Seneca’s Implementation of Blackboard Learn as an

Institutional Portal

Introductions

Seneca College of Applied Arts & TechnologyToronto, Ontario• Daniel Szabo Technical eLearning Specialist

• Andres Quintero Application System Administrator

Things We Do– Administration & Support

• 2nd and 3rd level for Help Desks and IT Personnel• Work with Bb Support on Tickets/Product Defects• Optimize System Performance and Efficiency

– Designing, Developing & Programming• New System Integrations• Protocols and Best Practices for Development• Update Existing Integrations• New and 3rd Party Tools and Plug-ins• Work with Bb Product Development to provide feedback on new features, etc

– Documentation• Help Site and Tip Sheets:

https://inside.senecac.on.ca/myseneca

– Testing• New Bb Releases• New 3rd Party Tools and Plugins

– Training • Workshops through PD Department• School Specific Training• Lunch & Learn Sessions• Introductory Sessions

Seneca’s Portalhttps://my.senecacollege.ca

• A place for all Senecans to…

• Teach• Work• Learn • Communicate

My.Seneca• Blackboard Learn Enterprise (Release 9.0.539.0) with

Community System and Content System

• We have Portal Environments established for Applicants, Full-time Students, Part-time Students, Staff/Faculty, Admin Staff, and Guests.

• Custom modules include:• Who’s Online, My.Subjects, WEBmail, Timetable, Attendance,

Password Changer, Professional Development, My.Announcements, Bookmarks, Picture Class Lists, Events, Application Status, Electronic Classroom Status, etc.

My.Seneca Statistics

• 37,603 Part-time Students• 32,203 Full-time Students• 74,652 Applicants• 8,248 Faculty• 1,618 Staff• 176 Admin Staff

= 154,500 System Users*

* As of July 8, 2010

Organizational StructureSteve Charikar

CIO

EmployeeHelp Desk

StudentHelp Desk

First-line Technical Support

IT Unix System Administration

Oracle Database Administration

Infrastructure Support

Valerie LopesProfessor/Academic eLearning Specialist

Core My.Seneca Team

Andres QuinteroSystem Administrator

Daniel SzaboTechnical eLearning

Specialist

Santo NuciforaAssociate Director,

Systems Architecture & Innovation

My.Seneca - System Information

Round-robin DNS

3 Load-balanced application servers each

with 4 Solaris Zones (Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240)

= 12 application servers

Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 Database Server

Sun StorageTek 9985V SAN

System Users

Internet

The Snapshot• Implemented in 2001, the “Snapshot Generator” works with Bb’s

Snapshot to create users, courses, teaching assignments, and enrolments

• Integration with Admin Systems.– Faculty– FT/PT Student– Applicants– Support Staff– Administrators

• Access to– Announcements– Department information– Email– Online newsletters– Role-based services

Course Sites

• Every subject section has a course site

Community Sites

• Organizations (Communities)

– Master Courses/Faculty groups• Organizations are used to communicate faculty who are not on campus, share

exams, course content, work on projects such as Applied Degree Programs; etc.

– Department discussion areas• College departments use organizations to store documents.

– Student Clubs and Organizations• Student Federation Councils, etc…

– College councils and committees• The College Board of Governors, Academic Council, IT Council and other

committees use organizations to access minutes, agendas, documents and other information.

Content System

• Introduced in 2004

• Virtual Storage Space

• Portfolios

• Librarians have been creating eReserves for a long time and are able to include them in Blackboard courses.

• Department Web Sites

Portal Development

• Portal = Gate, Tunnel, Door, or Cloud?

• Portals integrate various resources.

• Portals provide windows to information and an enhanced individual user-specific experience.

• Blackboard-based portals are built with Building Blocks and consist of Modules, Links, Graphics, Tabs, Web Pages, Etc.

Portal Development

• Some “Modules” developed at Seneca include:– My.Seneca - Timetable– My.Seneca - Webmail– My.Seneca - Attendance– My.Seneca – Professional

Development

Module DevelopmentBridging the Academic Suite

Module DevelopmentBridging the Academic Suite

Module DevelopmentWeb Services

Module DevelopmentSSO/AJAX/IMAP

Module DevelopmentTemplates/XML/MVC

Module DevelopmentDesignate Administration

Module DevelopmentHybrids, Hacks, and Hooks

Scalability

Institutional Portal UseBenefits

• Provides common platform across campus organizations – no new systems to learn

• Can encourage low-end users to go electronic with communication

• Provides access to information from work, home, etc.

• Students want their course materials to be posted on My.Seneca

Drawbacks

• More users can place more (and different) demands on the system

• Security, privacy, and FOI

• Downtime is more difficult to schedule

• Training and support becomes more complex

Lessons Learned• Seneca’s Lessons

– Buy in from user community is very important.• Regular communication with users is key• Focus Groups work• Portal Committee• IT Advisory Council

– Provide adequate support, training and documentation.

– Be transparent, but not invisible.

– Timing of Upgrades can make a big difference.• Functionality & Features vs. Stability & Performance

The Future• Standards

• Mobile

• Accessible

• Open

• Free

Please provide feedback for this session by emailingBbWorldFeedback@blackboard.com.

The title of this session is:

Seneca's Implementation of Blackboard Learn as an Institutional Portal