The Future Is Now:Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT)

Harvard IT Summit | June 5, 2104

Agenda

1. TLT Program Overview

2. Update on Canvas Migration

3. Case Study: Canvas Site

4. Open Source Developer Community

5. Case Study: LTI Tool

6. Questions and Conversation

TLT Program Overview

What’s In a Name?

Learning Management Ecosystem

Black Pearl

Teaching and Learning Technologies

Harvard IT “Big 5” Strategic Objective

hpH + sCIOC + B5 + UITP&P

Σ Hx, SIS, TLT, IAM, Sec

• Provide core teaching and learning technologies to all Schools

• Support pedagogical innovation and research on learning

• Establish strong Harvard community based on actual partnerships with faculty and with academic support professionals

• Cultivate open source community around component development that complements core technologies

• Deliver high-quality program on time, on budget, in scope

Strategic Objectives Guiding Principles Key Performance Indicators

• Communicate and socialize program across the University

• Balance need to move quickly with thoughtful planning

• Seek early and continuous faculty input from across the Schools

• Transition program to ongoing services with sustained community and sustained vision

• Embrace fluidity

• Full-time staff focus is the rule; divided time is the exception

• University migration from previous platform(s) to core technologies

• Usable data from teaching and learning activities available for research

• Meaningful engagement with faculty / teaching teams and with academic support professionals around needs

• Harvard-specific technology enhancements and applications generated by open source community

• Program delivered on time and on budget

Provide a continually evolving set of faculty-friendly, student-focused technologies that support teaching and learning across all Harvard schools, facilitate pedagogical innovation, and contribute to educational research.

The Vision

About the Program

Canvas

Canvas

Canvas and Integrations

Canvas

Course admin tools

Integrations

Extensibility

Canvas

University T&L tools

Course admin tools

Integrations

Extensibility

Canvas

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

Inter-Operability

Canvas

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

edX

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

Inter-Operability

Canvas

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

X

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

Extract Data for research

Course

Course

Course

Canvas

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

Unified User Experience

Canvas

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

Unified User Experience

SIS

IAM

Unified User Experience

Canvas

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

edX

University T&L tools

School T&L tools

Faculty T&L tools

Open source tools

3rd party tools

LTI wrapper on any

tool

Course admin tools

Integrations

Timeline

Canvas Migration

6 courses, 530 students

Initial implementation:• Integrated course data and enrollment from Harvard registrars• PIN authentication for students and teaching staff

Canvas Pilot: Fall 2013

Canvas Pilot: Spring 2014

48 courses, 3k students

Additional development:• Integrated reserve reading lists and lecture video display• Added course shopping capability• Upgraded web conferencing features

Canvas Pilot: Evaluation

Activities:

• Surveys

• UserVoice

• Support tickets

• User analytics

Available on http://tlt.harvard.edu:

• Fall report

• Spring mid-term progress report

• Coming soon: Spring final report

Spring Pilot: Early Evaluation Results

About half of the students and three-fourths of the faculty found the interface confusing at first.

A majority of both teaching staff and students agreed that with sufficient introduction the platform works well for students.

81% of students rated the functionality good, very good, or excellent.

Migration Progress

We are here!

Program / School Migration Partnership

Area Program School

License agreement • Negotiate terms of University-wide license agreement, including additional University-wide LTI tool license costs (e.g. Big Blue Button)

• Negotiate terms of School-level LTI tool license agreements

Investment • Shoulder cost of University-wide agreements • Shoulder cost of School-level agreements• Shoulder cost of potential additional resources (e.g. , teaching fellows)

Outreach • Partner with Schools on outreach and buy-in with faculty, school leadership, IT staff, and other key stakeholders

• Partner with Program on outreach and buy-in with faculty, school leadership, IT staff, and other key stakeholders

Migration • Consult with Schools on School-level migration timeline and plan• Provide tool for migrating files from course iSites to Canvas

• With consultation from Program, determine migration timeline and plan• Migrate content from course iSites to Canvas

Custom integration • Add PIN authentication and integration with Harvard systems• Coordinate with vendors for third-party University-wide LTI integration• Build LTI tools and integrations to support university-wide needs• Consult on development of LTI tools for School-specific needs

• With consultation from Program, develop LTI tools for School-specific needs

Training • Provide technical training for School instructional support staff• Provide resources and materials for use in School-level training

• Consult with faculty and support staff on best practices around Canvas use• Conduct School-level training• Share training materials with Program for University-wide use

Support • Provide tier 3 support and escalation of issues and feature requests to Instructure

• Provide high-caliber, responsive tier 1 and 2 support, including thorough investigation and troubleshooting of support requests, exploration of Canvas feature forums, and review of public Canvas status monitors

• Follow established procedures for escalating requests and for reporting critical bugs or downtimes

• Communicate to Program detailed information about end-user feedback with respect to Canvas features, functionality, and usability

Feature enhancements

• Partner with Instructure to cultivate open source community around platform code enhancements

• Participate in Canvas community forums to help set priority for feature requests

Program evaluation • Conduct ongoing program evaluation • Participate in ongoing program evaluation

Documentation and Training

Self-paced training courses in Canvas

Workshop materials to support local training sessions

Canvas office hours

School Support

• Academic technologists

• CIOs

• Faculty assistants

• Faculty champions

• Help desk staff

• IT staff

• Librarians

• Registrars

• Software developers

• Teaching staff

• Video producers

Case Study: Canvas Site

Case Study: Calculus Practitioner Series

Courses– Fall 2013, Math 1a– Spring 2014, Math Mb

Challenge

Finding the right platform to deliver learning multimedia modules developed as part of a HILT grant-funded course innovation

Solution

Canvas provided required features and seamless integration

Impact– Overall successful student learning (student-reported)– Overall positive student user experience (student-reported)– More multimedia modules being developed and delivered in upcoming semesters

Check it out

Developer Community

Join Us!

Who

• Developers within Harvard

• Developers beyond Harvard

What

• Contribute code back into Canvas

• Develop and share custom LTI components

Why

• Share code, environments, knowledge, ideas

• Build skills and community

How

• Reach out: http://tlt.harvard.edu/contact-us

• Join our LTI hackathon in July

Case Study: LTI Component

Case Study: Student Location Tool

Course

CSCI E-12: Fundamentals of Website Development

Challenge

Finding a way for students, especially students joining at a distance, to feel more connected with campus, classmates, and teaching team

Solution

Build an LTI component that displays on a map where classmates and teaching staff are located based on self-identified contact and location information

Impact

Students and teaching staff can learn more about classmates and create informal in-person meet-ups

Check it out

Map of student lcoations

Wrapping Up

So Far

Completed planning phase

Secured program funding

Signed license agreement with Instructure

Developing integrations and course administration tools with Canvas

Beginning to engage with teaching and learning community partners

What’s Next

Hire term positions: software engineer, devops, test engineer, PM, BA, UX

Lay the groundwork for open source developer community

Develop teaching and learning components

Develop capacity and guidelines to extract data for research

Roll out Canvas across the schools

Visit our Website

http://tlt.harvard.edu

Thank you!