Status 2008 Ian D. Thompson ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk ©University of Strathclyde 2008

Status 2008

Ian D. Thompson ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk

©University of Strathclyde 2008

• in-house VLE project started in 1998• initially one developer (Ian Thompson)

• development contributions from• Tim Plumridge (SIPBS)• Ian Thurlbeck (STAMS) • Fraser Murray (Mathematics/ P&A Chemistry)• additional modules e.g. CIS student projects

SPIDERSPIDER

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Academic session

SPIDER - class growth

Classes 1 30 60 100 120 350 430 706 900 1010

98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

06-07 includes ~2000 alumni accounts

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

Academic session

SPIDER - user growth

Users 120 400 1000 2000 2200 4100 7200 11000 17000 22000

98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08

Table 1: Class and user growth since inception in 1998

* estimate, as true figures not availablea includes alumni accounts

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

Session 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08

Users 120 400* 1000 2000 2200* 4100 7200 11000a 17000a 22000a

Classes 1 30* 60 100 120* 350 430 706 900 1010

08-09

26,249a

1149

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

Faculty of Science• used by all departments• organised in 7 “clusters”, ~800 staff• used to support admin and research in addition to teaching

Business School 1 cluster: economics, since 2003

• MSc Economic Management & Policy• MSc International and Financial Economics• 37 staff, ~300 students (inc alumni)

Education• 3 clusters (education, CAS, SCA)• PDP, questionnaires, classes for 2200+ students, 109 staff since 04-05

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

Chemical engineering• ePDP for ~300 students (17 staff users) since 2004

LASS• cluster providing ePDP for all new ug since 05-06• approx 1800 students, 22 staff

• Law School • from session 06-07• approx 145 staff and 2000 students• 3rd biggest cluster (by usage) after pharmacy and bioscience

• Psychology• migrated from webCT to use in 07-08• 31 staff, 380 students

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

Geogsoc• Geography and Sociology currently testing with 1 class (2 staff, 36 students)

Modern languages showing some interest

‘Other’• students/staff not affiliated to any of the above• 47 staff, ~2700 students• central departments, service teaching

Usage of SPIDERUsage of SPIDER

Monthly usage - term time ~1.5 to 2M+ page visits* per month, ~50-110,000 per day

• typically 4-7,500+ different users/ month• 9,315 users in semester 1, 2006-07• 10,005 users in semester 1, 2007-08• 10,246 users in semester 2, 2007-08

• 8,200 so far in Oct 2008 alone

* page visit - single page request by user, rather than “hits” - a single page request will generate many hits (one for HTML + each image or other media) - SPIDER gets 5M+ ‘hits’ a week

SPIDER hardwareSPIDER hardware

Primary server* Dual Xeon 3GHz CPU 2Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~90Gb SCSI ~£3,500 in 2004

Mirror server x2 PIII 800MHz, 1Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~60Gb SCSI rsync + MySQL slaves

Development server PII 533MHz, 512Mb RAM, 10Gb HD

* just ordered new Quad Core Xeon, 8GB RAM, 0.8Tb Raid 5 system (~£2k), will use iSCSI storage (shared with SIPBS file server) and offsite mirror in Royal College by end 2008/ Q1 2009

Typical VLE

class class classclass

is in class

learner

controls

tutor

VLE structureVLE structure

SPIDER

cluster

department

class class class class

SPIDER

cluster 2

department

class class class

can view

department

is in class

learner

tutor

belongs to

canview

cluster 3

department

class class class

cluster 4

department

class class class

department

class class

profileclasses, groupsexam & quiz resultsprogressePDP...

VLE structureVLE structure

SPIDER “clusters” structureSPIDER “clusters” structure

• model university structure of degrees, departments and classes

• provide control & communication at• course/ programme level (cluster)• department level• class level

• allow customisation

SPIDER managementSPIDER management

each cluster has own admin(s)• one or more academic/technical/computing/administrative staff• 11 user groups - flexible administration

• distributed/ shared• “central”/ individual(s) • mix of both to suit departmental needs

after training local expertise• first line help & advice

+ help from other admins/ developers

Class/ cluster content controlClass/ cluster content control

Editor, sub-admin and admins manage content at cluster level

“Class editor” user• any (staff) user can control one (or more) classes’:

• content• exam returns• class lists

open access to any class*• curiosity/ general interest• learner revision• view good practice/ staff peer review• no problems with late registration• class list is stored independently

* option to limit access to class list/ staff if required

SPIDER classesSPIDER classes

session tabs• groups class material by academic session (e.g. 2005-06)

• auto-archiving of materials

• student access for revision

• session tab access can be restricted to students on class list for matching session e.g. only allow revision students to access solutions

SPIDER classesSPIDER classes

student “object” allows SPIDER to provide class

independent:• information to staff• tools for students (+ staff)

examples• counsellees tool student profile

• performance monitoring/ tracking - EWS• ePDP• myCounsellor• attendance register• blogs• non-class groups

User objectUser object

Any staff user can post news items• appear on home page (+class page if relevant)

• +/- email copy - replaces email lists for many depts• target any combination of 1 or more class(es), year(s), cluster• user can filter news “feeds”• moves to archive after 7 days or once “marked read” by user

Private messaging• appears in users private message space• +/- email copy• staff can target individuals, counsellees or sub groups of counsellees, user input list or

any ‘group’ they own/belong to • students can message each other via groups/ discussions

News/ communicationNews/ communication

EWSEWS

Early Warning System• Uses myCounsellees tool• Staff can quickly view student progress/results• Indication of poor performance

Remedial action can be taken early

DevelopmentDevelopmentSPIDER is an in-house system

• we own the core code• built to meet our needs/ teaching style• customisation to meet the needs of our users• flexible• rapid bug fixing/ tweaks• modular code

• cluster specific tools• anyone can contribute developments/ new tools/ ideas

• not just for teaching• dept web sites, radiation records, asset register, lab stocks, document

store….

Addresses

http://spider.science.strath.ac.uk

Development serverhttp://spider-dev.pharmacy.strath.ac.uk

Ian Thompson

x2969 ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk