Nick Contant and Martha Davis

Number of people involved:

Two (Academic Advisor, Tech Support). Additional elements may require the talents of additional individuals. For example, the addition of an AI based question and answer element may require additional expertise.

Program/Class the plan was used for:

The LSR site was built to provide various supporting resources to learners in the Adult Education program with the goal of improving student success and retention.

Procedure:

Students access the LSR in a variety of different ways:

• 1) Learners who are enrolled in Adult Education courses are manually added to the LSR Sakai site, which enables the learner to access the LSR from their list of Sakai Sites.
• 2) The LSR is also available as a tool in every Sakai course site. This promotes ease of access and encourages Adult Education learners to use this resource.
• 3) Depending on the nature of phone or email questions from learners to their Academic Advisor, they may be directed to the LSR. They are also directed to the LSR in the Academic Advisor’s ADED Newsletters that are sent to learners several times each year by email.

Example of activity:

The LSR amalgamates general information learners would otherwise have to search multiple University webpages to find. This includes:

• – General ADED program information
• – Registrar`s website – registration, Letters of Permission, access to Advisors, important dates (durations, registration, drop & add, withdrawal dates)
• – Student Accounts and Financial Aid
• – Academic Integrity
• – APA Guidelines
• – Accessibility Services
• – Library Research Guides
• – Sakai Support

Ways in which the plan addresses democratization or justice:

• – LSR provides open access to information by allowing learners to easily connect with the site at any time and from any location via an internet connection.
  • o The LSR provides just in time help with regard to upcoming deadlines:
    • Registration
    • Dropping and adding courses
    • Withdrawing from courses
    • Tuition implications
    • Information related to assignment submissions
    • Library resources relating to writing, citing, and research
    • Sakai support

• – LSR is available to learners in all ADED programs – BEd in Adult Education as a First Degree, BEd in Adult Education as a Subsequent Degree, Certificate in Adult Education, and Minors in Adult Education.

Variations of the activity:

The information found on the LSR would otherwise need to be accessed via dozens of webpages at Brock. This often requires knowing which University department is involved and knowing the precise terminology to be used.

How to build the activity in SAKAI (Nick can help with this):

The LSR Sakai site was built using a multitude of different Sakai tools which focused on displaying information; as this was the purpose of the site, and Brock email is still the preferred method of communication. The various Sakai tools that were leveraged to build the LSR include:

• – Announcements: Share text, multimedia, links, or attached documents in a targeted announcement to individual or groups of learners.
• – Lessons: Design custom interactive modules to display information to site participants.
• – Web Content: Import webpages as a tool into Sakai.
• – Overview: Use text, multimedia or links to breakdown the resources available on the LSR.

Other technology needed for the plan:

In collaboration with the Faculty of Education Computing Services, an AI based chat bot was also added to the LSR. Alphie, the Academic Success Bot provides immediate access to information found in the LSR, University webpages. Alphie was added as an additional mechanism to expedite student access to information.

References:

Lacovidou M., Gibbs P., Zopiatis A. (2009). An exploratory use of the stakeholder approach to defining and measuring quality: The case of a Cypriot higher education institution. Quality in Higher Education, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 147-165