Learning Technology & Innovation
LT&I are part of Open Learning (OL), and complement CELT, and TRU ITS, supporting teaching and learning. Our Production and Media teams build online and distance courses for OL, while the Learning Technology team is more focused on supporting our campus community.
Strategic Priority:
“Inclusive Excellence In Faculty And Staff Recruitment And Retention.”
A core mission for LT&I is to extend the capacity of our faculty with the careful application of learning technology, and in the programming that we offer to our community. We also strive to reduce faculty workloads and stress levels with a constant focus on process improvement and highly responsive support. We extend this approach to our students as well.
Tickets logged for support (Moodle, WordPress, etc) year over year:
| September 2017 | 195 |
| September 2018 | 182 |
| September 2019 | 193 |
| September 2020 | 741 |
| September 2021 | 381 |
| September 2022 | proj. 384* (192 to 9/15) |
Moodle Orientation / Learning Without Walls / Teaching Unbound / Lightboard!
open publishing and collaboration
LT&I’s support for our open publishing and collaboration platforms (WordPress, Pressbooks, Mattermost, MediaWiki) allows us to extend TRU research through knowledge mobilization and community engagement.
Podcasting
Podcasting is an area of particular strength. Dr. Brenna Clarke Gray is a co-investigator of the SSHRC-funded Amplify Podcast Network.
Strategic Priority:
“Student wellness and belonging will enable us to achieve the change goal of eliminating opportunity gaps, and Honouring Truth Reconciliation and Rights.”
LT&I’s platforms and skills have allowed us to extend our reach with open educational resources and open pedagogy.
Special emphasis has always been placed on working with students on developing their digital skills and literacies. LT&I has evolved a unique and effective technique for creating clone-able starter sites, which dramatically simplifies and reduces development time. It also provides far more welcoming on-ramps for students when they begin building their own websites. So many wonderful stories of students finding their voices and building their digital creation skills. We are especially grateful for the opportunity to work alongside indigenous scholars.
Knowledge Makers Program / Sandra Bandura / Johnny Bandura / Canadian Undergraduate Research Network / Engaging with Indigenous Research / TRU Makerspace
OL has collaborated with campus partners to show national leadership in academic integrity, and to promote accessible and inclusive practices for all of its digital learning activity.
Strategic Priority:
By 2033, TRU will be highly ranked provincially, nationally, and internationally for its unique academic and trades programs, that provide students with flexible learning pathways into research informed curriculum and experiential opportunities.
There has been an expressed need for “an academic-led discussion on IT at our university”. LT&I has a strong record of leading these kinds of conversations at this university, and is proud of the trusting working relationships it has built with both ITS and faculty.
LT&I is piloting extended platforms to support microcredentials, such as with the Public Safety Resilience Project, partnering with TRU’s Faculty of Science.
LT&I is recognized as a leader in open educational technologies. This is embodied in the BCcampus-funded Open Ed Tech Collaborative (OpenETC). This leadership has resulted in participation in the Digital Learning Advisory Committee (convened by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training) in the drafting of its Digital Learning Strategy. We have been invited to participate in further discussions to plan the implementation of a number of its recommendations, including a proposed Open Source Project Office (OSPO).
The Open EdTech Collaborative (OpenETC) / 2021 OE Global Award for Excellence, Open Infrastructure