
| Kara Witzke | OSU-Cascades |
| Zach Wellhouse | Libraries |
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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