Learn@OregonState

Reporting period February 2015 – September 2016

Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee Mission

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.

*Issues that are beyond the Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee's scope to resolve will be escalated to the IT Instructional Governance Committee.

Learn@OregonState Task Force

The Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee relies on standing and short-term tasks forces to assess needs, evaluate solutions and make recommendations for action to the Advisory Committee. From February 2015 through September 2016 the following task forces have been active:

Learning Analytics Task Force

Provides an overview of learning analytics work on campus and provides coordination, direction and recommendations on Learn@OregonState analytic pilots and long-term planning to the Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee

Content Relay and Repository Task Force

Provides an overview of OER, eText and related digital content creation and distribution work on campus and provides coordination, direction and recommendations on Learn@OregonState content relay pilots and long-term planning to the Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee.

Solutions Architecture Task Force

Develops processes and policies to ensure Learn@OregonState remains aligned and responsive to the needs and goals of the campus community. Establishes best practices in areas of system migrations, upgrades and integrations, user communication and support, vendor relationships and product management, and ongoing evaluation and assessment of current and new learning tools for review and action by the Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee.

Web Presence Task Force

Leads development of the Learn@OregonState web presence for campus including background information, tool and application information, access to the ecosystem, support pathways, feedback processes, and access to governance and planning processes for review and action by the Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee.

Summary of activities from February 2015–September 2016

Content Discovery and Contribution Early Adopter Pilot

The Content Relay task force, led by Shannon Riggs, completed an “early adopter program” for two Unizin tools – Content Discovery and Content Contribution—in January-February 2016. The purpose of the program was to conduct research that would help inform further development of the tools. Findings were collected, summarized and reported to Unizin.

Learn@OregonState Web site

Launched in Production on September 20. This Web site provides comprehensive resources on the key components of the Learn@OregonState platform: Canvas, Kaltura, Turning (clickers), Turnitin (plagiarism prevention), and textbook publishers. http://learn.oregonstate.edu/

Unizin Teaching and Learning Summit

Many of the advisory committee members (and all task force leaders) participated in Unizin’s Teaching and Learning Group summit, hosted by OSU in mid-February 2016. This was a working meeting to take stock of current activities across the consortium, and define next steps for the Faculty Communication, Learning Analytics and Solutions Architecture sub-groups.

Instructor and Student surveys

In May and June 2016 the Canvas product manager distributed two separate surveys; one to OSU instructors, faculty and GTA’s, and a second one for students. Both surveys included questions to solicit quantitative and qualitative feedback on perceived value of Canvas tools and features as well as use of and satisfaction with Canvas support options.

A summary of key findings and recommended next steps will be released in early October 2016

Criteria for Advisory Committee Approval

The Solutions Architecture task force reviews and approves the majority of proposed updates to Canvas, following evaluation criteria that were established for Blackboard in 2012. 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: