In
October, with the endorsement of the Committee on Information
Services and Technology (CIST), our Chief Information Officer,
Dr J T Yu announced the adoption of the Blackboard Academic
Suite as the e-learning platform of the University. As this
is an important decision of the University and the task of
implementation has already started, Network Computing
talked to Dr Yu to find out more about the background to the
decision, the capabilities of the software suite and the plan
for its release for general use in the University.
"The
Blackboard Academic Suite we have adopted is version 6 of
the product, consisting of a learning management system (LMS),
a portal system and a content management system (CMS)",
explained Dr Yu. "Although some members of the University
are familiar with Blackboard 5, this new version with the
portal and CMS is based on a new design with different systems
architecture, hence is significantly dissimilar from previous
versions of the product", he added. Apart from Blackboard
5, many academic colleagues use the other e-learning product,
WebCT. As the decision of the CIST on the adoption of a single
e-learning platform for the University was aimed to empower
students to manage their own learning and relieve course administration
burden on teachers, a thorough, methodical and highly participative
evaluation process was carried out over a six months period
before the final decision on Blackboard 6 was made.
To meet
the changing educational landscape and in keeping with the
university mission and the UGC role statement coupled with
TLQPR feedback, the deployment of a single e-learning platform
in the University is a part of a total integration project
that aims at bringing together and consolidating the various
resources and constituents to support the one central University
mission - student learning. "Support for e-learning is
also the focus of our strategic IT direction for the next
few years and a central component of the Information Services
Strategic Plan currently being formulated", Dr Yu emphasised.
Thus a vision-driven and pedagogically oriented approach has
been adopted to guide the implementation of Blackboard 6.
The new platform will be exploited for the delivery of a wide
range of learning resources that can be shared across courses,
encouraging more active participation in learning by students,
enabling a wider range of assessment activities and providing
more timely feedback to students, and realizing a more evidence-driven
approach to student progress through their programmes.
As for
the actual implementation, a development environment has been
set up, and training and pilot courses deployment has already
commenced using this environment by a multi-unit support team
with key members drawn from CSC, CTL, EDO, ESU, IS and LIB.
Working with colleagues from ARRO, ELC, CCIV, CCCU, SDS and
SGS, proof of concepts using some of these pilot courses will
take place in the next semester. Migration from the current
Blackboard 5 and conversion of WebCT courses will also start
in the new year. For the current academic year, Bb5 and WebCT
courses are still running in parallel. It is anticipated that
full scale deployment of the Bb6 components will take place
in September 2005 at the start of the new academic year, at
which time, the Bb6 portal will also replace the current e-Portal
based on Campus Pipeline. The CMS will provide some new capabilities
allowing students to have access and control over their own
content based on the portfolio concept. The e-learning platform
is thus not just for instructors but also for students to
manage their own materials, and from the students' point of
view, it will be the same product for all courses, amplifying
the notion of a seamless learning environment. Furthermore,
with web-based delivery crossing time zones and physical boundaries,
the e-learning platform also offers great potential for our
expansion in distance learning as well as maintaining large
scale alumni liaison.
Dr Yu
re-iterated that this is a mission critical application affecting
every student, thus participation and support from all colleagues
is of paramount importance for the success of this significant
project of the University.