Innovation—it’s in our name! Teaching and Learning Innovations accepts a limited number of academic technology pilots each year, pending funding and capacity of TLi staff and faculty partners. Our goal is to educate the people who partner with us throughout the entire process, from initial interest to project launch, maintenance, and/or handoff, in order to have a good partnership experience built on clear expectations and trust.
What is a pilot?
In order for CSUCI to adopt a new academic technology and integrate it into the Learning Management System (LMS), Canvas, the tool needs to meet certain security and accessibility requirements, as well as demonstrate usability and potential for impact toward student learning outcomes. We pilot new tools before adopting or purchasing them to test and evaluate them.
Pilots require significant project management work from TLi’s Academic Technology Lead to connect with the vendor, acquire necessary security/accessibility documentation, construct the LMS integration (including limited access for pilot groups, which may or may not require new account creations), recruit pilot participants, document the pilot process, collect evaluation data, maintain the vendor relationship, and report to CSUCI’s Academic Technology Committee.
Previous pilots that led to campus adoption (examples)
- Canvas (Learning Management System)
- VoiceThread (interactive discussions & presentations)
- PlayPosit (interactive videos)
Current pilots
- Hypothesis (social text annotation)
- Ensightful (project management tool for group work in Canvas)
Key Information
- Currently, TLi can support up to two pilots per academic year.
- In order to consider an academic pilot request, TLi needs the following information: project summary; tool website; vendor contact; funding plan; proposed pilot period; prospective campus collaborators; security & accessibility documentation; alignment to CSUCI’s strategic goals.
- Academic technology pilots are collaborative. It is helpful to consider the wider applicability of this tool beyond a single use case or academic program and to seek others who are willing to test the tool during the pilot period.
Questions about academic technology pilots should be directed to Michael McGarry, Academic Technology Lead.