Saint Petersburg State

University Blackboard

Educational ProjectIvan Grigoryev, Head of Educational Programs

Yulia Leevik, Associate Professor

Saint Petersburg State University, Russia

April 8, 2013

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Blackboard for a BCP university

St Petersburg State University is a

• Big

• Classical = Conservative

• Public

BCP University

• Methodology of the implementation of Blackboard technologies for a BCP university

• Problems of implementation

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Business continuity planning cycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_continuity_planning

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BCP at a BCP university

• Design & planning

• Hardware & software environment

• Internal regulations

• Professional development

• Staff

• Teachers

• Students

• Analysis for further development

How many cycles?

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First cycle

Pilot project (started in 2008)

• Advanced teachers and students

• Graduate School of Management http://www.gsom.spbu.ru/en/gsom/

• №1 business school in Eastern Europe in the official selection of EDUNIVERSAL (2012)

• Bachelor degree programs – for pilot project

• Master degree programs

• Doctoral programs

• MBA and executive education

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First cycle – results & experience

• All teachers and students were involved in Blackboard

• Selection of teachers – future promoters

• The pilot project was promoted by specialists acquainted with information technologies but NOT AFFILIATED to IT services

• Teachers & students began to consider the set of Blackboard technologies as an instrument for everyday usage

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First cycle – Blackboard

• Blackboard technologies do not support all educational needs of a BCP university, but they are extended by the partners

• We analyzed and tested several integrated and adjacent solutions

• For the pilot project we used Moodle in parallel with Blackboard technologies

The aid of the Blackboard support was extremely valuable and crucial for the success of the pilot project

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Second cycle

Blackboard system for the whole University should provide service

• 50 teachers → 5000 teachers

• 1000 students → 30000 students

• 1 degree program → 207 degree programs

• 2 buildings → 400 buildings in 3 campuses

This increase claims for a solution at a substantially different scale

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Second cycle – scale problems

The scale and inhomogenuity of the University emphasize many problems

• Number and qualification of administrators

• Variety of teachers interests

• Adequacy of information systems etc.

Specific problems

• Example: when we organize the registration on an elective course, we should take into account 8 time zones in Russia and even the possibility for students gone abroad (Brasil, USA etc.)

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Second cycle – BCP

• Design & planning

• Hardware & software environment

• Internal regulations

• Professional development

• Analysis for further development

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Second cycle – design & planning

Design & planning cannot be done by outsourcing

• We succeeded to plan and to implement the university Blackboard system by the University specialists who had got the experience of the pilot project

Problems of outsourcers:

• Outsourcers tend to propose expensive solutions

• Absence of understanding of the complexity of the University, both of structure and operations

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Second cycle – hardware environment

• Hardware is organized according to Blackboard recommendations in a fault-resistant configuration for 365 / 24 / 7 operations

• NO VIRTUAL MACHINES for application servers of Blackboard

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Second cycle – hardware environment

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Second cycle – software

We use as basic components of our system

• Blackboard Learn + Blackboard Collaborate (former Elluminate)

As we like to make the studies more interactive, we need for various applications

• Webinars

• Exchange of voice materials (Wimba Voice package)

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Second cycle – Blackboard

• Blackboard does not pay sufficient attention for localization of the basic software

• Inadequate and incorrect translation of the terms for Blackboard Learn

• No tracking of the errors corrected in the previous versions

• Example: starting from SP9 we find in the tests the same mistake for the question type ‘Calculated formula’ which is based on inadequate interpretation of decimal numbers for various localizations

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Second cycle – Blackboard

• It is not only the problem for Russian users but for ALL NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING users

• We were forced to correct Blackboard Learn software for EACH NEW Service Pack working instead of Blackboard support service in 2012

• There is no correct localization for the building block integrating Bb Learn and Bb Collaborate

• The problems of the same origin we got with Wimba Voice package; we were not able to use this package for teaching & learning of English

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Second cycle – software environment

Supplementary systems

• Echo360 (recording, recording and FullHD translation, digitalization of prepared materials)

• iSpring (publication of PowerPoint presentations)

• FlippingBook (publication of .pdf files)

• Vivaldi (special software implemented in Russian state libraries for publication of .pdf and other XML type files)

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Second cycle – internal regulations

The strategy is determined by the orders:

• Official start and responsibilities of divisions

• Mandatory logins and corporate e-mail addresses

• Mandatory analysis of theses on textual coincidences by means of SafeAssign software

• Teachers responsible for dissemination of knowledge on Blackboard technologies

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Second cycle – professional development

Professional development steps:

• 2011 Blackboard training of system administrators

• 2011 First internal training for teachers

• 2012 Certificate training

• 2012-2013 Initiation seminars (‘virus’ dissemination)

• 2013 Internal certification programs in strategic partnership with Blackboard Inc.

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Second cycle – analysis

The second BCP cycle is performed, the results are valuable for the University

Blackboard project reveals basic problems of a BCP University and helps to find solutions

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Third cycle – planning

Future purchases for the development

• Blue Systems software for evaluation and surveys

• We tested the software for evaluation procedures held at the Graduate School of Management

• We acknowledge Blue Systems for the test license, consultancy and support during the evaluation

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Third cycle – planning

Future purchases for the development

• Blackboard Mobile licenses

• Extended number of FTE for Blackboard Collaborate components when they will be successfully localized

Specific problems for a BCP university in Russia

• Very complicated system of purchases by tender

• University has right to purchase by tender only through official Russian partners of hardware, software and service providers

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Third cycle – planning

Development of the University Blackboard system

• Repository of theses, reports and all other documents being used to award degrees/qualifications and for any sort of attestation

• Protection of these materials by means of Vivaldi technology

• Integration with the University Student Information System (inhomogeneous and emerging); now we use self-made software on the basis of web-service approach for creation of courses and users, enrollment, transfer of grades

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Third cycle – planning

Future applications

• Intellectual competitions of students and on the pre-University level

• Involvement of post-graduate students in both learning and teaching by Blackboard

• Professional development programs for corporate customers and for the federal government (Presidential Program for Management in Public Health System, Rosneft): special attention for interactive instruments (Echo360, Collaborate, Adobe Connect)

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Strategic partnerships

Saint Petersburg State University acknowledges the support of its strategic partners

• Adobe

• Blackboard

• Carl Zeiss

• Hewlett-Packard

• Intel

aiding substantially the development of the University information systems.

Saint Petersburg State

University Blackboard

Educational Project

Teacher’s Viewpoint

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Create a Professional Competitive Advantage

First steps in Saint Petersburg University:

1. Representation of training materials (lecture slides, home tasks)

2. Informing about the course structure and study process (course description, schedule of lectures and seminars, announcements, emails)

3. Evaluation system (current + final)

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Plan an Academic Professional Career

• Develop and collect subject training materials in Blackboard, revise mistakes in pools of questions

• Create a professional group at the University for developing and updating subject training materials in Blackboard

• Develop courses for:

• basic, intermediate, advanced level

• Short-term, Long-term, Summer school

• Distance Leaning for Professionals

• Get working experience abroad

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Improve an Individual Teaching Style

Case: “Accounting and Analysis”, “Corporate Finance” “Statistics”, “Financial Management” for Bachelor degree

Number of students on the course: 180-240

45 hours of classes

Teaching methods: lectures, seminars

Course specification: basic level; lots of tasks and exercises requiring calculations and analysis of business operations.

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Improve an Individual Teaching Style

Case: “Accounting and Analysis”, “Corporate Finance” “Statistics”, “Financial Management” for Bachelor degree

Questions:

How to engage all students in educational process?

How to provide an individualization of tasks for a stream in 180-240 students?

How to receive a continuous feedback about students performance?

How to help if the student did not understand or pass the course?

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Improve an Individual Teaching StyleCase: “Accounting and Analysis”, “Corporate Finance”

“Statistics”, “Financial Management” for Bachelor degree

Answers:

Include all students in the learning process through access to the materials at any point in time and place, and personalization of tests

Personalization of tests through a large pools of questions and exercises with a random sample

Receive continuous feedback by increasing the frequency of testing the students performance, while reducing the time for checking - delegate responsibility to Blackboard

Improve an Individual Teaching StyleCase: The comparative analysis of trainer’s working hours

for creating and checking tests

050

100150200250300350400

Checking tests

Creating tests

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Checking tests

Creating tests

(in hours)

At the stage of primary formation: At the stage of subsequent updating:

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Meet Student Expectations

Increase opportunities of students participation in training process (at any time, in any place, in any environment)

Objectivity of evaluation system (system of rubrics)

Instant feedback on testing results

Opportunity of being trained before taking tests

Information about course events

Increase in students self-esteem

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Manage Time in Educational Process

• Saving time for checking tests

• Opportunity of creating unlimited quantity of tests immediately

• Current feedback on testing results

• Increase in frequency of students testing

• Opportunity of mass repeated announcements

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Be the first to use the Blackboard = Reach significant professional results

• A high rating and positive feedback from students

• Improving student performance

• Increased credibility among colleagues and the administration

• Financial rewards and encouragement from the administration

• The professional and administrative promotion

• Increased competitiveness for the faculty position

Saint Petersburg State

University Blackboard

Educational Project

Discussion

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Discussion

THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION!