Lambda Solutions' Top Takeaways from BCNET 2018

Lambda Solutions Vice President of Product, Stewart Rogers, attended BCNET 2018 during April 23 to 25, 2018 in Vancouver—Canada’s Premier Higher Ed IT Conference. Read on for Stewart’s top learnings from the conference.

Shawn Kanungo Keynote

“The 0 to 100 Effect: How to Navigate through Disruption”

Speaking as a Strategist in a World of Disruption, Shawn discussed how since the dawn of civilization, when converging technologies go from scarcity to abundance, the world fundamentally changes. 

Key Takeaways:

• Despite the age of the internet and the advancements in technology, we are still struggling with data privacy and security.
• Today's disruption comes from being inundated by a continuous stream of new technology that creates new challenges, new behaviors and new opportunities.
• Shawn believes that there are "no bad ideas in tech, just timing." Sometimes you have to wait for it to be 10 times better.
• The best way to deal with disruption is experimentation: how do we move the needle with experiments?
• The best experiments are based on studying actual human behavior (i.e. ethnographic research).

Stewart: Lambda Solutions practices experimental development practices under their Continuous Delivery and Kanban software development approach. This enables us to be deliver small features quickly and collect feedback from users and iterate as required until we hit the “10 times better” status.

Creating a Synchronous Hybrid Learning Environment: Using Video Conferencing Technology

The University of the Fraser Valley Adult Education Program offers a hybrid of fully online courses for adult learners that can be accessed through video conferencing.

Key Takeaways: 

• Lots of equipment is required to facilitate rooms with mixed environments. Tech Support Teams need to setup/configure the class 30-60 minutes ahead of class time.
• Padlet is a great collaborative technology that enables mixed environments to post, share, collaborate and brainstorm on topics and ideas in real-time (this is a digital sticky note with a poster board like concept).
• The BlueJeans Network is popular for this purpose, as is Zoom.

Stewart: These types of mixed model learning environments are becoming quite common and only going to grow in popularity. The vastness of the technology landscape is overwhelming and having a partner to help you consider all your requirements (including integration and interoperability with your LMS) and navigate this journey is critical.

Kaltura, a CampusTube User Group — Collaborating for Success

BCNET successfully launched Kaltura in 2016 as an EduCloud-hosted shared service, as a result of an alliance between BCcampus and UBC—enabling members to create their own CampusTube in a robust, stable and scalable environment that is 100% FIPPA compliant.

Key Takeaways: 

• Vimeo was being used in the past, but had no integration to the LMS and had limited administration capabilities.
• The panel would say that using “time saved” metrics and comparing the existing methods for managing video were the best techniques for “How would you sell a video platform to stakeholders?”
• The panel believed that the Education focus by existing video platforms like Kaltura, Panopto, and Medial provided key features like integration to the LMS and video quizzes make it tough to compete for other video platforms (YouTube, Video, Wistia).

Stewart: Video-based learning continues to be one of the hottest topics in Learning. The thought that popped for me in this panel was the absence of any discussion related to online video analytics (who is watching, how much, how long etc.) and how that is a critical component in measuring course engagement. Maybe that will be a topic next year!

It's 10 o'clock … Do You Know Where Your Data Is?

Scott Baker, Health Research Data Project Manager at UBC discussed how there are untold dangers lurking at every turn—research projects with sensitive data must navigate the shoals of security, evade the privateers of privacy, climb the cliffs of compliance and achieve audit approval.

• What is personal information? In Canada, we have PIPEDA, the Privacy Act, and various Provincial legislation and Industry legislation regarding privacy.
• Technically, keeping collected data private is defined in three ways: anonymous (never collected); anonymized (collected, but replaced); de-identified (collected and separated)
• Security DOES NOT equal Privacy; Security includes Privacy

 Stewart: It is a continuous challenge for companies in the ever-changing data privacy world. In the context of learning data, the responsibility of managing this data and the personal information contained within that is subject to all the relevant Privacy regulation to your jurisdiction is the responsibility of the Organization. The EU is enforcing the GDPR as of May 25. Are you sure you have your data protected?

Overall, the conference provided a flurry of sessions and networking opportunities and we were glad to see that one of the Technology Tracks at BCNET2018 was Learning Experiences, something we are passionate about at Lambda Solutions. Watch our latest webinar discussing how to increase learner engagement and productivity with your LMS by creating interactive content.