Learning Tools

Campuswire Update Streamlines Course Communications

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 09/12/19

Education technology company Campuswire has introduced updates to its course platform to address user requests. Version 3 sports a redesigned user interface, a "dark" mode and other changes. The program is designed to streamline course communications, including questions and answers that allow for up-voting and down-voting, announcements and discussions.

The latest round of updates includes:

• A redesigned class home page, which now has inboxes for "unresolved questions" (those with no answers) and "unread posts."
• The ability to set posts to "resolved" or "unresolved" so instructors and teaching assistants can quickly distinguish between questions answered and questions left to be dealt with. When a question is answered, it will be marked as resolved by default; questions left unanswered will be "bumped" back into the unresolved questions tab on the class home page.
• Duplicate question marking, which allows the instructor to link to a relevant previous post that points the student in the right direction and removes the duplicate post from the feed as a decluttering maneuver.
• Addition of a dark mode, a setting for night-time use that changes the background to black with text in a white font.
• A dedicated space for comments, such as side questions, clarifications and new streams of discussion.
• Separation of answers under different headings, to make clear which posts are coming from students and which ones are coming from instructors.
• A new look in the left sidebar, including addition of a dedicated button to view direct messages intended for the user.

A beta feature called "Class Insights" lets the instructor view tracking metrics, including how many students were active during the week, how many questions were posted and what the average question response time was for the course. Eventually, the company noted, users will be able to see additional data there and download the information into a CSV file. While the feature existed in version 2 of the program as an optional setting, now it will appear on the class page automatically.

The company said that it has also redesigned its iOS and Android mobile applications.

"I think professors love Campuswire because we obsess over getting their feedback and implementing the things they suggest," said company founder and CEO, Tade Oyerinde, in a statement. "That's basically what v3 is: a tool for professors to manage class communication, that was essentially designed by professors."