Canvas User Group at the University of Birmingham
Following the procurement of a solution to deliver an end to end Short Courses Platform for all non-credit short courses using Instructure (Canvas) and Drieam (Eduframe), we were delighted to attend our first Canvas User group at the University of Birmingham. Whilst we are in the first phases of implementing the learning environment of the solution, this provided an excellent opportunity to find out how other institutions are using the platform and the functionality it provides. As users of the service, it was also an important opportunity to discuss what matters to us with the vendor and make them aware of developments we, as users would like to see in the future.
Two stand outs for me were the platform updates and the session on accessibility.
Platform updates
It was great to find out the phased releases for the coming year, I think the course search functionality is a fantastic addition. For learners it provides a simple native tool to find something you have read about rather than scouring weekly content and wracking your brain to remember where you read something. As content creators, a useful way to search for a reference in a course that might be outdated, think references to recent elections, changes in political parties, global pandemics tipping everything on their head, just instances when I wished there had been a simple search function.
Alongside the plethora of updates on the menu for the coming year, it made me stop and think, change for change sake isn’t always a good thing and as users of a platform and for the University of Edinburgh, as we rollout Canvas, I can see a benefit to a measured and evidence based approach for taking our time with ‘new features’. No need to charge in like a raging bull!
We are getting to grips with a new platform and building our courses in an open manner, embedding open educational resources and open access materials into the courses. It makes sense to take stock, interrogate what users want to do and then take our time to trial and test the features. Key to this is knowing our users and them trusting our experience and advice. I would like to hope this is something we are doing with our Early Adopter programme and continue to do.
Accessibility
Accessibility is something we place a great amount of time and energy into, and rightly so. Accessibility, shouldn’t be as some in my group felt perceived ‘as not their responsibility’ or ‘a tick box exercise for compliance’, but something everyone should take ownership of and strive to continually improve.
As a team we have put a lot of work into providing guidance and advice on creating accessible content. It features heavily in our training and is something we pride ourselves on. In a recent learner focus group we had feedback that the course the learner was on was ‘top notch for accessibility’. This gave me a cheesy warm glow feeling, but that is one instance and it is our duty to continue to share our knowledge and train platform users and content creators that everything they create should be done with accessibility in mind as it everyone’s responsibility.
The phased implementation of the Short Courses platform will allow us to understand more use cases across the University and understand where we can and should implement some of the changes coming our way over the rest of the year. As the learning environment will be used to host non-credit courses, not all the functionality will be applicable for us but it will be great to see what we can use to ensure our learners have the best possible experience.
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