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vUWS TEMPLATE INFORMATION DOCUMENT
General enquiries about vUWS & specific post-migration questions
General enquiries and comments about the vUWS template project
Kim Heckenberg, Senior Digital Consultant
19 February 2019 Version 1.4
Western Sydney University – Digital Futures – Cortex Information Document – V01.2018/19 Page 1
Contents 1. Cortex Overview ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Alignment to Securing Success ................................................................................................................................. 2
Purpose ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Background ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Implementation Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Timeline .................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Training ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2
2. Template Design ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Site Banner................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Improved Site Structure and Navigation .................................................................................................................. 3
Home Page ................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Automatic Icons ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Learning Modules Approach ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Guided Instruction .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Quality Standards Checklist ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Adding and Editing Items .......................................................................................................................................... 5
New Features ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
3. The Content Migration Process ............................................................................................................................ 6
The Cortex Journey ................................................................................................................................................... 6
Site Freeze period ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
Migrating Content .................................................................................................................................................... 6
Migration Log — sample .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Migration Map for Standard Items .......................................................................................................................... 8
4. Examples of before and after changes ................................................................................................................. 9
5. Key Contact Information ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Western Sydney University – Digital Futures – Cortex Information Document – V01.2018/19 Page 2
1. CORTEX OVERVIEW The Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor - Digital Futures is rolling out a vUWS template that will be applied to sites across the University to increase consistency of the student experience and to ensure alignment to international quality standards. This briefing book provides information for academic staff about the template: Cortex, along with the steps and timeline for the content migration process.
ALIGNMENT TO SECURING SUCCESS A Distinctively Student-Centred
University
A unique learning experience that is innovative, flexible and responsive.
PURPOSE The central goals of Cortex are to increase consistency, clarity and accessibility across all vUWS sites, for all students studying at Western Sydney University.
BACKGROUND Current vUWS sites across the University vary in standard and structure. A quality benchmarking initiative identified the need to improve visual and structural consistency across WSU vUWS sites. Accessibility for all students was highlighted as an area for improvement.
IMPLEMENTATION OVERVIEW Implementation of Cortex will be completed by the Digital Futures Team (DFT) working collaboratively with academic staff.
DFT will apply Cortex to vUWS sites and move existing materials into appropriate sections
DFT will provide training via Zoom sessions which will be advertised to academic staff via by email.
Enquiries can be sent directly to Digital Futures at [email protected].
TIMELINE Cortex will be applied across the University in stages to schools. Migrations were started in late 2018 and will continue throughout 2019.
Unit Coordinators will receive separate emails:
• Confirming migration will be taking place.
• To inform staff when to pause work on their vUWS site as migration is starting.
• Informing staff when the migration of content is complete.
No content will be removed by DFT during the implementation process. However, sites will be temporarily unavailable as Cortex is applied to a vUWS site.
TRAINING Information and training sessions will be held via zoom to ensure academics are kept informed and supported during the change. Impacted academics will receive notification about relevant dates/times when their site is due to be migrated.
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2. TEMPLATE DESIGNThe structure of Cortex is based on existing vUWS sites with minimal changes and regrouping of elements. The design is based on the internationally recognised Quality Matters standards. It has been tested and it improves the sites it has been applied to, moving them from ‘acceptable’ to ‘exemplary’. Further elements are detailed below.
SITE BANNER A responsive banner viewable across all devices promotes a consistent Western presence across all sites. This banner has been customised to accommodate specific branding subsets within the Western branding (such as the Sydney Graduate School of Management, the Graduate Research School and the Academy).
IMPROVED SITE STRUCTURE AND NAVIGATION Visual and structural inconsistencies have been identified across University vUWS sites. To improve consistency, important information and materials are grouped into the following zones in the site menu:
• Home • Learning Zone • Communication Zone • Assessment Zone • Support Zone
These zones present students with a consistent interface across all of their vUWS sites, including interdisciplinary units.
The template establishes clear signposting for students on where to find learning materials, as well as assessment
information, communication tools and support.
Cortex enables students to focus on learning rather than looking for the information they need.
In ‘post-Cortex’ units, teaching staff will be able to spend less time creating content areas and deciding where to upload materials and how to draw them to students’ attention.
HOME PAGE The template Home Page combines welcome message/s, unit overview, and unit information including the Learning Guide.
This provides a clear starting point for students, an essential aspect of quality standards. All the information a student needs to start the unit is now found in one place (see Fig. 1 on next page).
During the content migration process DFT staff will relocate the information from the Unit Information content area to this page.
The Learning Guide will be used for static content such as unit learning outcomes and how to approach the unit.
DFT will fill as many sections as possible with the information at hand to reduce workload for academic staff.
After this process is completed academic staff may need to update some supplemental information such as assessment due dates and teaching staff contact details if it’s not featured on their pre-cortex site.
Western Sydney University – Digital Futures – Cortex Information Document – V01.2018/19 Page 4
Figure 1. vUWS template homepage in collapsed view
The technical skills and recommended software section at the bottom of the Home Page provides links for students to access and download any tools that they need for their studies. Instructors can add any unit-specific requirements at the top or bottom of this section.
AUTOMATIC ICONS Item headings are automatically assigned an icon illustrative of the heading title (see Fig. 2, point 1). If an instructor creates new items using a simple naming protocol, these icons will appear automatically. A list of item headings and icons can be found at:
https://dft.westernsydney.edu.au/docs/template-icons
LEARNING MODULES APPROACH Cortex uses learning module terminology, instead of teaching weeks, to achieve consistency in the structure and order of learning materials. Modules are not restricted to any given time period, allowing for greater flexibility across teaching sessions, again reducing staff workload (rework) across sessions. One module may be taught over a number of weeks, or a number of modules may be taught in any one week. The alignment of modules and weeks should be outlined in the Learning Guide.
GUIDED INSTRUCTION Research shows students are more likely to engage in learning when they understand how the materials and activities fit within the context of the unit.
Cortex provides guided instruction for academics to describe the purpose of the modules and learning materials to students (see Fig. 2, point 3).
These prompts help teaching staff articulate expected learning outcomes and achievements to students, encouraging deeper engagement with the material. Academic staff can utilise these samples as a basis to create their own instructions for students.
Figure 2. Learning object with 1) automated iconography,
2) quality standards checklist and 3) guided instruction
QUALITY STANDARDS CHECKLIST The template has been designed to align with the Quality Matters rubric; recognised as the international standards in online and
Western Sydney University – Digital Futures – Cortex Information Document – V01.2018/19 Page 5
blended learning. Details of this rubric and available support can be found at: https://dft.westernsydney.edu.au/tel/quality-matters
Elements from the Quality Matters rubric are embedded in each item and content area as a checklist explaining what is needed for maximum efficacy (see Fig. 2, point 2). The checklist is only visible to the instructor with edit mode on and is intended to be used to improve the quality of the vUWS site. Students cannot see these checklist items.
ADDING AND EDITING ITEMS The standard vUWS process for adding and editing items remains unchanged. When standardised headings are added to items, icons (which are consistent across all units) are automatically added. A list of item headings and icons can be found at:
https://dft.westernsydney.edu.au/docs/template-icons
To edit material, click on the contextual
menu icon which appears when the mouse hovers over the item heading. For more instructions, visit:
https://dft.westernsydney.edu.au/support/#content-editor
LEARNING GUIDE CHANGES The Handbook Summary for this unit has been approved by the School Academic Committee and must not be changed here.
The Learning Outcomes for this unit has been approved by the School Academic Committee and must not be changed here.
The Assessments for this unit have been approved by the School Academic Committee and must not be changed here. Only the due dates are to be added here.
NOTE: Remember to update the Learning Guide schedule of activities to match the new module headings, etc.
NEW FEATURES An additional feature is the expand and
collapse tool indicated by the and icons on the all pages in student view. All content is expanded as default, and users can then collapse individual items as they reviewed or finished with them.
Figure 3.. Collapsed and expanded views of Cortex
Figure 4.. Collapsed and expanded views of Cortex
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THE CORTEX JOURNEY DFT will provide specific communication/instructions throughout migration. Site milestones include:
1) Unit Coordinator notified that ‘Cortex is Coming’
2) If required, Unit Coordinator notifies DFT of correct rollover site
3) DFT will request the site on behalf of Unit Coordinators
4) Unit Coordinator to receive an auto alert re: site is available. Note, no action is required.
5) Unit Coordinator notified that ‘Cortex is in progress’
6) Unit Coordinator notified that ‘Cortex is completed’
7) Unit Coordinator to ensure unit is ready for delivery
8) Site is ready for students
Temporary change to site request process: Note that for the purpose of site migration, DFT will request the site to be created on behalf of the Unit Coordinator. Once a unit is migrated, the process will return to normal for future site requests (ie for the subsequent teaching session the Unit Coordinator will contact ITDS to request their new site per normal process).
SITE FREEZE PERIOD
Site content cannot be edited by the academic staff whilst the migration is ‘In Progress’. Unit Coordinators will receive a specific email advising when the site enters this phase. During this time Unit Coordinators should advise teaching staff to pause uploading or editing content on the site. It is estimated this freeze period will last no longer than 2 weeks. DFT will ensure the site migration is completed to enable sufficient time for final academic updates before site is available to students.
MIGRATING CONTENT
As previously mentioned, DFT will move site content into the new menu structure as per the ‘Migration Map for Standard Items’.
_Unmigrated_ Folder
Once a site migration has been completed, any content that cannot be logically placed will be moved to the ‘_unmigrated_’ folder. This folder, located at the top of the left hand menu, is not visible to students.
The ‘_unmigrated_’ folder will contain a the ‘Migration Log’. The Unit Coordinator should review this document (and move any content required) prior to the site being available to students.
MIGRATION LOG — SAMPLE
3. THE CONTENT MIGRATION PROCESS
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All content items in the _unmigrated_ folder should be reviewed before the site is opened to students.
Reasons why content has been placed in the ‘_Unmigrated_’ folder
Digital Futures Recommendation
Content is a replication of Learning Guide
No further action is required. This template reduces duplication of Learning Guide content. The student should always be referred to the Learning Guide as the single source of truth. This ensures that minimal site updates are required between sessions (e.g. date changes etc.)
Content is out of date Delete old content
Content not used and was hidden from students
Delete unused/archived content
Content was a duplicate copy Delete any duplicate copies
Content uses the old UWS logo Update the content with the new WSU logo and move it to the relevant folder
Content was floating and did not appear anchored to a teaching activity (Digital Futures was unable to identify relevant folder)
Delete the content or move it to the relevant folder
Content was not organised by weeks (Digital Futures was unable to identify relevant folder)
Separate the content and move it to relevant folder
Western Sydney University – Digital Futures – Cortex Information Document – V01.2018/19 Page 8
MIGRATION MAP FOR STANDARD ITEMS
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4. EXAMPLES OF BEFORE AND AFTER CHANGES BEFORE AFTER
MENU Area
Menu area has been separated into zones:
• Learning = all content relating to providing or accessing resources for unit delivery
• Communication = all applications used to communicate either between academics and students (e.g. Announcements) or between students (e.g. Discussions boards) are listed here.
• Assessment = Each assessment is a content area which contains any submission points (Turnitin / Dropbox) and information not in the Learning Guide, but relevant to the assessment. If there is no submission point or additional information a shorter overview of the assessment can be added.
• Support = Any service that supports student life within the university or vUWS is listed here.
NEW ACCESS FEATURE
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New accordion panels (student view).
They can be individually collapsed and expanded by clicking + / - at the end of the panel.
OR
Collapsed and expanded all at once using the + / - at the bottom right of the screen.
LEARNING MATERIALS AREA IS NOW LEARNING MODULES - Before
Learning Materials generally was set up in weeks or topics. Learning Modules replace this with modules that can run in a single week or over several weeks depending on how the content in the module is set up.
The new structure is more linear and for best practice, where possible, content will only go only one level down (so one folder in a folder).
LEARNING MODULES - After
MODULES BLUEPRINT
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The Module Blueprint folder contains a larger selection of pre-formatted items that can be copied into the modules a required. Please DO NOT DELETE.
MODULES FROM STUDENT VIEW
The addition of the accordion action with items allows for students to expand and collapse information so reduces scrolling.
QUALITY MATTERS RUBRIC
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Each module has a standard item already created with suggested text. A Quality Matters rubric checklist is provided to help identify best practice in content delivery (Edit view - grey panel in each of the items – not visible to students)
OPENING TO STUDENTS
The black bar across an item helps to visually identity whether an item has been released (opened) to students.
5. KEY CONTACT INFORMATION
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General enquiries about vUWS & specific post-migration questions should be emailed to: [email protected]
School specific enquires should be emailed to the appropriate Digital Consultant:
Stephanie Bourke – [email protected]
• School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics • School of Education • School of Medicine
Lisa Caldbeck – [email protected]
• School of Business • School of Law • School of Science and Health
Rhoda O’Higgins – R.O'[email protected]
• School of Humanities and Communication Arts • School of Nursing and Midwifery • School of Social Science and Psychology
General enquiries and comments about the vUWS template project can be communicated to:
Kim Heckenberg, Senior Digital Consultant
DFT also have online resources available at http://dft.westernsydney.edu.au
These include a vUWS Support Portal, information on Technology-Enabled Learning and a range of resources and support for learning and teaching at Western Sydney University.
Visit http://westernsydney.edu.au/cortex for more information.