How does tuning work?

Also answers:

• Can I comment on my course?
• How can I suggest something to my team?
• How can I create a task list of improvements for a course?

Elevating Collaborative Curriculum Design

Finally, comments where you need them!

Tuning is an in-context collaboration feature that encourages productive dialogue at the very heart of a course’s learning blueprint. Your team’s suggestions, replies, and tasks form a dynamic record of continuous improvement, which is invaluable for curriculum development and accreditation evidence.

Adding a suggestion invites collaboration across the team involved. Commenters, editors, managers, and admins can collaboratively give feedback on course designs.

Notes:

• Viewers cannot see any suggestions, or tasks.
• Catalyst users have special options for adding suggestions.

Why Tuning?

There are a few use cases for using the Tuning feature. For example:

While designing and building 

• Clearly communicate across a course or program team what is needed or what is next
• Project manage what needs to be done and when
• Keep a record of the decisions that were made and why
• Provide specific directions in the tasks on how to complete the ask

During a review

• Create a task list of takeaways for the course
• Identify priority changes that need to be made

To create a feedback loop in real time, instead of waiting until the end of the term

• Identify where students or instructors are struggling
• Identify where the planned content or activities are incorrect or inadequate
• Ask questions to a broader instructional team for quicker help

Start the Discussion

This article will cover the basic functionality for starting and nurturing a discussion, and also how to turn a suggestion into action items for project management.

Adding a suggestion begins with selecting a location. You can add suggestions to the following locations:

1. Course (center, pertains to basic course info, or overall course)
2. Modules
3. Course Objectives
4. Learning Objectives
5. Activities 

Let's get started on making your first suggestion. 

Step 1: Make sure you're on the course level.

Step 2: Turn on Tuning mode.

Step 3: In the Tuning Reading Panel, click Add a Suggestion.

Step 4: Select the location to add a suggestion (center of course, Course objective, Module, etc.)

Step 5: Write your suggestion, and click Post. You can include hyperlinks to your resources!

*Suggestions can only be edited or deleted by their creator within a 96 hour time limit. The conversation history on a course is important; editors, managers, and admins can refer to suggestions to see the pulse of the course and changes that were suggested/implemented. 

Streamlined Notifications and Interactive Replies

How do you know if you've been tagged, have a suggestion you should be looking at, or have been assigned a task? Editors and managers will see an orange dot over the bell in Coursetune indicating that a new post has been made in the course. Clicking on the message will open the Tunings Reading Panel in the course.

Editors, managers, and admins can add their feedback to suggestions by clicking on any suggestion to open it; then, write and post the reply at the bottom of the screen.

Turning Suggestions Into Actionable Tasks

Some suggestions warrant action. Managers and admins can add a task to a suggestion by changing its status from OPEN to IN PROGRESS. Tasks serve as checklists for the agreed upon next steps. The associated task can be assigned to one or more users as well as to no one. 

Users can reply even after a suggestion has moved to In Progress with an associated task. Teams can keep the feedback flowing while the work is underway.

Tracking Progress

Managers and admins can mark suggestions with tasks completed. The timestamp of the status change is automatically logged with the option to specify a completion date that will appear in the Course Tuning Report.

Still, the conversation can keep going! Adding replies after completion allows team members to chime in about the revision.

Efficient Archiving

Managers and admins can also archive a suggestion. Archiving suggestions reduces the clutter so that the team can focus on the comments that still need discussion.

Archiving stops replies and removes the suggestion from the circle graph, right panel, and, if appropriate, the Task Panel. Depending on the settings, archiving will also remove the suggestion from the Tuning Reading Panel. 

Want to know more about Tuning? Check out these articles:

• How do I customize the Tuning Reading Panel?

• How do I make a suggestion?
• How do I change the status of a suggestion?
• How do I use the Tuning report at each level?

For more information on tuning and suggestions, check out these articles:

Additional resources, Who gets notifications when comments are made on suggestions?

• How do I make a suggestion?
• How do I change the status of a suggestion?
• How do I know what is being discussed on my team?