Projects

• 1: ARK Review (Jun 2024 - Mar 2025)
• 2: SSO Migration
• 3: ARK Upgrade (2023) ☑
• 4: SGR Annual reporting forms online ☑
• 5: Privacy transparency updates

1 - ARK Review (Jun 2024 - Mar 2025)

Context

The LMS (named ARK) is considered a key resource in the provision of learning and teaching across the University of Divinity. The LMS was deployed in 2014, with the view for a single, university-wide platform that would serve all colleges in their learning and teaching and provide a consistent experience to students studying units at one or more of the colleges. The University’s collegiate model is reflected in the design and implementation with each college having separate areas, themes, staffing and support. An integral part of the deployment was integration with the student management system so that administration of students, units and enrolments was automated. Another key integration was the adoption of Turnitin for assessment submissions, grading and academic integrity analysis. Upgrades to the core platform in 2018, 2020, and 2023 saw expansion of the base capabilities. The deployment of Zoom for synchronous video in 2020 supplemented the platform (switching away from two years use of BigBlueButton).

The governance of the LMS is through the Learning Management System Policy¹ that came into effect in 2018. The Academic Board is responsible for the “design and development of the LMS” and a sub-committee, the Learning Environments Committee (LEC), is tasked with management. Part of LEC’s role is to provide recommendations to the Academic Board. This major review, to be undertaken every 5 years, is a key part of the strategic management of the LMS.

Objective

Within this context, this review seeks to evaluate the LMS and its use against the principles outlined in the LMS policy and ascertain its “fitness for purpose, value and suitability for current and future needs, overall design, and contractual arrangements with suppliers” (5.2.1).

The output of this review is “a report to the Academic Board including recommendations, if any, for the design and development of the LMS. This must clearly identify any budget requests to be made through the Academic Board to the Council” (5.2.3).

The report is intended to shape the priorities for system development and resourcing as well as student and staff support over the next 5 years.

Timeframe

The review will commence no later than 1 July 2024 and will present its findings to Learning Environments Committee and Academic Board no later than 31 March 2025. If the review identifies risks to quality it may provide a preliminary report and recommendations for immediate action to LEC by 12 November 2024.

Contact

If you would like further information about the review process or the survey, please contact the UD LMS Review Team at lms-review@divinity.edu.au.

FAQ

Does this mean that you are changing to another platform? No. This review seeks to determine to what extent ARK is fit for purpose. Where gaps are identified, plans and resources to address these will be recommended.

2 - SSO Migration

Single Sign-On (SSO) enables a person to sign into one service and once authenticated use the same credentials for accessing additional configured services. This provides a more seamless experience alongside better security.

The University is deploying a Single Sign-On (SSO) service for the majority of its IT systems. The primary benefit is that you will only need to sign in once and will not be re-prompted as you move across University managed systems. Other advantages include reducing the number of logins that staff need to remember, simplifying the password reset process and improving cybersecurity resilience.

We are currently working with vendors to prepare ARK and the LibraryHub to support this. In preparation, we would like to have all staff migrate their accounts on the Forms and UMS sites to the new SSO service. This way a password will already be set up and you with familiar with its operation when those services are migrated. A number of you have already begun using this method, so please confirm that you are doing step 2.

There is migration guide for setting up your existing account.

3 - ARK Upgrade (2023) ☑

The upgrade will update functionality, add new features and enhance privacy and security. These changes will be highlighted in future communications so that you will be familiar with them ahead of time.

Background work for this project has already commenced. The upgrade will occur during the period 11 December 5pm - 12 December 5pm. ARK will be unavailable during this window. This timing was chosen in order to minimise disruption to students and staff.

The impact to you will depend on your role within the University.

• Academic staff teaching in December will need to factor in a day in which ARK is unavailable and time to review their unit(s) after the upgrade.
• Most academic staff will need to allocate a small amount of time to reading communications about changes and then after the upgrade reviewing how their units now look as they prepare for teaching.
• Those in the ARKLO role will be a part of the project team and key contacts for communication.

FAQ

What will be changing?

The main functions of teaching and learning on ARK will remain familiar to you. The upgrade brings some improvements to navigation, usability and completion tracking. Read the support document to find out what’s new.

We’re stepping ahead 4 versions of Moodle. If you want a more detailed overview about what’s new in those versions visit:

• What’s new in Moodle 3.10
• What’s new in Moodle 3.11
• What’s new in Moodle 4.0
• What’s new in Moodle 4.1

Will I be provided training on the new ARK?

Yes! We’re working on documentation on how to use the new ARK and improving the guides for new teachers at the University of Divinity. We will run some training sessions towards the end of the year and in the new year.

Will I lose my courses?

No. Your courses will be backed up and migrated to the new version.

4 - SGR Annual reporting forms online ☑

The School of Graduate Research requires each HDR candidate and their supervisor to provide an annual report. The reports consist of three parts, each being filled out and reviewed by different parties. Historically, these three forms have been Word forms that are downloaded, filled out and transferred via email.

This project aims to convert the existing forms to online versions and provide a simple workflow and reporting interface for all parties involved. Further, it will leverage SSO for security, and internal data (via APIs) to ensure only authorised parties can fill out the forms and review the submissions.

Outputs

Forms A, B, and C are now available online at https://portal.divinity.edu.au/

5 - Privacy transparency updates

The University’s Privacy Policy states that it “respects individuals’ privacy and is open and transparent about how it handles all personal information”. We also have obligations under Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) to inform people regarding information collected and used by the University, along with types of information disclosed to third parties and under what circumstances.

This project aims to prepare materials to better inform people. In doing so the decision was made to align with the EU’s GDPR as this (a) provides a higher standard; (b) prepares us for upcoming changes to the Privacy Act (Cth) which is indicated to be moving towards GDPR; and (c) enables us to engage students from the EU.

Outputs

An introduction has been published at https://divinity.edu.au/privacy/

A collection statement for student being admitted has been published at https://divinity.edu.au/privacy/admissions-privacy-and-collection-statement/

A collection statement for current students has been published at https://divinity.edu.au/privacy/students-privacy-and-collection-statement/