Page 6 - OIT 2015 Progress Report
P. 6
SUPPORTING LEARNING
TO SUPPORT THE UNIVERSITY’S GOAL TO IMPROVE TEACHING AND LEARNING, OIT HAS DILIGENTLY WORKED TO INCREASE OUR BREADTH OF SERVICES, STRENGTHEN ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS, AND UPGRADE CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY.
CANVAS
In the world of modern education, online courses are a vital component of the university experience. SMU has provided such courses for many years. OIT in collaboration with the Provost and the University faculty continuously investigate ways to optimize the use of online courseware.
As a result of this research and investigation, the University decided to adopt the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) to replace the existing Blackboard LMS. The evaluation phase began last spring with the Cox School of Business as the primary adopters along with several other faculty joining for the summer term. During the fall semester, faculty members in Meadows joined the early adopter list. All faculty are encouraged to migrate to Canvas for the spring semester as Blackboard will be decommissioned in June of 2016.
Working alongside the Center for Teaching Excellence, EvaluationKit was purchased to replace the existing online course evaluation tool. EvaluationKit delivers Online Course Evaluations through Blackboard and Canvas. Unlike the previous solution, reports can be delivered to faculty quickly, providing valuable feedback for enhancing their instruction. This solution will be used for all centrally managed course evaluations during the spring semester.
LYNDACAMPUS
The University secured a lyndaCampus license allowing faculty, staff and students access to thousands of online courses covering a wide range of applications. Faculty can group specific courses in a playlist and deliver that playlist to students via Canvas. Students can benefit from a wide range of tutorials covering life skills, interview skills, in addition to specific software applications. Staff can also utilize lyndaCampus for professional development and “just-in-time” training. The wide variety of courses can be completed at the learner’s own pace. IT continues to partner with areas on campus to leverage this incredible resource to support student learning as well as employee job skills.
6