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February 28, 2006

Educate. Innovate. Everywhere. Blackboard World '06

Hi from rainy San Diego. After 132 days without rain in Arizona, it is a welcome site. I am in San Diego with a number of my colleagues from GateWay Community College, Scottsdale Community College, Estrella Mountain Community College and the District Office to attend the Blackboard World ’06 conference.

The conference is organized into two tracks – the Academic and K-12 track and the Commerce Track. I plan to spend most of my time at the Academic Track.

Today I will be attending the following sessions:
• Holistic Approaches for New Releases: Training, Implementation and Support
• Keynote Session: Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Blink!
• Project Management for Creating Rich, Interactive Online Courses
• Facilitating Challenging Situations with Blackboard’s Discussion Board
• Keynote Session: Blackboard Academic Suite Roadmap

Read further to learn about what I discovered in these sessions.

Holistic Approaches for New Releases: Training, Implementation and Support
Dave Fraedrich, Manager for Course Management Systems at MCCCD and Lori Malcolm, E-Learning Support from GateWay Community College presented regarding Maricopa’s approach to implementing new releases of Blackboard including how training, implementation of the upgrade and support (District ITS-level, college level and 3rd party helpdesk).

Keynote Session: Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point and Blink!
Understanding change.
Story of a new technology in 1921: radio. Live broadcast of a boxing match. As a result, radio took off – runaway success story. This was the tipping point of adoption of radio technology – transformational change. General public embraced it.

We are nearing the tipping point for e-learning. What can we learn from the radio experience?
1. Change occurred quickly and easily. Was initially viewed as irrelevant. Example of Berlin Wall probably most dramatic change in our lifetime – 1 month and free.
2. Reframed the way people thought about the technology. See how wins acceptance from the general public – a process of reframing occurs. See the technology in a new way – a way that they are passionate about. Examples: adoption of seat belts (child restraint law – kids encouraged parents to wear the belts, they were the advocates – reframed as family responsibility), IPOD (reframed MP3 technology – said no longer technology – fashion accessory – removed the technology – as easy to buy as a belt – transforms the way the world listens to music)
3. Brought forth by unknown individual, limited resources but as the initiative to make things happen – has social power. More important than political and economic power.

Resistance exists because of the way people have framed e-learning. We must reframe it. Not a technology, is personal, a tool.

Connectors: In every group there are some people who have a large social circle – can spread ideas and reach people – have many contacts, diversity in social contacts. Strength of network. These people can help make transformational change. Example: Paul Revere. Not about the message, it is about the messenger.

Our circles are getting smaller. We are getting more isolated through technology. For example, teenagers are isolated. As lives get more complex and specialized – we have limited access, obstacles are that 3 different constituencies that are isolated based on desires, needs and interested – students, teaches, administrators. Tend to be antagonistic to the adoption of a new technology.

Mavens: Small percentage of people with disproportionate knowledge. We look at the outside and see them know what they need but we must understand that they had someone/relationship that helped to guide the person making a choice/embracing a new technology. Knowledge and instinct to share.

Everything is getting more complicated with choice and complexity – often when this occurs, people’s response is to shut down. Sometimes too much choice limits an individual’s ability to adopt = social fear. E-learning is in the best interest of each constituency but they have another thing to make a decision about – need assistance and guidance – someone they trust and respect.

Project Management for Creating Rich, Interactive Online Courses
Kaye Shelton, Director of Online Learning, Dallas Baptist University
All 3 modalities but today rich, interactive online courses
Serve 1300 students – 27% of overall University enrollment
92-93% student completion rate believes stems from faculty support
Literature says faculty roles are changing and learner needs are changing
Moves distance education mainstream in the institution

Faculty support encourages Faculty motivation, satisfaction and buy-in

Institutional prioritization to support faculty
Approved by distance ed steering committee
Compensated for course development, remain property of institution
Orientation with planning worksheets (springboard to get them thinking about content sequence)
Address copyright and schedule biweekly cohort meeting and online training class
Centralized support for content creation 4 f-t and 2 p-t in flexible hours and go to grad school at other institutions $7 - $12/hour
QA/proofing – in place since 1998 – someone in discipline signs off on it
Support 175 online faculty 100 hybrid faculty out of 500 total faculty
Ways to support faculty course development
• Express concern from administration
• Instructional design assistance, etc.
o Templates (look like Softchalk templates)
o Campus photos
o Copyedit support – make all changes based on proofing – faculty don’t have to make the changes
o Pagination – getting the courses print-ready
o Examples/links to others – http://www.onlineteachingtips.com
o Create graphical banners
o Model course
o Provide books and materials

They chunk their content into little digestible chunks

First item of every unit is Steps for success

Requirement: Every faculty member writes a note to the students about course specifics
Student orientation course in Bb all students are enrolled one week in advance – some instructors give extra credit for completion

All create a faculty bio with more information – created their own content item

All content in chunks – 15-16 sessions/chunks – use banner for accessing content

Master menu – students need to have same buttons to navigate the course in every course

First item in each is session objective – steps for success. Linear process from there on: Provide guidance questions. Reading. Lecture. Learning Object (interact with the content) discussion board content item in the unit. Assignment. Hot Potatoes or StudyMate to make some practice items.

Glossary tool that uploads with a MSWord object.

• Media Creation Support
• Recording studio
• Video editing
• Multimedia
o Talking PowerPoint
o Flash Objects
• Learning Object Authoring – see the link – can look at list of repositories, see examples and then request to have one created.

Can create jeopardy on AliveTech – http://www.alivetech.com

CMS Assistance:
CMS Training
Quiz and Exam Creation
Student BB Orientation Course
Monthly newsletter
http://www.onlineteachingtips.com
Book: Rita Marie Conrad – Engaging the online Learner

Qpdf is a free PDF creator

http://www.Kingdomality.com – personality profiler

Facilitating Challenging Situations with Blackboard’s Discussion Board
Shoreline Community College
This session was broken into 4 parts with a faculty member discussing each of the following topics:
Part 1: Collective Brainstorming on the DB Boardwalk – Ed Harkness
Teaches writing concept of audience – writing to class/each other

Part 2: Highlighting the Skills and Talents of the ESL Learner – Debby Handrich
How using a discussion board can move the ESL student from the back of the class to the foreground – link the students by their experiences and encourage them to “talk” freely

Part 3: Promoting Critical Thinking Skills – Doug Reid
Discussion Board topics should encourage higher level thinking skills. She provided a number of questions that can be used to promote critical thinking skills in the online classroom. Some of those questions include:
When you say___, are you implying ___?
Let me see if I understand you; do you mean ___ or ___?
Where did you get this idea?

Part 4: Writing Thoughtfully about Race, Social Class and Gender – Dr. Betsey Barnett

Discussed ways to encourage acquisition of multicultural meaning.

Keynote Session: Blackboard Academic Suite Roadmap
Michael Chasen, CEO and Matthew Pittinsky, Chairman of Blackboard, Inc
The Tipping Point is happening.
Web 2.0
Google Satellite
Rich User Experiences
Software customization

ELearning 2.0
e-learning 1.0 vs e-Learning 2.0
Platform adoption extend the platform
Courses social networks
Education segments lifelong learning
Inputs outcomes

Blackboard 2.0
Blackboard + WebCT = opportunity = one organization
Additional resourses and levels of commitment – this is a tipping point

1.0: Our Foundation
1. Platform adoption
-1000 institutions using Bb
-500 using community system
-200 using content system
-135 using full Bb academic suite
-54% of CEOs identified this is critical strategy
-73% said CMS is part of strategic training plan
-3700 institutions with Bb and WebCT
eLearning 1.0 to 2.0 this is the catalyst of elearning 1.0

the Bb community is growing
we are thought as leaders who are shaping how technology can improve the education process
This is about an opportunity to move towards 2.0

Blackboard Beyond Initiative
Idea of social force/social power. Development of 4 web services centrally hosted by Bb built into Bb and WebCT that are connected – institutions and/or users
Shaped and run by the community, developed by Bb, multi-year effort

4 web services
1. Extending the platform
a. Personalized
b. Building blocks
c. Rich content – Learning Objects Catalogue
i.
2. Social networking
a. Roles of the discipline – Scholar.com
i. Allow students to connect
ii. Integrated into Bb and webCT
iii. Discipline based
3. Lifelong learning
a. Segment by segment orientation
b. Faculty teach across institutions
c. Students create portfolios tied to institution
d. E-Portfolios for Life
4. Outcomes
a. Collaborative Benchmarking and Analysis
b. Institutionalized collaboration
c. Anonymous posting of relevant data

Just the Beginning
Dedicated best practices site – Blackboard Connections site
Catalog of distance learning programs/courses
Single sign-on between institutions
Degree verification online
Don’t want to reinvent the world, want to build on what is out there

Blackboard Idea Exchange
Product advisory board strategy vs all customers who want to be involved
150 Institutions who are excited about the initiative and will work with Bb to make it a reality.

Product Highlights Supporting both eLearning 1.0 and 2.0
BB/WebCT Product Plan – 5 phase approach. Support both CMSs – common API.
Common API, make changes to both until next generation CMS

Product Improvements:
Discussion Board Improvements
Grade a single posting, entire thread, etc.
Search by group. User, content area
Assessment – self testing and ability to take a test multiple times
Cross-Platform Visual Editor – WYSIWIG editor across browsers
Blogs – internal and published to the web
Roles – observer dashboard – ability to have observers linked to students – 300 levels of security and functionality in roles
Early Warning Systems – time and grade based
ePortfolio Improvements – evaluation ePorts, customization within ePorts
Internationalization – 10 languages – can run multiple languages simultaneously
Microsoft SharePoint Integration – connected
Blackboard Backpack

Project Caliper
Evaluation and assessment system to aid with data gathering for benchmarking
Link learning objectves to programs/content
Compare assessment at multiple levels and link and provide detailed reporting
How programs are matching up with institutional goals

Blackboard Building Blocks
Over 16000 downloads of Building blocks through Bb
WebCT also has PowerLinks = over 1000 developers
Copyrighht Clearance Center – allows instructors to type a search for an article and connects through library or CCC and asks for permission, and provides a receipt
LAMS – learning actvirty management system – open source – visual editor to arrange activities to provide a sequence
PodCasting/PodClassing – reinforce lectures – Tegrity – iTunes subscribes to RSS feed and automatically downloads

Blackboard Certificate
Test out of training requirement or benchmark your own program against Bb’s – official certified instructor

Posted by lyoung at February 28, 2006 04:42 PM in category

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