Announcing: VLE Selection Project
This is a project to select a new Virtual Learning Environment for QM. We currently use Blackboard (Campus Edition 8), which now hosts some 1300 online course areas across the College and is well used by a majority of students. We’re now launching a project to evaluate the needs of all users and recommend a new system.
Why do we need a new VLE now?
- The current system is starting to age and is no longer being developed by Blackboard.
- There is a new Blackboard product line that may be more suitable for the coming years.
- There are a number of alternatives, including open source options that have matured over recent years.
- People are using online technologies in new ways, and we may need a VLE which offers more flexibility, working alongside or integrated with other web-based tools.
When will the new VLE be live?
Selecting and implementing a VLE is a major project, and we want to give people plenty of notice. The aim is to have a new VLE ready in the early summer of 2012 for people to start using for the 2012-13 academic year.
Will you still support Blackboard CE8 over the next two years?
Absolutely. Our face to face, workshop-led, and online support will continue. In fact, we’ve recently appointed two E-Learning Support Advisers, one for staff and one for students, to improve our support offering, and from next year will offer a full online helpdesk for VLE users (and other e-learning services) with dynamic FAQs for common tasks. We’ll also announce shortly details of a scheme to help fund bits of production work for ambitious uses of e-learning. We’ve also recently upgraded the architecture of the current platform to provide more capacity and reliability, so you should already notice that the system runs more smoothly during busy times.
How will we choose a VLE?
The first stage is to gather requirements from the staff and students who use the current system (or who use their own solutions). To this end, we will be holding four large open forums next term around key themes, and will also invite each department to take part in a rapid requirements gathering process with us. We’ll also work closely with students, individuals and programmes that make extensive use of e-learning.
We will also propose a set of high level criteria to ensure that the next VLE can deliver the aims of the College, will comply with relevant legislation, is technically feasible, represents good value and will have a lifetime of at least five years (including upgrades, releases, plug-ins etc).
The next stage will be to map those requirements against the systems that meet the top-level criteria. Depending on what options emerge we may need to go to tender, and/or to invite people to take part in pilot trials, and there will also be a technical evaluation.
After that, we’ll recommend an option to College, and an implementation project will begin. There will then be a push to help people build new courses areas and migrate content to the new system, ready for 2012-13.
How can I get involved?
We’re holding the first event next Wednesday (the 19th May), where you have the chance to talk about any frustrations with the current system, before we go on to gather requirements for the next. See this post for details.
We will also launch an online practitioner network next term, where you can discuss your own uses of e-learning and contribute to this project.
Updates and announcements will be posted here (if you want to subscribe to these by RSS, the feed is http://www.esddelu.org.uk/category/vle-selection-project/feed/).
Meanwhile, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please send these to elearning@qmul.ac.uk with the title ‘VLE Selection’ and we’ll be happy to get in touch with you.
I look forward to working with colleagues and students across the College on selecting an online learning environment which can take us through the years 2012 – 2017, providing a platform for innovative teaching and effective learning.
Sam Brenton, Head of E-Learning
On behalf of the E-Learning Unit
If you have any issues regarding the information in this service announcement, please contact the VLE Support team via the online query form on http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/forms/ce6query/