1 Moving Upstream in Developing an e-Education Strategy Prof. Doug Vogel Dr. David Mole City University of Hong Kong

2 F 20 year old (former Polytechnic) F One of eight universities in Hong Kong F Research and teaching emphasis F City central location F 20,000 student headcount –12,000 full-time undergraduate –8000 evening part-time postgraduate F 1000 regular staff F Science/Engineering, Business focus

3 New Challenges in a New World F Larger number of students F Decreased government funding F Competitive market F Globalization means education alternatives F Students are giving their social life priority at the expense of studying (SCMP, 4/9/04) F Students continue to learn but increasingly less from us

4 Educational Paradigm Shift Campus centered Instructor centric Directed learning Network centered Student centric Experiential learning

5 Current Situation F CIO in place F commitment from senior management F Solid technical infrastructure F Banner F Home grown systems F Scattered human resources F Faculty and department systems F WebCT and Blackboard 5

6 CityU IS Strategic Plan ( ) 4 Cornerstones: F Infra-structure F Integration F Immersion F Innovation

7 Objective Helping CityU meet the future needs of education for professional careers, where new technologies are rapidly transforming the workplace, and to create a quality life for faculty and staff in a student-centered learning environment supported by technology.

8 Moving Towards a Contract F Request for Proposal F Vendor presentations F Stakeholder engagement F Headquarter visits F Result: –Blackboard Academic Suite –ASP support

9 Learning Synergy Technology What does it take to make learning management systems work? Staff Development Institutional Support

10 Business Intelligence (Statistical Info, AI, Performance Metrics, forecasting) Back Office Resource Systems (ie Library) Human Resource Management Content Management Course Content Development Delivery Learning Mgmt Syst - Content - Test/Assessment - Sequencing -Tracking - Learner Profiles PC / Browser PDA / Tablet Mobile/Cell CITYUPORTAL The architecture of e-Learning - the extended enterprise - Learner Interactivity - Conferencing - Online interaction - Collaboration 3 rd Party providers (other Unis, Publishers, Web services) Student Information Systems Multimedia - Video - Audio - Simulation Standards (SCORM, IMS, XML) INTEGRATION

11 Broad Issues for Implementation F The purpose of the exercise is to enhance students learning But we must take into account –The technical and administrative challenge –Limited resources –Time constraints –The burden imposed on staff

12 Key Design Issues I (Basic set-up) Carry over of live teaching patterns to Bb courses Maximizing the educational value of the Content Management System Set up of student (and staff) portfolios F Conversion of existing on-line courses to Bb

13 Design Issues II (Setting up courses in the LMS) Establishing good practice for: –Basic organization of course templates – what menu, names for menu items, tools –Template variation across different learning situations –Organization of basic course content –Set up of forums and other communications tools –Assessment tools and options for feedback to students

14 Overarching Issues F Set up of basic training –hands-on –on-line help –manuals, etc. F Set up of support for LMS development –teaching teams –pro-active individuals

15 Three Phases for Implementation November and December Shared development projects January, February and March Pilot courses for proof of concept March, April, May Consolidation of design and support F July 2005 Broad availability

16 Questions we are Asking Ourselves (and now asking you….) Have we identified the problem correctly? Have we identified the right design issues? Can we prevent the technical/administrative problems from overwhelming us? Would longer time lines help to keep the focus on education? Are we expecting too much -- should we get the system up and then worry about pedagogy? Are we expecting too much from Bb?