Status 2005 Ian D Thompson ian thompsonstrath ac

Status 2005 Ian D. Thompson ian. thompson@strath. ac. uk ©University of Strathclyde 2005

SPIDER • in-house VLE project started in 1998 • initially one developer (Ian Thompson) • development contributions from • Tim Plumridge (Pharmaceutical Sciences) • Ian Thurlbeck (STAMS) • Fraser Murray (Mathematics/ P&A Chemistry) • additional modules e. g. CIS student projects

Usage of SPIDER

Usage of SPIDER

Usage of SPIDER Table 1: Class and user growth sinception in 1998 * estimate, as figures not available

Usage of SPIDER Faculty of Science • used by all 10 departments • organised into 7 “clusters” Business School • Master of International Management • MSc Economic Management & Policy • MSc International and Financial Economics • ~40 staff, ~600 students + alumni LASS - providing e. PDP for all new ug (~800+) Education/ CAS/ SCA PDP and classes for 395 students + 31 staff Chemeng - e. PDP for ~200 students (17 staff users)

Usage of SPIDER Monthly usage - term time ~1. 5 M page visits* per month, ~50 -70, 000 per day - 4, 000 different users/ week * page visit - single page request by user, rather than “hits” - a single page request will generate many hits (one for HTML + each image or other media)

SPIDER hardware Primary server Dual Xeon 3 GHz CPU 2 Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~90 Gb SCSI ~£ 3, 500 in 2004 Mirror server x 2 PIII 800 MHz, 1 Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~60 Gb SCSI rsync + My. SQL slaves Development server PII 533 MHz, 512 Mb RAM, 10 Gb HD

VLE structure Typical VLE tutor controls class is in class learner class

VLE structure SPIDER cluster 4 cluster 3 cluster department class tutor can view class belongs to department cluster 2 department class is in class can view learner profile classes, groups exam & quiz results progress e. PDP. . . class class

SPIDER “clusters” structure • model university structure of degrees, departments and classes • provide control & communication at • course/ programme level (cluster) • department level • class level • allow customisation

SPIDER management each cluster has own admin(s) • one or more academic/technical/computing/administrative staff • 11 user groups - flexible administration • distributed/ shared • “central”/ individual(s) • mix of both to suit departmental needs after training local expertise • first line help & advice + help from other admins/ developers

Class/ cluster content control Editor, sub-admin and admins manage content at cluster level “Class editor” user • any (staff) user can control one (or more) classes’: • content • exam returns • class lists

SPIDER classes open access to any class* • • • curiosity/ general interest learner revision view good practice/ staff peer review no problems with late registration class list is stored independantly * option to limit access to class list/ staff if required

SPIDER classes session tabs • • groups class material by academic session (e. g. 2005 -06) auto-archiving of materials student access for revision session tab access can be restricted to students on class list for matching session e. g. only allow revision students to access solutions * option to limit access to class list/ staff if required

User object student “object” allows SPIDER to provide class independent: • information to staff • tools for students (+ staff) examples • counsellees tool student profile • performance monitoring/ tracking - EWS • e. PDP • my. Counsellor • attendance register • blogs • non-class groups

News/ communication Any staff user can post news items • • • appear on home page +/- email copy - replaces email lists for many depts target any combination of 1 or more class(es), year(s), cluster user can filter news “feeds” moves to archive after 7 days or once “marked read” by user Private messaging • • appears in users private message space +/- email copy staff can target individuals, counsellees or sub groups of counsellees, user input list students can message each other via groups/ discussions

EWS Early Warning System • Uses my. Counsellees tool • Staff can quickly view student progress/results • Indication of poor peformance • Remedial action can be taken early

Addresses http: //spider. science. strath. ac. uk Development server http: //spider-dev. pharmacy. strath. ac. uk Ian Thompson x 2969 ian. thompson@strath. ac. uk