IU to Develop eLearning Tracking Tool
(photo courtesy of Indiana University)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe eLearning Research and Practice Lab at Indiana University has been awarded a $2 million grant by the Institute for Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, to develop a tool to help measure the effectiveness of teachers who use the Canvas learning management system. IU says teachers and students, ranging from elementary to college, use Canvas to post assignments, practice quizzes, and watch instructional videos, among other educational activities.
The technology became especially essential with remote learning. Now, the IU eLearning Lab is partnering with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Utah-based Instructure Inc., the developer of Canvas, to launch a system to track the digital learning technology. IU says the Canvas+Terracotta plug-in measures what works best in the LMS. The information can then be used to conduct experimental research on educational practices through the learning management system.
“Terracotta implements an innovative research and assessment service that fills a known gap in the Canvas community. Teachers and instructional designers have many degrees of freedom in how they implement learning activities in Canvas, but they have practically no tools available to rigorously evaluate the efficacy of these teaching moves,” said Jared Stein, vice president of global higher education strategy at Instructure Inc. “Terracotta allows Canvas users to evaluate instructional design in a way that previously would have been impossible to carry out.”
IU says when COVID-19 forced the U.S. education system to transition rapidly to remote instruction, teachers nationwide had to build learning experiences in online formats, often without guidance about what works best. The university says research conducted within Canvas+Terracotta will help highlight educational practices and will enable teachers and researchers to better understand how to use digital learning technologies more effectively.