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Document title: Project Document Cover SheetLast updated: April 2007
Project Document Cover Sheet
Project InformationProject Acronym DEVELOPProject Title Developing and Enhancing Virtual Learning Environments and E-
Learning OptionsStart Date July 2010 End Date Dec 2011Lead Institution University of ReadingProject Director Dr Martha-Marie KleinhansProject Manager & contact details
Ms Maria PapaefthimiouEnhancement Manager (Teaching, Learning and Technology)Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AA0118 378 [email protected]
Partner InstitutionsProject Web URL http://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/about-the-project/Programme Name DVLE - JISC Distributed VLE ProgrammeProgramme Manager Sarah Davies
Document NameDocument Title Interim ReportReporting Period July 2010 -December 2010Author(s) & project role
Ms Maria Papaefthimiou, Project Manager
Date 31 Jan 2011 Filename DEVELOP - JISC Interim Report Jul-Dec10
URLAccess √ Project and JISC internal √ General dissemination
Document HistoryVersion Date Comments
Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Section One: Summary
This report provides an account of the progress within the DEVELOP project for the period covering July 2010 to December 2010.
Within this period, the project has made good progress with the technical approach for the development of the widgets. After evaluating a number of technical approaches, it was decided to use the Blackboard Building blocks approach. The team has gained great insight and knowledge on the this approach which will benefit the institution beyond the project itself. The rapid prototyping approach has proved very useful for the project and the development of the widgets has begun.
The establishment of the Steering Group and the inclusion of the external members has already proved very beneficial for the project. The first meeting discussed the planned outputs and gave steer to some of the developments. There was interest for piloting some of the widgets by the external institutions.
We have made contacts with academic staff at Reading University and identified possibilities for pilots that will feed in the development of the widgets and will provide opportunities to evaluate them. The meetings of the various internal stakeholders with the project team has further strengthened our communication and working relationships internally. The project blog has proved very useful for dissemination and for the team to record developments within the projects on a frequent basis.
We have had slight delays in the progress due to staff illness and staff leaving – but we have managed to mitigate the risk.
Finally, the JISC team have been very helpful and our communication (face-to-face, telephone, and e-mail) has proved very effective.
Section Two: Activities and Progress
Following the development of the project plan in the summer 2010, the project has progressed as follows (list according to Work Packages):
WP 1: Initialisationo Established the project management structure of the project, comprising Steering
group, Project team, and the Technical Stakeholder group.o Created website and project blog (https://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/about-
the-project/) WP 2: Scoping
o Reviewed a number of technical approaches and concluded that a “Blackboard Building Blocks” approach is the most effective and efficient for the developments within the project
o Initiated discussions about the user needs described in the project plan that had originated from discussions with academic staff. These needs have been discussed at project team meetings and with the technical stakeholders group. We have contacted academics who will take part in the pilots in order to refine the requirements further.
o PDP and HEAR: We had a meeting to review the context of HEAR and PDP and we are awaiting confirmation of the University’s position on the matter.
WP3: Building and development.o We are currently preparing for a Blackboard Upgrade to v9 in July 2011. This has
implications for the development of the widgets and subsequent piloting.o Development of widgets has begun:
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
ASSET widget: This will be finalised in Bb v8 by Jan 2011 to allow for piloting in Spring 2011 with academics (some of which were involved in the ASSET project).
Tagging and Recommender widget: will be developed by March 2011, to pilot in Summer Term 2011.
Content/“Destinations” widget: The aim is to develop this widget in the spring/summer 2011 and confirm the pilot timing then. Until Dec 2010 we looked into the technical and legal implications of linking to the content on Destinations website which proved prohibitive.
Portfolio templates widget: Development has already begun for v9 by using the knowledge gained from previous iLearn developments. The final direction will depend on input and feedback from pilot users in the Spring Term 2011, as well as on the institutional position on HEAR which we hope will be confirmed by the spring term. Pilot in autumn 2011.
Portfolio feedback widget: Decided to develop in v9 by June 2011. A focus group will be used to discuss and evaluate prototype by Summer 2011. Aim to pilot in Autumn 2011.
Portfolio export widget: Development in April 2011, depends on HEAR and on the outputs of the other two portfolio widgets. Pilot in autumn 2011.
WP4: Pilotso We have identified and contacted twenty academics that could potentially be
interested in piloting some of the developments, and we have received responses. WP6: Engagement with the Community
o Appointed external members to SG (Mark Gamble - University of Bedfordshire, Sarah Sherman - University of London, Steve Ryan- London School of Economics)
o Started contacting academics (pilots) who will form the DEVELOP Reading User Group
o Established Technical Stakeholders group (first meeting took place on 25/11/10)o Communication with individual academics to raise awareness and recruit pilots
(ongoing)o Engaging with the community through the Steering Group members, through JISC,
through the London blackboard user group, and in Online Educa Conference (Berlin,Dec 2010)
o Project website and blog was launched in Sept 2010, http://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/about-the-project/
WP9: Project Managemento First Steering group meeting on 9 Dec 2010 (attached agenda, papers and minutes in
appendix 1)o Project team meetings: every fortnighto Technical Stakeholders meeting: first meeting took place on 25/11/10o Blog postings with details about the various meetings and actions
(https://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/) under the category Project management)o Project report for the first SG meeting (appendix 1, and in the project blog)
WP7: Disseminationo Internal Dissemination: article in Newsletter Teaching Matters in Autumn 2010
(appendix 2)o External dissemination: project meeting organized by JISC in Sept 2010, submitted
paper presentation to the Blackboard Users conference in Durham in Jan 2011.o Dissemination via the internal and external Steering Group membership.
Section Three: Outputs and Deliverables
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
The project was set out to achieve the following deliverables: Tools and widgets, documentation, case studies, events and reports (a detailed list is at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/about-the-project/project-deliverables/). Below is an account of work in progress and achievements until the end of Dec 2010.
1. Tools and widgets
1.1.The tagging and recommender widgets will allow for the alternative mapping of course content by enabling tutors to label course items with associative keywords that link up with one another and provide students with different ways of viewing the course. It has become clear that both widgets will feed into one another, with the tagging being used by staff and the recommender being used by the students. So far we have a basic tagging widget developed on our Development Server for version 9 of Blackboard.
1.2. What we have called our ASSET Widget allows users to access their own ASSET material (videos) and link it to other content in other environments. This has now been integrated with IT Services' streaming server provision to allow for the video uploading for more general teaching and learning purposes. What we have developed is building on top of the services produced within the ASSET project and provides an interim solution for version 8 of Blackboard so we can start gathering feedback from staff about the improvements. A prototype for v9 has been developed, which will be refined later in the year to tie in with the Upgrade to Bb v.9.
1.3. The content widget provides tutors with an item-browser within the VLE which they can use to select choice segments from other resources for importing into their course, without having to link out and away from the course. Our expectations for this widget have changed as our ability to access the content on the Destinations site (originally cited as an example in our project bid) is compromised by the structure of the Destinations site itself (“the content of Destinations must remain behind the firewall. This could prove a problem both technically, in terms of how we search the site, and legally, in terms of what we then do with search results.” https://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/2010/12/02/meeting-with-david-stanbury/). However, we are meeting with staff in the library to see about using this widget to access journal materials as another potential use. Initial discussions with members of the JISC funded Linksphere project (http://www.linksphere.org) have also taken place to see if there are some possible synergies. We will pursue this further in the spring 2011.
1.4. The Portfolio Template widget will provide students with a clear structure within which to work in their portfolios by automatically creating the pages and templates required when selecting a Portfolio option. The structure of these frameworks would be pre-determined by tutors or others. The Portfolio Feedback widget will allow tutors or others to comment on specific elements within a student’s portfolio, providing more useful feedback, and the Portfolio Export Widget will allow users to download their portfolios in a format more amenable for future use. So far we have developed a help framework that guides students through creating a portfolio in Blackboard and it is on this that we build the aforementioned widgets. Other institutions have expressed an interest in this work. One of the e-Learning Team from Liverpool John Moore’s has explicitly asked to try the e-portfolio widgets out, Malcolm Murray from Durham and Arthur Loughran from Glasgow School of Art made positive comments about the project. The code is available at http://code.google.com/p/developreading/.
2. Documentation
2.1. Scoping and requirements
Scoping for the ASSET video widget has been finalised (appendix 3 and http://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/?attachment_id=284) and it is based on the prototypes which have already been developed (source found at http://code.google.com/p/developreading/).
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
The initial scope of the other widgets has been fed into their initial rapid prototyping that will be discussed with academics and team members in Spring 2011 when they will be finalised. The SG meeting in Nov 2011 had noticed that the tagging and recommender widgets were the least defined and it was suggested to finalise the scope of all the widgets by March 2011 at the second SG meeting.
The approach to technical development, as described in the proposal, is a rapid prototyping paradigm, which allows for an agile modus operandi necessary in a project like this.
2.2. Technical architecture model
The widgets that will be delivered within the project fulfil different functionality, and therefore there will be differences in the technical architecture or data exchange, as these will differ depending on the different widgets. Therefore, there is no common architectural model for the different widgets / plug-ins / Building Blocks (B2).
The project is facing two issues that have a bearing on the architectures of the widgets. First to produce solutions that could work for other institutions within HE, and second, to have working solutions for the University of Reading which must work within the Blackboard (Bb) VLE. These requirements have to be carefully balanced.
2.2.1 Video plugin
The back-end is developed using an in-house modified version of the open source dropbox 2 server available at https://turin.nss.udel.edu/wiki/dropbox/doku.php. It provides a good solution for delivering large files to users. The modified version delivers embed scripts for users, which enable them to use the videos within any webpage they have editing right of, including Blackboard pages.
The frontend inside BB v8 is provided in pure HTML/Javascript, and can therefore be used by any modern web server with little or no changes. A more Blackboard-centric solution will be developed for v9 in the early part of 2011.
2.2.2 Tagging and recommender
Initially the team planned for the tagging widget to be based on a 3rd part tagging API (such as delicious), however after the uncertainty surrounding delicious’ future, it has been decided to use a simple bespoke tagging API. The code will be developed so that it will be easy to change the API to a 3rd party library. The plug-in will be embedded into Blackboard (Bb) using Building Blocks (B2). It should be noted that there might be a need to use JavaScript to further embed the tagging into the Bb functionalities.
2.2.3 Content Widget
As the early prototype has been delayed due to (previously mentioned) licensing issues with the Destinations content (section 1.4), the underlying architectural model is still being discussed.
2.2.4 ePortfolio plug-in
Development for the ePortfolio plug-in (see proposal) must initially build on the already existing Bb ePortfolio system. As with the work that has been done at Reading previously, the aim is to enhance Bb's portfolio functionality by building a frameset which contains the portfolio interface and is therefore able to read and interact with it. In the past, this approach has been used to create a page-by-page guidance that updates itself when the user arrives at different parts of the interface and creates certain artefacts within their portfolios. It has also allowed for the introduction of PDP materials like questionnaires, which the frameset then takes the answers from and puts them into a user’s portfolio. Bb uses framesets throughout its system anyway so this approach fits with the Bb's current level of accessibility.
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
The team has now begun developing a new frameset (utilising JavaScript in an object-orientated approach) that will be more responsive to the user and provide clearer guidance. However, the frameset will in theory (with some changes) be able to accommodate other portfolio tools. It is into this frameset that the widgets will be built.
The Feedback and Exporter widgets may also require some use of Building Blocks (B2) to create new layers on top of the tool enabling content that is "owner-independent" (in the case of Feedback) and tagged (in the case of Exporter).The Exporter widget will utilise Leap2A standards for exporting e-Portfolios.
2.2.5 Widget APIs - discussion
The team started out evaluating different widget APIs which might be valuable for the project, and this culminated at the JISC Cetis meeting in Bolton where Google’s open social API, IMS LTI and Apache’s Wookie API were presented as good possible solutions.
The team felt that Opensocial was not going to fulfil any of the functionalities required by the project, as this project doesn’t involve any data sharing with social networks.
The Wookie option was evaluated by the team, but it was felt that the benefits of developing a Wookie placeholder within Blackboard using Building Blocks (B2) for placing the functionalities aren’t clear and definitely not viable with the time available for development within the project. Moreover, other providers, such as Google and Netvibes, provide APIs and servers that, if not fully, closely match the functionalities of Wookie (except for communication using Wave API). This decision was further supported by the fact that Wookie requires the institution to run a Wookie server in-house, which would be difficult to sustain in the current economical climate.
The development team believe that the Building Blocks (B2s) can be modified to use the Google and/or Netvibe APIs as they, similarly to B2s for Blackboard, only provide wrappers for normal web code providing a specialised view for insertion into webpages. If conversion is necessary, the wrappers can be changed and jsp server code can be translated to JavaScript (only 3-4 of the widgets rely on java the others uses HTML/JavaScript).
Furthermore the project team feel that the IMS LTI is still immature, although being supported by Blackboard means it is really interesting as a standard to the team. The progression of this standard will be followed throughout the DEVELOP project.
2.3. Technical documentation of data exchange
This is not currently available
2.4. Training/instructional materials, available online
Not available yet. However, the ASSET video widget materials will be available online in Spring 2011.
3. Case studies
Prior to the New Year, many people have been contacted about taking part in the project though not all have responded. These pilots will be evaluated and will provide the materials for the case studies. Those academics who have responded positively are listed in the table below.
Key: For each pilot and widget there is either a "Yes" or a "Possibly" or a blank cell:
Those with "Yes" for a particular widget have affirmed that they would like to be involved -- some of these have already been involved in discussions about the direction the widgets should take.
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Those with "Possibly" have expressed an interest in the widget but haven't committed to being involved.
Those with a blank cell for a particular widget either haven't been asked about their interest in that widget or have said that they shall not be involved with piloting it.
Pilot Name School/Dept. Video Widget
Content Widget
Portfolio Templates
Widget
Portfolio Feedback
Widget
Portfolio Export Widget
Tagging Widget
Recommender Widget
Judith Davies
Institute of Education possibly possibly possibly
Karen Ayres Applied Statistics yes yes yes possibly possibly
Joe Doak Real Estate and Planning yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Louise Hague Law yes yes yes
Cindy Becker English possibly possibly yes yes
Amanda Fava-Verde IFP possibly
Clare Nukui IFP yesElisabeth Wilding IFP yes
Alan BellFood and
Nutritional Sciences
possibly
Fred Davies Chemistry yesParastou Donyai Pharmacy yes possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly
Mandy Cockayne
Institute of Education possibly possibly yes yes yes possibly possibly
Vicky Clarke Student ServicesNicola
LangtonInstitute of Education possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly
Alastair Edwards Pharmacy yes possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly possibly
Val Woodley
Management; Henley Business
Schoolpossibly
Carol Wagstaff
Food and Nutritional
Sciencesyes
4. Events
Although we have not yet organised any formal events, the first Steering group meeting has given those involved with the project the opportunity to celebrate our success in getting the funding and to get interested and excited about the developments in the project.
5. Reports
The current report, and the website and blog https://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop/.
Section Four: Evaluation
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Until Dec 2010, we used the team meetings to track progress and discuss the development of the widgets which acts as an evaluation activity to monitor and review progress.
The Steering Group meeting in Nov 2011, acted as another evaluation point where the specific discussions helped to direct the scope and development of the tagging widget. The internal and external members of the group showed interest in engaging with the project and its outputs.
The code produced for the project is already publicly available for use and comment at http://code.google.com/p/developreading and will continue to be updated for the rest of the project. The project blog (http://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop) features records of the discussions we had with pilots and others so far regarding the developments, and also contains some reflection on the issues and challenges at hand.
The team members of the project have participated in several JISC funded projects, such as ASSET, iLearn, MeAggregator and Pathfinder. The results and reflections from these have guided the team in the early stages of the project. For example, a need to improve the interface of the portfolios and produce the widgets outlined in this project have been reinforced by staff and student feedback, as described below taken from previous work at Reading:
‘iLearn has no provision for staff-led and controlled generation of coursework feedback: this is essential for students' reflection, and indeed a key source for the reflective work we ask our students to write. At the moment we have no way of integrating coursework feedback’ (staff )
‘The existing templates provided make it very difficult to edit information’ (student) ‘Make it more interactive because presently it feels like I'm typing a word doc. which no else
will ever read and so it feels pointless’ (student)
We will be continuously evaluating the development and pilot use of the widgets over the spring, summer and autumn 2011 as described below. The pilots will evaluate the technical and pedagogic issues emerging from the use of the widgets.
ASSET widget: will be piloted in Spring 2011 with academics some of which were involved in the ASSET project. Tagging and Recommender widget will be piloted in Summer Term 2011. Content/“Destinations” widget: Pilot timing to be confirmed in spring 2011. Portfolio templates widget: will be piloted with students in the autumn 2011 Portfolio feedback widget: will be piloted with students in the autumn 2011. Portfolio export widget: will be piloted with students in the autumn 2011.
Section Five: Outcomes and Lessons Learned
During the technical development work until Dec 2010, we were faced with a number of issues and decisions to make that are worth mentioning because we believe they have had a positive influence in the future of the project.
5.1. After looking closely over the work that was done for the iLearn project (related to using the Bb e-Portfolio) a couple of years ago at the University of Reading, we decided to develop a frameset along similar lines that would be able to dynamically retrieve information about a user and the portfolios they were creating. However, we decided in the interests of the code being re-usable both within Reading and across the sector that the code would be re-written in a more structured way using an object-oriented approach. The aim of this decision is to ensure that with some changes to the data in the code, it would be possible to slot this into other portfolio systems so other institutions can benefit. However, this requires further testing.
5.2. ASSET and Tagging widgets
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
It was initially believed that the ASSET widget would be ready for piloting (very) early in the project, as it would be building on the functionality already made through the ASSET project adding a more user-friendly experience. However, in the beginning of the project, the IT Services Department decided to implement and support a video dropbox similar to the ASSET dropbox for using videos within teaching and research – as a central service. Consequently, the DEVELOP video widget had been delayed, as it needed several iterations of changes from previously scoped. However the final result is a University-wide sustained solution, which is a more effective and sustainable solution than the initial one.
The first prototype of the tagging widget used the delicious API as a back-end, however when the news regarding delicious possible shutdown or removal from yahoo was received, another prototype was developed which used a simple bespoke tagging API.
The methodology of rapid prototyping aided both of these changes, and a less flexible / more traditional development approach would not have coped with this. This proved that the flexible approach found in rapid prototyping works well with this kind of project.
Section Six: Communication and Dissemination Activities
The team use an internally-hosted but public Wordpress blog to communicate with each other and post details of discussions, meetings and decisions. The blog is available at http://www.reading.ac.uk/blogs/develop and has so far been very effective as a record of what has been happening in the project. With continuous and regular posting it will prove to be an effective log of what has happened over the course of the project.
The presence of the external members on the Project's Steering Group has provided a valuable perspective on the direction the project has taken. Furthermore, it has enabled the team to find out what is happening in other institutions and to have a forum to discuss ideas that might be relevant to others. For example, after last Steering Group the team were given a fairly in depth tour of Bedfordshire's instance of PebblePad, in light of the portfolio developments the team is undertaking. It was also noted by one external member that we should allow room in the project for as much exploration as possible around the project deliverables, at least making an effort to record ideas that may fall outside the scope of what is to be developed.
The Blackboard Content System User Group provided some information about how other institutions are using the Blackboard portfolio tool and Blackboard themselves remarked on forthcoming changes, which will be taken into account during development of the portfolio widgets.
The article in the Newsletter Teaching Matters (appendix 2) has been a means for disseminating the project internally and getting staff informed.
The team participated in the JISC event in Bolton, in September 2010. This gave us an excellent opportunity to discuss issues of the project with like-minded people working on similar projects. Several alternative technologies where presented at the meeting by JISC/CETIS personnel, which guided the team to some degree, although the team had already made several design and technical choices for the early prototypes of the project. The team felt that the meeting would probably have been more useful earlier in the project.
In December 2010 one project member (Dr Lundqvist) went to OnlineEduca in Berlin, (funded for by another project), and had several opportunities to network and discuss issues related to this project.
Finally, Dr Lundqvist and Guy Pursey had a paper accepted to Durham's annual Blackboard Users' Conference to present the aims of the project, how previous experience feeds into it, and what has been achieved so far.
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Section Seven: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
The original risk analysis has not changed. However, we found that academic staff were very busy at the beginning of the autumn term and did not respond as quickly as we had hoped to pilot participation resulting in delay in the area of Recruitment of academics to pilot the developments in the project plan. But by Dec 2010 we had a reasonable number of academics expressing an interest.
Illness of a member of staff within the wider project team in CDoTL, resulted in delay in the area of Reviewing User needs as stated in the project plan. In addition, the subsequent resignation of the same member of staff in Dec 2010 has meant further delays. However, at the time of writing we have managed to replace the staff member and we hope to be back on track by March 2011.
A slight delay in the development of the ASSET Video Widget was due to the setup and support of a video streaming server by the ITS department. Our initial plan was to use the old ASSET server as a backbone for this widget, however, we decided to slightly delay the development of the widget in order to use the university supported server instead of the ASSET bespoke server, for sustainability reasons.
Finally, our active membership in the London VLE user group and the Involvement of externals on Steering Group has resulted in interest in piloting some of the project’s outputs by other institutions. This will be confirmed later in 2011.
Section Eight: Collaboration and Support
The team has met Steve Vickers (Edinburgh) both at the JISC/CETIS event in Bolton, and it seems that there might be a possibility of some synergies between the two projects.
The team is developing open source tools, and it might be useful to have some support from OOS Watch, as we are developing in a close source environment.
If JISC/CETIS has got documentation, experiences and results from teams who have implemented solutions based on the Leap2A standard, then these would be useful for the project.
Overall, the JISC team and programme manager have been very responsive to us and we will continue to engage in the same way.
Section Nine: Financial Statement
Total Grant £99,27 Duration of project
1 Jul 2010 – 31 Dec 2011
Reporting Period
1 Jul 2010 – 31 Dec 20101
Budget Headings
Total budget allocated
Expenditure this reporting period
Total expenditure to date
Further information
Staff £70,775 £14,771.40 £14,771.40 SalaryTravel & Subsistence
£6,000 £279.99 £279.99 JISC Project Event, Sept 2010, Bolton
Equipment 0 0 0Dissemination activities
£6,000 0 0
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Evaluation activities
£4,000 0 0
Other (please specify) incentives for pilots 3 external steering group members, 3 days each
£12,500 0 0
Checklist:Before you return this report:
Ensure that your project webpage on the JISC site is up to date and contains the correct information. Attach details of any required amendments to this report. Project webpages can be found from: www.jisc.ac.uk/distributedvle
If there have been any changes to the original project plan and/or work packages, ensure that amended copies of the relevant sections of your project plan are attached to this report.
Identify and name any areas within this report that you’d like removed before the report is made public (*see below)
*Please note the interim reports will be made available on the JISC website with the budgetary information removed. We recognise that projects may occasionally address very sensitive issues. We would like you to present as full a picture in this report as you can as the lessons you learn are valuable to us. We assure you that any issues you identify as confidential are removed before the report is made public. Where such issues do represent valuable lessons for the community we will involve you in further discussion as to how they could be passed on without identifying institutions or individuals.
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Appendix 1: Steering Group meeting, 9 Dec 2010.
Agenda:
DEVELOP Steering Group – Meeting 1A meeting of the DEVELOP Steering Group will be held on Thursday 9th December 2010 at 9.30am in Henley Business School room 201, Whiteknights Campus
Ms J Adams, Secretary
Agenda
1. Apologies for absence
2. Terms of reference & membership list
For discussion
3. JISC bid and Project Plan (papers attached)
4. Status report and progress to date (papers to follow)
Status report and progress to date
DEVELOP ProjectProgress ReportSteering Group Meeting, 9 Dec 2010Following the development of the project plan in the Summer 2010, which was accepted by JISC, the project has progressed as follows (list according to Work Packages):
WP 1: Initialisation
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
o Established the project management structure of the project, comprising Steering group, Project team, and the Technical Stakeholder group.
o Created website and project blog WP 2: Scoping
o Reviewed a number of technical approaches and concluded that a “Blackboard Building Blocks” approach is the most effective and efficient for the developments within the project
o Initiated discussions about the user needs described in the project plan that had originated from discussions with academic staff. These needs have been discussed at project team meetings and with the technical stakeholders group. We are awaiting responses from academics who will take part in the pilots in order to refine the requirements further.
o PDP and HEAR: We had a meeting to review the context of HEAR and PDP and we are awaiting confirmation of the University’s position on the matter.
WP3: Building and development.o We are currently preparing for a Blackboard Upgrade to v9 in July
2011. This has implications on the development of the widgets and subsequent piloting. The intention is that most widgets will be developed and piloted in the current version 8, whereas the portfolio related ones will be developed in Bb v9.
o Development of widgets has begun: ASSET widget: A solution for this will be developed in Bb v8
by Jan 2011 to allow for piloting in Spring 2011 with those academics involved in the ASSET project.
Tagging and Recommender widget: will be developed by March 2011, to pilot in Summer Term 2011.
Content/“Destinations” widget: to be developed by March 2011. Pilot timing to be confirmed. Currently looking into technical and legal implications of linking to the content on Destinations.
Portfolio templates widget: Development has already begun for v9 by using the knowledge gained from previous iLearn developments. The final direction will depend on input and feedback from pilot users in the Spring Term 2011. Also awaiting institutional position on HEAR.
Portfolio feedback widget: Decided to develop in v9 by June 2011. A focus group will be used to discuss and evaluate prototype in Spring 2011. Aim to pilot by Autumn 2011.
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Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Portfolio export widget: Development in April 2011, and pilots to take place in June 2011 (depends on HEAR and on the outputs of the other two portfolio widgets).
WP4: Pilotso We have identified twenty academics that could potentially be
interested in piloting some of the developments, have contacted seven and are awaiting their response.
WP6: Engagement with the Communityo Appointed external members to SGo Started contacting academics (pilots) who will form the Reading
User Groupo Internal Dissemination: article in Newsletter Teaching Matters in
Autumn 2010.o External dissemination: project meeting organized by JISC in Sept
2010, submitted paper to the Blackboard Users conference in Durham, website and blog.
It should be noted that there is a slight delay in the areas of Reviewing User needs and Recruitment of academics to pilot the developments –as these appear in the project plan. This is due to academics being very busy in the first term of the academic year and illness of CDoTL staff. However, we are confident that we will achieve our targets in these two areas by January – beginning of February in Spring term 2011.
DiscussionThe SG is asked to discuss how the project could best engage with the wider community, and what the members of the SG like to see achieved by the end
o In what way are the project outputs relevant to the work of the members?
o Are there any opportunities for possible piloting of the project outputs by the internal and external members of the group?
Maria Papaefthimiou, DEVELOP Project Manager, Enhancement Manager (T&L and technology), CDoTL
Minutes:
DEVELOP Steering Group
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10/01 A meeting of the DEVELOP Steering Group was held on Thursday 9th December 2010 at 9.30am in Room 201, Henley Business School
Present:Dr Martha-Marie Kleinhans - ChairMs Maria Papaefthimiou - Project ManagerDr Julia Phelps - Director, Centre for the Development of T&LMr Mike Roch - Director, IT ServicesMr David Stanbury - Internal academic stakeholderDr Karen Ayres - Internal academic stakeholderMr Aaron Sollesse - Student stakeholderMr Edward Bates - Student stakeholderMr Mark Gamble - External stakeholderMr Steve Ryan - External stakeholderMs Jane Adams – Secretary
Mr Guy Pursey – by invitationMr Karsten Lundqvist – by invitationProfessor Shirley Williams – by invitation
Apologies: Professor Rob Robson - Pro-Vice-Chancellor Teaching and LearningDr Yota Dimitriadi - Internal academic stakeholderMs Sarah Sherman - External stakeholder
10/02 JISC bid and Project PlanIntroductions were given by all group members to clarify their role on the panel. Ms Papaefthimiou gave the group an overview of the original JISC bid and Project Plan as well as a brief look at the DEVELOP website and blog.
10/03 Status report and progress to dateMs Papaefthimiou went through the Progress Report highlighting key areas of progress since July this year and raising any areas of concern.
Interest was paid to the possible links between the DEVELOP and ASSET projects which are both funded by JISC, including a brief look at the ASSET website. Consideration was paid to the drop-box feature in ASSET which is being improved within the DEVELOP project. It was suggested that currently the same people used to pilot ASSET are also piloting DEVELOP and maybe some “non-friendly” contacts should be included in the pilot in order to gain any useful feedback on the project.
Action: MCP to source some other possible contacts for the pilot
A lengthy discussion took place regarding tagging within DEVELOP and it was acknowledged that this is the least defined area of the widgets to date. The tagging widget will be followed by the recommender widget with which students would be able to receive recommendations within Blackboard. However it was pointed out that this may be an area in which there are many “desirables” that cannot be achieved entirely within the scope of the existing project. It was suggested that this could be considered as a new project in its own right or that there may be other
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JISC funded projects from elsewhere which have touched upon this issue and may be worth looking into further.
Action: MCP to investigate whether any other JISC projects may be underway in this area
Mr Pursey gave a brief presentation of mash-ups in Blackboard to demonstrate the benefits of embedding content within the current e-learning platform. A discussion took place surrounding the benefits and pitfalls of requiring users to view content whilst still within Blackboard however feedback suggested that as this is currently an unpopular tool for students this may be an incentive for them to use the package more.
A general discussion took place about the longer term aim to allow the output of DEVELOP to be beneficial to learning platforms other than Blackboard. Although it was agreed that the scoping should be wrapped up by February, this should not be at the expense of recording the exploration and consideration of ideas and possible outcomes that takes place beforehand.
Action: MCP to consider the wider use of the project within other learning platforms
10/04 The next meeting of the DEVELOP Steering Group will be held on Monday 7th March 2011 at 11.00am in Room 144, HumSS Building.
This next meeting will aim to focus on the wider scope of the project with a view to making the project more adaptable to those outside of the Reading community.
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Appendix 2: Teaching Matters Article Autumn Issue, 2010.
DEVELOPing Blackboard
A team comprising some of Reading’s leading e-learning exponents has secured funding from JISC to further develop the functionality of our virtual learning environment, including Blackboard.
The DEVELOP project seeks to build on existing work and good practice at Reading, in response to identified current and projected needs of staff. These include: expanding the pedagogic models Blackboard is able to support, to enable more student centred learning; improving the portfolio functionality so that it can be better used for teaching and assessment purposes; and simplifying content sharing with other resources, such as Destinations®, Student Stories and ASSET, in a more seamless-looking way.
The project team has plenty of experience and expertise in this area as it includes Dr Martha-Marie Kleinhans, Faculty Director of Teaching & Learning for Humanities (Project Director), Maria Papaefthimiou (Project Manager) and Guy Pursey (Project Officer for Implementation) from CDoTL and Dr Karsten Lundqvist from Systems Engineering (Project Officer for Development). The project team will also be ably supported by a team of ‘expert advisors’ including NTFS and University Teaching Fellow Professor Shirley Williams from SSE; Director of IT Services Mike Roch; and Dr Julia Phelps, Director of CDoTL.
DEVELOP (Developing and Enhancing Virtual learning environments and E Learning Options) has been funded as part of the JISC initiative ‘Distributed VLE: Institutional pilots’. For more information contact Maria ([email protected]).
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Appendix 3: ASSET Video Widget - Scoping
By Karsten Øster Lundqvist, Guy Pursey and Maria Papaefthimiou
AimProvide video upload and embedding of videos into Blackboard (BB).
BackgroundBB does allow users to upload files, but video files are larger than what BB’s current file size restrictions allow for. Even supposing such file sizes were allowed, the backup of videos would be impractical.
Furthermore there exist a multitude of video formats, some suited for the internet, most of them not. So there is a need to “transcode” the videos into a suitable format and provide the users with a way to embed them in their BB courses.
ScopeThis widget will provide two solutions: an interim solution for BB v8 and an integrated solution for v9.1.The interim will provide a simple form where users can upload their videos to a dropbox2 server (http://turin.nss.udel.edu/programming/dropbox2/) maintained by ITS , which will store the file and provide the user with an email informing them that the video is ready. The e-mail will also contain a link to a BB page that will provide information about how to embed the video using embed scripts.
The integrated solution for v9.1 will be a BB Building Block (B2) that seemingly integrates into the BB user experience, and therefore will be more coherent with what user expect inside BB. It will have a mostly self-filling form so that most users only have to select the video file. The users will still receive an email with a link, but this will take them to a B2 the will provide them with help and a button to retrieve the embed scripts.
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