The document provides an overview of Harvard's Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) program. It discusses the program's strategic objectives to provide core teaching technologies, support pedagogical innovation, establish partnerships, and cultivate an open source community. An update on migrating courses to the new Canvas platform is provided, including pilot results. Case studies demonstrate how Canvas has been used for courses. The developer community is introduced as a way to contribute code and tools.

1. The Future Is Now:
Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT)
Harvard IT Summit | June 5, 2104

2. Agenda
1. TLT Program Overview
2. Update on Canvas Migration
3. Case Study: Canvas Site
4. Open Source Developer Community
5. Case Study: LTI Tool
6. Questions and Conversation

3. TLT Program Overview

4. What’s In a Name?
Learning Management Ecosystem
Black Pearl
Teaching and Learning Technologies

5. Harvard IT “Big 5” Strategic Objective
hpH + sCIOC + B5 + UITP&P
Σ Hx, SIS, TLT, IAM, Sec

6. • Provide core teaching and learning
technologies to all Schools
• Support pedagogical innovation and
research on learning
• Establish strong Harvard community based
on actual partnerships with faculty and
with academic support professionals
• Cultivate open source community around
component development that
complements core technologies
• Deliver high-quality program on time, on
budget, in scope
Strategic Objectives Guiding Principles Key Performance Indicators
• Communicate and socialize program across
the University
• Balance need to move quickly with
thoughtful planning
• Seek early and continuous faculty input
from across the Schools
• Transition program to ongoing services with
sustained community and sustained vision
• Embrace fluidity
• Full-time staff focus is the rule; divided time
is the exception
• University migration from previous
platform(s) to core technologies
• Usable data from teaching and learning
activities available for research
• Meaningful engagement with faculty /
teaching teams and with academic support
professionals around needs
• Harvard-specific technology enhancements
and applications generated by open source
community
• Program delivered on time and on budget
Provide a continually evolving set of faculty-friendly, student-focused technologies that support teaching and learning across all
Harvard schools, facilitate pedagogical innovation, and contribute to educational research.
The Vision
About the Program

7. Canvas
Canvas

8. Canvas and Integrations
CanvasCourse
admin tools
Integrations

9. Extensibility
Canvas
University
T&L tools
Course
admin tools
Integrations

10. Extensibility
Canvas
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations

11. Inter-Operability
Canvas
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations
edX
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations

12. Inter-Operability
Canvas
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations
X
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations

13. Extract Data for research
Course
Course
Course

14. Canvas
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations
Unified User Experience

15. Canvas
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations
Unified User Experience
SIS
IAM

16. Unified User Experience
Canvas
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations
edX
University
T&L tools
School T&L
tools
Faculty T&L
tools
Open source
tools
3rd party
tools
LTI wrapper
on any tool
Course
admin tools
Integrations

17. Timeline

19. Canvas Migration

20. 6 courses, 530 students
Initial implementation:
• Integrated course data and enrollment from Harvard registrars
• PIN authentication for students and teaching staff
Canvas Pilot: Fall 2013

21. Canvas Pilot: Spring 2014
48 courses, 3k students
Additional development:
• Integrated reserve reading lists and lecture video display
• Added course shopping capability
• Upgraded web conferencing features

22. Canvas Pilot: Evaluation
Activities:
• Surveys
• UserVoice
• Support tickets
• User analytics
Available on http://tlt.harvard.edu:
• Fall report
• Spring mid-term progress report
• Coming soon: Spring final report

23. Spring Pilot: Early Evaluation Results
 About half of the students and
three-fourths of the faculty found
the interface confusing at first.
 A majority of both teaching staff
and students agreed that with
sufficient introduction the platform
works well for students.
 81% of students rated the
functionality good, very good, or
excellent.

24. Migration Progress
We are here!

25. Program / School Migration Partnership
Area Program School
License agreement • Negotiate terms of University-wide license agreement, including
additional University-wide LTI tool license costs (e.g. Big Blue
Button)
• Negotiate terms of School-level LTI tool license agreements
Investment • Shoulder cost of University-wide agreements • Shoulder cost of School-level agreements
• Shoulder cost of potential additional resources (e.g. , teaching fellows)
Outreach • Partner with Schools on outreach and buy-in with faculty, school
leadership, IT staff, and other key stakeholders
• Partner with Program on outreach and buy-in with faculty, school leadership, IT
staff, and other key stakeholders
Migration • Consult with Schools on School-level migration timeline and plan
• Provide tool for migrating files from course iSites to Canvas
• With consultation from Program, determine migration timeline and plan
• Migrate content from course iSites to Canvas
Custom integration • Add PIN authentication and integration with Harvard systems
• Coordinate with vendors for third-party University-wide LTI
integration
• Build LTI tools and integrations to support university-wide needs
• Consult on development of LTI tools for School-specific needs
• With consultation from Program, develop LTI tools for School-specific needs
Training • Provide technical training for School instructional support staff
• Provide resources and materials for use in School-level training
• Consult with faculty and support staff on best practices around Canvas use
• Conduct School-level training
• Share training materials with Program for University-wide use
Support • Provide tier 3 support and escalation of issues and feature requests
to Instructure
• Provide high-caliber, responsive tier 1 and 2 support, including thorough
investigation and troubleshooting of support requests, exploration of Canvas
feature forums, and review of public Canvas status monitors
• Follow established procedures for escalating requests and for reporting critical
bugs or downtimes
• Communicate to Program detailed information about end-user feedback with
respect to Canvas features, functionality, and usability
Feature
enhancements
• Partner with Instructure to cultivate open source community around
platform code enhancements
• Participate in Canvas community forums to help set priority for feature requests
Program evaluation • Conduct ongoing program evaluation • Participate in ongoing program evaluation

26. Documentation and Training
 Self-paced training courses in Canvas
 Workshop materials to support local training sessions
 Canvas office hours

27. School Support
• Academic technologists
• CIOs
• Faculty assistants
• Faculty champions
• Help desk staff
• IT staff
• Librarians
• Registrars
• Software developers
• Teaching staff
• Video producers

28. Case Study: Canvas Site

29. Case Study: Calculus Practitioner Series
Courses
– Fall 2013, Math 1a
– Spring 2014, Math Mb
Challenge
Finding the right platform to deliver learning multimedia modules developed as part of a HILT grant-
funded course innovation
Solution
Canvas provided required features and seamless integration
Impact
– Overall successful student learning (student-reported)
– Overall positive student user experience (student-reported)
– More multimedia modules being developed and delivered in upcoming semesters

34. Developer Community

35. Join Us!
Who
• Developers within Harvard
• Developers beyond Harvard
What
• Contribute code back into Canvas
• Develop and share custom LTI components
Why
• Share code, environments, knowledge, ideas
• Build skills and community
How
• Reach out: http://tlt.harvard.edu/contact-us
• Join our LTI hackathon in July

36. Case Study: LTI Component

37. Case Study: Student Location Tool
Course
CSCI E-12: Fundamentals of Website Development
Challenge
Finding a way for students, especially students joining at a distance, to feel more connected with
campus, classmates, and teaching team
Solution
Build an LTI component that displays on a map where classmates and teaching staff are located
based on self-identified contact and location information
Impact
Students and teaching staff can learn more about classmates and create informal in-person meet-ups
Check it out

39. Map of student lcoations

41. Wrapping Up

42. So Far
 Completed planning phase
 Secured program funding
 Signed license agreement with Instructure
 Developing integrations and course administration tools with Canvas
 Beginning to engage with teaching and learning community partners

43. What’s Next
 Hire term positions: software engineer, devops, test engineer, PM, BA, UX
 Lay the groundwork for open source developer community
 Develop teaching and learning components
 Develop capacity and guidelines to extract data for research
 Roll out Canvas across the schools

44. Visit our Website
http://tlt.harvard.edu

45. Thank you!