I-Learn Governance and Technical Standards
I-Learn is the suite of integrated tools used to deliver instruction to students around the world. It includes the learning management system as well as other tools that are critical for student work.
10.1 I-Learn Governance Council
The I-Learn Governance Council is the body of individuals who make decisions regarding I-Learn. They manage communications, improve usability, and mitigate risks. The Council meets bi-weekly.
Primary Council
- Online Technical Operations Director, council chair (Online)
- I-Learn Product Managers for both campus and Online (IT)
- Portfolio Managers for both campus and Online (IT)
- Associate Academic Vice President (Academics)
- Dean of Faculty Development (Academics)
- Instructor Development Manager (Online)
- Pathway Curriculum Coordinator (Pathway)
- Student Support Coordinator (Pathway)
- Academic Communications Manager (Academics)
- Online Technologies Researcher (Online)
- Online Associate Dean (campus)
- Curriculum Development Managing Director (Online)
Supporting Committees
In addition to the Governance Council, the following four committees inform decisions regarding I-Learn:
- Technical Operations and Integrations: Consists of support organizations as well as the IT developers who are responsible for integrations and bridges. This group vets, approves, and documents integration requests, discusses support issues, and is responsible for identifying and creating user-support documentation. This group meets weekly.
- Delivery: Consists of content experts and power users of content platforms including, but not limited to, Equella, Kaltura, publisher content, library content, and Zoom. This group discusses and documents best practices for delivering content through I-Learn and meets weekly.
- Assessment: Consists of subject matter experts and power users of assessment platforms, including, but not limited to, Maple TA, Learnosity, Qualtrics, Turnitin, classroom response technologies, and proctoring solutions. This group informs decisions regarding assessment platforms within I-Learn and meets bi-weekly.
- Communications: Consists of communication representatives from Academics, IT, and Online who work on messaging campaigns regarding I-Learn. This group meets weekly.
10.2 I-Learn Support Standards
The technologies that constitute I-Learn can be divided into four categories, each of which receives varying levels of support from IT.
| Level | Support Included | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Core: Level 3 | University-wide usage (<75%), SSO, branding, licensing, training, dedicated FTE from IT, vendor support, integration, subject-matter experts, distance monitoring, scalability, uptime guarantee, worldwide reach, auditability | Learning Management System Content Management System Multimedia Streaming Service Microsoft |
| Supported: Level 2 | University-wide usage (<75%), SSO, licensing, training, integration, FTE from IT, vendor support, subject-matter experts, monitoring, uptime, scalability, auditing. | Maple TA Qualtrics Zoom VMWare Publisher Content Sharepoint X Labs Turnitin TeamDynamix |
| Common: Level 1 |
Training, minimal support, scalability, auditing | Google Apps |
| Unsupported | No support center or IT support. May be used in campus courses, but not in online courses. |
10.3 Technology Standards
All technologies are measured by the following standards:
- Uptime: Core technology use vendors that guarantee >99.97% uptime and monitor the systems, providing monthly uptime reports. Supported technology use vendors that guarantee >99.8% uptime. Level 1 and unsupported technologies do not offer an uptime guarantees.
- Stability and performance: Vendors monitor system stability from their edge network(s). They monitor systems in the data center, and provide redundancy within the data center. Pages load in no more than four seconds. Vendors measure performance and report any exceptions to the performance requirement using industry standard measurement and reporting tools. Reports are available to the customer monthly.
- Monitoring: Vendors provide root cause outage reports within 24 hours.
- Data access: Vendors provide both data access via API's/Web Services or agreed upon exports in order to get data into the BYU-Idaho data center.
- End-user performance: Vendors monitor performance at their edge network. End usermonitoring is performed by synthetic monitoring tools from the US, Asia/Pac, and Europe, meeting accepted minimum standards. Monthly performance reports provided using industry standard tools (not homegrown solutions).
- Worldwide reach: Vendors are cloud-hosted in multiple regions. Their cloud provider offers ISP options and utilize CDN networks to reach our critical locations. Tools are optimized for the cloud, allowing the application to be delivered across the globe from data centers closest to the user.
- Business continuity and disaster recovery: Vendors provide at least 24-hour recovery time and recovery point objectives. They report regularly on test recoveries and also have geographic recovery sites. These systems are tested monthly as part of the security systems patching and upgrading.
- Scalability: Vendors can scale servers dynamically without human intervention. Tools do not require section-level setup after sections are created.
- Support: Vendors provide 24/7 support.
- Serviceability: Regular maintenance requires no downtime. Major database or infrastructure upgrades occur no more than twice a year.
- Interoperability: Tools are LTI 2.0-compliant and allow for tool interoperability and data passing (such as user information and score pass-back to the gradebook) with tools at BYU-Idaho and CES.
- Security: Vendors comply with standard security, including but not limited to FERPA, COPA and educational privacy laws in other major countries. Vendors provide monthly security updates as well on-demand reports about any breach—including guilty parties, time stamps, and activity logs.
- Usability: Tools provide an experience that is easy for students, faculty, and administrators. Systems are intuitive for users to navigate, requiring little, if any, training. Students can use tools at public libraries where they are not allowed to install software.
- Support end-point requirements: Tools support common devices available to students and faculty. This includes Apple OSX, IOS, Windows 7 and above, Android IOS and Google Chromebooks.
- Billing model: Vendors should allow payment based on utilization, rather than per-seat licensing.
- Accessibility: Tools conform to W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, satisfying all Level A and AA success criteria.
Tools that do not meet these requirements represent a significant risk for online students and are difficult to support. As such, they require rigorous review and approval from the Online Development Council.