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  1. Academic
Authority Source: Academic Quality and Standards Committee
Approval Date: 26/09/2024
Publication Date: 30/09/2024
Review Date: 30/09/2028
Effective Date: 01/01/2025
Custodian: Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Vice-President, Academic
Contact: LT.Policy@canberra.edu.au
Accessibility: Public
Status: Published
In developing this procedure the University had regard to the provisions of section 40B(1)(b) of the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT).
UCLearn Teaching Site Publishing Procedure (effective 1 January 2025)
1. Purpose:
  1. This Procedure outlines how the University of Canberra manages teaching sites in its learning management system, known as UCLearn.
  2. This Procedure explains:
    1. access to and roles related to UCLearn teaching sites
    2. the steps for publishing UCLearn teaching sites to students
    3. the appointment and responsibilities of faculty Publishers
    4. elevated access roles and responsibilities.
2. Scope:
  1. The scope of this procedure is limited to UCLearn teaching sites and the staff who are appointed to manage them (see Section 4 – Responsibilities).
  2. The key roles involved in this procedure are that of Unit Convener, Publisher, Program Director, Unit Moderator, and Faculty Associate Dean, Education (ADE).
3. Procedure:
UCLearn
  1. UCLearn provides online access to information, communication services, and interaction resources for students and staff. Students enrolled in a UCLearn teaching site can:
    1. access the unit outline
    2. access unit announcements
    3. access assessment information and due dates
    4. access learning materials
    5. participate in learning activities
    6. access the reading list
    7. access contact information for the unit’s teaching staff
    8. submit assessment items
    9. review marks for assessment items
    10. interact with peers and educators
    11. access information about UC Support Services.
Access to UCLearn

Credentials
  1. All staff and students have access to UCLearn using their UC username and password. This access is limited to the teaching sites in which they are enrolled, sites that are open, or sites which enable self-enrolment, unless they have Elevated Access in an account or sub-account.
Unit Convener role within UCLearn
  1. A person with the role of Unit Convener within UCLearn can, while the site is open per its settings:
    1. add other people to a teaching site in which they have that role
    2. change the role of other people in that site who do not have the role of Student.
  2. At least one person will have the role of Unit Convener in any UCLearn teaching site. The Unit Convener of a unit (as listed in Callista) should have the role of Unit Convener within the associated teaching site.
  3. The Unit Convener of a unit should add the designated Unit Moderator to their UCLearn teaching site. They should provide the Unit Moderator with the Unit Convener role in UCLearn and add them to the default section. This is the section in the teaching site named after the unit, and which does not have a ‘Callista’ prefix.
  4. In some cases, additional staff may be assigned the Unit Convener role in a teaching site. This should be limited to situations, such as:
    1. where units with different Unit Conveners are co-taught in one UCLearn site
    2. if a unit has a convener at a partner institution and a convener from the Bruce campus
    3. large units where the workload is too heavy for one Unit Convener.

Teacher role within UCLearn
  1. Teaching staff in a unit who are not the Unit Convener will have the role of Teacher within the unit’s teaching site.
  2. A person assigned the Teacher role in UCLearn can, while the site is open per its setting, add other people to a teaching site in which they have that role.
Participant role within UCLearn
  1. Students will not be added to any teaching site manually, even if enrolling late. The enrolment sync will add them correctly and the sync runs multiple times per day. Enrolling students manually can cause issues with them being added to the wrong section(s), and issues with them not being removed correctly if they withdraw.
  2. Any other person, such as a University of the Third Age (U3A) member, PALS Leader, and/or a user with a ‘g’ number, who is not formally enrolled in the unit associated with the teaching site, should have the role of Participant in the teaching site.

Elevated Access within UCLearn
  1. Faculty can request Elevated Access for an account or sub-account through a Service Desk request. This ensures a record is retained of the authority to provide the Elevated Access.
  2. Elevated Access provides an account or sub-account level administrative role in UCLearn.
  3. Elevated Access may be provided to staff who have roles other than teaching in UCLearn.
  4. Staff who are designated by the faculty as faculty Publishers of UCLearn sites must complete an Elevated Access form. This will be provided by Learning and Teaching once a Service Desk request is received.
  5. Roles, and their associated permissions, will vary from time to time due to changes implemented by the learning management system vendor, or due to a review by Learning and Teaching.
  6. Learning and Teaching will maintain records for staff with Elevated Access and regularly review access rights twice per year, before commencement of Semesters 1 and 2.

Creating teaching sites
  1. All teaching sites will be created using the Site Creation Integration tool.
  2. Each teaching site should be created by the Unit Convener for the unit, or the relevant teaching facilitator for non-award study.
Site integrity and recordkeeping
  1. All teaching or course materials, assignments, assessable items and submissions, quizzes or any other course-related content, or any student information or student interaction, which originate and exist within UCLearn must be retained in a teaching site for recordkeeping purposes.
  2. All records are stored according to the retention periods set by the University. See the University’s DITM and Record Keeping Policy Manual for more information.

Publishing teaching sites to students

Timing
  1. UCLearn teaching sites must be published to students at least two weeks before the start of Week One of the relevant teaching period.
  2. A faculty Publisher may publish a teaching site earlier if it has met the Publishing Checklist requirements (see Section 6).
  3. Faculties will manage internal timelines to ensure that teaching sites are created, reviewed and published in accordance with clause (25).
Authority to publish to students
  1. In UCLearn the designated faculty Publisher(s) will be provided with the role of Publisher or Program Director for the appropriate account or sub-account. Both roles can publish UCLearn teaching sites in that account or sub-account.
  2. Unit Conveners should not publish their own UCLearn teaching site(s). Where a Unit Convener has the ability to publish their own site, they must not do so, and must instead liaise with another Publisher or Program Director who has oversight of their unit, or the ADE, who can approve and publish the UCLearn site.
  3. Faculties will identify one or more faculty Publishers who will have the authority to publish UCLearn teaching sites to students. In the case of only one publisher being appointed, the faculty will note that ADEs may be required to publish a site per Clause 3.25.
  4. Faculties will provide Learning and Teaching with the details of their designated faculty Publishers.
  5. A faculty Publisher should be a Course Convener; Discipline Convener; Head of School; Program Director; ADE or Dean, referred to in these procedures as an Academic Lead, or an appropriately experienced administrative staff member.
  6. With the faculty’s agreement, an Academic Lead who has been authorised as a faculty Publisher for a designated sub-account may choose to delegate that role to an appropriately experienced administrative staff member.
  7. Where a faculty Academic Lead delegates their faculty Publisher role to an appropriately experienced administrative staff member, the delegated Publisher has responsibility for ensuring that each teaching site meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  8. The Unit Convener will design the teaching site to reflect the information in the unit’s Unit Outline.
  9. The Unit Convener will remove all redundant or irrelevant information from their UCLearn teaching site, including old unit outlines, teaching team pages, and publishing checklists from prior offerings.
  10. The Unit Convener will complete the Publishing Checklist, using it to ensure the site meets the publication requirements, prior to a review of the site by the Unit Moderator for moderation purposes. The Unit Moderator will leave comments in the ‘Moderation Comments’ section of the Publishing Checklist.
  11. Following moderation, the Unit Convener will advise the appropriate faculty Publisher that the site is ready for publishing.
  12. The faculty Publisher will review the teaching site against the Publishing Checklist and make a professional judgement about whether the teaching site is ready to be made available to students.
  13. When the faculty Publisher is satisfied that the UCLearn teaching site meets the requirements of the Publishing Checklist and is ready to be made available to students, they will complete the ‘Publisher’s Comments’ section in the Publishing Checklist before publishing the site.
  14. Any changes made to the site after it is published must meet the requirements of the Publishing Checklist.
  15. The faculty will inform its Unit Conveners of the timeline for creation, review and publishing of teaching sites to ensure they are available to students at least two weeks prior to the start of Week One of the relevant teaching period.
The Publishing Checklist
  1. The Publishing Checklist for UCLearn teaching sites has been developed to help ensure the consistency and quality of the student experience online.
  2. UCLearn teaching sites published to students must meet the requirements in the Publishing Checklist (see section 6 below) to ensure:
    1. the consistency and quality of student experience online
    2. accessibility for all students, and demonstrable evidence that the site meets legislative requirements for accessibility
    3. confirmation that the site meets the legislated copyright requirements of the University
    4. essential information about an academic unit is available to students enrolled in it through the learning management system.
  3. The Unit Convener will design the teaching site to ensure the teaching site meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  4. The Unit Convener will complete the Publishing Checklist, and include any Unit Convener comments. During moderation of the site, the Unit Moderator will review the site against the Publishing Checklist, prior to leaving moderation comments. The Unit Convener can then inform the faculty Publisher that their teaching site is ready for review.
  5. The faculty Publisher will confirm that the Unit Convener and Unit Moderator have reviewed the teaching site against the Publishing Checklist.
  6. The faculty Publisher will notify the Unit Convener and Unit Moderator and moderator of any changes to be made to meet the requirements of the Publishing Checklist.
  7. The Unit Convener will make changes as required by the faculty Publisher.
  8. If the faculty Publisher and the Unit Convener cannot agree about whether the site meets the requirements of the Publishing Checklist, then the Publishing Checklist and any associated issues will be reviewed by the Program Director (or in instances where the Publisher is also the Program Director, reviewed by the Head of School or Associate Dean of Education).
  9. If the teaching site meets the requirements of the Publishing Checklist, the faculty Publisher will complete the ‘Publishers Comments’ section in the Publishing Checklist before publishing the teaching site to students.
Changes to teaching sites after publication
  1. No published material can be removed from UCLearn teaching sites after the site has been published to students. Where published material requires edits or modification, particularly as it relates to assessments, students must be formally notified (for example, via UCLearn announcement) where changes are made.
  2. Where published material in the teaching site needs to be made unavailable to students, the material should be unpublished (rather than deleted) in the teaching site (making it unavailable to students but retained as a record of the learning experience). Any new, updated, or modified material can then be published in its place.
  3. No changes can be made which would lead to the removal of student data.
  4. Where additional material is added to UCLearn teaching sites after the site has been published to students, the additions must be consistent with the guidelines in the Publishing Checklist.
  5. On any proposed major changes to a UCLearn teaching site after publishing (for example: assessment details or content related to assessments) the Unit Convener must consult the  moderator and/or Publisher. Any changes must be consistent with the University’s Assessment Policy and Procedures and have the approval of the Associate Dean, Education or delegate.
4. Roles and Responsibilities:
WHO RESPONSIBILITIES
UCLearn role of Program Director
  • Reviewing each teaching site in their account or sub-account and ensuring that each meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  • May publish a teaching site to students.
UCLearn role of Publisher
  • Reviewing each teaching site in their account or sub-account and ensuring that each meets the Publishing Checklist requirements.
  • May publish a teaching site to students.
Unit Convener
  • Developing a teaching site to meet the Publishing Checklist requirements prior to the site being published.
  • Providing a completed Publishing Checklist to the faculty Publisher of the teaching site.
  • Ensuring the quality and completeness of the teaching site.
  • Ensuring that the teaching site is published to students two weeks prior to teaching commencing in the teaching period in which the unit is offered.
  • Notifying Unit Moderators when sites are ready for review.
  • Adding Unit Moderators to teaching sites with a Unit Convener role.
Unit Moderator
  • Reviewing a teaching site consistent with faculty internal processes, including but not limited to alignment to unit outline, quality assurance of assessment tasks and adherence to Publishing Checklist.
  • Providing feedback to the Unit Convener and recording moderation details in the appropriate space in the Publishing Checklist.
  • Providing moderator comments in GradeLink at the end of the teaching period.
  • Verifying appropriate  grades have been applied in GradeLink.
Faculty Associate Dean, Education
  • Identifying staff who will have responsibility for publishing UCLearn teaching sites to students.
  • Notifying Learning and Teaching, via a ServiceDesk request, of staff to be provided with the Program Director or Publisher roles in UCLearn.
  • Establishing a timeline to ensure that UCLearn teaching sites are created, reviewed and published at least two weeks before the commencement of teaching in a teaching period.
  • Approving revisions to summative assessment after initial course approval (Faculty Board may also do this as set out in the Delegations of Authority).
Learning and Teaching
  • Supporting the UCLearn learning management system and integrations with UC corporate systems to enable teaching sites to be automatically created in UCLearn and:
    • linked to a unit cohort in Callista
    • with the Syllabus page set as the home page
    • with the standard left-hand side navigation
    • with a link to the unit outline in the Unit Outline system.
  • Maintaining the Publishing Checklist.
  • Maintaining and administering Elevated Access processes.
  • Maintaining and managing Elevated Access to UCLearn.
  • Supporting faculty staff who have responsibility to publish UCLearn teaching sites in the publishing process.
5. Governing Policy and Legislation:
Legislation
  1. The following legislation is related to this Procedure:
    1. Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021
    2. Higher Education Support Act 2003.
Policies and procedures
  1. The following Policies and Procedures are related to this Procedure:
    1. Assessment Policy
    2. Assessment Procedures
    3. Course Procedure: Courses and Course Components
    4. DITM and Records Management Policy Manual
    5. Unit Outline Procedure.
6. Supporting Information:
Publishing checklist for Unit Conveners
TEACHING SITE: UNIT NAME, NUMBER AND SITE URL YES/ NO
Copyright: I confirm that the Copyright requirements of the University have been met.           
Accessibility: I confirm that the Accessibility requirements of the University have been met. I confirm Reasonable Adjustment Plans will be managed and applied per guidelines and in consultation with InclusionUC.  
Unit Outline:
  • Assessment details and dates in the teaching site are consistent with the Unit Outline.
  • The correct unit outline for the teaching period is available for students to access.
  • The unit mode of delivery expressed in the Unit Outline aligns with the information in the UCLearn site.
  
STUDENT EXPERIENCE YES/ NO
Staff Roles:
  • My role in this site is Unit Convener.
  • Other staff have been added to the site as Teacher.
  
Home Page: The default Home Page is the Syllabus page, and this has not been altered. Placeholder text has been updated to include:
  • A general welcome to the unit.
  • Expectations on how to complete the unit, in line with UC unit modes of delivery (particularly in relation to online self-paced).
  
Teaching Team Page: A Teaching Team page has been included in my site automatically. I confirm that it has been published and placeholder text has been updated to include:
  • Information about the unit convener.
  • How, when and where students can contact teaching staff.
  
Site Navigation: The default site navigation has not been altered from the following: Home/Syllabus/Announcements/Modules/Discussions/Pages/Assignments/ Quizzes/Grades (or Marks)/ePortfolio/Lecture Recordings/Reading List/Office 365/Virtual Room/People/Studiosity Online Study Help/Library Resources/UCLearnTools/Rubrics/New Analytics/Search
Exceptions to this may be granted by the ADE on an individual case-by-case basis. Consistency is encouraged across units within courses or programs of study.		  
Reading List:
  • The Reading List has been created using the Reading List tool, and readings have not been directly uploaded to the UCLearn site as separate files.
  • The Reading List has been published and sent to the Library for processing of items requiring clearance of copyright.
  • Any copyrighted scholarly materials uploaded to third-party platforms, such as interactive document activities, have also been uploaded to the Reading List for clearance of copyright.
  
Text Matching:
  • Text matching has been enabled on all weighted, text-based assessment items.
  • A draft submission box has been created to enable students to generate text-matching reports on their drafts.
  
Assignments:
  • ‘’Due’ and ‘until’ dates have been set for each weighted assessment item. Where this is not the case due to the nature of the assessment, justification is provided in the publishing checklist notes.
  • All unweighted assessments are configured to not contribute to the final grade.
  
Quizzes/Exams:
  • The settings have been checked and meet requirements as per the unit outline.
  • Question banks and quizzes/exams have been tested to ensure they work as expected.
  • ‘’Due’ and ‘until’ dates have been set on all summative quizzes/exams. Where this is not the case due to the nature of the quiz/exam, justification is provided in the publishing checklist notes.
  • Exams must have an available from date set in the future, and later amended when the exam schedule is released, such that students cannot access the exam until its scheduled day and time.
  
Grades: Grades/Marks are set up correctly in the Gradebook:
  • All assessment items have a column.
  • Weighted Assignment Groups (if required) are configured to reflect the assessment weightings in the unit outline. This supports the correct calculation of the final grade in the Gradebook.
  • An automatic late penalty of 10% per day can be applied in the Gradebook settings. If this setting is disabled, the Unit Convener agrees they will manually apply late penalties consistent with the Assessment Procedures.
  • There are no unnecessary or extra Assignment Groups.
  • Assignment Groups have meaningful names.
Please note: in the Gradebook, grades are hidden by default on site creation.		  
Lecture Recordings: The Lecture Recordings tool has been linked to the correct section. Where a section is not being used, all lectures have been uploaded to Echo and made available via UCLearn pages or modules.  
Student View:
  • All links have been validated using the Link validator. (Go to ‘Settings’ and select ‘Validate Links in Content’.)
  • All resources can be viewed using the student view. (Except for external tools such as Lecture Recordings, Mahara e-Portfolios, Reading Lists & Office 365.)
  • Uploaded files open correctly.
  • Audio and video files play correctly.
  • All applicable resources and content have been published.
  
I understand that any changes made to the teaching site after the site has been published must meet the requirements of the Publishing Checklist.  

Publishing checklist for unit moderators/faculty publishers
CONFIRM YES/NO
I have reviewed this site and the Unit Convener's comments, and I am satisfied that the Unit Convener has met the requirements of the University's UCLearn Teaching Site Publishing Procedure, in line with the Unit Convener Publishing Checklist.  

Role descriptions
CATEGORY DESCRIPTION
Roles in UCLearn teaching sites – Teaching site permissions Access to a UCLearn teaching site may be made available to staff and students by applying the roles described below:
  • Student: for enrolled students attached to a cohort in Callista. Students should not be manually added into teaching sites by staff.
  • Participant: same permissions as for Student but only for staff or students who are not enrolled students, staff without a teaching role, or University of the Third Age (U3A) students.
  • Teacher: a staff member with a teaching role in the teaching site.
  • Unit Convener: the person who is listed as the Unit Convener in Callista should have the Unit Convener role in the teaching site for that unit. The Unit Moderator should also be assigned the Unit Convener role.
  • Course Designer: used by Learning and Teaching's educational design staff to support an academic in designing a learning activity in the teaching site.
  • Site Manager: this role is equivalent to the Unit Convener role, though individuals with the Site Manager role will not have access to the unit offering in GradeLink. This role may be used as required by the faculty, however it is not recommend to be used for staff who are teaching in the unit offering. In those cases, Teacher and Unit Convener roles are more appropriate.
The roles listed below will not be used in a UCLearn teaching site:
  • TA: this role is not used as it duplicates the Teacher role.
  • Observer: this role is not used as it is designed for a parent of a K–12 student.
Roles in UCLearn that enable site publishing  – Account permissions The account-level roles enable management of UCLearn teaching sites at the discipline, program, or faculty level.
The faculty, discipline and program structures and names are updated through an integration between UCLearn and Callista.
Roles at the account level apply to all the teaching sites within the account or a sub-account.
All account and sub-account level roles provided to a staff member can be requested via a Service Desk request, and require completion of an Elevated Access form and induction into the role.
The account roles below are those that can be used for access and review of teaching sites within sub-accounts:
  • Program Director: this role is provided to Academic Leads in a faculty (such as Course Conveners, Program Directors, Discipline Conveners, Deans, ADEs, Heads of School). Access is provided only to the sites within the sub-account associated with the staff member. This role has the permission to publish teaching sites.
  • Publisher: A faculty may choose to delegate the Publisher role to an appropriately experienced administrative staff member, or an Academic Lead may choose to delegate the Publisher role to another staff member, and in that case that person will be considered a faculty Publisher. Faculty Publishers can publish teaching sites in that sub-account to students, but do not have the other permissions associated with the Program Director role.
7. Definitions:
TERMS DEFINITIONS
NIL NIL