Product Governance

The Brightspace at USC Product Governance Committee is charged with advising on how to maintain and advance the LMS as a foundational component of USC’s mission. In alignment with the university’s mission and the campus IT strategy, the Brightspace at USC Product Governance Committee:

• Advises USC Information Technology Services (ITS) on all aspects of the LMS operation and supports the LMS by representing the diverse needs of its many stakeholders including faculty, students, and staff.
• Evaluates requests for enhancements to LTIs, role and permissions, overall platform functionality, and more via a structured approach.
• Escalates significant issues and opportunities to the Academic Technologies Governance Committee for decision-making.
• Encourages campus-wide new and established uses of the LMS in support of teaching and learning at USC.

The Brightspace at USC Product Governance Committee is charged with the following specific activities:

• Pedagogical enhancement: Review teaching and learning needs, as identified by faculty, students, and other stakeholders, and counsel USC ITS on how they can be best supported and enhanced via the LMS.   
• Operational excellence: Provide input on best practices for operation, configuration, and use of the core LMS SaaS service that forms the foundation of the LMS, as well as how to best communicate relevant practices with the campus.
• Strategy: Identify, track, and advise on strategic opportunities for the LMS that align with identified campus academic priorities, consider national trends, and support a long-term vision for excellence.
• Student experience: Advocate for the perspective of students, for whom the LMS is a key part of their digital experience at USC, with other LMS stakeholders.
• Policy considerations: Support USC ITS in identifying, researching, and advising on academic and administrative policy concerns and opportunities—where necessary, referring issues to the Academic Technologies Governance Committee for decisions.
• Robust ecosystem: Champion a robust, best-in-class, and regularly reviewed ecosystem of enterprise-wide educational technology tools integrated with the LMS that serve diverse teaching modalities and approaches.
• Continuous innovation: Maintain awareness of national efforts and trends for learning management systems, especially among R1 universities, which should be considered.

The Brightspace at USC Governance Committee is solely focused on issues and advancements pertaining to the university’s LMS, Brightspace at USC. The committee organizes its members as aligned to one of four Focus Areas that lend specialized expertise to evaluate requests in alignment with USC policies and strategy. Each Focus Area Lead coordinates with their committee members on research and development necessary to bring decisions to the larger committee, and also meets with the Co-Chairs to determine prioritization of decisions and level of effort required. All Focus Areas work collaboratively and cross-functionally to ensure decisions are transparently communicated and well-informed. Further information on Committee Leadership and Focus Area designations can be found below:

Co-Chairs

The Co-Chairs of the Brightspace at USC Product Governance Committee play a pivotal role in steering the committee’s strategic direction and ensuring effective governance. The Co-Chairs include:

• Ashley Smith, ACIO, Application Services
• Sandeep Gupta, Professor, Viterbi School of Engineering

The Product Governance Committee is enhanced and supported by several other university groups and committees. The Brightspace Community of Practice will pass along best practices, ideas, and potential decisions to the Product Governance Committee aimed at continuously innovating Brightspace at USC for a better learning and teaching experience. Similarly, the Academic Senate and the Center for Excellence in Teaching will also communicate faculty and staff input for decision making. They may also be able to provide the specific expertise that may be needed to leverage academic decisions, serving as resources for the Committee.

Existing governance groups such as the Committee on Information Systems and the University Technology Council may lend their own administrative expertise, in addition to serving as escalation pathways for Product Governance Committee’s decisions as needed. University Leadership, in partnership with project leaders from the implementation, will rely upon the Product Governance Committee to vote representative of all Brightspace users, or pass along key decisions with consideration to the entire Brightspace at USC community.