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Gazette Januar y 2021
AC A DE M IC E XC E L L E NC E
Digital Learning Strategy 2020 The objective of our Digital Learning Strategy is the thoughtful and innovative integration of high quality face-to-face teaching with online digital practices to deliver a flexible and personalised learning experience for our students.
1. Learning Management System With the successful introduction of KingsNet, the School’s communication platform, this year, in particular, has provided our academic leaders with the opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of iLearn as the platform for delivering academic classes and resources, both during the distance learning phase (asynchronous) earlier in the year and in face-to-face teaching (synchronous) in our classrooms. The School has identified that a key objective in the successful delivery of digital resources to our students is the consolidation of these resources on to the one platform. For this reason, the decision was made to move to Canvas, a Learning Management System in use by schools and universities in Australia and around the world. Canvas is supported by a huge community of users and continues to grow in response to the needs of its users. The School has provided academic staff with Professional Learning opportunities throughout Term 3 and 4 to develop Canvas skills and to begin to develop Canvas courses. Facilitated by external trainers (experienced teachers) from Canvas, staff worked through the types of opportunities and challenges that are typically encountered in the first few weeks of going live in this system with students.
The aim of the professional learning opportunities was for teachers and administrators to build depth of knowledge and experience in using a range of features in Canvas and importantly, establish a common baseline of knowledge across the campuses. Delivered as a series of hands-on sessions with facilitated discussion, teachers and administrators became familiar with and confident in the fundamentals of Canvas specifically related to content delivery and assessing with Canvas. In addition to the two formal Professional Learning days, the Canvas@Kings Project Team offered a series of drop in sessions for individual staff or Departments to hone their Canvas skills. Feedback from academic staff has been extremely positive. Several faculties in the Senior School have already started to deliver their Canvas courses to students; from Term 4 2020, all Year 11 students will have transitioned from iLearn to Canvas to ensure consistency (throughout 2020 and 2021). From the start of the 2021 academic year, all other Senior School students will also transition to Canvas. The Canvas@Kings Project Team worked with each Deputy Head/ Director – Academics, and in the Senior School each Head of Department as well, to design an implementation strategy suited to their specific needs. The School is confident that the transition to Canvas will provide many
benefits to students across the Senior School, Prep School and Tudor House.
2. Textbooks With the introduction of Canvas as the School-wide Learning Management System, the School now has the opportunity to consolidate its digital resources on to the one platform. In the Senior School, the decision has been made to transition from Campion to Box of Books, an Australian owned company at the forefront of digital learning. There are many advantages for the School, academic staff and students in moving to digital textbooks. Box of Books integrates seamlessly with Canvas, enabling Senior School students to have access to their complete suite of digital textbooks within Canvas, thus allowing us to consolidate digital textbook resources into the Canvas platform. Other benefits of digital textbooks include: • Textbooks
can be downloaded instantly; this ensures that students have access to the resources they require anywhere and anytime and on any device
• Digital
textbooks are cost effective when compared with print copies
• Flexibility;
resources can be instantly exchanged when students change subjects or level
