View Current

UCLearn Teaching Site Publishing Procedures

This is the current version of this document. You can provide feedback on this policy to the document author - refer to the Status and Details on the document's navigation bar.

Section 1 - Purpose

(1) The purpose of these Procedures is to provide consistency in enabling and managing access to, and publishing of, teaching sites in the University of Canberra’s (University) learning management system, known as UCLearn (Canvas).

(2) It is a University requirement that UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites published to students meet the requirements in the UCLearn Publishing Checklist to ensure:

  1. consistency and quality of student experience online;
  2. accessibility for all students, and demonstrable evidence that the site meets legislative requirements for accessibility; and
  3. essential information about an academic unit is available to students enrolled in it through the learning management system.

(3) UCLearn (Canvas) provides online access to information, communication services, and interaction resources for students and staff. Students enrolled in a UCLearn (Canvas) teaching site will be able to:

  1. access the unit outline;
  2. access assessment information and due dates;
  3. participate in learning activities;
  4. access the reading list;
  5. access contact information for the unit’s teaching staff; 
  6. contact teaching staff;
  7. submit assessment items;
  8. review marks for assessment items; and
  9. contact other students.
Top of Page

Section 2 - Scope

(4) The scope of these Procedures is limited to UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites and relates specifically to:

  1. access to and roles related to UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites;
  2. publishing of UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites to students;
  3. appointment and responsibilities of faculty Publishers; and
  4. elevated access roles and responsibilities.
Top of Page

Section 3 - Policy

(5) Nil. 

Top of Page

Section 4 - Procedure

Elevated Access

(6) Elevated access for an account or sub-account will be requested by the faculty through a Service Desk request to ensure a record is retained of the authority to provide elevated access.

(7) Elevated access is the provision of an account level administrative role in UCLearn (Canvas).

(8) Elevated access may be provided to staff who have roles other than teaching in UCLearn (Canvas).

(9) Staff who are designated by the faculty as faculty publishers of UCLearn (Canvas) sites must complete an elevated access form.

(10) Staff who require elevated access will be inducted to their role and complete an elevated access form with a Learning and Teaching Manager.

(11) A staff member may have elevated access in UCLearn systems other than Canvas. A separate elevated access form will be completed for each role in each system.

(12) Roles, and their associated permissions, will vary from time to time as a result of changes implemented by Instructure, or as a result of a review by Learning and Teaching.

(13) Learning and Teaching will maintain records for staff with elevated access and regularly review access rights.

Access to UCLearn (Canvas)

(14) All staff and students have access to UCLearn (Canvas ) using their University user name and password. This access is limited to the teaching sites in which they are enrolled, sites that are open, or sites which enable self-enrolment, unless they have an elevated access in a sub-account.

(15) A person with the role of Unit Convener or Teacher is able to add other people to a teaching site in which they have that role, and change the role of other people in that site that do not have the role of student.

(16) The Unit Convener of a unit should have the role of Unit Convener within the associated teaching site.

(17) At least one person will have the role of Unit Convener in any UCLearn teaching site.

(18) In some cases there may be more than one Unit Convener in a teaching site. This should be limited to situations such as:

  1. where units with different Unit Conveners are co-taught in one UCLearn (Canvas) site (for example a UG and G unit); or
  2. if a unit has a convener at a partner institution and a convener from the Bruce campus.

(19) Teaching staff in a unit, who are not the Unit Convener, will have the role of Teacher within the unit’s teaching site.

(20) A person added to a teaching site for the purpose of reviewing or moderation will be added with the role of Teacher.

(21) Students enrolled in a unit will have the role of a Student within the unit’s teaching site.

(22) All students in a teaching site are associated with that site through the Site Creation Integration with the student management system, Callista.

(23) Students will not be manually enrolled in a teaching site.

(24) Any other person, such as a U3A member, and/or a user with a ‘g’ number, who is not enrolled in the unit associated with the teaching site, should have the role of Participant in a teaching site.

Creation of a Teaching Site in UCLearn (Canvas)

(25) All teaching sites will be created using the Site Creation Integration tool.

(26) Each teaching site should be created by the Unit Convener for the unit.

Maintenance of the Integrity of UCLearn (Canvas) Site Content for Recordkeeping

(27) All teaching or course materials, assignments, assessable items and submissions, quizzes or any other course-related content, or any student information or student interaction, must be retained in a teaching site for record keeping purposes.

Publishing UCLearn (Canvas) Teaching Sites to Students

Timing

(28) UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites must be published to students enrolled in the associated unit, from the first day of Orientation Week for Semester 1, Winter Term, and Semester 2.

(29) For all other teaching periods, the UCLearn teaching sites must be published to students at least one week prior to the start of the relevant teaching period.

(30) A faculty Publisher may publish a teaching site earlier if it has met the Publishing Checklist requirements.

(31) Faculties will establish internal timelines to ensure that teaching sites are created, reviewed, and published at least one week before the commencement of the relevant teaching period.

Authority to Publish a UCLearn (Canvas) Teaching Site to Students

(32) In Canvas the designated faculty Publisher(s) will be provided with the role of Publisher (administrative staff member) or Program Director (Academic Lead such as a Course Convener, Head of School, ADE, or Head of Discipline) for the appropriate account or sub-account. Both roles enable the publishing of UCLearn(Canvas) teaching sites in that account or sub-account.

(33) Unit Conveners cannot publish their own UCLearn(Canvas) teaching site(s).

(34) Faculties will identify at least one faculty Publisher who will have the authority to publish UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites to students.

(35) Faculties may identify more than one faculty Publisher.

(36) Faculties will provide Learning and Teaching with details of their designated faculty Publishers.

(37) A faculty Publisher should be a Course Convener, Discipline Convener, Head of School, Program Director, Associate Dean, Education or Dean, referred to in these Procedures as an Academic Lead.

(38) A faculty may choose to delegate the authority to publish UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites to an appropriately experienced administrative staff member.

(39) With the Faculty’s agreement an Academic Lead, who has been authorised as a faculty Publisher for a designated sub-account, may choose to delegate that role to an appropriately experienced administrative staff member.

(40) Where a faculty Academic Lead delegates their faculty Publisher role to an administrative staff member, the Academic Lead retains responsibility for ensuring that each teaching site meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.

(41) The Unit Convener will design the teaching site to reflect the information in the unit’s outline.

(42) The Unit Convener will complete the UCLearn Publishing Checklist and provide it to the appropriate faculty Publisher.

(43) The faculty Publisher will review teaching sites against the Publishing Checklist and make a professional judgement about whether the teaching site is ready to be made available to students.

(44) When the faculty Publisher is satisfied that the UCLearn (Canvas) teaching site meets the requirements of the Publishing Checklist and is ready to be made available to students, they will publish the site.

(45) Any changes made to the site after it is published must meet the requirements of the UCLearn Publishing Checklist.

(46) The Faculty will inform its Unit Conveners of the timeline for creation, review and publishing of teaching sites to ensure they are available to students at least one week prior to the commencement of the relevant teaching period.

The Publishing Checklist

(47) The UCLearn Publishing Checklist has been developed to help ensure the consistency and quality of the student experience online.

(48) The Unit Convener will design the teaching site to ensure the teaching site meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.

(49) Before a teaching site is published to students by the faculty Publisher it must meet the requirements of the Publishing Checklist.

(50) The Unit Convener will complete the Publishing Checklist and then inform the faculty Publisher that their teaching site is ready for review.

(51) The faculty Publisher will confirm that the Unit Convener and Unit Moderator have reviewed the teaching site against the respective Publishing Checklist.

(52) The faculty Publisher will notify the Unit Convener of any changes to be made to meet the requirements of the Publishing Checklist.

(53) The Unit Convener will make changes as required by the faculty Publisher.

(54) If the faculty Publisher and the Unit Convener cannot agree about whether the site meets the requirements of the Publishing Checklist, then the Publishing Checklist and any associated issues will be reviewed by the Academic Lead.

(55) If the teaching site meets the requirements of the Publishing Checklist the faculty Publisher will publish the teaching site to students.

Changes to UCLearn Teaching Sites After They Have Been Published

(56) No material can be removed from UCLearn teaching sites after the site has been published to students. In particular, no changes can be made which would lead to the removal of student data.

(57) Where additional material is added UCLearn teaching sites after the site has been published to students, the additions must be consistent with the guidelines in the Publishing Checklist.

(58) The Unit Convener will consult the Unit Moderator on any proposed changes to the UCLearn teaching site after publishing.

Top of Page

Section 5 - Roles and Responsibilities

Who Responsibility
Canvas role of Program Director
  • Staff with the Program Director role will review each teaching site in their account or sub-account and ensure that each meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  • Staff with the Program Director role are responsible for taking the decision to publish a teaching site to students.
Canvas role of Publisher
  • Staff with the Publisher role will review each teaching site in their account or sub-account and ensure that each meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  • Staff with the Publisher role are responsible for taking the decision to publish a teaching site to students.
Unit Convener
  • The Unit Convener is responsible for developing a teaching site to meet the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  • The Unit Convener is responsible for providing a completed Publishing Checklist to the faculty Publisher of the teaching site.
  • The Unit Convener is responsible for the quality and completeness of the teaching site.
  • The Unit Convener is responsible for ensuring that the teaching site is published to students one week prior to teaching commencing in the teaching period in which the unit is offered.
Faculty
  • The faculty will identify staff who will have responsibility for publishing UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites to students.
  • The faculty will notify Learning and Teaching, via a Service Desk request, of staff to be provided with either the Program Director or Publisher roles in Canvas.
  • The faculty will establish a timeline to ensure that UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites are created, reviewed and published at least one week before the commencement of teaching in a teaching period.
Learning and Teaching
  • Learning and Teaching will support the Canvas learning management system and integrations with University corporate systems to enable:
    • teaching sites to be automatically created in Canvas and linked to a unit cohort in Callista;
    • teaching sites to be automatically created in Canvas with the Syllabus page set as the home page;
    • teaching sites to be automatically created in Canvas with the standard left-hand side navigation; and
    • teaching sites to be automatically created in Canvas with a link to the unit outline in the Unit Outline system
  • Learning and Teaching will:
    • maintain the Publishing Checklist;
    • maintain and administer Elevated Access processes;
    • maintain and manage elevated access to UCLearn (Canvas); and
    • support and induct faculty staff who have responsibility to publish UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites in the publish process.
Top of Page

Section 6 - Definitions

Terms Definitions
Roles in UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites – teaching site permissions Access to a UCLearn (Canvas) teaching site may be made available to staff and students by applying the roles described below:
  • Student: for enrolled students attached to a cohort in Callista.
  • Participant: same permissions as for Student but only for staff or students who are not enrolled students, or staff without a teaching role.
  • Teacher: a staff member with a teaching role in the teaching site.
  • Unit Convener: the person who is listed as the Unit Convener in Callista should have the Unit Convener role in the teaching site for that unit.
  • Course designer: used by Learning and Teaching's educational design staff to support an academic in designing a learning activity in the teaching site.
The roles listed below will not be used in a UCLearn (Canvas) teaching site:
  • TA: this role is not used as it duplicates the Teacher role.
  • Site manager: not used for teaching sites.
  • Observer: this role is not used as it is designed for a parent of a K-12 student.
Roles in UCLearn (Canvas) that enable access to teaching sites – Account permissions
The account-level roles enable management of UCLearn (Canvas) teaching sites at the discipline, program, or faculty level.

The faculty, discipline and program structures and names are updated through an integration between Canvas and Callista.

Roles at the account level apply to all the teaching sites within the account or a sub-account.
All account and sub-account level roles provided to a staff member require completion of an Elevated Access form and induction into the role.
The account roles below are those that can be used for access and review of teaching sites within sub-accounts:
  • Account admin: this is the highest level of UCLearn (Canvas) administrator and is provided to a small number of staff in Learning and Teaching for platform management purposes.
  • Academic admin: this role is for non-academic staff in a Faculty or discipline area who may have administrative responsibilities and need to be able to add or remove academic staff to a teaching site.
  • Educational designer: this role enables educational designers to add themselves to a teaching site to assist a staff member in developing or improving a learning activity.
  • Program Director: this role is provided to Academic Leads in a faculty (such as Course Conveners, Discipline Conveners, Deans, ADE's, Heads of School). Access is provided only to the sites within the sub-account associated with the staff member. This role has the permission to publish teaching sites.
  • Publisher: A faculty may choose to delegate the Publishing role to an administrative staff member, or an Academic Lead may choose to delegate the Publisher role to another staff member. The Program Director may delegate this role to another staff member, and in that case that person will be considered a faculty Publisher and have the ability to publish teaching sites in that sub-account to students, but not the other permissions associated with the Program Director role.
  • Support admin: this role is provided to UCLearn support staff to enable them to provide support to academic staff, and to students.
The sub-account roles below are those that will not be used for teaching sites:
  • Community director: this role is not used for teaching sites.

University roles and UCLearn roles
  • Program Director – the Program Director role in UCLearn (Canvas) is designed for ADEs and faculty staff who have the Program Director title as outlined in the Curriculum Renewal project. Faculty staff with currently equivalent titles such as Head of Discipline, Head of School, or Course Convener, are also defined as Program Directors in this document.
  • If the Program Director wishes to appoint a publishing moderator to review or moderate a UCLearn (Canvas) teaching site to ensure it is ready to be published, the Program Director can enrol that person in the teaching site with the Teacher role.
  • Faculty Publisher – the Publisher role in UCLearn (Canvas) is provided to a faculty staff member identified by the faculty to review and publish UCLearn sites. Typically this will be a Program Director. A Program Director may delegate the Publisher role to another staff member. If that roles is delegated, the Program Director retains responsibility for each teaching site meeting the requirements of the Publishing Checklist.