OnTask+

OnTask+ is a tool designed to improve the academic experience of students through the delivery of timely, personalised and actionable student feedback throughout their participation in a course. This tool is available to staff at UniSA and can be found embedded in the teaching dashboard for your course – staff help resources can be found here.

OnTask+ sources student data from your course site and matches it with course enrolment data. This then enables you to send tailored messages to the students enrolled in your courses based on their interaction with various elements within your learnonline course site. Used in this way, you can tailor messaging to different sub-sets of students based on how they are interacting with the course site or performing in assessments.

NOTE: Currently, two rule types are available in OnTask+

While this tool can be a time saver for communicating with your students once set up, careful planning and consideration needs to be given initially relating to:

how the tool might be used in your course (is it the best tool for the job?)
when the best times to message your students would be (where are your sticking points or times students would really benefit?), and
what needs to go into your message to get students moving in the direction you want (what data/metrics can you use and what behaviours/strategies do you want to encourage?)

Workshops - COMING SOON

The following sessions will be delivered in two linked parts. Part 1 is very much an introduction to what OnTask is, the key features of the tool, and the planning strategies that needs to occur before sending your first messages. Next, in Part 2 we will dive into more detail about how to craft your messages, the types of language you can use, and how you can be most effective in your use of the tool.

If you are relatively new to the tool, we recommend you come along to Part 1 to ensure you have a solid foundation. If you’re more familiar with the tool and ready to start writing, jump into Part 2 (but we’ll be assuming you have all the basics covered).

All sessions will be held via Zoom, with meeting links to be sen out following registration. For optimal experience, it is advised participants join using a dedicated headset and webcam.

OnTask+ Part 1: Thinking about using OnTask+? (1 hour)

Have you heard about OnTask+ and are interested in finding out whether it would be useful for your course? Well, come along to Part 1 of the Using OnTask+ series that will take you through the following process:

What you want to achieve in your course
What OnTask+ can actually do for you
Mapping out your messaging plan
How to get started!

At the end of this session you should have a clearer idea of what you could achieve with OnTask+ and whether it is something you would like to pursue and develop further for use in your own course. If so, we recommend also booking into Part 2: Making your message work.

OnTask+ Part 2: Making your OnTask+ message work (1 hour)

Do you have a rough idea of OnTask+ and how it works? Have you previously attended Part 1: Thinking about using OnTask+ and are ready to dive into developing your own messages? If so, this is the session for you!

In this second part of the workshop series, we will start to move into crafting your messages using OnTask+, covering the following:

Key dos and don’ts when writing your message
Evaluating the online data available to you in your course and how this fits with your messaging plan
Creating filters/conditions that allow you to tailor your messages based on student data
Using the advanced message type (not yet available)

At the end of this session, you should feel equipped to start crafting your own tailored messages to your students.

NOTE: This session assumes you have the background knowledge of what OnTask+ is and broadly how it works. If you’ve never looked at or used OnTask+ before, you should first attend Part 1: Thinking about using OnTask+.

Questions?

For any questions regarding the tool or upcoming workshops, please contact Dr Amanda Richardson.