WebCT Vista and Connect are UBC’s online learning management systems, and have become essential tools for supporting online learning activities. At UBC, in excess of 25,000 students and more than 3,000 instructors use WebCT Vista and Connect as part of their course experience. Training is regularly available through the Learning Technology Institute.
The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology assists in developing and evaluating extensions (plug-ins) to the learning management system and collaborates with UBC IT in keeping them up to date. Currently, the following extensions are available:
What is perhaps not well understood is that there is abundant data in these systems that can be interpreted to provide insight into student engagement in the course content, with their colleagues and with the instructor.
CTLT is collaborating with Planning and Institutional Research (PAIR), academic partners on campus and international researchers to investigate and develop tools and processes that enable more efficient and effective use of the data available within learning management systems (LMS). Eventually, this research may extend to other types of software systems. See the latest research on student engagement and the LMS.
