Academic Technology tools are tools provided by third-party vendors that help enhance the digital experience of the academic classroom. Many of these tools integrate directly into Canvas and assist in creating assignments, videos, media storage, proctoring and portfolios.
Academic Technology tools that are supported campus-wide are listed on the eLearning Academic Technologies webpage. Several of these tools are already integrated into UAB’s Canvas instance. Some are available automatically on the left side course navigation. If the tool is not visible on the left side navigation, you can enable the tool by customizing your navigation list. See How Do I Manage Course Navigation Links for more information. Other approved tools can be found in the Canvas App Center through the Apps tab in the course settings. If any of these approved tools require a key and secret for install, please contact eLearning for assistance.
If you would like to use a technology not listed on our website or listed in the Canvas App Center, you can request it be installed by submitting a New Academic Technology Request. Details on this process are below.
What Should Be Considered before Requesting a New Technology?
Before requesting a new technology, review the current list of tools approved university wide and see if a comparable tool already exists on campus. If you need help identifying these, please reach out to UAB eLearning.
When reviewing a possible new technology, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the goal of the technology?
- How does this technology help both the students and the university?
- Does the new tool meet the UAB data policy requirements? (See the Data Protection and Security Policy for details on these requirements.)
- Does this tool collect personal identifiable information of your students? If so, is this data listed as public, sensitive, or restrictive? (See table below for examples). Data that is listed as sensitive must have permission from the data steward before the tool can use the data. This is in accordance to the UAB data protection rule.
Type of Data |
Description |
Examples |
|---|---|---|
|
Public Data |
Data that may be disclosed to the general public without harm. |
Public phone directory, course catalogs, public research findings, enrollment figures, public web sites, general benefits data, press releases, newsletters, etc. |
|
Sensitive Data |
Data that should be kept confidential. Access to these data shall require authorization and legitimate need-to-know. Privacy may be required by law or contract. |
FERPA, budgetary plans, proprietary business plans, patent pending information, and data protected by law. |
|
Restricted/PHI Data |
Sensitive data that is highly confidential in nature, carries significant risk from unauthorized access, or uninterrupted accessibility is critical to UAB operation. Privacy and security controls are typically required by law or contract. |
HIPAA PHI, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers (PCI DSS), GLBA data, Export Controlled data, FISMA regulated data, log-in credentials, and information protected by non-disclosure agreements. |
Additional details on data classification are available on the UAB IT webpage.
Any technology tool that requires Canvas application program interface (API) access must follow the developer key scoping feature outlined by Canvas. This feature limits the application’s access to only the data they need. When this feature is not enabled, the application has access to all of our Canvas data. This is required for any application that is requesting API access and/or Developer Keys.
New technology tools cannot be installed during an active semester. If the tool is approved during an active semester, the tool will be installed during the break between the current semester and the following semester.
What is the Review Process?
After the technology is submitted for review, the following process will take place. This process can take up to three months to complete. It is suggested that the request form be completed the semester before you would like to use the technology in your course. The review process is as follows:
- Technology is vetted to determine cost, scope, and required data security documentation. Please note: Some technologies may not move past this stage due to lack of documentation or available resources to process at that time.
- A product demo is scheduled between the requested technology tool representatives and the Division of eLearning and Professional Studies.
- eLearning uses the UAB LTI Tools (External Apps) Rubric to evaluate the tool in the following criteria: security, privacy, legal, data sharing, economics, pedogogical impact, technical considerations, support and accessibility. See the rubric here.
- After the product demo, the technology tool will be required to submit a copy of their Higher Education Cloud Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT) and a list of any data they collect.
- Once submitted, the technology tool will be reviewed by the UAB IT Governance Committee.
- The results from the review will be sent to UAB eLearning for final review.
- If the final review is approved by UAB eLearning, the technology will be physically tested inside the UAB Canvas Test instance.
- After physical testing is complete, UAB eLearning will work with the requester to set up the application inside their course(s) in between active semesters.
If you would like to inquire about using an academic technology tool for your course, please fill out the form below. Once the request is submitted, the Division of eLearning and Professional Studies will reach out to you directly to further discuss the request.