AustLit

High-Level Thinking for Innovative, Intuitive, and Engaging

Student Assessment

Cirrus was developed by AustLit at The University of Queensland between 2016 and 2019, led first by AustLit director Kerry Kilner and collaborators from the School of Communication and Arts, and later by Kerry Kilner and Dr Natalie Collie.

The development was supported by Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching Innovation grants from The University of Queensland’s Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation. Development included creating easy-to-use annotation tools and an online exhibition-building platform that assisted teachers to improve students’ critical engagement with the objects of study and digital literacy.

From 2020, Cirrus's annotation tools are freely available to academics at The University of Queensland as a Blackboard plug-in. Course co-ordinators can create the following tasks:

See how to create a Cirrus assignment through Blackboard.

Cirrus's exhibition-building options are no longer supported.

The annotation fields even allow students to engage in direct visual comparisons of artworks, performances, and other media.

Cirrus allows students to directly and easily interrogate video and audio materials.

Use embedded videos to interrogate the marketing of films, critique news journalism, examine advertising campaigns, or question documentaries.

Use embedded audio files to show familiarity with musical techniques, demonstrate facility with a second language, or examine oral narratives.

Cirrus flips your classroom. With Cirrus, you can upload objects for students to annotate before they come to tutorials, or provide a space for students to upload their own material for annotation by tutors or peers.