E-Learning ProjectSteering Group Committee

8th September 2005

Facilitating WebCT uptake in c.40 Biology courses

Agenda

1. Background and remit of committee (PMcL)2. Technical report (KH)3. Future direction (PMcL/KH)4. Any other business

The problems

A solution

•Consistency of design – user familiarity- ease of updating (1)•Steep Learning curve for academics/secretaries (2)•Access to Information for course management (Wisard, BTO database) (3)•Updating and checking consistency of many web pages(4)•Support for “sick notes” (5)•Support for multiple choice questions (6)•Course Books – tedious to update and keep consistent (7)

FAQ (2)

Specific todesign

Biology Teaching Organisation – ColdFusion Database(3)

Consistent interface (1)

Submit sick note (5)

Manage QuestionBanks(6)

Web ContentManagement(4)

Course Book(7)

Template

Original version built summer 04 Course books are used to populate template Tidied up and tweaked this year Trying this year to give ALL course staff some

level of access

Staff & Student Feedback

Students: Course questionnaires for staff who actively used

WebCT An e-learning questionnaire filled in by 16% of the

BTO students (see appendix 1)

Staff: Informal chats An e-learning questionnaire filled in by 31% of BTO

teaching staff (see appendix 2)

Training & Help

Individual COs 4 awareness sessions ran before Xmas Face-to-face tutorials Summer: short training sessions focussing on specifics

(as requested in staff questionnaires) New documentation and training material developed

[show] Away Day for administrative staff Honours staff starting to come on-board Interest from BTO teaching staff/admin staff increasing

PRS

“Clickers” Successful in bidding for funding to run PRS with

MAC1 (400 students with a clicker each) Overlap with this project but should allow the

project to be supported for longer Hope to link the ‘clicker’ system into

WebCT/VLE eventually.

WebCT Tools

Announcements tool nearly ready [demo]Staff feedback and course usage

Hope to build more WebCT tools over the coming year.

General Issues & Problems

VLE – final decision to be madeWill impact documentation, training, and tool

development no matter what decision is made Training sessions not well attended,

everyone wants individual help! Workload slowing progress down

Course Information Database

Staff external to course can view details Keeping same info on web-site means updating

two (or three) different sources Maybe use a course database to create course

guides manually – or vice versa?

Course Information Database

Course Database

Course Data

Course Book

Intranet and WebCT

Public Web-site

Guides for years

Course Information Database

Course Database

Course Book

(coded in XML)

Intranet and WebCT

Public Web-site

…or…..

Issues…

Course books are too differentNeed to structure more strictlyToo many sources of similar information

“University owned information” will not be easy to get until EUCLID comes online (when?)

Need help to get data collected and corrected!

Current Status

Areas of course are database driven now (quick demo)

BUT no admin interface at the moment:Waiting for EASE to be installed on server

before starting to develop authentication Admin interface will also be the same for

School web-site

Future

CMS QM Perception Announcement Tool Sick note Data Entry

Searchable Help Semi-auto’ Marking PRS Course Book Update

Threats

WebCT 6 Strategy imposed Staff time Accessibility Copyright

Strategy

How to foster “e-learning” rather than just providing a repository for lecture notes?

How to make good on promise to save time?

Advisable to have database-driven course books?

Academic paper(s)?