Terracotta - An Innovative Experimental Research Platform for the LMS

Unicon had the unique opportunity to collaborate with Indiana University in support of their Terracotta Project effort, and I had the privilege to be a part of this project. Per their website, “Terracotta is an innovative experimental research platform that supports teachers’ and researchers’ abilities to easily run experiments in live classes.” What a unique and interesting way to build value from learning data, by empowering educators to create their own experiments and conduct research on the data generated as students work through learning activities!

Indiana University’s Ben Motz (the brain behind Terracotta) and Unicon (the brawn) worked for 3 months to create a proof of concept tool that integrates with Canvas LMS. This tool utilizes the latest technology which includes a Vue front-end, Java back-end, Caliper data emission, and LTI 1.3 interoperability. These technologies were selected for their versatility, scalability, and enabled Terracotta for seamless integration with other LMS providers. Terracotta removes the technology barriers and provides teachers with seamless tooling to enable real-time experiments, and research to foster effective data collection and decision making.

We’re excited to work with the folks at Terracotta and tell you our story of how this application is coming together for the research community. To hear more about Terracotta, don’t miss the live Webinar presented by EDUCAUSE on October 12th, where we’ll describe our vision for stepping up experimentation and research in the classroom.

LISTEN TO THE WEBINAR