August is here and an “all hands on deck” push is underway across Washington University in St. Louis. Working alongside the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and distributed educational technology experts across schools, WashU IT is mobilizing to ensure faculty and students kick off the academic year without a technical hitch.
Strong partnerships are critical. “The WashU IT team moves fast on tight deadlines. When we need custom tools or automated solutions to eliminate tedious manual work before a new term, they help us build smarter, faster ways to handle them,” says Ebony Bartel, Learning Management Systems Manager for Olin’s Center for Digital Education.
At the center of this effort is Andrew Carver, Assistant Director of Applications in Academic, Research and Student technology for WashU IT, and his team who maintain systems that touch more than 20,000 lives weekly.
“We have an impact on our students’ and instructors’ lives, and if we do it well, they never know us,” Carver said.
That invisible work shifts into the spotlight each August. As thousands of students and faculty return to campus, IT teams experience a surge in help requests. Students seek assistance viewing schedules or accessing course materials, while faculty look for guidance on navigating new virtual classroom tools and Canvas integrations.
“Anything to help our instructors be ready for their students,” Carver said, “and students have access to what they need for success.”
To manage the volume, Carver’s team works directly with Canvas administrators embedded in each school, serving as a backstop when support requests spike or issues relate to back-end technology.
Cross-departmental collaboration is central to this launch. The CTL team recently hosted a crash course for WashU IT on Panopto, a video platform used across campus to record, manage, search and share lecture content. The platform provides secure video hosting, lecture capture and smart indexing.
“The CTL are the experts on the app,” Carver said. “We partner with them to support their team with additional tech hands when they need it.”
Because of the intense demand during the start of the semester, August is designated as a “blackout” month for the team, meaning time off is discouraged. Staff wrap up summer development projects and clear their schedules to prepare for the initial wave of support tickets.
The year-round preparation behind these smooth transitions does not go unnoticed by university partners.
“Andrew and his edtech team help us to start each school year off right by preparing us throughout the year,” said Emily W. Thompson, Director of Educational Technology and Innovation at WashU Medicine. “The team troubleshoots integration issues with various edtech tools, convenes regular Canvas admin meetings across schools and units, advocates on our behalf to Instructure, helps us consider Canvas updates, and coordinates testing of features to help anticipate and mitigate any negative impacts to our learners and faculty.”
Access requests typically peak within the first week of classes and taper off as the month progresses. Once systems stabilize, Carver’s team, the CTL and school-based IT partners regroup to refocus on broader technology initiatives that support the university’s long-term mission.
Resource Box: Getting Started on MyCanvas
Faculty and students looking for quick answers, Canvas guides and administrative request forms (such as adding users to a course or troubleshooting access) can visit MyCanvas.wustl.edu to search the campus FAQ knowledge base.
Pictured above, from left to right: Grant Harris, Application Analyst III, Patrick O’Leary, Application Analyst II and Andrew Carver, Assistant Director of Applications in Academic, Research and Student technology for WashU IT, and Tiffany Lang, Instructional Designer and Canvas Administrator from Arts and Sciences IT Client Support, working together, keeping WashU academic technology thriving.