CloudDeakin: Prepare and Monitor

CloudDeakin is Deakin University’s Learning Management System (LMS), which facilitates the preparation, management, and monitoring of your unit throughout the teaching cycle. It provides a central platform where learners can engage with educational content, assessment activities, instructors, and fellow students.

CloudDeakin allows users to:

Prepare and organise their unit; 
Create interactive learning activities; 
Leverage features for different pedagogical outcomes

AI in CloudDeakin

CloudDeakin currently does not have AI features enabled. For information on potential future features, click the button below.

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CloudDeakin serves as a central platform for learning, assessments, and interactions with instructors and peers in higher education. It provides various learning features and integrates third-party resources.

List of functions

Key features of CloudDeakin include: 

Create content via modules, topics, and tools;

Manage cohort using the Classlist to contact students and create engagement rules;

Filter by sections and/or groups;

Create announcements;

Create student groups via self-enrol or random allocation;

Class progress shows unit trends via surveys and participation;

Calendar feature to create student consultation times.

The following are widely used third-party tools:

Panopto: Deakin’s video platform for recording, sharing, and managing video content.
Feedback Fruits: an option to develop discussion, and self reflection through learning activities.
Miro: an interactive whiteboard that can be integrated for asynchronous interactions.

Please note: whilst this list is not exhaustive, it is used to highlight that CloudDeakin is an ecosystem with the ability to integrate endorsed third-party tools.

Support resources

Deakin Resources:
CloudDeakin Guides: an overview of all CloudDeakin features. Navigate through the section to find out more about how to leverage the features mentioned above.

Additional Resources:
Deakin Design Principles and Practices: this page shares how these principles are a practice-led and evidence informed approach to design and delivery.

Examples

The use cases below showcase some ways in which you can leverage CloudDeakin and the features within for assessment and feedback:  

Prepare/Monitor Unit

Organise my unit site – prepare unit content, using modules, topics, tools, and files

As a teacher I can prepare and organise an engaging, structured learning experience that supports students to engage with key concepts in different ways.

My students can access and engage with the learning content, resources, and activities, and connect with others, at times that are convenient for them.

Example practice considerations for preparing your unit site using CloudDeakin:

Consider using a variety of content and resource types; CloudDeakin HTML pages support the presentation of text, embedded video or audio files, images, and other documents
Consider using a variety of activity types; CloudDeakin supports various interactive formats, for example, discussion forums and quizzes, synchronous and asynchronous activity options, and other integrated tools for teaching and learning
Access the Deakin library’s digital learning collections and support to curate third-party learning materials in CloudDeakin, including setting up a structured online reading list (Talis Aspire library reading list) for your students.

Prepare an icebreaker – promote student socialisation at trimester start through discussion

As a teacher I can use the CloudDeakin Discussion feature to prepare a dedicated discussion area for students to introduce themselves and build a sense of connection within the cohort.

My students can introduce themselves, share an image, and greet their peers in their posts or by reply to others, and use the ‘like’ function for quick acknowledgements.

Example practice considerations when aiming for student socialisation using CloudDeakin Discussion:

Prepare brief and simple instructions so that the task is not onerous, to encourage opt-in
Consider a theme, for example, ask students to include an image of something personal (e.g. photo of self, pet, other), or something lightly related to the unit content (e.g. an image of, or a link to, a favourite industry/sector leader)
Consider your involvement as teacher and how you will acknowledge the contributions, for example, wait until a range of students have posted then post a collective greeting that demonstrates you have read their posts (e.g. “I see we have people from almost every state of Australia plus …”).

Set up unit-specific communications – establish appropriate and efficient communication channels with students

As a teacher I want to use CloudDeakin to establish efficient and effective communication channels with my students across the trimester learning journey, such as email, discussion, announcements.

My students can become familiar with the communication channels and use them with purpose.

Example practice considerations for managing communications with students using CloudDeakin:

Prepare communication channels and provide clear guidance at trimester start, e.g.
- regular reading of announcements on the unit homepage
- email Unit Chair (using the contact details provided in the Unit Chair widget), for more personal learning support questions
- ask more general questions in class discussion forums
Use the ClassList function to email individual students, a set group of students, or the whole cohort
Use the Announcement function to make regular (e.g. weekly) contact with the whole cohort, so students will see new announcements as they login the CloudDeakin unit site
Create dedicated discussion forums for functional type discussions, and pin them for trimester-wide use, for example:
- general Q and A (e.g. “I can’t access the Smith (2021) article, has anyone else been able to access it?”)
- assessment task Q and A, or one for each assessment task for even more focused conversations (e.g. “How many references should we use for AT1?”)
- subscribe to these forums to receive alerts.

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