New software coming to Canvas will let students in online classes participate in discussions as early as Spring.
The software lets students tag and post questions on a timeline adjacent to class lecture videos. Former UF staff members at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and a current staff member at the Warrington College of Business Administration have worked on creating the new interactive software for the past few years, Tawnya Means, the director of Warrington’s Teaching and Learning Center, wrote in an email.
Though the software is only a prototype, Means said she is hoping to pilot the program in UF classes by the end of Spring. She and the former Graham Center staff wanted to give students taking online classes a way to interact with their professors and fellow students.
The Graham Center funded the software, she said. Because it was developed at UF, it will be free for UF students and faculty to license through Canvas. The technology can also be used for lectures in face-to-face courses.
“We still have some way to go before it is usable and fully scalable,” she said.
But Emily Porterfield, a 21-year-old UF accounting senior, said she worries about students asking irrelevant questions and taking advantage of the software. She’s also concerned with the clarity of questions.
“If I have a question, I would prefer not to articulate it in text because sometimes it’s hard to get my point across when I don’t fully grasp the subject yet,” she said. “It’s nice to have a dialogue with my professor.”
