Landing : Athabascau University

Athabasca Learning Environment Score card.: Revision

Last updated December 11, 2013 - 1:53pm by Mark A. McCutcheon

This wiki is designed for us to accurately look at and assess our own Learning Environment. I've made a comparison to "Best practices". Even I have trouble understanding how a practice can be the "Best" in any context, but I meant it as a goal. I have seen most (all) of these 'best Practices" used at some postsecondary educational institution delivering at a distance. Or think of these as the competition.

I've seeded the wiki with my first look at these. There are those here who are better able to judge than I - thus the Wiki can be edited, to correct any inaccuracies.  You can also add rows, to add additional components of our teaching/learning environment. There is a comment feature as well, if you wish to leave the table as it is but wanted to add commentary to any of the 'scores'

Note: There is no single AU learning Environment as our system has both continuous enrollment and cohort models as well as large differences between faculties in terms of direct student support. Nonetheless, as a self proclaimed leader in online learning, we should have an accurate assessment of the current state of our Learning Environment.

Please edit this table!!

Component                      Athabasca                     Best Practice                                          
Hardware Good? Excellent
Helpdesk limited hours 24 Hour, text chat, help bot
Online Help OK, no community help Both readily avaiable help and active help community
Student Enrollment Management Good Plan, no resources yet Extensive from first interest (course, transfer, application) to allumni
Learning Analytics primitive extensive knowledge of student behaviours and effective interventions
Faculty/Tutor Development Technical only Integrate learning activity, pedagogy with affordances of technologies
LMS OK, takes VERY long time for upgrades. Slow process for innovation and plugin support Clear way for innovations to integrate into mainline systems
Social Networks Landing, world class, suffers from cold start/ adoption and support issues Easy flow between external networks, semi private and secure contexts
Language/writing support Write Site - good?? ??
Online Library good? ? "library of the Future
Real time conferencing software Adobe Connect - Good? Immersive/text/meeting and class support
Admin Applications

Landing- wikis, files, photos, schedules etc

Grad Studies, still using PDF forms

Cloud based, mobile ready
Student Records ? ?
E-Portfolios Mahara - stable, but "not production" supported Integrated with LMS and externally accessible
Aacdemic Computing No designated respources  
Research Computiung 1/2 day/ a week for whole university  
Speed of Course Production/    
Continuous Enrollment  Poor, Monthly Batch processing  Continous enrolment/tutor assignment etc.
Accessibility/UDL ASD provides accommodations but there is no policy/plan for implementation of UDL principles (i.e. offer variety of means of representation, engagement, expression) UDL / Application of WCAG or AU Guidelines / eCampus AB Quality Suite (some categories)
Technological neutrality (capacity to deliver courses in digital, print, and other media for maximum openness of access to education)    
     

 

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