The View From Here -Our Professional Development Plan to Support a
Vista Migration
Emily Renoe, Joe Zerdin, Kele Fleming
University of British Columbia
July 10th 2007
2
Introductions
• Emily Renoe
• Joe Zerdin
• Kele Fleming
3
Agenda
• Brief background
• The View from UBC
• Shifting to Vista
• Professional Development Plan
• Questions
The View From UBC
5
UBC Context
• About UBC– Research Intensive– 43,579 students (Vancouver)– 4,132 students (Okanagan)– ~ 4500 faculty– ~ 8100 staff
• Governance:– Decentralized administration
of IT and LT/ET– Office of Learning
Technology works across the Vancouver campus Photo from 2005-06 Annual Report
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Culture: Quite DecentralizedUBC IT & LT Organizations
Major systems in
each portfolio
Student SystemsClassroom Services
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• Learning & Teaching needs drive technology use: choose tool(s) to complement/satisfy instructional goals
• No one technology is perfect• UBC environment is diverse, with both local and
central provisioning of resources• Strong value in community• Partnerships are required to achieve stability
and agility
High Level Values
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Widely Available & Emerging Technologies
• CMS (“WebCT”) & Affiliated Technologies
• Reusable Content/Media• Social Software (Weblogs, Wikis,
RSS)• Web-based Teaching Evaluations• Clickers (Student Response
Systems)• Turnitin• Integrated Lab Network• 3-D Immersive Environments• Podcasting• e-Portfolios• Videoconferencing & Remote
Collaboration Photo credit: Ted Dodds, UBC
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Assessment
Communication
Class
Management
Content
Teaching Puzzle
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Assessment
Communication
Class
Management
Content
Teaching Puzzle
Reflection Community Building
Collaboration
Group ProjectsTeam Building
Career Planning
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Assessment
Communication
Class
Management
Content
Teaching Puzzle
Reflection Community Building
Collaboration
Team BuildingGroup Projects
Career Planning
Wiki
VistaCE
E-portfolio
Blog
Blog
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How We’ve Used WebCT
• Administrative tasks (e.g., distribute grades)
• Assessment & Evaluation
(quizzing, assignments, self assessments)
• Content Management & Delivery(store digital content, present in a variety of ways, selectively provide content to groups, etc.)
• Communication and Collaboration (conduct discussions [public and private], chats, group management)
Buchanan Building, ca. 1960, UBCUBC Photo Archives
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Some Statistics
• Active WebCT courses approx 2800 over 1 year period
• Maximum concurrent WebCT users 1100 (Oct 2006)
• Total number of ‘seats’ 33,000+ users
• Active Vista courses 62 (23 in Jan ‘07, 39 in May-July ‘07)
• Upcoming Vista migrations 300 courses (Sept ‘07)
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Some Challenges
People
• Large numbers of faculty & staff to train
• Large number of students to support
• Maintain same level of support or MORE!
Technology
• Current aging WebCT CE4 system cannot support continued growth
• See presentation from UBC’s IT unit @ 3:30 today (309)
Shifting to Vista
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Why Move to Vista?
• Vista provides more flexible tools & increased
functionality
• Vista provides a robust system that is scalable &
reliable
• Increase in use of online learning at UBC
• Continuity & brand
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Some features we like…
• Student-generated content
• Calendar, myVista View
• Learning Modules vs Content Modules– Integrated tools– → Key benefit: reduce confusion– Selective release granularity
• Discussion upgrades– Peer review– Graded vs. Non graded– Grading forms– 3 types of discussions
• Assignments– Attach grading form– Ease of changing dates year to
year (term rollover)
• Quizzes = Assessments– New question types– Grading! (grade by question)– Self Test and Quiz questions
exist as one database– Grade anonymously
• Deeper tracking capabilities
• Group Manager
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Summer 2006Summer 2006 Planning and preparation for WebCT Vista
Fall 2006Fall 2006 Vista Installed at UBC
Winter 2007Winter 2007 Jan 07 - UBC runs first group of January Early Adopters - 23 courses are migrated
Spring 2007Spring 2007 May 07 - Next wave of approx 30 courses are migrated to Vista
Summer 2007Summer 2007
Fall 2007 Fall 2007
Proceed with migrating next round of courses for Sep 07; Vista training continuesDeploy up to 300 courses to Vista
Vista Implementation Timeline
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Questions to consider
• How do we communicate benefits to instructors?
• How do we set & manage expectations:
– Faculty & Students
– Internal employees
– Our bosses (and our boss’s boss….)
• What are the most effective approaches/frameworks
we can use?
Professional Development Plan
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Training & Support Model
• Distributed support – central IT & faculty ISS– Local support in units (training & office hours)
– Central resources & materials available to local training & ongoing support
• Community
• Training programs– For Instructors
• Faculty-based• Campus-wide
– For staff
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Training ProgramsTraining• e-Learning Institute
– 3 times per year– Bi-weekly sessions
• Bi-weekly online sessions• Course Demos
Open Labs• Weekly in-person drop-ins• Weekly online drop-ins (via Live Classroom)
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Community
Strong value in community
• Communities of Practice– CART– e-Learning Institute trainers– TAG’s Communities of Practice– Passport of Participation Program– Listservs
• Faculty mentors• Peers & tutors
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Selected Resources
• Resource development– Web
• e-Learning website
• Vista Project website
• FAQs
• Orientation sites
• Instructional Support Unit sites
– CIS (http://ipeer.apsc.ubc.ca/wiki/index.php/Centre_for_Instructional_Support_-_Wiki_Site)
– LFS (http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/learningcentre/news/index.html)
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Selected Resources
• Resource development
• Purchased BB training materials
• Home-grown training manuals
• Tip sheets
• Quick guides
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Contacts
• Emily Renoe - [email protected]
• Kele Fleming - [email protected]
• Joe Zerdin - [email protected]
Questions?