Next Generation Courseware Integrating Teaching, Learning, Research and Collaboration Carl Berger and Kim Bayer MERLOT September

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer CourseTools Background Built on tests at UM-AA, Dearborn, Ford/UAW Released in Fall over 6,000 users Growth exceeds expectations – 11,000 users in Winter 2000 Then over 16,000 users – Fall 2000 Currently about 50,000 users on 3 campuses Over 12,000 unique users in a peak day - Fall 2002

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Growth curve looks like this Introduction Fall 1999 Fall 2000 Spring 2001Fall 2001 Fall 2002

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Unique users per day* Fall 2000Winter 2001 Fall 2001Fall 2002 *Peak day seems to be always a Tuesday

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Why Next Generation? CourseTools “Classic” –First capabilities focus on administrative efficiency for faculty and standard navigation for students –Faculty deliver their material online –Course sites integrated with registration –Students view all courses separately –Built on Lotus Notes and Domino CourseTools.NG –First capabilities to match “Classic” but quickly move to making sites interactive and customizable –Faculty customize learning experience using easily configurable modules –Course sites integrated with many services –Students have both a portal for courses and “My workspace” for portfolio –Built on open source model using OKI specs

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer CT.NG Features Person centric. User feedback, campus surveys, user centered design driving the process Focus on both instruction and research, at multiple levels Courses are viewed together in a portal which incorporates a personal workspace and notion of “presence” Broader definition of roles so more flexibility in levels and types of access and customization All resources are addressable (have a URL)

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer CHEF Architecture: Goals Collaborative development with other schools. Build here, use there and vice versa Plan is to use open source, home built, AND off the shelf (commercial) software New model of development and integration with campus departments. New modules can be developed by others and plugged in easily Focus on integration with campus-wide systems. Integrates campus legacy (even new) systems

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer CHEF Architecture: Implementation Client/server Model View Controller practice Separation of concerns introduces metaphors for –Tools –Services –Interface technology –Portals

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Moving from here to the future Old –Administrative efficiency is the driver –Ability to form community is limited –Pedagogically limited and limiting New –User centered design and pedagogy is driving –Learning and research communities are possible –Pedagogical flexibility

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer So… this Next Generation is a new way of thinking in regard to Pedagogy Technology Goals Infrastructure

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer A paradigm shift….if it works! Open source, collaborative development Customizable, personalizable environment for faculty and for students Broad integration with campus systems and new ways of working with departments Potential for research on learning within the tool

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer What don’t we know How will they really use it if they can –Select from a broad menu of choices: design entire pages, incorporate any module, see who else is active on the site –Reap benefits of everything connecting seamlessly: registration, library, grades, financials, calendars, etc. –Extend use beyond class, school, university …universe!

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer More of what we don’t know What are the implications of: –Unintended connectivity –Changing loyalty model of students from class to building their own portfolio –Use across many schools causing changes to our U structure –Change for students to tracking, portfolio, opportunity to take and get resources, courses elsewhere

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Unanswered questions What’s the model for collaborative development work? Who owns the source code? What does open source mean and how far does open source go? How do you handle upgrades, version control? If something goes wrong, who do you call?

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer So… NG changes the model of Who is responsible for what The role of student and of faculty Support role Developer role Top administration support needed

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer But the potential payoff is huge Able to take our core competency in teaching and learning and apply it Can share the cost, work together to build something better than any one can build alone Shared standards let us share content, students and more End frustration and costs with getting vendors to provide what we need, when we need it Not held hostage to vendor pricing structures

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Soooo, what does the prototype look like? Idea is to make it very similar to tools people already know to smooth the transition process Initial goal is to match basic functionality of CourseTools Classic plus a few “delighters” Underlying technology is completely changed but invisible to the user We are in our second semester of pilot use. Full rollout to campus expected Fall 2003

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer CT.NG Information Page

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Use Kerberos Or Native CHEF passwd

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Menus User Present list User’s personal workspace Once you’ve logged in, this is What you’ll see Class and Research Sites

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer The Announcement “teamlet” Inside a pilot course site

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Same tool named differently for different applications

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Adding a resource

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Apache Tomcat Turbine Velocity Jetspeed CHEF Groups, Awareness, Tools, Administration Portal Engine UI Templating Engine Web Application Framework Servlet and JSP HTTP Server Teamlet-Based Ed/Research Apps

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Apache Tomcat Turbine Velocity Jetspeed Teamlet-Based Ed/Research Apps CHEF OKI/API’s Net-Based Services (Grid) Teamlets are tools built for the portal environment We are building the OKI APIs and GRID services into the portal environment

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer … plus OKI APIs to services… CHEF Apache Tomcat Turbine Velocity Jetspeed Portlet-Based Educational Apps OKI/API’s Net-Based Services (Grid) …plus CHEF framework (groups, awareness, etc.)… … with CHEF/Jetspeed portlets/teamlets for education and collaboration… … Connected to GRID network services … So, we have a team portal …

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Collaboration Tools built using CHEF CourseTools/WorkTools Next Generation –Existing collaboration tools –Additional capabilities & collaboration tools Presence, Synopsis, Notification, Personal worksite, Web Site, LabNotebook, DataViewer, etc… –Customizable Administrators End users –OKI built in –Grid enabled

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer CourseTools/WorkTools Next Generation Built on a Portal model. Aggregates Courses and My.Workspace for each student and faculty Access control for teams or groups, not just individuals A Portlet (page) can aggregate Teamlets (tools that understand groups) and is configurable –A Teamlet is a tool that displays on a page –Teamlets can be mixed/matched on a page –Combine or not according to a Team’s/User’s needs

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Watch what happens Example of how to add a teamlet

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer For any page, choose which teamlets to display…

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Teamlets (tools) can be added or taken away (access is controlled to level of individual or group) Portfolio Grade sheet Group & role assignment Event Recorder (dt) Library Critique Assessment Online video (live) Mail Trail map (class or student) MERLOT (site) Wisconsin Colab Class Chat Discussion

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Adding selected teamlets

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer Often interop….

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer In Summary Next generation is a quantum leap ahead of next version - are we ready? This is going to create new synergies - what are the possibilities? We have the opportunity finally to improve learning outcomes by using data and research generated within the tool - will we use these to iterate instructional design?

Carl Berger & Kim Bayer