2018-19, Blog, Motions

US18/19-11: Requiring Canvas for Core Ed Courses

3 Comments

Date of Notice: January 16, 2019
Current Status: Notice Given
Motion Type: Policy Proposal
Sponsor: Core Education Council

Motion

Section I

1.1 WHEREAS The Core Ed Council voted unanimously in support of this motion on January 28, 2019; and

1.2 WHEREAS the high school to college transition is challenging to many students and performance in the first year is correlated with student success; and

1.3 WHEREAS LMS use is correlated with undergraduate student success; and

1.4 WHEREAS Canvas is FERPA compliant, and other cloud-based grading systems (Google Sheets, etc) may not be; and

1.5 WHEREAS Between Fall 2017 and Winter 2019, 40% of UO Core Ed Courses had not published their Canvas site; and

1.6 WHEREAS The motion is supported by the Deans Council;

Section II

2.1 THEREFORE BE IT MOVED that Instructors of Record in classes that count toward “core education” requirements (including Areas of Inquiry; Difference, Inequality and Agency; Global Perspectives; Writing, and BA/BS requirements) shall use, and make available the Learning Management System (LMS) site for the core ed class, prior to the first meeting, to students enrolled in the course.

  • At a minimum, the LMS site for a core ed class shall include information about what requirements the course satisfies, any Methods of Inquiry covered by the course, a course syllabus, any significant assessments, and students’ current performance in the course.
  • The Senate instructs the Core Ed Council to work with the Office of the Provost (and/or other administrative offices) to automate the insertion into the LMS sites of core ed courses the official course description approved by UOCC, any core ed requirements the course satisfies, the Methods of Inquiry and associated learning outcomes approved by UOCC and standard language regarding relevant university policies pertinent to students in core ed courses (AEC, student conduct code, etc). The Senate instructs the Core Ed Council to work with Libraries (and/or other administrative offices) to provide LMS training and support for instructors of courses which count toward core ed courses.

Implementation date: Fall 2020.

3 thoughts on “US18/19-11: Requiring Canvas for Core Ed Courses”

  1. I second this concern. I can see arguments for standardizing course delivery systems across campus. However, the articles linked here show only that students who use LMS in a class that requires LMS use do better than those who do not engage. They say nothing about whether LMS use by instructors is helpful for student success. At the very least these references need to be removed from this document, and the arguments for use of LMS bolstered.

    1. Thanks for these comments. This motion has been sent back to the committee from whence it came and it will not come back to the Senate until next fall at the earliest. I’ll pass these concerns on to the chair, Chris Sinclair.

  2. The 3 linked articles in section 1.3 that are purported to support a connection between student success and LMS use do not compare performance between students in classes with and without LMS systems. Instead, they present evidence that those students in classes with LMS systems who never check their grades tend to do more poorly than their classmates.

    I’m concerned that no evidence has been provided that student success is affected by the choice of whether or not to use an LMS system. Section 1.5 notes that 40% of Core Ed classes currently do not adopt the institutional LMS system. The data should be available to test the motivating hypothesis that student success and LMS adoption are correlated. Since no such evidence has been presented, it seems premature to require instructors change their preferred mode of course delivery.

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