Reflections on a shared journey.

What lessons have we learned along the way?Alan Masson

Head of Blackboard International Customer Success team

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About me

2003 2016always

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Blackboard – a long term partnership with our customers

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Shared Journey – shared perspectives (some UK based Bb staff)

Industry Management

• Demetra Katsifli (Kingston University)

Solutions Engineers

• Dominic Gore (University College Birmingham)

• Ashley Wright (Newcastle University)

• Nathan Cobb (East Riding College)

Customer Success

• Alan Masson (University of Ulster)

• Gillian Fielding (Salford University)

Sales

• Richard Burrows (Abertay University)

• Paul Grist (University of Reading)

Consulting

• Louise Thorpe (Sheffield Hallam University)

• Adrian Powell (University of Sheffield)

• Stephen Clarke (University of Birmingham)

• Andy Ramsden (Bristol, Bath & Suffolk)

• Mike Highfield (University of Exeter )

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Consistent company focus along the journey

From 2004

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Let’s examine our shared journey to date

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If we are on a journey – where are we trying to get to?

Sector innovationInforming and influencing the wider

sector

Institutional innovationDelivering on institutional strategic

aims / priorities

Core essentials Meeting immediate needs of the

institution

Operational RiskFailing to meet the needs /

expectations of the institution

No usage Pilot Targeted initiatives/ early adopters

Scaled adoptionNo formal alignment to key agendas

Institutional adoptionFormally aligned to key agendasIn

stitu

tiona

l im

pact

/ e

ffecti

vene

ss

Quality of Learning

Flexible Learning

Business Agility

Education Innovation

Growth in learner #

Employability of learners

Blackboard Adoption

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The institutional “journey” (Taken from a 2004 Bb presentation)

Maturity Model

Still holds true today

Identifies key transition points

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The institutional “journey” (Taken from a 2004 Bb presentation)

Are these transitions indicators of levels that we have achieved?

Or

Are they indicators of new areas of challenges to (continue to) be encountered?

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Threshold Concepts – prompted by Ray Land of Durham University

• The engagement by the learner with an unfamiliar knowledge terrain and the ensuing reconceptualisation may involve a reconstitution of, or shift within, the learner’s subjectivity, and perhaps identity.

• Ontological implications. Learning as ‘a change in subjectivity’. (Pelletier 2007).

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Threshold Concept Characteristics

• integrative• transformative• irreversible• bounded• re-constitutive• discursive• troublesome

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Let’s explore these adoption thresholds in more detail

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Four Key Transitions

Consolidation

Mission critical Enabling the wider organisation

Institutional alignment

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Four Key Transitions

Consolidation

Mission critical Enabling the wider organisation

Institutional alignment

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Institutional VLE

Consolidation challenges

Web2.0 Mobile Apps

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We must continue to innovate and consolidate……..

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Establishing E-learning

• Informing innovation

• Practice

• Curriculum

• Beyond the classroom

• Institutional Impact

Institutional alignment challenges

Enhancing Practice

• Scaling awareness and capacity

• Focus on training and early wins

Supporting Innovation

• Focus on key agendas

• Retention

• Assessment

• Fully online programmes

• Identifying and sharing best practices

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What are the key transition trends we are currently seeing?

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“Mission Critical”

Robust and Reliable Infrastructure

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IT ownership

Robust and Reliable Infrastructure

Scaling the system

• Move away from “servers under desks”

• IT department support:

• Resilient server

• Trained staff

• Quality network access

• Data backups

Current challenges?

• Move from server to system architecture

• Load balancers

• Application servers

• Database server

• SAN Storage

• BCP and DRM important issues

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Robust and Reliable Infrastructure – Customer Demands

“The level of complexity increased with each migration; technical people had to spend significant amounts of time building up knowledge that would be rendered useless after the actual migration was complete.”

“Our IT department was stretched thin, and we knew that we needed help if we were going to provide the level of support that our increasing user community would require ”

“..to manage the increasing number of users more easily and to maintain the top quality student-facing services our university is renowned for, we needed a scalable, high-performing IT environment that could easily increase the amount of processing power available at critical times such as during assessments.”

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Robust and Reliable Infrastructure – Customer Benefits

University of Groningen

“Now that we don’t have to worry about the performance and up-time of our Blackboard platform, we can focus our efforts on other things,”

University of Reading:

“True 24x7x365: support, monitoring and problem resolution (3 x 8hr shifts) x 365 by a large team with a high level of expertise and experience”

University of Brighton:

“Spent lunchtime advocating Bb Managed Hosting, we haven't looked back! I sleep much better these days ” (tweet)

MH hosting image here

Blackboard Managed Hosting

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IT ownership

• Beyond the system

• 24/7 user expectations

• Responsiveness (technical and human)

• Flexibility

• Innovation and agility

• Focus internal resources on enhancement of service

Robust and Reliable Infrastructure – changing challenges

Scaling the system

• Move away from “servers under desks”

• IT department support:

• Resilient server

• Trained staff

• Quality network access

• Data backups

A service perspective

• Move from server to system architecture

• Load balancers

• Application servers

• Database server

• SAN Storage

• BCP and DRM becoming more important

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Supporting the wider organisation

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Global competition

(recruiting & retention)

Rising costs

Decreasing revenue Access

Data usage

Skills gap

Instructor efficiency

Personalized learning

Student involvement

Technology adoption

Education faces major challenges

Global competition

(recruiting & retention)Access

Skills gap

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Blackboard - Education 2020

Learner-centric education

Non-traditional learners

Big-data in mainstream

Consumer-preferences/alternative models

Education truly global

Online and mobile everywhere

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Trend 1: Enhancing existing integrations

Example: Student Information System

• Initially: data provider to VLE

• Demand: data return to SIS (student grades)

• Bb Response – Grades Journey

• Available in 2015 Q4 release

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Trend 2: Re-use of features by other service departments

Example: Blackboard Collaborate

• Marketing – Virtual Open Days

– University of Derby, University of Edinburgh

• Virtual Doctorates

– Aston University

• Virtual Conferences

– Salford University, Aston University

• Staff training

– Salford University

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Trend 3: Enhanced learner access to other services / resources

Example: Blackboard Community System

• Key learner information, tools and resources

– Personalised Bb home page: Sheffield Hallam, Leeds Beckett, Groningen, Durham

• Student services: Careers / Library / Student Support / IT support

– Personalised Bb tabs: Groningen, Sheffield Hallam, Leeds Beckett, Durham

Also thru use of Content System and Enterprise Surveys

• Quality Office (and University Committees)

– Keele, Leeds (Liverpool John Moores, Reading, Salford)

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Trend 4: Inform innovation & realise organisational efficiency gains

Example: Blackboard Consulting

• Develop more efficient workflows and processes

– University of the West of England

• Understanding the scope for process efficiencies from a student’s point of view

– Cardiff University

• Establish a feedback hub

– University of York

• Quickly establish new institutional capacity

– UEA, Trinity College Dublin

• Use data to inform key business decisions

– University of Derby Online, Groningen

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Direct integrations

Enabling fresh approaches

• New ways of looking at things

• New ways to do things

• Building new capacity quickly

• Blackboard Consulting

Supporting the wider organisation (in summary)

Re-gifting the benefits

Enhancing existing collaborations

• Classroom & system levels

• Richer and deeper integrations

• Grades Journey

• Custom Building Blocks

A fresh perspective

Features Re-using tools & resources beyond the classroom (Marketing, Library, Quality Office)

• Collaborate, Content / Community Systems

Footprint Enhancing learner access to other services (Careers, Library, Student Support etc.)

• Community System

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Reflections on this “journey”

Our journey will continue to bring new challenges from time to time

We need to continue to learn from and manage these “troublesome threshold concepts”

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Looking back - what lessons have we learnt so far?

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Trends for success – lessons learned

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Characteristics of Success

Leadership from the top

Institutional commitment and investment

Robust and reliable infrastructure

Effective and available support for academic staff

Ability to demonstrate benefits to student learning and academic staff experience

Evidence-informed decision making and a continuous cycle of improvement

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Leadership from the top

Good leadership is vital to any change process, especially when it comes to introducing new technology within a university

A senior leader in the institution who is endorsing and driving the change is key to ensuring that technology adoption aligns with institutional goals and encouraging participation across the institution. Best Practices:

• Facilitating ‘Focus on...’ sessions for the executive leadership team

• Developing a 3-5 year learning technology strategic plan, specifying objectives, adoption goals and developmental cycles.

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Institutional commitment and investment

This is not only financial investment or the investment in the technology itself, but also in the internal resources required to deliver the change.

These typically include:

• Learning technology support infrastructure.

• change/project management resources.

• funds to encourage participation and innovation. Best Practices: • Establishing an institutional change management

programme.• Providing mechanisms to recognise and reward

those who make a positive contribution and set standards across the institution.

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Robust and reliable infrastructure

• Students and Faculty expect learning technology to be ‘always on’.

• Confidence in a robust and reliable infrastructure is essential in:

– Enabling institutional leadership to sponsor the change.

– Encourage academic adoption

– Encouraging student engagement

• Enables high quality and engaging learning experience

Best Practices: • Learning technology should be available 24/7. • It should perform at the speed users need. • It should be accessible across all platforms and

devices.

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Effective and available support for staff

For most academic staff, adopting learning technology for the first time is a change to their well-established and proven practice. Three pillars of support:

– Technical support – just in time “how to” help.

– Technology skills development –“how to use” the technology effectively.

– Pedagogical best practices understanding “why to use” the technology

Best Practices: • Developing an informal diagnostic or

questionnaire . • Considering introducing student employees and

interns to the learning technology support structure.

• Mentoring each other.• Making course development manageable.

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Ability to demonstrate benefits to student learning and staff experience

• It is vital that the impact and benefits to the learner are considered as well as that of the staff when adopting new technology.

• Perceive better than current practice:– what’s in it for my students

– what’s in it for me

Best Practices: • Collating and publishing “one paragraph” case

studies – In Video Format. • Looking for quick wins that positively impact

the learner experience. • Recognising them.

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Evidence-based decision-making and a continuous cycle of improvement

• Address weaknesses, achieve goals, extend success.

• Resulting evidence can help:– Celebrate successes

– Address weaknesses

– Identify effective approaches

– Secure continued funding or additional resources

• Creating a cycle of continuous improvement

Best Practices: • Using learning analytics to measure the impact of

technology adoption . • Gain insight into learner and staff performance .

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Trends for success – lessons learned

Resources available

Guide: • http://bbbb.blackboard.com/

technology_adoption_series

Webinar Series:• http://bbbb.blackboard.com/

TechnologyAdoptionAtSalford_Resources

• http://bbbb.blackboard.com/DrivingAdoptionAtRegentsUniversity_Resources

• http://bbbb.blackboard.com/SHUWebinar_Resources

• http://bbbb.blackboard.com/technology_adoption_series

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Looking ahead – Next Steps

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Feedback Drives Planning and DevelopmentRelease

BetaPDPUsability

TestsLimited

Field TrialsAccessibility

TestsFocus

GroupsSuggestion

SquadSuggestion

BoxSurveys Bug

Squad

Planning Development

Comm

itment &

Impact

Partnership approach to product development

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Locally influenced: Delegated Grading (April 2014 Release)

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Grades ColumnProvisioning

Locally influenced: Grades Journey (Q4 2015 Release)

Student Information System (SIS)

GradesExchange

GradesApproval

&Release

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Shared Journey: Shared conversations - sharing stories

Learning about emerging challenges

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We have a lot to share / learn about our ongoing journey

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Community partnership – at user led BUG meetings and events

• Scotland• North East England• North England• Midlands• London• Ireland• UK&I Mobile

And of course - Durham Blackboard Users' Conference

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Community partnership – at Blackboard conferences and events

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Deadline Extended: Submit your paper by Friday 15 January 2016

Visit: experience.blackboard.com/Groningen2016

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Welcome to Our New CEO, Bill Ballhaus

Dr. William (Bill) BallhausChairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Bill is proud to serve as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Blackboard.  With his experience leading global technology businesses, Bill is deeply committed to developing an industry-leading suite of solutions and products serving students and educators, and innovating on their behalf to expand student reach and improve learning outcomes within the education community. Prior to joining Blackboard, he served as President and CEO of SRA International, where he

fostered a culture of innovation that emphasized anticipating customer needs, and enhanced the company’s portfolio in cyber security, cloud computing, mobilization, agile system development, ERP and data analytics.