Canvas for WIL and Accreditation

This week I have been on training to use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). I have been using Moodle for 17 years, but Canvas doesn't look that different. At the same time I have been asked to contribute to a local event at ANU College of ANU College of Systems & Society on how to improve Work Integrated Learning (WIL). As I happened to be learning Canvas I have volunteered to lead a session on how it can be used for WIL. As I have been involved with accreditation for the Australian Computer Society (ACS) I also volunteer to contribute to a session on that. Here I am collecting my thoughts on the topic.  

There are specialised systems to help with experiential learning. Some of these are very specialised. As an example, I provided some advice on the development of the Student Practice Evaluation Form – Revised (SPEF-R) at The University of Queensland. This is used for occupational therapy students on placements. It has been used across Australia and is very useful for that purpose, but not applicable to other professional training. 

A LMS can't help with the difficult task of finding places for students to get experience. But they can help provide students with the familiar structure of a "course" with deliverables. Also underappreciated is to give staff some structure. These can be the workplace clients or supervisors of the students, but also the academic staff mentoring and assessment them. 

One idea which came up with Canvas training about quizzes was to use such simple tests to help orientate the students. I asked Microsoft Copilot to create a set of multiple choice questions, based on the ANU Techlauncher public description. Here is one of the questions:

Q: What is the primary goal of the TechLauncher program?

  A To develop advanced coding skills
  B To foster teamwork and project management skills
  C To learn about the latest technology trends
  D To prepare students for academic research

This may seems trivial, but it can be difficult to get students (and staff) out of the habit of seeing learning as about attending lectures.  

Assessment

The LMS can be used to lay out the milestones for the WIL, each with an assessed task. Rubrics can be used to clarify and simplify, the assessment. The student can see what they have to do, the assessor then indicates by ticking boxes on the rubric, how well they have done it. 

One challenge for universities is the form of assessment to be used. Vocational education would normally only use pass/fail grading (or "Competent/Not Yet Competent"). Universities tend to use a scale (and some accretion processes require this). However, perhaps on all of the tasks for WIL need to be graded finely. Small tasks can be pass/fail, with a few to grade more finely. 

Collaboration

I am most familiar with the ANU School of Computing's Techlauncher and Internships. Techlauncher has groups of students working for a client, whereas internships are individual. This semester I have been assigned a group of interns all at the same company and another all with the Australian Public Service. This provides mutual support for the students, and something which might be formalised, in a similar way to group projects. 

Accreditation

Accreditation bodies, such as ACS and Engineers Australia, need to be assured that every student achieves every learning outcome required from WIL. The risk is the university will simply send the student off to work and they will have AI write them a report. The LMS can help with assurance by showing there is a structure to the process. The evidence for each learning outcome can be recorded in the LMS, timestamped. This can be accompanied by a report from the workplace supervisor to say the student was there and performed, to the required standard.