An Online countdown

A message from the Provost Professor Belinda Tynan:

Firstly, I’d like to say very big thank you for your engagement. A whopping 622 staff joined us last week for the announcement of Canvas as our new learning platform. Clearly, there is a great deal of interest in the power of the platform and in supporting our students’ learning experience. With Canvas, we will have a tool that will do its job quietly in the background but allow our academics and teaching staff to come the fore and do what they do best: engaging their students in learning.

But Canvas is not our only new platform. It is certainly huge and its first outing will be as part our next great initiative. The Office of Digital Education will implement Canvas over the next year for ACU Online courses before a university-wide roll out led by the Learning and Teaching Centre in 2023. It is important that you know there will be ample support and communication for staff at each step of the process.

During the showcase, we learned about the features, functionality of the learning platform, and support available to students and staff through ACU Online. Canvas was chosen in a competitive procurement process over other contenders. If you were unable to join the session live, you can watch the recording here.

What I enjoy most about introducing something as significant as ACU Online, is that it brings people together to truly collaborate.

The Office of Digital Education and I have been meeting with areas across the university to engage staff in this initiative. This month we have met with staff from schools, Libraries, First Peoples, the Learning and Teaching Centre, Student Success, IT, HR, Sport and Wellbeing, Properties and Facilities, and we are only halfway through! Each of these teams has demonstrated a collective desire to create an enriched, supportive experience for ACU Online students. This is where our mission focus and commitment to service excellence connect, providing a service of equity, diversity, accessibility, and sustainability.

While students are always at the heart of what we deliver, the experience of those who provide that service is equally valuable. It is important that you have been part of the consultation, implementation and testing. What makes ACU Online special is that it is ours, not a separate entity and that brings with it the opportunity to use all of our expertise and experience in building this venture.

Our next exciting milestone is the launch of ACU Online on 3 December. As we introduce our newest enterprise, we will also be rolling out a marketing campaign to build awareness of ACU Online as part of ACU. Wherever students are around the country, ACU will be an appealing option to start or continue their studies. Students who choose to learn through ACU Online will have extensive support; they may be studying at home, but never alone.

As with any large-scale and complex program of work – we don’t expect it to be perfect on day one, there will be improvements that are needed, and we will make them, with an exceptional student experience remaining our upmost priority.

Thank you to everyone for the way in which you have engaged in supporting ACU Online.

Earlier in the year we introduced Vygo, an online platform for student-to-student mentoring to help our commencing students stay connected and supported. These are among the many ventures that we are introducing to enhance ACU’s digital strategy, designed to improve both the student experience and also yours.