I4 ExcellenceIndependence, Instructional Integrity, Interoperability

Content Authoring and Management System

March, 2009

The Task at Hand

How do we rise to the challenge of authoring & delivering course content on a massive scale while still providing a quality student experience?

Consider the facts… DeVry University:- Educates 76,000 + Students

- Delivers 1000+ unique courses each session with 5.22 Terabytes of content

- Maintains 90+ physical locations in North America

- Delivers 600 new course developments every year

- Provides Learning Opportunities through purely online courses, onsite blended courses, and “mix and match” (3351 class sections every 8 wks)

- Supports 24/7 student and faculty access to learning content in an average of 5,303,977 minutes of use every day

- Collaborates in sharing uniquely branded course materials with students at Chamberlain College of Nursing, Apollo College, and Western Career College

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Our Challenges…

• Volatility in the Learning Management System Market – We cannot guarantee that our delivery system will meet our needs over the next 3-5 years. How do we ensure we can meet the potential for change?

• Content as Asset – How do we ensure we own and manage content if it is locked into our delivery platform?

• Dealing with Difference – How can we quickly re-package our content for different populations (online versus blended courses, courses offered by different colleges)?

• Instructional Design Consistency – How do we ensure that all content is consistent in design in order to make the student experience consistent across courses and capitalize on Best Practices?

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The Technology Solution

Combination of:

• Delivery Platform = Pearson eCollege

• Content Authoring = TLENA’s EQUELLA

• Standards-Based Content Publishing

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The Technology: Delivery Platform

• Why did DeVry select Pearson eCollege as a Delivery Platform?• Reliability and scalability to meet our continuing growth in student

numbers

• Hosting and services to allow us to focus on delivery rather than infrastructure, security, configuration

• Support for Standards to ensure we are truly independent while remaining Partners

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The Technology: Content Authoring

• Why did DeVry select TLENA’s EQUELLA for Content Authoring?• Wizards allow us to design-in Best Practices ( a Lecture is a

Lecture is a Lecture…)

• EQUELLA “built-in” controls allow flexibility in the design of content

• Internal content consistency (Assignment entered once – fed to syllabus, assignments page, gradebook during processing)

• EQUELLA reporting allows us to use dashboards to manage 75 course development projects every 8 weeks

The Technology: Standards

Data Import via the Common Course Cartridge• Allows us to programmatically package content based on standards and

deliver it to one or more delivery platforms. Publish versus Reference model allows us to capitalize on reliability of the LMS.

• Extensibility allows us to meet specific requirements (populating the Gradebook, specifying faculty documentation as “Hidden” from students)

Data Exchange via the AICC Package Exchange and Notification Standard (PENS)• Brokers the automated exchange of data between EQUELLA and

eCollege (1000 unique courses published each session)

• Provides data exchange reporting between systems to track progress, errors, etc.

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The Architecture

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The Impact - Independence

• Common Cartridge enables publishing to multiple platforms (tested successfully in eCollege and Moodle as a Proof of Concept)

• Best of Both Worlds: Fully customized Authoring Tools plus Fully Reliable Delivery Infrastructure

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The Impact – Instructional Integrity

A lecture is a lecture is a lecture….• SMEs focus on creating content not complex HTML

• Variations based on audience needs created programmatically rather than manually (reduction in Time to Deliver)

• Ease of inserting Special Items, such as “Remember This” boxes or Videos, based on standards (screenshot?)

• Changes and updates to Look and Feel or standardized content (such as Late Policies, Plagiarism standards, etc.) can be implemented by changing Centralized Content items and packaged and delivered to all courses in one session

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The Impact -- Instructional Designers

• Check-Off and reporting system to manage status and provide dashboard

• Focus on adding collaborative materials rather than repeating the same formatting to ensure courses are consistent

• Manage consistent pieces (headers, standard content items) centrally so they can be changed in all courses in one publication cycle

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The Impact – Faculty Experience

• High quality, vetted content

• Official, centralized canon of course materials allows faculty to focus on teaching and students – not on reinventing content --while providing ample opportunities for faculty to collaborate on improving the canon

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The Impact – Student Experience

• Consistent design minimizes student learning curve in 8-week courses

• Mix and match (online/onsite coursework) supported by consistent set of materials across all delivery modes

• Targeted materials added to support delivery mode (blended vs online)

• Updates and changes targeted based on actual student success data and feedback through end-of-term surveys – Improved Content

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The Journey

2006 – 2008 – Failed attempt to implement model: Lessons Learned• Reference Model does not work for us – Reliability issues

• Authoring cannot be completely separated from packaging and preview

2008 – Common Cartridge and EQUELLA adopted

2009 -- PENS adopted; completed Proof of Concept using EQUELLA Authoring Wizard – Design, Delivery, Publishing to eCollege

2010 – Into Production• eCollege developed cartridge and system to handle all Content Items and allows

for selective update (January 2010)

• Academic approval of final Look and Feel (April 2010)

• Finalized Wizard and Course Management capabilities (July 2010)

• PENS – 2-way information exchange (July 2010)

• Production Course Authoring (September 2010)

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