Academic Resources
Whether you are designing for flipped or fully online learning experiences, Learning Futures is creating new tools for instructors to create engaging learning environments.
Digital Learning Thresholds
The Digital Learning Thresholds or DLTs are a comprehensive set of guidelines for the design of digital learning environments. They were built by Western to support academic staff in the development of consistent and high-quality digital learning experiences and to encourage innovation in digital learning design practice.
Learn more about the DLTs (opens in a new window).
Online Engagement and Teaching Hub
Get inspired and find the resources and information to create engaging learning experience.
The Online Engagement and Teaching Hub is the home for information and resources to inspire and guide academics on the teaching challenges in technology-enabled learning environments. Technology is always moving at a rapid pace and The Hub provides guidance on not just the implementation and choice of technology, but how to align technology with digital pedagogy and learning design to create highly engaging learning experiences.
Connect with your colleagues and contribute with your insights to articles and case studies.
Start your journey today (opens in a new window).
Learning Analytics
In the world of teaching and learning, the practice of using data to make informed decisions about teaching practice or learning more about your students has always existed but modern approaches to learning analytics leverage the large amount of data that are available through student engagement in their studies via learning management systems (LMS).
The interpretation of this data can provide us with insights into student patterns of engagement, how frequently content is being accessed or even the amount of time students are spending in an LMS and this can be used to improve the learning design of units and to indicate whether student engagement with learning materials can be improved.
Aspects of Learning Analytics in development:
- LMS Learning Analytics
- Academic dashboards
- Student-facing dashboards
- Self-paced module
H5P
LaTTe, the University’s Learning and Teaching Technology Advisory Group, has advocated for a platform that will provide academics with the tool sets and user interface to create interactive content directly into vUWS. Known as H5P this is a new technology-enabled learning tool that has been integrated within vUWS.
The Online and Engagement Teaching Hub has a section dedicated to designing content in H5P (opens in a new window).
To see H5P in action, visit the exemplar site (opens in a new window).
AllY and Accessibility
Anthology AllY identifies content in need of a digital accessibility uplift. Several vUWS sites across 10 schools underwent an AllY review in 2021 which included fixing severe and major AllY issues where possible. This review resulted in positive changes to vUWS sites with some showing an improvement of over 30 in their AllY score, pushing the overall institution's standard above 80.
Find out more about Anthology AllY (opens in a new window).
Pilot Programs
The Drawing Board
The Drawing Board is an early concept of an online lesson builder solution for teaching academics.
With a non-linear workflow with multiple entry points and opportunities for sharing and collaboration, The Drawing Board will become a key tool for assisting teaching academics in preparing their lesson plans.
Click on this PDF link to see the recent LaTTe presentation with links to videos that show the user experience plus a survey to capture your thoughts and feedback.
Tech Ecosystem
The Technology Ecosystem is a planned extension of the Online Engagement and Teaching Hub. The site will provide useful links to additional product information, how-to-guides, best practices and provide comparisons for different technologies.
Turnitin
The primary purpose of using Turnitin is to provide students with an interactive means of understanding and applying citation and referencing techniques in their work and provide online grading to academic staff.
Turnitin is a ‘text-matching’ software that is designed to educate students regarding appropriate citation and referencing techniques. Turnitin is also used to provide instructors with confidence in the academic integrity of students work.
Learn more about Turnitin (opens in a new window)
Ultra Base Navigation
LaTTe endorsed an upgrade to the My vUWS Navigation. Ultra Base Navigation (UBN) is a responsive, mobile compatible, modern user interface, replacing the underlying Modules and Tabs design. It moves the most used tools to the forefront and introduces some new ones, e.g. Activity Stream, Performance Indicators and a new Calendar.
Custom Made H5P
Custom Made H5P (CMH5P) is a purpose-built service to create and publish a number of unique H5P items developed in-house at WSU. Through an LTI integration with the LMS, CMH5P provides a scalable solution allowing instructors to update, copy, download and share objects for reuse across subjects and disciplines.
CMH5P offers similar features to those from H5P.com, offering familiarity and making it easier to get started. Instructors will have the ability to edit and update content themselves.
Learn more about Custom H5P (opens in a new window)
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