IASystem 2.02-2.03 Release Notes

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New Features & Modifications

Release 2.02-2.03 includes more ways to connect students to evaluations through LMS integration, improved ability to evaluate “assigned instructor” courses that have multiple instructors working with a subset of students in the class list (such as independent study courses), and various user interface enhancements and system improvements including:

  • Updated Response Rate data export option for open evaluations; added the option to generate a CSV data file for open course evaluations similar to the existing data export for closed evaluations.  The Export Specifications documentation has been updated.
  • Improved messaging for students trying to access either a pending or closed evaluation
    • Pending: “This course evaluation is scheduled to open on MM/DD/YYYY.”
    • Closed: “This course evaluation closed on MM/DD/YYYY.”
  • Modified permissions for the IASystem™ “Administrator” user role
    • The Administrator role is the only role that can control access to student comments and this action cannot be assigned to other roles; the Administrator role has been modified so it always has access to student comments. In other words, this role can no longer lock itself out of an action that it controls.
    • Administrators can now manage the new Integration feature

Please note, as a result of these changes, we have updated both the  IASystem™ Administrator User Guide and IASystem™ Coordinator User Guide.

LMS Integration Feature with new IASystem™ LTI v 1.0 Tool:

IASystem™ now provides learning management system (LMS) integration using the IMS Global Learning Consortium (www.imsglobal.org) Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specification.  This feature provides IASystem™ Administrators the opportunity to configure and use the IASystem™ LTI tool to provide course evaluation links for students within your campus LMS application.

IASystem™ requires user and course identifiers for single-sign-on and access to course evaluations.  When embarking on an IASystem™ LTI integration, first contact support@iasystem.org to confirm and discuss the required data items.  Details can be found in the IASystem™ Integration Guide.

  • New Integration Menu Option:  The IASystem™ administrative portal provides authorized users with the opportunity to view their client-specific LTI tool endpoint and configure the key/secret combination for the LMS tool consumer by selecting Manage > Integration in the drop down menu.
  • Changes to Roles: The IASystem™ Administrator role now has the permission to “Manage Integrations”; Administrators can use the custom role feature to assign this permission to other users.

Support for new “Assigned Instructor” Course Type:

In order to better support the evaluation of course types, such as independent study, that have multiple instructors working with a subset of students, we have modified the system so that when an evaluation is created for an instructor in an “Assigned Instructor” course, that instructor will only be evaluated by their assigned student(s).

Assigned Instructor Course Type

assigned-instructor

 

 This graphic represents an “Assigned Instructor” course type with 3 instructors (A, B, C) and 4 students (1, 2, 3, 4)

  • Student 1 is assigned to Instructor A
  • Student 2 is assigned to Instructor B
  • Students 3 & 4 are assigned to Instructor C

In this example, up to three evaluations could be created, one for each instructor, and each student would only evaluate their assigned instructor.
  • Changes to Institutional Data Uploads: In order to take advantage of the new “Assigned Instructor” course type, additional data needs to be imported into the system. The Excel templates for uploading courses & student classlists have been updated with these additional fields.
    Please note: Assigned Instructor fields are optional and IASystem™ retains support for the original Excel templates that do not have these additional fields. If you do not want to classify and support this course type, you do not need to make any changes to your templates or data queries.
    • NEW! Time Schedule (Courses) template has a new optional “Assigned Instructor” field that identifies if the course type is “Assigned Instructor” – A zero or blank field means this course is not an “Assigned Instructor” course type- A one (1) indicates this course is an “Assigned Instructor” course type
    • NEW! Classlist (Students) template has a new optional “Instructor ID” field for students enrolled in “Assigned Instructor” courses; this identifier provides the ability to link a student to an instructor
  • Changes to Data Exports: The evaluation parameters export now includes the data field, ‘assigned instructor’ to identify this course type.
  • Changes to Manage Instructors & Students:  Modifications have been made in the Manage Instructors & Students pages in order to identify and support “Assigned Instructor” course types.  Changes include:
    • Displaying label “Assigned Instructor” next to Course ID
    • Modifying instructor list to display a per-instructor enrollment number for assigned students
    • Modifying student list  to display the name(s) of assigned instructor(s) and provide an option for users to add, edit or delete a student’s assigned instructor