Download ppt - A Change on the Horizon? EDUCAUSE June 2, 2008 East Carolina University

A Change on the Horizon?

EDUCAUSE June 2, 2008

East Carolina University

Introduction

Presenters• Biwu Yang• Sharon Collins• Ginny Sconiers• Matt Long

Agenda• Purpose of the CMS Platform project• The process• Experiences


Fine Print

• Presenters' comments reflect their experiences with each platform and this presentation is not designed to promote one platform over another.


Purpose of the CMS Study

• Review the features of CMS platforms o Blackboard Version at the beginning of the study

was 6.3 • When?

o Before major upgrades, the last time was 2004 • Why?

o Two recommendations under the PACE study• Choices?

o Bb and two front runner open source platforms


The Process

• Facultyo Seek faculty to participate o Ask them to teach one platform for a

semester long courseo Give them training

• Technicalo Setup servers, we support all three in our campus

• Wrap upo Conduct survey at the end of semester and at the

end of the project


Survey Sample


Timeline

Summer 2008• A Recommendation Will be Made

Spring 2008• 2nd Sakai Faculty Group• Blackboard 7.3 Deployed• Final Comparison Survey at end of Spring 08

Fall 2007• 1st Sakai Faculty Group• 2nd Moodle Faculty Group• Blackboard 7.1 Pilot Group

Summer 2007• 1st Moodle Faculty Group

Spring 2007• Set Up Moodle & Sakai

Server

Timeline


Technical Support

• Administrator for each platform• Student support for each platform• Virtual Servers • ITCS Systems support


Training and Support

• Group training sessions for each platform• One-on-one training as needed• Sakai/Moodle/Blackboard Cafe!• Email Follow Up• CMS platform website


Challenges

• Time and Effort for all participants• Buy in from Academic and ITCS

o Elmer Poe, Associate Vice Chancellor• Faculty participation long term

o 18 months• Response time for issues• Upgrades• Blackboard mindset• Course design


Moodle

• 2006o ECU begins using Moodle in 2006 with a request

from faculty members 5 members

• 2007-2008o Current course base including CMS project users

Approximately 130 courses

• http://moodle.aos.ecu.edu


Moodle Statistics


Moodle Survey


Moodle-Challenges

Challenges • Support was a challenge• This is not the only thing we do• Instructional design for faculty


Moodle-Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned• Moodle is used because of “social” feel

o Organization of material and the look and feel of content presentation

• Obtaining faculty participation can be difficult• Need a good conversion tool• Faculty need assistance in reformatting their

course for Moodle


Sakai

• Sakai 2.4 offered Fall 2007 and Spring 2008• Project Sites for research and collaboration • My Workspace area for personal file storage• Blackboard Conversion Tool to transfer content

and Test/Quizzes• More Information: http://sakaiproject.org


Sakai Survey


Sakai - Challenges

• Assignment Featureo Resubmissiono Ownership of Content

• Tests/Quizzeso Feedbacko Retakeo Student Submissiono Importing Issues

Ownership of PoolsSettings/Scores


Sakai – Lessons Learned

• Communication, Communication…• Training is so important• Flexibility is a necessity• Faculty want consistency


Blackboard

• Bb 7.2• ECU upgrade policy

o Production, Test, and Staging • 23 Courses,18 Faculty

F2F and Online• Expectations - Full Use


Blackboard - Challenges

• Faculty and Student support• New features training and support • Updating the course sites w/ current

enrollments • TA and GA support• Export/Import of courses


Blackboard – Lessons Learned

• Lessons Learned - 7.3 was much better than 7.2

• Biggest challenge was re-training faculty on the threaded discussion tool

• Easy upgrade for students• High adoption of features


Blackboard

• Eventually moved production to 7.3 over the holiday break

• Archived all sites and moved to 7.3 production for backup and use for any incompletes


Blackboard Survey


Final Survey

Three CMS Platforms Comparison


RESULTS



RESULTS



RESULTS



Next Steps

• Presentation to Associate Vice Chancellor • Presentation to DEAC

• Presentation to IRCC


Comments from Faculty

• It's funny because I really kind of liked Moodle equally as well as Blackboard, but find Bb much more

intuitive and easy to use. I think it's because I haven't had enough time to play around with and really get to

know Moodle. With that time, I might have ranked them differently.

• While quantitative values are used, I found little difference between Moodle and Blackboard after one

semester of teaching.

• I had a little trouble with assessment tools in Moodle and Sakai so I didn't pursue their use.

• I found Moodle very hard to use.

• Many students have commented that they prefer moodle's layout because they can see the topic contents

without the need to enter a specific folder.

• Moodle is by far the most user-friendly and intuitive!

• I HATE the gradebook in Sakai. It is not easy to use or intuitive. I felt as if there were several steps needed

to accomplish one thing.

• The gradebook for Moodle and Sakai was not used- external software gradebooks were used with

ICTN3530 and ICTN3540. I have never used groups in any CMS.


More Comments

• I could never get the gradebook to weight the different types of assignments in either sakai or moodle, so used the blackboard grade book and reentered the data.

• I explored the create/manage groups in Moodle and Sakai, but did not actually use them!

• Moodle was by far the most flexible with regard to Content Organization and tools.

• I found Moodle clunky when uploading content, but I probably don't know the shortcut. This deficiency is not enough to prevent me from using Moodle in the future.

• I did not have any experience with RSS feeds, and I'm not sure about the HTML editor.

• The communication features were the best part of Moodle and allowed me to highly individualize the course. I loved that!

• Students were less likely to use Sakai's communications features. Students used Moodle's email and forum features extensively.

• There needs to be a N/A category on here.

• Moodle's email is problematic when there are a large number of students. The screen hangs until the emails have been sent- recommend the email module is backgrounded so the process is not visible to the instructor.


More Comments

• I only learned about the use of Blogs and Wikis; I did not use them.

• I really liked the discussion forum grader in Moodle and found it easier to use than even the updated Bb7.

• All of my experience with Assessment has been with Blackboard only. However, I ranked Moodle / Sakai

based on other features within the CMS.

• I did not do alot of fancy testing, it was difficult enough to just get the basic test set up the way that you

wanted. The test set up in moodle was difficult to navigate, but the feedback options to the students after

the test was better. Sakai seemed to give us difficulty when students actually did the testing.

• Assessment wasn't used in Moodle or Sakai, but Blackboard's assessment feature is very powerful.

• Haven't really used a survey function! Thanks for doing this, and for all your help throughout the

semesters!


Conclusion

• Blackboard Contract is Up for Renewalo Blackboard will be continued

• Academic Outreach will continue running multiple platforms

o Courses run in Moodle for Summer 08o Several projects will use Sakai


Questions ?
