ManagingSemester-to-Semester

Transitions Storie Walsh

Technical Services ManagerVirtual High School

Session Agenda• Relevant background about VHS• Our goals for semester transitions• Challenges we’ve faced• Project plan• Two options for new semester courses

– Course copy– Course recycle

• Course administration– Archives– Common accts– Course titles and IDs

Virtual High School (VHS) Background• Collaborating with

schools to offer online, content-rich, credit-bearing high school courses

• Growing since 1996• Non-profit organization• 440 member schools • VHS Participants are

across the country and around the world

VHS Background (Cont.)

• Courses hosted on Bb since Fall 2004

• Teachers are trained in Bb through VHS

• VHS Course Server – Running Bb 6.2.3 build

23 (Learning and Community Portal)

– Hosted by ASP– 196 student courses

currently running– 909 courses on server– 9440 users on server

• Courses are entirely online

• Courses are scheduled asynchronous– Single Semester (15

week) or Full Year (33 week)

– All courses begin on the same date, and follow the VHS weekly calendar

• Repeated semester courses run in the Fall and again in the Spring

Semester Transition Goals• Provide a clean* course instance to

each teacher for the upcoming semester

• Archive a complete version of each of the previous semester’s courses for historical purposes

• Provide a backup of each of the previous semester’s courses on the server for teacher reference and tech support purposes

Semester Transition Challenges• Semester overlap/make-up period

and grading• Bb discussions• Working around everyone’s

schedules• Internet bottleneck• Unexpected functional changes after

Bb upgrades• Student enrollment drops

Project Plan• Always test the process beforehand

– Discussion ordering– Duplicate content– Broken graphics/attachments

• Capture time estimates for each step• List all steps within a timeline to build out

plan• Communication with teachers• Dealing with exceptions

Communication to Teachers• Timely and concise communication

– SUBJ: Your Course Between Semesters• Send during final week of the semester• Include schedule for archival, course availability, and any server

blackout dates• Include reminder that teachers should not clean out their courses• Include next semester start date• Include method for questions

– SUBJ: Your Course Between Semesters - An Update• Send one week prior to course availability• Heads up

– SUBJ: Spring Semester Preparation: Top 5 List• Send when courses become available• Set expectations• Include quick checklist for course preparation with link to detailed

instructions• Include method for questions

Communication (cont.)1/17/06 VHS Admin Mail to TeachersSUBJ: Spring Semester Preparation: Top 5 List-------------------------Hello Spring Semester VHS Teachers:

Tomorrow (Wednesday January 18th) you will have access to your Spring 06 course via the NetCourses page at faculty.goVHS.org. To help you prepare for the spring semester, we have compiled a list of important To Dos. Please review this list carefully over the next week, and you'll be ready for your students on January 25th!

1. DiscussionsThis semester, student replies have been removed from your Private Threads only. You will see that student posts have been retained from your Fall 05 course in Teams and all Discussion Area threads. We have heard from many teachers that they would like to have access to previous semester's discussions for reference, so we have left them in. If you would like to delete these student posts, there is a simple process, which should take you about one half hour, tops. When in any forum, click the "Show Options" tab over to the right. Make sure that you have expanded all threads by clicking the "Expand All" button. Next, click the "Select All" button. You'll see that all posts have a check mark next to them. Uncheck the main posts that you created, then click the "Remove" button. All student posts will now be removed. If you archived threads last semester, you'll need to pull those threads from archive and repeat this process on them. If there are particular threads that you would like to keep for reference, you can do one of two things. You can "collect" them by selecting the posts you want to keep and clicking the "Collect" button. You can then print or download this page for reference. You can then remove these students posts if you wish. Another option is to archive the threads and make them unavailable to students. You will then have to re-create the main thread starter for your current students.

Communication (cont.)2. Dates

Change the dates in your course to the current semester. Dates on weekly folders are important as they help students with course navigation. Remember, if you list dates on your weekly folders only, you only need to change 15 dates! For reference, the VHS weekly calendar can be found by clicking VHS Calendar from the navigation bar on the faculty web site.

3. Announcements Make sure there is a Welcome announcement in your course for the new semester. We recommend you always have a current announcement in your course that includes clear information about the current week and expectations. This sets a great tone as students enter your classroom space.

4. Student ListYour class list will be available by 2:00 PM EST on Wednesday 1/18. Once your class list is in place, you can edit your Private Threads (PTs) for your new students. If you need a refresher course on how to do this, please check the COVE, which is available via NetCourses on the VHS faculty web site. Remember to check your class list daily for changes in enrollments during the VHS add period (the first week of class). Note that registration updates can take up to 24 hours to be reflected in your course roster in Blackboard, during the add period.

Communication (cont.)5. Grades

Review your gradebook and your grading communication documents in your course. Please make sure that your students and their site coordinators know where to find grades. This information should be clearly stated in your Start Here documents. Reset your gradebook, if needed, so future assignments are not visible and not counted as part of the point total.

 If you have questions or concerns about any of these items, or if you just need a bit of guidance (technical or otherwise), we're happy to help! Please file a service ticket and a VHS staff member will assist you right away. Thank you!

o-----------------------------------------------oThis email account does not accept incoming mail. Please submit questions

and feedback through a ticket (http://service.goVHS.org) or contact the appropriate staff member.

VHS Mail Archives are available on the website:http://faculty.govhs.org/FacPages/Email+Archive-Homeo------------------------------------------------o

Discussions

• VHS course discussions• Up to 200 thread starters• Options

– Export/Import thread starters– Include all discussions (teacher setup)– Export thread starters to Word (teacher

setup)

Course Copy vs. RecycleCourse CopyF04 S05 F05

– Broken images– Broken attachments– Duplicate content– Discussions out of

order– Discussion threads

broken– Discussion owners?– Copy failures

Course RecycleF05 S06

– Discussion threads broken in backup

– Exceptions list

Bb’s Copy Course Options• Copy Course Materials

into a New Course– Teacher access removed– Discussions wiped out– Content out of order

• Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course

• Copy Course with Users (Exact Copy)– Additional steps

necessary– Discussions out of order

Course Copy:New Course Instance for New Semester

1. Copy Course with Users (Exact Copy): fractals_F04 fractals_S05

2. Wait for email confirmation before continuing to next step.3. Update fractals_S05 Properties:

• Course Title = Fractals (SP 05)• Course Availability = No

4. Export Course: fractals_F04 (Discussion Board, Group Settings, Staff Information)

5. Recycle Course: fractals_S05 (Discussion Board, Groups, Statistics, Users)

6. Import Package from Step 3 (Discussion Board, Group Settings, Staff Information) into new course fractals_S05

7. Add students in batch mode8. Contact ASP to give author access for thread starters

Recycle:Restart Courses for New Semester1. Backup all courses*.2. Archive all courses to CD3. Make current courses

unavailable4. Recycle current courses

including:• Dropbox• Statistics• Users• DON’T WIPE OUT

DISCUSSIONS5. Change course titles6. Add student common

accounts:• teacher_student• vhsreviewf05_student

*Course backup on server:– Use "Copy Course with Users

(Exact Copy)" to create backup copy.

– Append "_archiveMMDD" to SOURCE code to create new course codeeg. fractal_F05_archive0106

– Immediately mark the backup copy unavailable, so students do not inadvertently access it.

– Change title of backup copy to "ARCHIVE course title section xx (Semester)“eg. ARCHIVE Fractals (Fall 05)

Course Archives

• Why?– Historical purposes– Revival of older courses

• Enrollment drops• Building blocks

Common Accounts• Trusted Staff Members

– Curriculum Coordinators– Faculty Advisors– Staff Reviewers– PD Facilitators– Admin Staff

• Need access to all areas of the course = TA

• Different roles need access to a different set of courses

• Password changes periodically for security

Common Accounts• Trusted Staff Members

– Curriculum Coordinators– Faculty Advisors– Staff Reviewers– PD Facilitators– Admin Staff

• Need access to all areas of the course = TA

• Different roles need access to a different set of courses

• Password changes periodically for security

• Course Types– Currently running

courses– Previous semester

courses– Courses in development– Special projects courses– Course masters

Common Accounts - Bonus

Course Titles and IDs

• Bb course IDs are static• Take the time to structure titles up

front– Two convention examples

• Title + (Sp 06)• ARCHIVE + title

– Sorting and filtering

Thank You!Storie Walsh

Technology Services ManagerStorieWalsh@goVHS.org

VHS, Inc.http://www.goVHS.org