Academic & Collaborative Technologies

Academic & Collaborative Technology (ACT) staff provide strategic and operational leadership on the innovative use of teaching technologies. In collaboration and partnership with divisions and departments across the University, the team conducts faculty/staff consultations, develops and delivers training workshops, provides instructional design support for Instructional Technology Innovation Fund (ITIF) projects, and supports Quercus users, assisting faculty, graduate students and staff in enriching the learning experience of students at U of T. For ACT metrics see Appendix B.

HIGHLIGHTS

FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF QUERCUS
With the full implementation of Quercus, the University’s academic toolbox, the ACT team developed a university-wide Train-the-Trainer collaborative support model. Working closely with divisional colleagues, training sessions were provided for educational technology specialists on the effective use of Quercus administrative tools and features. This model allows instructors and course staff to work directly with divisional support for immediate concerns and with ACT for larger implementation and support issues. Since implementation, the top support cases/ request categories received from faculty and staff in FogBugz, an email ticketing system, have changed from administrative questions, which were common for Portal Help, to queries on the use of integrated tools for teaching (e.g., Turnitin, Crowdmark, and Blackboard Collaborate Ultra), course management, and in-depth technical investigation (see Appendix B, page 23,Table 1). Student cases are mainly related to Content/Grade Access (see Appendix B, page 23, Table 2).The ACT Support team created the Quercus Support Resources course site, working with educational technology colleagues across the University and the vendor to produce resources specific to U of T and Quercus’ needs. In addition, the team published the Quercus for Students blog site, which targets students with posts covering a range of important topics and high-interest tools related to Quercus.

ACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN
The ACT Support team conducted an environmental scan of U of T’s three campuses to identify pedagogical support resources available for instructors teaching in active learning classrooms, along with the level of technical support resources and the range of classroom types available. Through interviews with active learning classroom support teams from several divisions, the ACT team produced a report that informs CTSI and Academic and Campus Events (ACE) leadership on the current state of support for active learning classroom at U of T as a part of the Transforming the Instructional Landscape initiative.

EVE
ACT team members performed consultations and user needs assessments with TATP and CTSI team members, using these data to develop a new event management platform – EVE – that will better manage the engagement of our faculty members and TAs in CTSI and TATP programming. This new system will increase our ability to gather registration, attendance and feedback data, and manage our conferences, workshops, consultations and certificate programs. It will also enable users to manage their professional learning experiences with CTSI. Full implementation of the system in TATP and CTSI is expected in Fall 2019.

INTERSECTIONS

The ACT team continues to support faculty and staff from all campuses and divisions through in-person and online consultations related to educational technology and pedagogy. As more technology is integrated within Quercus and licensed for institutional use, the team creates and updates resources while continuing to provide support for long-standing partnerships, like Turnitin. Two Faculty Liaison, Technology CTSI team members – Melvin Chein and Maryam Shafiei – were awarded the 2018 University Operations Outstanding Staff Team Award for their work in U of T’s Office 365 migration process.

The ACT Support team also launched the Teaching with Quercus video series which highlights the varied ways U of T instructors are using Quercus to engage their students. Whether it’s Creating a Course Tour to welcome students, or Managing Grades in Online Courses, these videos demonstrate the range of voices and practices across the University.

“Courses and workshops offered by CTSI often have impacts far beyond the initial reason that one might take them …the ongoing mentorship, feedback, and support from CTSI has really been instrumental in the design, launch, and success of my Team Up! App. The Teaching and Learning Symposium was also a great opportunity to present Team Up! and get feedback from a wide range of instructors as it evolves.”
Melody Neumann, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Cell & Systems Biology, Faculty of Arts & Science