Buckinghamshire Chilterns

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

How did we ever survive without the Blackboard Content System?

Dr Helen FletcherBuckinghamshire Chilterns University College

& Narayan Prasad

Blackboard Global Services

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Outline of this presentation

Examples of issues concerning BCUCWorking with the Blackboard Global

Services Team on the planning for, and implementation of, the Blackboard Content System

Examples of how we are addressing issues at BCUC using the Blackboard Content System

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Issues concerning BCUC

Students need to hold a record of their Personal Development Plans Paper, MS Word

Faculty staff need to publish their research profiles HTML, Faculty webmaster,

A module may be taught by several lecturers Difficult with Bb LS 5.5

A module might be used by students at BCUC and at our Strategic Partner FE Colleges Difficult with Bb LS 5.5

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More issues concerning BCUC

Keeping track of digital copies is becoming difficult Multiple unconnected records?

Searching for anything is difficult Re-inventing cataloguing?

Difficult to ensure everyone is working to the same version of a document during the course validation process Multiple paper and MS Word versions?

Need to ensure the approved course documents are available on the Web MS Word to HTML then Webmaster?

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Rapid Planning & Implementation of Content SystemObjective• Satisfy BCUC’s vision to manage enterprise content using

the Blackboard Content System

Blackboard ActivitiesThrough systematic and structured discussions, thefundamental concepts of unified content strategy were

examined: Getting a better understanding of BCUC’s content lifecycle

– various phases of content development such as creation, review, management and delivery

Analysing the content lifecycle to identify the players (content producers, reviewers and consumers) and issues

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Rapid Planning & Implementation of Content System (Cont.) Performing a substantive audit of BCUC’s content and

determining the business requirements to understand the organisation’s goals and needs

Comprehensively reviewing BCUC’s use-cases to perform an in-depth analysis

Deriving directory structures and content authorization to identify access rights for all the content based on identified roles for all players

Designing appropriate metadata to enable proper processing and searching of content elements.

Outcomes• A full implementation of the content system complete with

directory structures and permissions model appropriate for the BCUC environment

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Deliverable – Project Implementation Plan

Project Implementation PlanBCUC Background Content management visionTasks & MilestonesResources and hardware capacity planningOperations – policies and procedures

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Deliverable – Content Planning & Implementation

Methodology & ApproachReview of all use-casesModeling and analysis

Producers, reviewers and consumersProductsPermissionsDirectory StructuresMetadata analysis and design

Mapping to Blackboard Learning, Portal and Content System functionalities

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Personal Development Planning (PDP)

Students need a record of their personal development plans for job hunt lifelong learning

E-portfolio in PDP Simple to write to, with Academic Tutors Passes used as references for employers or universities Alumni take it away as a web page

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Staff Profiles

Faculty staff need to publish their research interests on the web

This is too hard with our ‘normal’ webE-portfolio can be used and easily publish

direct to the web

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Sharing Content

A module might be taught jointly by several lecturers

A module might be taught across our Strategic Alliance

This collaboration was hard work with Bb LS 5.5

The Content System allows easy sharing from a ‘tray’ of files

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Management of the e-library

The ‘library’ is responsible for the legitimate copying of digital materials

This is easily managed with e-ReservesUse of Dublin Core metadata ensures easy

access to learning objects later

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Course Validation Process

Ownership of course development documents by the faculty during development

Ownership of the formal documents by the institution (Academic Registry) once validated

Simple publication of necessary documents (eg programme specifications) on the web for FOIA and TQI

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Organisations

One for each faculty and department to share local documentsDesign, Technology, Health, etcLearning and Information Services, Academic

Registry, etcOne for each committee or working party to

share formal documents across BCUCSenate, Academic Audit Committee, etc Information Strategy Steering Group, Technical

Working Party, etc

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Plans

Two faculty champions initially using CS with LS

LIS to use the Content System for departmental procedures, etc

Information Strategy Steering Group and Technical Working Party to use for papers for meetings

E-portfolio to be used with academic tutors through SCPE for PDP

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Issues

Network files versus Bb CS filesTraditional website versus Bb CSTraining requires careful planning

Learning system is easy to use for allContent System is more difficult

Policies and procedures to be agreed