Comprehensive e-Campuses:
description
Transcript of Comprehensive e-Campuses:
Comprehensive e-Campuses:
Academics and Commerce
Trina Spaeth, e-Learning SpecialistNancy Lilleberg, Manager of Instructional
Services
About North Dakota State– Current enrollment at NDSU is
approximately 12,100 students– The student/teacher average ratio is
19/1. – The campus is about 258 acres or 30
city blocks. The NDSU main campus includes 90 major buildings.
– NDSU was established in 1890 as a land-grant institution
NDSU’s e-Community Initiative• NDSU purchased the Community and
Content systems to enhance their Learning System with:– e-Portfolio capability– Student file storage – e-Commerce capability – Portal function
• Our challenges included: – Problems with our custom authentication
working with the new systems. – Aggressive implementation
Quick Implementation at NDSU• Changed to PeopleSoft Fall 2005• Secured funding from Student Technology Fee
for Community and Content System in Nov. 2005
• Purchased and received hardware in Dec. 2005
• Onsite Community System training 12/20-22• Upgrade to Bb7 12/27-29• Set up basic portal 12/28-29• Went live for faculty 12/29
Why it worked
• Small expert staff, very committed• Excellent dynamics between server and
instructional services groups– Grad Student started in Instructional
Services and over the year, started doing server-type support. Now he’s full time server group, but housed with Instructional Services
• Tried to do formal project management …
How was Community Deployed?• Bb onsite training jump-started us• New portal greeted faculty and
students upon return for spring semester– Used portal modules to guide users
through change– Added tab for “Blackboard Help”– Started simple, with the tabs and
modules
How we survived start of semester• Grad student coded tools to help get
spring courses created / copied / migrated– Course naming conventions with admin
tool– Course request form populated with
individual course information – Use of Help Desk Remedy
tickets
How was File System Deployed?• Turned off for everyone except pilots• Bb onsite training last week – included
some faculty and did demos to large group
• Used pilots to discover– Effect on system load– Amount of storage space needed– What training, support and documentation
is needed
How was File System Deployed?• Ran into WebDAV glitch• Storage calculations – half of a half is
not enough!• New method of file storage
– 4.5 TB instead of 1 TB– Using SAN (Storage Area Network)– Mirrored storage with separate, duplicate
sites– Saved the Director’s job
What about e-Commerce?
• Custom Authentication problem• What’s the plan once that’s solved?• NDSU printing initiative• Big seller – Ability for parents to add
to students’ Bison cards• Requests from departments for other
e-commerce applications (Distance & Cont. Ed., Pesticides DB, Bookstore….)
Getting “buy-in” across campus• Pilots involve most colleges /
departments• Innovative uses for President’s
Council members and staff • ITS serves as role model -- uses Bb
departmentally• Governance groups to be started
What did we learn?
• Be very careful how you word things on portal! (Example: “If you don’t see your spring courses…”)
• Beware of student opinion polls!• Even after sending out detailed emails
to faculty, expect 1-on-1 help and last-minute requests
• Blackboard responsive to solving barriers
What’s next?
• Expand from pilots to campus-wide usage – Implement e-Portfolios across campus – Implement e-Commerce with Bison cards– Open up file system to everyone by fall– e-Reserves?
What’s next?
• Create module using inbuilt API’s to allow instructors to create their own courses for fall: New shells and copies of previous courses
• Create module to automatically enroll students into Bb courses using Peoplesoft data
What’s next?• Use the official NDSU web site for
external PR, and use Bb portal for internal needs– Departmental / College / Organizational
communications– Link to important web sites outside of Bb,
like WebMail, PeopleSoft portal– Institutional & Organizational file storage for
campus-wide sharing of files– Institutional & Organizational discussion
boards
Thank You!Trina Spaeth, e-Learning Specialist @ NDSU
Email: [email protected] Lilleberg, Manager of Instructional Services @ NDSU
Email: [email protected] Kloberdanz, Director of Client Service @ NDSU
Email: [email protected]