1. People first.
In designing the roles and permission sets for users, always think about the people who might interact with this role. In supporting people who use any system we manage, empathize with their situation and develop a working relationship with the person to meet them wherever they might be. When looking at new features, examine them for impact on a diversity of people. Only use the powers granted to us as administrators judiciously, and minimally.
2. Provide as neutral and flexible platform as possible.
While this is ultimately up to the vendor to provide specific tools to solve teaching problems, the systems we license should strive to do no harm to users by the design of, or the technologies used. Where design choices are made, there should always be options for human users to control the experience and/or reject systematic decisions and substitute their own.
3. Enable users to envision their teaching and learning in a system or platform, as easily wherever they teach most comfortably.
In a world of constant change, instructors often develop teaching strategies that work for them and are comfortable. Using the systems we support may not be included in that comfort. The role of the support team is to help instructors see how they can use a system or platform we support to teach, in the way they want.
4. Balance the policies of the university with the needs of instructors, staff and students with what is functionally possible in systems.
When we make changes to systems, we will use our global understanding of how a system is used as a consideration for how and when to release new features. For major changes, if we are able, we will delay these to non-critical teaching times and strive to have a minimal impact on course delivery.
5. When examining integrations with other technologies and systems, implement LTI 1.3 integrations and ensure access to data from those third parties is as robust as possible.
Seeing as the API is used for mission-critical enrollments, we will discourage non-LTI integrations. We also believe that the data that we share with vendors should be a two-way conversation, with the data they collect also being made visible and available to us as an institution.