Status 2008 Ian D Thompson ian thompsonstrath ac

Status 2008 Ian D. Thompson ian. thompson@strath. ac. uk ©University of Strathclyde 2008

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

Usage of SPIDER

Usage of SPIDER 06 -07 includes ~2000 alumni accounts

Usage of SPIDER Table 1: Class and user growth sinception in 1998 08 -09 26, 249 a 1149 * estimate, as true figures not available a includes alumni accounts

Usage of SPIDER Faculty of Science • used by all departments • organised in 7 “clusters”, ~800 staff • used to support admin and research in addition to teaching Business School 1 cluster: economics, since 2003 • MSc Economic Management & Policy • MSc International and Financial Economics • 37 staff, ~300 students (inc alumni) Education • 3 clusters (education, CAS, SCA) • PDP, questionnaires, classes for 2200+ students, 109 staff since 04 -05

Usage of SPIDER Chemical engineering • e. PDP for ~300 students (17 staff users) since 2004 LASS • cluster providing e. PDP for all new ug since 05 -06 • approx 1800 students, 22 staff • Law School • from session 06 -07 • approx 145 staff and 2000 students • 3 rd biggest cluster (by usage) after pharmacy and bioscience • Psychology • migrated from web. CT to use in 07 -08 • 31 staff, 380 students

Usage of SPIDER Geogsoc • Geography and Sociology currently testing with 1 class (2 staff, 36 students) Modern languages showing some interest ‘Other’ • students/staff not affiliated to any of the above • 47 staff, ~2700 students • central departments, service teaching

Usage of SPIDER Monthly usage - term time ~1. 5 to 2 M+ page visits* per month, ~50 -110, 000 per day • typically 4 -7, 500+ different users/ month • 9, 315 users in semester 1, 2006 -07 • 10, 005 users in semester 1, 2007 -08 • 10, 246 users in semester 2, 2007 -08 • 8, 200 so far in Oct 2008 alone * 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 gets 5 M+ ‘hits’ a week

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 * just ordered new Quad Core Xeon, 8 GB RAM, 0. 8 Tb Raid 5 system (~£ 2 k), will use i. SCSI storage (shared with SIPBS file server) and offsite mirror in Royal College by end 2008/ Q 1 2009

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 independently * 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

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 (+class page if relevant) +/- 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 or any ‘group’ they own/belong to 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 performance • Remedial action can be taken early

Development SPIDER is an in-house system • • • we own the core code built to meet our needs/ teaching style customisation to meet the needs of our users flexible rapid bug fixing/ tweaks modular code • cluster specific tools • anyone can contribute developments/ new tools/ ideas • not just for teaching • dept web sites, radiation records, asset register, lab stocks, document store….

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