Trunk Support

When we approached Stoltze Design to create a logo for Trunk, we knew we wanted a logo which would signal a new era in teaching, learning, and collaboration at Tufts. We also wanted to capture the positive energy described in the Tufts Visual Identity Guide (“Tufts Brand Strategy”, “Tufts Personality”) and in the Tufts Vision Statement.

The result is a logo that is simple, elegant, and abstract enough to carry many meanings. The logo has an upward lift for new possibilities, while converging at the base, as the Tufts community comes together on a shared platform.

We are pleased to introduce you to Trunk – the name of Tufts’ new collaborative learning platform, which will be replacing Blackboard on the Medford campus this fall. Trunk was the winner of the LMS university-wide naming competition that was held last December. It was selected from 285 entries and was jointly submitted by two students on the Medford campus – Belal Hakim, School of Arts and Sciences, and Adhvait Shah, School of Engineering. View the above video to learn more about our winners. We also would like to acknowledge the following students:

• Mitchell Izower and Angela Combs, School of Medicine, who also came up with trunk but submitted it at later times than our winners
• John Stratigis, School of Medicine, for Trunks
• From the School of Arts and Sciences, Dan Stock, Amy Demicco, and Alyssa Rosen, who all entered The Trunk.

After careful analysis rSmart, a leading open software for education vendor, was chosen to be our Sakai service provider, helping Tufts to customize Sakai to meet the university’s needs. In this capacity, rSmart provides project planning and product configuration services including integration with SIS and LDAP authentication as well guidance in moving courses from bBoard and Angel. rSmart also provides ongoing support services based on a version of the Sakai software that has been tested and enhanced with richer documentation and configuration tools to create a robust, professional software release.

UIT has been charged with facilitating a strategic planning project to recommend a new learning management system (LMS) for Tufts Univeristy that would support teaching, learning, and collaboration across Tufts diverse schools, programs, and communities.   Blackboard Basic which has been used on the Tufts Medford campus for the past 12 years is no longer a viable option.

The primary goals of the project are for the team to lead a highly participatory process:

1. To define selection criteria based on the university’s goals and the requirements of faculty, students and administrators.
2. To evaluate leading LMS platforms to determine which best meets Tufts criteria.
3. To articulate a robust, coordinated support model to ensure an effective migration process, as well as excellent continuing outreach, education and service for faculty and other community members who will use the LMS to enrich their teaching, learning, and research at Tufts.
4. To recommend a comprehensive next-generation LMS strategy for Tufts University.