Glossary

Advisory Committee 

  • A 25-member committee representing the academic stakeholders. The committee is co-chaired by the Associate Provost and Associate Vice President of Instructional Technologies. Additional members consist of faculty, Graduate College student, Student Government, Office of Disability Services, and Office of Distance Learning. This advising body is an integral part of the LMS project team and the development of a digital learning environment at Texas State. 

BrightSpace 

  • Learning Management System (LMS) developed by D2L (formerly Desire2Learn). One of the two LMS vendor candidates chosen to be evaluated in sandbox and pilot environments. 

Canvas  

  • Learning Management System (LMS) developed by Instructure. One of the two LMS vendor candidates chosen to be evaluated in sandbox and pilot environments. 

Digital Learning Environment (DLE) 

  • An ecosystem of integrated applications and services supports a variety of pedagogies. A complete network of tools and applications that deliver online courses and course materials, often integrated into a Learning Management System (LMS). (see consolidate talking points - LINK) 

Integration 

  • The connecting of platforms together in order to enable end-users to access data and functionality from independently designed applications on a single user interface. In this context, the integration of third-party platforms into a Learning Management System. 

License 

  • A software license grants the licensee an end-user and, in this case, an LMS pilot program participant permission to use one or more copies of a software application. 

LMS 

  • A learning management system, or LMS, is a software application that administers, delivers, and measures educational programs. The LMS provides assessment and grading features, collaboration tools, as well as the integration of external applications.  

Migration 

  • The process of moving from the use of one operating environment to another operating environment.  

Pilots 

  • Highly-structured study to test use cases on a new operating system. In this case, pre-selected groups which will take actual courses into one of the two learning management systems and test a full semester's worth of coursework to determine viability.  

Vendor 

  • Third-party software provider that operates and manages an LMS's core systems and provides end-user updates and support.  

Sakai 

  • The software that runs TRACS, an open source tool that was developed by a consortium of universities consisting of University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, and Stanford with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with intent to produce open source Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) software. 

Sandbox 

  • An isolated LMS environment where the platforms can be tested, with limited integration capabilities, for users to develop familiarity with and understanding of each potential LMS candidate's software and operating environment.  

TRACS 

  • Stands for Teaching, Research, And Collaboration System, and is the collaborative learning environment at Texas State University. The core LMS in this system is currently Sakai.  

Sandbox Guides 

  • IT Support has created document guides to help you get started with the most common tasks and tools. They contain general guidance and content that you can copy and paste to populate your site.