Something Old Something New Something Borrowed Are We

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed - Are We Blue? Nichola Hayes Educational Designer Course Design and Development University of Leicester www. le. ac. uk

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Our Approach: evidence, evidence • Server logs to quantify the usage of particular tools. • An online questionnaire to all staff (academic, administrative and central support), which explored VLE use, attitudes, needs and challenges. (262 staff responded). • Interviews with all 32 academic departments and student-facing central services. • A focus group involving a representative sample of students from 13 departments.

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Staff Survey - Respondents by job role (n=262) 2. 7% 7. 6% Academic staff 11. 5% Professional/administrative staff 52. 7% 25. 6% Academic-related staff Teaching assistant/postgraduate Other

Staff Survey Results • Dissatisfaction with Blackboard. • Blackboard used as a content repository. • Standardised templates that allow flexibility welcomed by the majority. • Centrally provided extra help required for any Bb upgrade fall-out and moving to a template.

Staff Survey Results

Student Focus Group Questions • Q 1. What role does Blackboard currently play in your course? • Q 2. Is it easy to access course materials on Blackboard currently? • Q 3. What do you find most difficult to use in Blackboard? • Q 4. Where and when do you need to/would you like access to course materials? • Q 5. What sort of materials would you ideally like? • Q 7. If you could design an ideal VLE – what would it look like?

Student Focus Group

Q 7. If you could design an ideal VLE – what would it look like? • Keep it simple • Bb Home page for your department, should be cleaner, with ‘button’ links to DISCUSSION BOARDS, YOUR GRADES, MATERIALS, ASSESSMENT, SEARCH, CAREERS, DEPARTMENT NEWS • Notifications should use colours to highlight new information or updated information. • Use shorter file names • Timetable • Link to library and notification of when books are due back • Pre-populate address book with relevant students and staff

Blackboard Audit • • Upgrade Considerations Blackboard roles within the department Usability and fit for purpose Navigation/organisation and templates L&T tools Site administration Assessment and Feedback Support and Training

Blackboard Audit Results • • • v v • • • July best month for downtime Difficult time of year – Start of year and semesters Demanding tasks – Enrolling students Deleting students/instructors from previous cohorts/years Uploading multiple documents on a one-by-one basis Adaptive release Navigation - Not user-friendly (too many clicks, frustrating…) Templates - Would like templates with ability to personalise/adapt L&T tools outside of Bb – large percentage are and favourites were Google tools (Plus, Docs, tools), specialised tools (geological mining software), Facebook, Word. Press, Screen Capture, Twitter etc. ) Academic staff and module convenors doing as much administration as the administrators (blurred roles) Training - Current style of training is not useful or staff do not have time to attend. Key question(s) – What is Blackboard for? What can we do with it? How do we enhance the experience? What training is available? Discipline specific training

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Move to Managed Hosting

Mobile App. and Bb Mobile Learn

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Default View – our approach • Task and finish Group • Paper Prototyping • Student Focus Group Photo credit: Doug Aghassivia photopin

Communication

Support Resources • Online Help resources: go. le. ac. uk/blackboardhelp • Access from Help page in Blackboard

Dedicate Migration Support Team

Learning Objects http: //preview. tinyurl. com/ckxq 2 lk Podcasts http: //preview. tinyurl. com/coqov 4 c Blogs http: //preview. tinyurl. com/ckf 9 ptn Wikis

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