Gary Roberts

Alfred UniversityDirector of Information Technology Services

• Models of Integration:

Total Integration

Partial Integration

Dual Model

• Advantages of combining C.M.S. with I.L.

What am I Going To Talk About?

• Motivation

•Who is doing it?

• How you can import TILT Board into your Blackboard 6.0+ system

What am I Going To Talk About?

• Technical details of TILT Board

• Wish list of improvements

• SUNY Gen Ed: “Information Management” student learning outcomes must be assessed and documented

•Middle States Standards: demand assessment of IL programs

Motivation--Assessment!

• We also needed a system that would gather testing/registration information

• We needed a solution that:

1) Could integrate into existing course work

2) Was not dependant on classroom time

Requirements

Engaging Content Registration & Testing

Complete Tutorial

Engaging Content

+LDAP

Registration & Testing

Complete Tutorial

Engaging Content

+

Registration & Testing

Complete Tutorial

Course Management

System

• Course management systems are seeing increased usage on many campuses

• Course Management Systems are information/content containers

What are the advantages?

• Solution does not depend on classroom time

--Feedback is immediately available to reinforce concepts

• Many course management systems have strong assessment tools:

What are the advantages? (continued)

--Quiz scores can be exported to a spreadsheet

--Question pools can be randomized to discourage cheating

--Assessment tools provide light statistical analysis

• Many course management systems have sophisticated evaluation systems:

What are the advantages? (continued)

--Selective release of content areas and quizzes

--Blackboard “Sequential learning unites”, provide a logical, narrative approach to content presentation.

• A study of more than 18,000 Freshman and Senior students at 63 higher education institutions across the United States

What are the advantages? (continued)

ECAR—2005 Study Of Students and Information Technology: Convenience,

Connection, Control and Learning

• Of the 72 percent of the students who reported using course management systems, 75 percent of those students reported a positive or very positive experience

What are the advantages? (continued)

ECAR—2005 Study Of Students and Information Technology: Convenience,

Connection, Control and Learning

• The more students use a CMS, the more they like it

What are the advantages? (continued)

ECAR—2005 Study Of Students and Information Technology: Convenience,

Connection, Control and Learning

• Students report that using a CMS improves their learning

• Students seem to like many of the features (of a CMS), but they wish instructors used them more extensively and consistently

What are the advantages? (continued)

ECAR—2005 Study Of Students and Information Technology: Convenience,

Connection, Control and Learning

Who is doing it?

• Albertson College, Christine Schutz, (Blackboard and TILT) switching to Moodle

• Alfred University, Gary Roberts, (Blackboard and TILT)

• Oakland University (Rochester, MI), Elizabeth W. Kraemer, (WebCT and Local Tutorial)

Who is doing it?

• Shippensburg University Of Pennsylvania, (Blackboard and Ship to Shore, locally created)

• Quinnipiac University, Terry Ballard (Blackboard and TILT)

• Slippery Rock University,(Blackboard and TILT)

• University Of New South Wales (Australia), Lesley Ngatai (WebCT and TILT)

Who is doing it?

• Total Integration

• Partial Integration

What are the models?

• Dual Model

Tutorial Content(Quiz Removed)

Course Management

System

Upload

Re-created

Total Integration In C.M.S.

Quiz

Total Integration

• Total Integration can feel like jamming a round peg into a square hole

• Content and Evaluation may appear to be integrated

• Everything tied up in a neat package

• Violates open publication license of TILT?

Tutorial Content(Quiz Removed)

Course Management

System

Hyperlink Re-created

Partial Integration In C.M.S.

Quiz

[External Web Server] [External C.M.S. Server]

Partial Integration

• Partial integration—easier on the developer/designer

• Content and assessment may appear to be integrated

• Tutorial/assessment scattered across several servers

• Does not violate open publication license?

Tutorial Content(Quiz Removed)

Course Management

System

Upload

Re-created

Dual Model

Quiz

Tutorial Content[External Web Server]

Dual Model

• Requires maintenance of two identical tutorials

• Does not violate open publication license?

How we did it?

2003 Computers in Libraries article

• Remove extraneous features and items from sequential Web site

• Remove and recreate assessment in Blackboard

• Create directional flow with JavaScript and Flash

• Get TILT content out of limited frame—JavaScript pop-up

How we did it?

2003 Computers in Libraries article

• Remove branding from sequential Web site

• Remove and recreate assessment in Blackboard

• Create directional flow with JavaScript and Flash

• Get TILT content out of limited frame—JavaScript pop-up

Blackboard Modules

Upload Web site (Course Documents)

Announcements

Course Calendar

Gradebook

Assessment Manager

Digital Drop Box

Discussion Board

Virtual Classroom

(Collaboration)

Design (Cont.)

Blackboard Modules

Upload Web site (Course Documents)

Gradebook

Assessment Manager

Design (Cont.)

Here’s how it looks to a student…

How to use TILT Board?

• CMS, including Blackboard allow power users to share content between courses

• Importing and exporting takes some work—I’m not going to try to kid you

• If you know the how TILT Board is structured—it makes it much easier

TILT Board

(Quiz Removed)

Course Management

System

Import

Quiz

How to use TILT Board?

Import

How to use TILT Board?

• You would expect to import the TILT tutorial first, and the assessment second—but its just the opposite

• The sequence of importing these two pieces is somewhat counter-intuitive

• You import content in two major pieces—the assessment, and the actual TILT content

How to use TILT Board?

• Why this backwards approach—it ultimately has to do with linking and making a seamless connection between the TILT content and the assessment

How to use TILT Board?

• Last, you import the TILT Board tutorial

• With this URL, you establish a link between the tutorial content and the assessment (this link needs to be made outside of Blackboard)

• You must first import the assessment—With this action you are establishing an address or URL in Blackboard

Step 1: Importing TILT Board Assessment into your Blackboard course

Step 2: Make the TILT Board Assessment “available”

Step 3: Establishing a link between the Assessment and the TILT Content

Step 4: Import the TILT Content into Blackboard

How to use TILT Board?

TILT Board—Needed Improvements

• Improved assessment, initial assessment, and more questions

• Wider adoption (perhaps mandatory adoption) through our FYE courses

• Eliminate pop-up JavaScript

• Integrate TILT Board into more content-level courses

Kvavik, Robert; Caruso, Judith. ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005: Convenience, Connection, Control, and Learning. http://www.educause.edu/ers0506/ Nov. 20, 2005

Roberts, Gary. "The Yin and Yang of Integrating Course Management With Information Literacy Tutorials", Computers In Libraries, September 2003, v. 23 no.8, p. 10

Roberts, Gary and Pival, Paul. The Distant Librarian: Comments on the world of Distance Librarianship. http://distlib.blogs.com/distlib/gary_roberts/. Nov. 20, 2005

Roberts, Gary. TILTBoard@Alfred University. http://www.herr.alfred.edu/TILT/Archive_Download.asp