Systemwide Information Technology

In 2013, the University of Wisconsin System conducted an Instructure Canvas pilot project, as recommended by the 2011 Learning Management System (LMS) Task Force, sponsored by the Learn@UW Executive Committee. The pilot was intended to enhance our understanding of the changing LMS landscape. The 2011 pilot provided us with an opportunity to experiment with and explore the features and functionalities of an alternative learning management system. The pilot also focused on ways to use the LMS to improve student engagement, as well as gauge the adoption effort of instructors and students when using a new LMS. The pilot was not intended to seek an LMS to replace Desire2Learn (D2L).

By initiating this RFP for “Instructure Canvas Pilot II,” UWS intends to further explore the Canvas platform and leverage the Canvas Pilot being carried out as part of the Unizin project by UW-Madison. While the objectives of the UW-Madison Canvas pilot are integral to vetting use as part of the Unizin initiative, the objective of the UWS Canvas II pilot is to provide all UW System campuses with the opportunity to further explore the Canvas product. Carrying out Canvas Pilot II also falls squarely in line with other initiatives, as it was one of the recommendations of the LMS Task Force 2011, and will also provide information (along with the LEARN@UW Roadmap) to support the LMS RFP which will be also initiated in the near future.

Canvas Pilot II is not being conducted to seek an LMS to replace Desire2Learn (D2L). The objective of Canvas Pilot II is to explore and learn more about the technical “back end” of the product with particular focus on the integration, interoperability, and ease of content export/import with UWS supported third-party systems (e.g., ePortfolio, Kaltura, Turnitin, Respondus Suite, and others), as well as Canvas’s ability to meet discipline/course specific needs for teaching and learning.

We invite interested campuses to select faculty and teaching staff to participate in the Canvas Pilot II project. Each instructor will design a course using Canvas to be delivered during one of the following semesters: Spring, Summer, or Fall 2015 (deadlines are shown in the “Application section below). For those interested in delivering Spring 2015 courses, please note that the timeline is quite aggressive.

Deadlines:

Spring 2015 Semester – October 31, 2014 (closed)
Summer 2015 and Fall 2015 Semesters – December 1, 2014 Date extended to January 16, 2015

For more information, please refer to the Instructure Canvas Pilot II RFP:
InstructureCanvasPilotII-RFP2 docx November 25, 2014 47.5 KiB

Progress continues with the implementation of the Kaltura Media Management System and we’re sharing the following highlights of recent developments:

Some campuses have provided access to select D2L users/groups. Please contact your campus Kaltura Administrator about availability or information concerning deployment plans.
Kaltura Administrators received training from the vendor concerning the MediaSpace™ component. MediaSpace™ provides a customized video portal that may offer both public and private access to media content. The project team received approval to proceed with testing the integration with the UW enterprise authentication service, Wisconsin Federation, and work with the vendor continues. This will enable UW users to supply their campus credentials (e.g., NetID) to access MediaSpace™.
The exploration and pursuit of integrating Kaltura with other systems is underway. Specific areas of interest involve other LMS (e.g., Moodle), hosting content capture in the classroom (Camtasia), and transcription and captioning services (e.g., 3PlayMedia and Automated Sync Technologies).
A knowledgebase was created to provide service specific documentation and other support resources to the user community. This site is available at https://kb.wisc.edu/kaltura. Additional resources will be added in the coming weeks.

We look forward to presenting an update at the UW System Spring ’14 Information Technology Management Council (ITMC) Joint Meeting on Monday, April 28, 2014. There is significant “buzz” across the UW institutions and we’re excited to share news about the progress. We hope to see you there.

Peter and Lorna

We are on track with implementing the Kaltura Media Management System and provide the following information about recent developments.

The campus D2L Site Administrators and Kaltura Administrators are actively engaged with integration their D2L site with Kaltura. The deployment of the service may vary, so please contact your designated Kaltura Administrator for additional information.
Nearly 21K media entries have been migrated from the shared Kaltura instance (used during the pilot phase) to the appropriate campus instance. An additional process will ensue later this week to migrate any content that was uploaded during the Winter interim session. Please note that the ability to upload content into the shared instance was disabled at ~5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 17. Previous pilot participants are strongly encouraged to start using the new Kaltura instance set up for your campus as soon as feasible.

We’re excited about the start of the spring ’14 term and the opportunity to provide the Kaltura service through deep integration with D2L. We will begin to turn attention to the 2nd phase of the implementation, which involves the deployment of campus MediaSpace sites and other integrations.

Stay tuned as additional updates will follow in the next two weeks.

Peter and Lorna

We continue to make good progress on a number of fronts regarding the Kaltura implementation project. The following provides an overview of recent developments.

The vendor (Kaltura) created the necessary environments that are used for integrating the media management platform with Learn@UW/D2L in late December.
Documentation providing the instructions for integrating the aforementioned systems was developed and shared with the campus Kaltura Administrators (KAs) on 12/30/13. The designated contacts are strongly encouraged to work with their local D2L Site Administrator to configure their campus Learn@UW/D2L test instance to become familiar with the deployment process.
The vendor is actively developing the scripts needed to perform the initial batch migration of the content hosted in the UWS pilot instance. Quality assurance testing is scheduled to occur later this week and the batch migration process is expected to begin shortly thereafter. The final phase of the migration plan will involve migrating the content that will be uploaded during the Winter interim session.

The following dates pertain to the continuity of service during the Winter interim session. The goal is to limit the impact of the transition on the existing user community.

Monday, December 30, 2013 – Friday, January 17, 2014
Existing users of the UWS pilot Kaltura instance will continue to have access to their content and the ability to upload new assets.

Friday, January 17, 2014 (end of work day)
Access for adding new content to the UWS pilot instance will be suspended at the end of the day on Friday, January 17, 2014. Those needing this function may have the ability to access the campus Kaltura instance, which is dependent upon the local deployment plan.

Friday, May 30, 2014 (end of work day)
The ability to view content hosted on the UWS pilot instance will conclude and users will have been fully transitioned to the specific campus production Kaltura instance. References to media content hosted on the former will need to be modified due to the transition and users will be able to take full advantage of the new features with the integration.

We will continue to provide updates as important developments occur. It is our intent to begin conversations about deploying other aspects of the Kaltura system, specifically the campus MediaSpace™ video portal (see vendor product description) and integrations with other LMSes, in early spring.

The New Year will bring exciting new opportunities with respect to the use of a common media management platform throughout the UW teaching and learning community. We always welcome feedback and suggestions.

Kind regards,
Peter Mann

Good progress is being made and this update offers additional details concerning the implementation project.

Training on the Kaltura Management Console (KMC) and integration with Learn@UW/D2L will be provided on Monday, December 16 (2 – 4 p.m.). The campus Kaltura Administrators (KA) will receive additional information, including the details for connecting to the web conference. The campus D2L Site Administrators are invited to attend as the Kaltura experts will provide a walkthrough of the actions needed to configure the integration.
A test Learn@UW/D2L instance is integrated with Kaltura and quality assurance testing is taking place. We will provide the campus KAs with access to the example course.
The existing pilot Kaltura instance will be available to instructors who plan to conduct courses during the upcoming Winter interim session. The service will be available to existing users, who will have the ability to upload and view content, through mid-January. Content hosted on the pilot instance will continue to be available through May 2014.

We’ll continue to post updates as the developments occur.

Peter Mann

A kick-off meeting for the Kaltura implementation project was held during the late afternoon on Tuesday, December 3rd. In attendance were the designated campus Kaltura Administrators, some of which served in the role during the pilot program.

The gathering was an opportunity to share information about the endeavor — goals and key milestones, transition of content contributed during the pilot, ideas regarding service guidelines (usage, policies, etc.), and established communication channels. The conversation was punctuated by thoughtful questions and input from the participants.

We are excited to embark on this journey and appreciate the involvement of the campus designees. They play a vital role with ensuring a successful roll-out and communicating updates regarding the progress to their campus stakeholders.

Stay tuned as more developments will continue to occur.

Sincerely,
Peter Mann

This website is intended to provide updates and highlights regarding the progress of the Kaltura Media Management System implementation at UWS for all interested parties. This site may change in format as more information and resources become available during the course of the implementation. Please contact: Peter Mann (DoIT) or Lorna Wong (UWSA) if you have specific questions not addressed in this site.

Background:

The UW System has a three-year contract with Kaltura for a media management system, effective as of November 2014. This outcome was a result of an RFP process, initiated by the Learn@UW Executive Committee, to select a viable solution to meet the needs of the UW teaching and learning community. Prior to the RFP, UWS has engaged in a limited Kaltura pilot for the past two years, expertise in the system has developed on various participating campuses, we are expecting a successful launch of the system.

An implementation plan is being developed. DoIT’s Networked Media Services will provide the service management and serve as the central contact with the vendor and the designated campus contacts. Peter Mann(DoIT) will assume the role of implementation manager. The initial target is to provide access to the system via a deep integration with the LMS (Learn@UW/D2L) by the spring ’14 semester. Additional phases of the deployment will follow soon to fully utilize the functionality and versatility of the system. Input from the designated campus Kaltura administrators will help define the deployment to best suit the various instructional needs of the campuses.

High Level Implementation Timeline:

Phase 1: Provide access to faculty and students in D2L for Spring 2014 semester

November 2013 – January 2014

Identify campus Kaltura administrators – input from campus CIOs is being sought.
Coordinate with the vendor on system configurations and set up
Coordinate with the vendor on migration of existing pilot content
Coordinate testing integration with D2L V10.1 LE platform
Provide training and consultation on rollout plan for campus Kaltura admins
Provide test environment for campuses
Provide training and documentation resources to campus users
Develop usage and retention policy to guide the initial rollout

Phase 2: Provide non-D2L access to faculty and students

February 2014 – May 2014

Investigate and implement Kaltura access to Moodle users as requested
Implement access to Kaltura Media Space via Federated authentication
Coordinate training on Kaltura platform in D2L as needed
Coordinate training on Kaltura Media Space

Phase 3: Assess the other specific instructional needs to use the platform

Spring 2014 semester and beyond

Consultation with stakeholders with specific needs and campus Kaltura admins to address the viability and support of using the platform
Explore other extensibility to the platform to meet the needs of users
Review and adjust usage and retention policy to meet the needs of users

The campus kaltura-pilot-coordinators during the pilot project will serve as valuable resources as we transition from the pilot to production phase. We expect many will continue to be actively engaged in supporting the system.

Lorna Wong

On Feb 9, the LMS Task Force worked with consultant Phil Hill of Delta Initiative for a one day on surveying the LMS landscape in Higher Education, especially peer university systems of comparative size. Drivers for changing LMS, processes various institutions employ to evaluate systems, LMS related issues and future trends were discussed. Phil also gave a presentation to the Learn@UW and CIO groups via web conference. Phil’s information validated many of the findings the task force has researched independently and added new perspectives to looking at the LMS market. A follow-up session to wrap up additional questions took place today, March 3. Recommendations drawn from the consultation sessions will be shared through the final report to the Learn@UW Exec Committee.

The faculty group met at the start of January to discuss the questions from our group to provide for the Delta Initiatives meeting in February. We came up with a list of 6 questions, which were refined later and presented to the Task Force. In the meantime we are working on organizing the questions and answers that we currently have trying to see what information we still need to obtain.

Student Needs Assessment Group Status Update – Nov. 24, 2010

One of four subgroups to the Learning Management System Exploratory Task Force, the “Student Needs Assessment” group is tasked with assessing and reporting on the needs of students with regard to an LMS.

Several sources of information about students are available, and will be considered by the group, including:

The recent ECAR study, which provides both national and UW data
Survey data that UW campuses are willing to make available to us
Publications such as the Educause Review Sept/Oct issue related to students and engagement

The group is drafting questions that will help us determine what we need to know from and about our students. The final list of questions will be used to compare to available data and determine if we need to gather even more information to assist in answering the original question… What do students need/desire to have, related to learning, that a Learning Management System can facilitate?

Request for Proposals: Instructure Canvas Pilot II

Status Update – April 27, 2014

Status Update – January 21, 2014

Status update – January 1, 2014

Status update – December 13, 2013

Kick-off meeting generated much excitement

Kaltura Implementation Planning

LMS Task Force engaged Delta Initiative

Update: Faculty Needs Assessment January 2010

Update: Student Needs Assessment: Nov. 24, 2010