1. New College Durham Proprietary and Confidential Information of New College Durham. Copyright © 2003 by New College Durham Blackboard - Beyond the installation G.Wraith 3/12/2003

2. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham2 Outcomes Straw pole? A simple case study Try not to make the same mistakes Adapt appropriately to your environment Feel free to ignore and do it your way

3. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham3 Overview New College Durham overview Blackboard overview – Integration set up Implications of the Integrated set up –Academic Staff –Support –Student –External users Uptake of Blackboard –Staff –Student Issues encountered, so far! Conclusion

4. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham4 History New College Durham - medium sized FE College Limited ICT Resources No. of Staff Levels of Expertise How we got here? JISC Interoperability Pilots Evaluation Process Senior Management commitment to the process Purchase and Implementation of Blackboard Level 3 Integration with College Systems

5. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham5

6. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham6

7. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham7 Implications for Academic Staff Integration: to be or not to be? –Administration overheads for academic staff –Strategic policy decision at SMG –Aiming for an MLE Understanding the process! –No original data goes into Blackboard –The need to supply the existing systems with accurate and up-to-date –Timely input of new data Course structure –Groups –Changes required by academic staff

8. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham8 Implications for Students What they need to do to get logged into Blackboard A process to highlight any problems Removing any barriers A need for induction in the use of A clear reason to use Content, content, content

9. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham9 Lifecycle of a VLE Strategic decision Evaluation/selection/installation Implementation –Using the software –Document dump –Searching for appropriate materials –Content, content, content –Exploring the full functionality

10. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham10 Implications for External Users All Blackboard users must be enrolled on a course within the MIS All Blackboard users must have a network ID and set a password on the network. Issues arising from these requirements –Feeder school projects –Blackboard Licensing

11. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham11 Support User Support - staff Application support - Blackboard System support – integration Blackboard support - ?? –System development at what cost? Surmounting the problem of a lack of support and resources –Regular group sessions –Cascading –Incentives

12. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham12 Uptake of Blackboard Courses – 10922 Users – 20873 Staff – 644 Hits per Day – 1921 Average hits per month – 70,000 Average concurrent users per day – 150/200??

13. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham13 Uptake of Blackboard by Staff Target uptake at implementation –Full-time staff –Part-time staff Issues influencing uptake –Pars –Existing workloads –Existing working practices –Barriers – Any excuse Strategy to overcome barriers –Drivers - Inspection!!!

14. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham14 Uptake of Blackboard by Students Accessibility Type of course –Distance learning –Part-time –IT Academic Staff –Those who embrace change –And those who do not.

15. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham15 Issues in the 1 st Academic Year Hardware Software Backup/Restore Lost documents Staff rights to the courses Data accuracy Data adjustments

16. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham16 Lessons Learned Success –A fully integrated Learning delivery platform available anywhere, anytime. –Persisting with Staff Development sessions –Not upgrading to V6 last summer Mistakes –No dedicated Blackboard support in College –Missed student induction in Year 1 –Under estimated the “mission criticalness” of the system

17. New College Durham New College Durham 2003Copyright of New College Durham17 Thank You Any Questions