Connect is UBC’s new enterprise level online Learning Management System (LMS) on the Blackboard Learn 9 platform. Members of the FPD team played a central role developing documentation, screencasts and other resources to support faculty, staff and students during the university’s learning management system transition from WebCT Vista.
The resource development process for Connect has been an open and collaborative process within and outside of CTLT. We have and will continue to work with the Teaching and Learning Technologies Team as they build new features and functionalities in the system, and when new tools become available. Examples of these collaborations include developing resources for iClickers and Blackboard Collaborate.
Most of the resources we have developed are available at http://wiki.ubc.ca/Documentation:Connect including wiki pages, print resources, images and videos. Resources were also developed by Arts ISIT and the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UBC Okanagan. All of the resource development activities are documented at: http://wiki.ubc.ca/Documentation_talk:Connect
Highlights
120 wiki resources and 137 video resources available for faculty, staff and students to explore, focusing on learning how to use Connect and integrated technologies.
All text resources are stored in the UBC Wiki, and thus are available for republishing to a number of different platforms (e.g. Connect, CMS @ UBC)
Three websites have been developed to display the resources:
- http://pilot.lms.ubc.ca (inactive)
- http://resources.connect.ubc.ca (inactive)
- http://elearning.ubc.ca
Co-op students from the Faculties of Arts (including Sharon Doucet and Ian Nagel) and Engineering have worked on or contributed to the development of these resources.
The results of the mid-term evaluation of the LMS project rated the professional development and resources as above expectations. These two aspects of the project were the only ones rated this highly.
Next Steps
The resources for Connect have grown exponentially, from zero to over one hundred openly re-usable and editable wiki and video resources. These resources primarily focused on the functional and technical features of the LMS with some aspects of best practices and teaching and learning integrated throughout.
The challenges with this project can be summed up by the sentiment “We are all just learning about it at the same time.” As there was enormous pressure to transition quickly to the new LMS, opportunities to scope out the needs and plan ahead were not available. Nevertheless, the mid-term evaluation of the LMS Project rated the resources and professional development as exceeding expectations.
Going forward, there has been extensive effort to plan ahead by anticipating the rollout of new tools, building blocks and updates to Blackboard Learn. We are also transitioning from developing primarily technical resources to developing more teaching and learning related ones. The focus is more on the best practices around what a specific function or tool can do through blog posts.
Follow