Viewing Blackboard as a Strategically Vital Application

Shirley Waterhouse, Director,

Educational Technology

Becky Vasquez, Director, I.T. Services

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

• Educating 28,000 + students per year • 30+ Degrees Sciences, Aviation, Business, and

Engineering

The Wight Flyer T. Higbee EmbryCofounder

J. Paul RiddleCofounder

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

• Two residential campuses (Florida and Arizona)

• Extended Campuses – 130 Teaching Centers worldwide – 2500 Students are enrolled in Distance Learning, fully utilizing

Blackboard for online courses.

Daytona BeachCampus

Extended Campuses & World Wide Centers

Prescott Campus

• US News and World Report– “Best Colleges” Guide - #1

for the past 5 years in Aerospace Engineering

• State of the Art Facilities– Flight simulators,

engineering labs, weather

centers, wind tunnels, etc.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

United StatesAir Force Flight

Training Academy

JetBlue Airways

U.S. Air Force AcademyUSAFA, CO

JetBlue and Embry-Riddle collaborate on “Train the trainer” program for JetBlue’s simulator

trainers.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Why View Blackboard as Strategic?

Because it represents a very basic and “critical” issue that must be addressed at our institutions if elearning is to “really” move forward.

Here’s what we are up against….

6,000 gamers in one room, and they are on their way to our campuses!

Adapted from Marc Prensky’s EDUCAUSE ELI keynote address, January, 2006, San Diego, CA.

We must be prepared and we must prepare the top leaders at our institutions.

We must look carefully at “our” students and “our” faculty and create elearning systems that work for “our” institution.

In fact, we have to get ready for students withEOE syndrome.

EOE…Engage me or enrage me.

Adapted from Marc Prensky’s EDUCAUSE ELI keynote address, January, 2006, San Diego, CA.

You have heard of the millenials, the NetGeners, and the digital natives…..

And our job is to help to create the ideal 21st century educational experience for them.

Not only will the 21st century education have to be engaging with many technology enhancements, but it will also have to be flexible--evidenced by this recent headline..

“Students prefer online courses.” (The Associated Press, January 13, 2006)

.

Technology leaders (those of us in this room) must find ways to help all other institutional leaders including Presidents, VPs, Provosts, Deans, Department Chairs, and others, to understand their important roles in creating the educational environment for the 21st century.

We recommend 10 steps that leaders should take (and that you should help them take) …..

1. Get focused.

2. Get personally involved. Accept responsibility and get some firsthand experience.

3. Get real. (About the urgency, the obstacles, and what is needed to move forward.)

4. Get the right people on the bus.

5. Start the “we need to refine elearning at our institution before the technology tsunami hits” conversation.

Leadership’s Role - Ten Steps

6. Create programs that facilitate faculty’s adoption of elearning.

7. Implement an elearning strategic planning process. (institutional and academic departmental)

8. Take a realistic look at funding to insure that there is a proper allocation and balance for BOTH academic technologies and administrative technologies.

9. Insure a robust technology infrastructure.

10. Insure technology support for faculty, staff, and students.

Leadership’s Role – Ten Steps (Cont)..

For the remainder of this presentation we would like to focus on one of our recommendations…

8. Take a realistic look at funding to insure that there is a proper allocation and balance for BOTH academic technologies and administrative technologies.

The White Paper

“Academic ERP Learning Management Systems: An Enterprise-Wide Strategic Investment for

Core Teaching and Learning with Significantly Reduced Costs and More Value per User”

Written by: Martin A. Smith, Chancellor, Extended CampusHoward Muffler, Director, Enterprise Services

Becky Vasquez, Director, I.T. ServicesShirley Waterhouse, Director, Educational Technology

December 2004

Online at: http://it.erau.edu/ua/prewhitepapers.htm

Greentree Gazette

Getting What you Want From Software Series

“LMS Takes Flight at Embry-Riddle”May 2005

“If the principal mission of higher education is to educate, why isn’t education at the top priority of college information

technology systems?”

How it all came about…

• CIO’s Vision

• Culture

• When you think about it…it makes perfect sense!

• NOT a foundation to support gouging price increases for LMS vendors.

ERPs and LMSs

• Commonalities– Integrated with other technologies– Both core and critical in respective areas– Enhance “business”

• Differences– Administrative versus Academic

Hybrid Courses

• Offering external classroom resources

• Our instructors report “students learn more”

• Opportunities for faculty

• Supports sound teaching disciplines

Distance Learning Transformation

• Remember when…– Video Tapes– US Postal Service– Collaboration?

• Today– Classrooms created without physical structure– Virtual collaboration possible

Learning Systems Today

• No other automated tool more significantly impacts the ability of an institution to accomplish its teaching and learning mission, especially in today’s competitive online environment.

• Supports the primary missions of instruction and research. – Core mission is not to offer a highly effective way to

provide online pay checks.

Average Hits per Day

6071 69916 61534

1741071

2320845

0

400000

800000

1200000

1600000

2000000

2400000

2800000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Embry-Riddle Growth

Available Courses

109464

1881

5045 4906

0500

1000150020002500300035004000450050005500

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Average Hits Per Day

Available Courses

“Embry-Riddle also provides distance education, or online learning, around the globe.”

Delivering Courses Around the World

Flying high in the sky over Iraq.Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.

Issues

• Funding – Administrative ERPs have a history and more

generally understood. – LMS is typically launched under the Provost

where historically, funding is more scarce and difficult to justify.

• Deployment– Not purchased or supported for the enterprise

Power Constituents Usage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

HR Financial SIS LearningSystem

PowerConstituent

End Constituent Usage

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

HR Financials SIS LearningSystem

End Constituent

How Important is a LMS?

• Here’s what our students tell us:

– “Whether or not a University has an online learning system is a deciding factor for students. ERAU Online (Blackboard) offers me convenient access from anywhere and helps to insure that I retain information that I might have missed in class by being able to access classroom materials later.”

– “An institution having a LMS is very important. I want to be able to take quizzes at home and eliminate some of the paper that traditional classes generate. Being able to get my syllabus, notes, and homework online is a big help.”

Running the NumbersComponent

SmallCollege

Medium University

LargeUniversity

UniversitySystem

Students (FTE) 2,000 7,500 35,000 75,000

Faculty (Full Time) 250 600 1,500 6,000

Staff 500 1,200 2,000 10,000

Total Constituents 2,750 9,300 38,500 91,000

ERP Acquisition and Implementation Costs

$7.5M $15M $50M $150M

ERP Cost/Constituent

$2,727 $1,613 $1,299 $1,648

LMS Acquisition and Implementation Costs

$0.5M $1M $1.5M $2M

LMS Cost/Constituent

$182 $108 $39 $22

Cost Differential per

Constituent (%)1,398% 1,394% 3,231% 7,391%

Small CollegeMedium University

Large UniversityUniversity System

LMS

ERP

$2,727

$1,613

$1,299

$1,648

$182

$108$39

$220

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Institution

Co

st

in

Do

llars

Academic Learning Management System (LMS) vs. Administrative (ERP) System Cost Per Constituent

LMS

ERP

Cost per Constituent

What our LMS Costs Us

• Embry-Riddle Costs– Costs per FTE constituent is approximately

$33.00• Licenses• Infrastructure/Hosting• Personnel support

Future Roles

• Open Source

• Commercial merging with Open Source

• Adaptation of open standards and integration

• Focus on adding value

• LMS poised to become dominant application and foundational

In Closing

• Embry-Riddle has taken a giant leap forward in a way that is meaningful and supportive of our strategic directions.

• We have determined that the ERP academic LMS systems are far more critical and cost effective than their ERP Administrative counterparts.

• We will focus on innovation going forward.