For several months, the University has been working towards issuing an RFP for a Learning Management Engine, a core piece of our Academic Toolbox Renewal Initiative. A key process of the LME RFP will be a chance for members of the UofT community to “test drive” a select number of solutions that make it through … Read More

Dr. Haniyeh Yousofpour has recently joined the ITS Project Management Office, and among her other activities, she has been assigned PM responsibilities for the next phase of our Academic Toolbox Renewal initiative. Haniyeh has a doctoral degree in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour and an MBA with Finance Concentration. Further, she is a certified … Read More

Portal Integrations extend the functionality of the Academic Toolbox (LMS) used at the University of Toronto. They add new tools and capabilities to the system. Integrations may allow access to vendor content, extend grading or assignment capabilities, or provide an alternative to existing services. New Integrations come out all the time and many faculty are … Read More

As many of you know, Shannonn Kelly came to ACT last year to help provide some initial project management activities related to two ACT projects – technical upgrades to the CE system, and the first two phases of the Academic Toolbox Renewal initiative. As both of those are now (mostly) complete, Shannonn will be moving … Read More

The Provost’s Office has distributed a memo on ancillary fees and digital learning materials for 2015-2016. Please find the memo here:  http://memos.provost.utoronto.ca/2015-16-provostial-guidelines-on-digital-learning-materials/

I am pleased to let the community know that Dr. Kimberley MacKinnon has accepted a formal role to work with the ACT group, providing us with ongoing scholarly input, expertise and analysis, particularly around the Academic Toolbox Renewal initiative (http://toolboxrenewal.act.utoronto.ca) and tool integration process. Dr. MacKinnon will provide the team with scholarly guidance as we … Read More

Very happy to share the news that our school has joined the IMS Global Consortium. IMS Global is a nonprofit organization that advances technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment. IMS members are leading suppliers, institutions and government organizations that are enabling the future of education by collaborating on interoperability and … Read More

One of the interesting items of feedback we received on the Academic Toolbox Renewal site went like this: “The criteria are exceedingly thin on pedagogical guiding principles. No effort seems to be put into the adequate mapping of degree learning expectations to the various points where adoption of technology could have an impact (positive/negative).” The … Read More

I was in a meeting yesterday, and we were talking about the Toolbox Renewal, and trying to think of other analogies that may help folks understand the objective. Perhaps the relationship between a mobile operating system and mobile apps is a good analogy for our toolbox. The educational tools we choose/use are to the toolbox, … Read More

The Academic Toolbox Renewal Initiative is now in full swing! The University of Toronto’s enterprise education technology ecosystem (our ‘Academic Technology Toolbox’) has grown organically over the past several years. At times services and solutions have been added in an ad hoc way. At other points, the University has gone through a formal acquisition process. … Read More