Blackboard Next Generation Upgrade and Support Plan

Presentation for Council of DeansFaculty Development and Instructional Design Center

November 10, 2010

Presentation Goals

• Highlight information on current Blackboard support available for NIU faculty/staff and TAs

• Introduce new features to be available in Blackboard following upgrade scheduled for May 2011

• Share faculty support plan and timeline of support activities

• Obtain your feedback on the plan and ideas on how we can help your faculty proactively

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Blackboard Usage at NIU

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Blackboard

• Learning management system available campus-wide for teaching since 2002

• Used for range of activities from posting course materials to teaching online

• This fall 2010, 97% of NIU students and 75% of faculty use Blackboard

More details: www.niu.edu/blackboard

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Use of Blackboard by (individual) Students

Usage % for fall ‘10 with 23,795 enrolled is 96.8% of total number of students

23,040

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Use of Blackboard by (individual) Faculty/Staff/TAs to Teach

Usage % for fall ‘10 with 1,761* faculty/instructors/TA/teaching staff is 74.96%

*1,761 includes only those providing direct instruction

1,320

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Number of Credit Course Sections in Blackboard

Usage % for fall ‘10 with 5,106* sections is 49.23%*No. of course sections including thesis, dissertation, and independent studies is 5,106

2,514

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Number of Course Enrollments in Blackboard

Students enrolled in several courses that use Blackboard in a semester

87,687

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Current Support Provided by

Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center

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Blackboard Support• The comprehensive support provided by our Center

on teaching with Blackboard includes the following:– Hands-on workshops (series of 39 different workshops)– Individual consultations (In FY10 alone, 523 consultations

on Blackboard were offered to 230 unique individuals)– Usage documentation (250+ webpages)

(9,800 unique visitors per month to the help site in FY10)– 246 answers to Frequently Asked Questions (searchable)– 37 step-by-step tutorials (searchable)– Podcasts (23+ episodes) on teaching with Blackboard– Quick Guides on using Blackboard – 24 archived online workshops, Ask-A-Question, etc.

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Current Blackboard Version(Release 8.0)

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Current Blackboard Version (Release 8.0)

Blackboard 8.0

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Control Panel

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Edit View

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Blackboard Next Generation (Release 9.1)

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Blackboard Next Generation

• Most significant upgrade to Blackboard to date seeking to accomplish 3 main goals:1. Deliver highly engaging but powerfully simple

user experiences for faculty and students2. Combine new innovation with the best of both

Blackboard and WebCT (acquired by Blackboard)3. Expand Blackboard’s open interface so that it

integrates more easily into existing campus technologies

More details: blackboard.com/projectng

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A Few of the New Features…• A more collective and collaborative learning

experience for students through the integration of – Blogs, Journals, Wikis, and Mash-ups, as well as new

Group Tools.

• Increased educator efficiency through – contextual editing, content management at the course

level, drag-and-drop navigation, etc.

• More centralized control over assessment instruments through expanded question management capabilities available for use when – creating Tests, Surveys, and Question Pools.

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Upgrade to Blackboard 9.1

• Blackboard released version 9.1 in fall 2009• Blackboard will not continue to support current

version (8.0) after 2011• NIU’s upgrade to version 9.1 planned for May 2011

(Memorial Day weekend)• Our staff and ITS staff began testing version 9.1 in

summer 2010 to ensure all the features and interfaces work properly, and identify quirks

• Our staff are working on developing new workshops and documentation for version 9.1

• Upgrade will not impact course materials, only interface

• Students won’t see a drastic difference

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Brief Demonstration

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Blackboard Next Generation Upgrade

Faculty Support Plan

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Faculty Support Plan• We have organized the plan into 5 Phases:– Phase 1: Install and test Blackboard version 9.1 and

begin developing user documentation– Phase 2: Communicate new features and user

interface changes to users by several means– Phase 3: Conduct preview sessions (f2f and online)– Phase 4: Upgrade to version 9.1 and begin hands-

on workshops for basic as well as advanced users– Phase 5: Offer open lab and special sessions for

colleges and departments as requested

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Faculty Support Plan Phases

Phase 1: Documentation and Support Materials Preparation (Beginning Summer 2010)

Phase 2: Communications of New Features and User Interface Changes (Beginning Fall 2010)

Phase 3: Preview Sessions (Beginning Spring 2011)Hands-on preview sessions 90 mins each; Online preview sessions 60 mins each

Phase 4: Hands-on Face-to-Face Workshops (Beginning Summer 2011) All workshops 90 mins

Phase 5: Open Labs& Special Sessions

Install new system on a development (BbDev) server

Test new features and system interfaces

Create upgrade page to document new features, changes, and include links to applicable support materials provided by Blackboard

Update Teaching with Blackboard support site (niu.edu/blackboard) to reflect new features major interface changes

Convert site from WebCRMA to new Cascade CMS as part of the redesign update process

Outline of features and pre-existing support materials at niu.edu/blackboard/ng

Articles in Fall ’10 & Spring ’11 newsletters and campus media

Episodes on Teaching with Blackboard Podcast devoted to changes

Notices of new features posted to FacDev blog, Twitter, and Facebook, and notices to users

Screencasts and/or quick tip highlighting changes

Online preview sessions archived for on-demand viewing

2 invite-only hands-on preview sessions for support staff and faculty power users [3/29, 4/6]

3 online preview sessions [60 min] for faculty/staff & TAs via Wimba Classroom [3/30, 4/12, 4/27]

3 hands-on preview sessions for faculty/staff & TAs [4/8, 5/3, 5/16]

2 invite-only hands-on preview sessions for faculty teaching during intersession [4/28, 5/16]

6 Bb Tune-up sessions for experienced users offering hands-on overview of changes and new features [6/9, 8/9, 8/11, 8/17(2), 8/19]

7 Bb I & II hands-on sessions for users new to Bb [6/2, 6/15, 7/13, 7/21, 8/15, 8/19]

2 Bb NG Boot Camps (4 in-depth hands-on sessions for faculty/staff on 9.1 new feature sets) [6/3, 8/10]

Blackboard Open Lab sessions [11AM-1PM] each day during 1st week of summer & fall 2011 terms [6/13, 6/14, 6/15, 6/16, 8/22, 8/23, 8/24, 8/25, 8/26]

College-specific sessions available upon request

Consultations with individual faculty/staff and TAs upon request

Hands-on preview sessions and face-to-face workshops will be 90 minutes in length; Online preview sessions will be 60 minutes in length

Faculty Support Plan Timeline

9/10 10/10 11/10 12/10 1/11 2/11 3/11 4/11 5/11 6/11 7/11 8/11 9/11

Support plan drafted & shared with Provost, Council of Deans, and Faculty Development Advisory Committee

Version 9.1 installed on bbdev.

FacDev & ITS begin testing system

Redesign of existing support site begins

Initial draft of redesigned support site ready on new CMS

New support site goes live

Phase 1: Documentation and Support Materials Preparation

Phase 2: Communications of New Features and User Interface Changes

Phase 3: Preview Sessions

Phase 4: Hands-on Face-to-Face Workshops

Phase 5: Open Labs & Special Sessions

Preliminary info on 9.1 available on current support site

New tutorials, quick guides, etc. developed in response to questions received

New features in 9.1 covered in all future Blackboard workshops

Consultations with individual faculty/staff and TAs upon request

Last updated: 11/7/10

Outage / Upgrade to Bb 9.1 (5/29 - 5/30)

2010 2011

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Workshops Scheduled

• 35 workshops currently scheduled for Spring & Summer 2011:– 10 preview sessions prior to upgrade– 8 hands-on workshops for new users– 8 “tune-up” workshops for experienced users– 9 open lab sessions

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Faculty Support Plan Challenges

• Faculty Focus Groups on documentation needs• Issues related to moving Blackboard users’

documentation from current web management system (WebCRMA) to the new one (Cascade)

• Priority training for those teaching intersession courses that overlap the upgrade in May 2011

• Need to train nearly 1,300 instructional faculty/ staff/TAs over summer 2011

• Retraining current basic to advanced users• Training new faculty/staff/TA users from Aug ‘11

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More Information

niu.edu/blackboard/ng

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Summary

• Faculty Development workshop closely with ITS in preparations for Blackboard 9.1 upgrade

• Faculty Development staff will be available for– College-meetings in spring 2011 to demonstrate the

new Blackboard system– College/department-specific workshops

• We need your support for a successful upgrade– Mention the upgrade in college meetings– Recommend faculty to start early for Su and Fall ‘11– Encourage college tech staff to help

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