Is Your Blackboard Getting Its Five-a-Day? Planning & Controlling Your SIS Integration Nicola Randles, Rob Oakes & Gareth Hall Staffordshire University 9 th April 2013

2 Who Are We? Business Applications Group Information Services Project leaders on Blackboard 9 since Easter 2012

3 Objectives & Takeaways What this session is about… –Planning your Bb integration What this session is not about… –Step-by-step technical guide to SIS By the end of this session you should know… –What to feed Blackboard –When to feed it –Some planning tools and strategies –How to implement your plan

4 Session Outline Where are you now? Why change? How to change –Identifying stakeholders –Blackboard ‘diet’ –Data mapping –SIS integration how-to Reflection/Q & A

5 Where Are You Now? Snapshot No Integration (Fully Manual) Semi- Automated SIS Integration

6 Why Change? No Integration (Fully Manual)/Semi-Automated –Time-consuming and error-prone –Mismatches with other systems Snapshot –Deprecated from Bb9 SP8 –Not user-friendly – command-line Student Information System (SIS) Data Integration Framework –Easy to support –Includes latest Bb objects (e.g. Terms)

7 Poll Us! What is your #1 issue with your current Bb integration?

8 How to Change ‘Clean sheet’ approach Revisit business processes Involvement of stakeholders Identify current issues Holistic perspective Connecting your relevant systems – logically and technically

9 Identifying Stakeholders Why? –Promotes ownership of business processes –Identifies areas of potential change –Understand who’s involved –Gain experience and insight Implications for our SIS integration –All courses created automatically –One-to-one mapping –All staff given Blackboard accounts

10 Identifying Stakeholders How? – Modelling –Models help us by letting us work at a higher level of abstraction. A model may do this by hiding or masking details, bringing out the big picture, or by focusing on different aspects of the prototype. [UML User Guide] Technique 1: Use Case –A view of a system that emphasizes the behavior as it appears to outside users. …Partitions system functionality into transactions that are meaningful to users. [Introduction to UML] Technique 2: Business Domain Model –Conceptual model of all the topics related to a specific problem. It describes the various entities, their attributes, roles, and relationships, plus the constraints that govern the problem domain. [UML User Guide]

11 Technique 1: Use Case A process – something that happens within the business function An actor– something that interacts with the business function to achieve a specific goal

12 Exercise: Use Case Example: Online teaching and learning business function –Who are the actors? –What is their involvement? –Can you include them in your planning? –What are the processes? Please split into groups of ~4 and have a go

13 Technique 1: Use Case Benefits: Identified people Identified potential entities and functions within SIS integration

14 Technique 2: Business Domain Model

15 What Next? Your Business Black board …Now let’s consider Blackboard

16 Blackboard Diet – 5+ a Day What can it eat? –Users –Terms –Courses –Course memberships –Organisations –Organisation memberships

17 Blackboard Diet – Users Academic StaffAdmin StaffStudents Users

18 Blackboard Diet – User Drill-Down

19 Blackboard Diet What should you feed it? A lean diet! –What’s the purpose of your Bb system? –What data is relevant to your purposes? –Don’t overfeed your system –Who will be the data owner of each field?  E.g. Surname 

20 Blackboard Diet When should you feed it? –How fresh should your data be? –Options:  Store  Refresh  Delete –Decide your feeding schedule –Review your feeding schedule

21 What Next? Your Business Black board …Data Mapping – Slice / Dice / Blend

22 Slicing - Map Bb entities to one or more data sources Issues with doing this with brought-in systems Your Business Black board ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

23 Exercise: Slicing What are your relevant data sources? What Bb entities do they map to? Have a go in your groups

24 Exercise: Slicing

25 Dicing – Map Bb attributes to fields in your data sources Look at the Bb entity’s attributes –Stick to your lean diet! –Not malnourished! Map attributes using a data-driven approach - look at what is stored, not how Look at issues of consistency both in a single data-source and across multiple ones Identify missing data –Use Blackboard or create a new source?

26 Dicing – Missing Data

27 Dicing – Missing Data

28 Blending– Amalgamate your data sources into a single interface Black board SRS ID Mgmt. Personnel Interface

29 Blending Advantages –Provides a level of data agnosticism should things change –One main place to look for problems –Makes it easier to apply consistency between disparate data sources Disadvantages –More upfront development –An extra link in the chain

30 SIS Implementation Core Concepts –Data Source Keys –File types –Transfer mechanisms Practical Integration Implementation

31 SIS Implementation Data Source Keys –Conceptual container –Way of organising and categorising –Why use them?  Makes archiving easier  Separates your data from ‘system’ data –Examples  One per academic year  One per entity –Consider applicability to different entities

32 SIS Implementation File types –XML –Flat file Transfer mechanisms –HTTP POST –Manual upload –Web service (IMS only)

33 Practical Demonstration Example of how to set up SIS Integrations in Blackboard Demonstration is not all-encompassing! In reality, this is the culmination of your discussions and planning – should be easier as you’ve planned properly!

34 Conclusion: SIS – Advantages for Us Speed of access to VLE for students after module enrolment –Much positive feedback received Easy for IS staff to answer queries Involvement of stakeholders/actors means knowledge of processes is less siloed Impetus to enhance virtual learning provision at our institution

35 Poll Review What is your #1 issue with your current Bb integration?

36 Q&A/Reflection