Blackboard European User Conference, 6-8 April, Barcelona
The last few years have seen an increase in both the number of us using the VLE here at Queen Mary, and the breadth of activities we’re using it for. We’ve responded to both good and bad changes in the products and now the majority of departments are making extensive use of our current VLE to support teaching, learning and administration in a variety of ways. With Blackboard’s acquisition of WebCT in 2006 and the recent launch of the latest product, Blackboard Learn9, I guess we in the DELU are now asking: what are we doing with the VLE, where is it working well, and what would we need from one in the future?
It was an opportune moment then, for me to attend the Blackboard European user conference earlier this month, which is a mixture of both corporate and client-led sessions. I avoided the corporate presentations as these are essentially advertising, and tended towards the client-led presentations which were more valuable for me to uncover good and interesting ideas for using a VLE, and lessons learned at similar institutions to QM.
Opening Keynote
The opening keynote speaker was Dirk Van Damme from the OECD’s centre for Educational Research and Innovation (www.oecd.org/edu). He delivered a message highlighting the importance of innovation in Higher Education during an economic downturn. Not surprising really, the ‘big picture’ suggested that those institutions that survive a recession and maintain a competitive position in the scramble for international students, will be those most able to respond to the changing HE student and take full advantage of the impact of new technologies. Essentially, technological innovation isn’t yet a driver for educational change, but he suggests that perhaps it should be…
Very inspiring stuff – especially to an audience of learning technologists. However, I was looking for tips and considerations at a different level. How might we use a VLE to best support teaching and learning at a module or programme level? Along these lines, particularly good presentations for me were:
Walking the Talk – Showcasing Best Practice Using Blackboard Community Engagement Tools
(University of York)
Richard Walker and Wayne Britcliffe of the University of York’s E-Learning Team gave a very good presentation on their online area to support academic staff in using the VLE (http://vlesupport.york.ac.uk). They have made heavy use of Blackboard’s ‘Community Engagement’ tools which we don’t have here at Queen Mary, but the concepts may be useful for us regardless.
York’s main driver in developing the online area is to provide adequate support for staff who cannot attend face-to-face workshops. In using Blackboard tools, they are also able to show, by example, how one might use the tools in the VLE. They have merged support guides, case-studies, FAQs and the VLE staff login into one site to improve engagement with their academic community. Indeed, hits to the site had increased, but they couldn’t say whether this was mostly to access the VLE login page.
Particularly impressive were their ‘Showcase’ course areas to provide inspiration for VLE users. These highlight exemplary course areas, with contextual information and an interview with the module leader. The community engagement tools allow users to explore these courses via an automatic guest login. An audience member noted that Leeds Metropolitan University are also about to develop ‘walk-throughs’ with a module leader using Camtasia to achieve the same objective. The idea being that the convenor can best explain what works well with their course, how they use it and provide valuable tips for people interested in using similar techniques.
Engaging the Google Generation: From Podcasting to Peer-Review
(University of Sheffield)
Christopher Stokes from the School of Dentistry at Sheffield has been using student-developed podcasts as an alternative to powerpoint presentations on a course that develops two things: students’ ability to critique peer-reviewed literature as well as their presentation skills.
Following the success of this, his recent work modifies the assessment on this course and now requires that students submit an electronic presentation in any format at all.
From the podcasting assignment, the students found that they worked better as a group than they did when preparing a powerpoint presentation, noting that they were less able to divide up work arbitrarily. When given a choice however, no-one opted for a simple sound file. They would always have sound over video or a slideshow, perhaps a result of the popularity of YouTube.
Planning for Tomorrow – Blackboard Learning System – Vista Enterprise License and Beyond
(City University London, Universities of Sheffield, Birmingham and Surrey)
The four institutions that presented together are all in a similar position to Queen Mary as initial WebCT customers as distinct from users of Blackboard proper. For us, the migration to Blackboard Learn 9 is a complicated process. The decision to migrate therefore, cannot be taken lightly and the presentation provided an opportunity to see how others are tackling the decision-making process.
Everyone, both on the stage and in the audience, had reached the conclusion (as we had also) that conducting a VLE evaluation is imperative before any decision is made. Faced with a difficult migration, it is time for everyone to ask themselves whether they need a VLE at all, and if so, what do they need from one.
The various approaches involved: inviting a shortlist of potential providers to interviews with members of the institution at various levels; establishing exactly how to evaluate future needs as well as current ones; setting up pilot studies of more than one product. From Birmingham, the interesting standpoint was articulated that innovation happens because we create an environment within which one has the flexibility to innovate, so their driver is to provide academics with the broadest range of e-learning tools to stimulate creativity in this area. At QM, we’ve found that in some areas we are reaching the limitation of what we can do with our current VLE and the way people are using it, so a broad range of tools is important for us too.
Enhancing Programme Delivery and Improving the Student Learning Experience with Blackboard Learn
(University of Reading)
Similar to the presentation from the University of York, Guy Pursey of the University of Reading also presented on their approach to staff development. They have an e-learning team at Reading that is the same size as ours and are at the stage of trying to move people on from using their VLE areas simply as a file repository.
Their attempts to weave into their technical support, some guidance on best practice, teaching and learning and using the VLE for effective blended learning, has resulted in the usual collection of resources (an A-Z of e-learning, technical guides, a t&l FAQ), along with case-studies that identify interesting ways of using specific tools.
A particularly interesting addition though, is their ‘Pathfinder Initiative’ which is linked to departments’ periodic reviews of their programmes. If they are considering ways to embed e-learning into modules, an e-learning member will go into the department, look at their VLE course areas and talk to instructors and students to get an idea of how they’ve used their areas, what has been successful and what may work for their department in general. On the basis of this, the team then plans the necessary bespoke courses for a department.