Management, Integration & Organisational Alignment of Blackboard at CBS

Management, Integration & Organisational Alignment of

Blackboard at CBS

Gordon Cunningham

Academic Development

Curtin University of Technology

Curtin Business School

Overview

History of LMS at Curtin Implementation History Organisational Overview Online Teaching & Learning, IT Services Strategic Position Online Development Strategies for Adoption Support Technical Infrastructure of Bb Integration Management of Online Units Building Blocks Lessons Learned Future Directions

History of Learning Management Systems at Curtin

Multiple LMS (5) across Curtin 1997 – WebCT 1997 – Staff Web Sites 1998 – Lotus Learning Space (CBS) 2000 – Blackboard (CBS), migrated from WebCT 2004 – Lotus Learning Space decommissioned

Implementation History

2000 – Implementation CourseInfo 4 2000 – Upgraded Bb 5 Level 1 2002 – Implemented Bb 5 Level 3 (Snapshot) 2004 – Upgraded to Bb 6.1 Blackboard is now seen as true corporate application

Organisational Overview

31,000 Students (Total) 11,928 Business Students 600 F/T and P/T Academic Staff Curtin Business is the largest of 5 teaching divisions 7 sub schools – B.Comm

– Accounting– Business Law– Economics & Finance– Information Systems– Management– Marketing– Graduate School of Business (MBA)

Organisational Overview (Cont’d)

Bentley in Perth WA is main campus Partners in 33 locations spread across 10 countries (40% are

international students)• Australia• China and Hong Kong• Singapore• Malaysia• Indonesia• Mauritius• Sri Lanka• Vietnam• Pakistan

Online Teaching & Learning Facilityand IT Services

3 Bb User Support Staff 2 instructional designers 1 Graphic/Web Designer 1 Web Programmer 1 Project Manager 3 Systems Engineers 2 Database Administrators 1 Manager

IT Services

OTL

Strategic Position

Level 1: Strategically focused complete online courses Level 2: online units and components of units Level 3: infrastructure and services

Online Development

Master of Accounting (12 units) Bachelor of Business Administration (25 units) African Virtual

University

Master of Business Admin. (12 units) Grad Certificate in Marketing (4 units)

Strategies for Adoption

Online Learning Essentials (Students) Online Teaching Essentials (Staff) Online Creation Pack

Strategies for Adoption (cont’d)

1 to 1 training for staff Classroom based training for Bb

– “New Features in Bb”– “Voyage of Discovery” – Intro– “Forget the Bush Telegraph” – BBS– “Tips and Strategies for Teaching Online”

Email and phone based support Template for Bb courses “How to”/FAQ Movies for Bb

Student Support – 2661/yr

Blackboard - Total Student Support Requests / Month

148

5993

304

178132

777

83 97 89

164

537

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

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Ja

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4

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Ma

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Ap

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4

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Au

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Month

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Student Support

Blackboard Student Support Requests by ClassificationOctober 2003 - October 2004

Student - Account Creation / Reset, 265, 10%

Student - Enrolment Issue S1, 797, 30%

Student - Feed Issue S1->BB, 122, 5%

Student - Information/Query, 679, 26%

Student - Study Period not Active, 307, 12%

Student - Trouble-Shooting / Advice, 364, 14%

Student - Unit not on BB, 88, 3%

Staff Support – 1863/yr

Staff Support Requests by Classifications October 2003-October 2004

21 19 15 12

68

165

127

74

231

1124

3426

83

161

126

72

154

30

286

34

74

16

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Staff Support

Staff Support Requests / Month October 2003-October 2004

70

25 28

47

26

49

138

2636

26

60

39

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Sep-

03

Oct-0

3

Nov-

03

Dec-

03

Jan-

04

Feb-

04

Mar

-04

Apr-0

4

May

-04

Jun-

04

Jul-0

4

Aug-

04

Technical Infrastructure of Bb

Application Server V440 (16Gb)

Application Server V440 (16Gb)

DB Server V440 (16Gb)

Chat Server V440 (16Gb)

Storage Array/global data

Scalable Mode Failover Mode

Cluster Framework Sun Cluster 3.0

Integration

Student One – SIS Novell Directory Services (NDS) SAMS – Student Account Management System

PHP Web Application Data-warehouse On the hour updates from SIS Student No, FName ,LName, DOB, Course ID, Location, Mode, Study

Period, Start Date, End Date

Integration

Management of Online Units

Over 650 courses taught annually 522 course entities in Bb 360 days a year operation (4 days) Over 35 Study Periods in a year Over 33 locations Rolling Study Periods, many overlap Bb sites can be combined or separated by study period

or location

Management of Online Units

Staff request courses according to requirements SAMS manages ALL student/staff accounts 3 clear out periods per year Staff are too busy to manage students Staff are too busy to manage staff Access is dependant on Enrolment Who is teaching what? and where?

Building Blocks

Advanced Group Management (modified)

Online Categorisation Tool – Modes • Informational

• Supplemental

• Essential

• Fully Web Enabled

Online Journal Tool Seneca Who's Online

Lessons Learned

Senior Management support for e-learning Find academic mentors in schools LMS is now treated as core application and underscores business

continuity Never skimp on hardware. Plan for expansion Provide incentive for staff in development Deploy fully online courses strategically Ease of Use of Systems is paramount for success Resource support staff adequately Too much flexibility can be unmanageable

Future Directions

Voice Over IP Applications with Bb? Content Management with Bb? E-Portfolio? Single Sign On with OASIS (Online Access to Student Information

System) – Student Portal/Email - SunONE

Mobile Web - HP iPAQ – trials in 2004/5 Wireless Implementation 2004