1. Seneca Libraries and Blackboard: Our Experiences to Date
Library2LMS - April 18, 2008
The College at Brockport (SUNY)
Presented by: Jane Foo, Manager, Digital Library Systems & Information Services
Jennifer Peters-Lise Metadata & Digital Services Librarian
Timing:
Overall Time: 45 minutes
Beginning & Tab: 10 minutes
Course Readings System: 10 minutes
Packaging: 10 minutes
Other Stuff and Future: 5 minutes
Q & A: Reserve 10 min

2. Seneca College Largest college in Canada Students:
17,000 full-time
90,000 part-time
4 major campuses, 4 satellite campuses
Many diploma programs
9 Bachelor’s Degree programs

3. Seneca Libraries 4 libraries Approx. 70 staff: Programmers = 0
Librarians = 10 full-time, 2 part-time
Library technicians = 37 full and part-time
Library digital services staff = 3 (+1)
Administrative staff = 5
Programmers = 0

4. The Dream Scenario Acknowledge: No Man is an Island Full Integration
Understand: Information-Seeking Behaviour
Just in Time (in the right context)
Provide: Superior User Experience
What Users Want

5. Seneca Libraries & BlackBoard

6. Seneca - BlackBoard Timelines
January 2000
Library Web site redesign (Learning Commons)
Fall 2000
Launch of BlackBoard CMS (Version 5); first demonstration of library material in BB
Spring 2001
Brief trial: “Research by Subject” (subject guides) in each course's navigation bar
January 2002
Release of MySeneca portal (with 2 library modules)
Fall 2004
Pilot of BlackBoard e-reserves
Spring 2005
Library tab and modules is approved by the IT Council
Fall 2007
Launch of Course Readings System pilot; academic honesty tutorial package
March 2008
Launch of My.Research tab
2008 Winter Semester: approx courses in BlackBoard

7. Portal Tab
e-Reserves
Blackboard Packages
Repositories
Library e-Learning

8. The Portal Tab

9. Pre-Login
Post-Login

10. Library Tab – The Original Proposal
Name: My Library
Purpose: Provide custom library tools & resources for course work within BlackBoard for “a complete online academic learning environment” experience
Primary Audience: Students
Modules: A mix of templates and building blocks developed in collaboration with the BlackBoard administrator
What we did not want: Recreate the library Web site

11. First Version of the Library Tab (2005)

12. Reduced First Version (2005)

13. Research Tab

14. Library Modules

15. Library Tab – The Outcome
Name: My.Research
Purpose: Showcase research done at Seneca
Primary Audience: Students, Faculty, Employee, Alumni, Applicants
Modules: Mostly templates
Plus: Announcements and surveys

16. Building Blocks – What We Want
Search Library Resources
My Library Account
Books taken out
Books on hold / requested
Fines information
Renew Books
My Journals / Magazines
Search for journals, magazines, newspapers and books
Bookmark them for later use or to share with others

17. Building Blocks – What We Got
Custom search module
Tabs within modules (“Tabules”)
Some template variety (layouts, images, colours)
Content maintenance via simple (custom) XML

18. Tabbed Module Template

21. Library Tab – Now and the Future
My.Research was launched April 1, 2008
Future revisions to the search module (federated search tab; a-z list change)
More interactive library modules:
PURL generator (faculty)
Video channel
My favourite articles / journals / databases
Building blocks created by the library

22. e-Reserves

23. e-Reserves – the Beginning
Back in 2004 we realized we needed to start thinking about creating an e-reserves collection
But where to start? Might as well start with Blackboard!

24. e-Reserves – Blackboard Constraints
No administrative access to Blackboard
To gain access to courses ITT requires faculty to get approval from their program Chair
Facilitate e-reserves without having access to the teacher’s course in Blackboard

25. e-Reserves in the Content System
All staff, students and faculty have a “My Content” section
Library has access to a shared “Library Content” section

26. e-Reserves in the Content System
Library staff or faculty find links to readings online or scan print materials
Post links in the Library Content portion of the Content System
Faculty link to the readings from their course
Library staff update readings as required

35. e-Reserves in the Content System
Positives:
Familiar system
Pushing materials
Logical hierarchical display of readings
Library has full access to the library content folder
No additional costs
Negatives:
Have to rely on faculty to create the link in their course
Cataloguing
Reports
Statistics
No administrative control

36. e-Reserves Research Committee
Bb not the best system for e-reserves
Research committee to investigate alternatives
Scan of 17 existing e-reserves collections across Canada
Built 4 prototypes
Decided to use a digital library system

37. e-Reserves in a Digital Library System
Address many of the negatives of Bb
Cataloguing capabilities
Can import MARC records
Similar to ILS
Statistics
Reports
Administrative Control
Same logical hierarchical display as Blackboard

41. Web site
Journal article

42. Blackboard as Interface and Storage
Give faculty a link to put in their Bb course
Use the content system as our file server for digital objects (pdfs, images, docs, videos, etc.)

47. e-Reserves – the Future
EDC will not be supported much longer
Testing alternative digital library software
Hoping for a more automated approach in the future

48. Library Packages for Blackboard

49. Blackboard Packages What are they?
Items (links, documents, tests) and settings (adaptive release, gradebook) assembled into a file that is imported into a Blackboard course.
Allows the library to pre-package customized information for faculty to use directly in their course.
items with a sequential order (e.g. tutorials & quizzes)
a group of numerous misc. items
items for numerous faculty

50. Examples of Packages
Links to an online tutorial, e-reserves list, and MLA guide - misc. items
Slides from an IL session and links to recommended databases - misc. items
Links to selected modules of an online tutorial, and an assignment - sequential
Link to an APA tutorial, an APA quiz, a link to the APA guide on the library website - sequential

51. Blackboard Packages
Why not just send the links to the teacher?

52. Academic Honesty Tutorial
Given the rights to modify “You quote it, you note it” created by Vaughn Memorial Library, Acadia University
College-wide rollout

53. Academic Honesty Tutorial
The tutorial does not include an assessment tool
Offer the ability to measure student success, but have the option of not using an assessment tool
Created 2 question pools: 1 for pre-assessment, 1 for post-assessment
How can we make it easier for faculty to administer the quizzes? i.e. not paper quizzes

54. Academic Honesty Tutorial Package
Combines components of tutorial into one package:
2 quizzes – 1 pre, 1 post
2 question pools from Respondus
Link to the tutorial
Settings for Gradebook
Adaptive release

61. Creating the Tutorial Package
Create a dummy course on development server.
Delete all default content.
Import the question pools.
Create two tests using the “pools” and random block.
Set adaptive release rules.
Edit Gradebook settings to record the scores of the quizzes but remove the weighted option.
Export the course (it exports as zipped file).

62. Importing a package into Blackboard

67. Academic Honesty Tutorial Package – the Future
Iron out a few bugs (mostly with Gradebook)
New Grade Centre will roll-out in Sept
Looking to automate the process of importing the tutorial package into certain courses in Bb.

68. Repositories
EDC is being discontinued. Until we implement new digital library software we are using Bb Organizations as temporary homes.
Not promoted widely but accessible in a pinch.
E.g. Information Literacy Repository

72. Library e-Learning Pilot - Fall 2008
Create an organization in Bb specifically for faculty to access library e-learning modules
Faculty want to come to out f2f sessions but don’t have time or can’t travel
Modules will mirror f2f sessions – e.g. YouTube and Copyright, Wikipedia
An assortment of media – streaming video, screencasting, voice tools, online tutorials, etc.

73. Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/4nzvtn
Yahoo & IM: senlibjane
Yahoo & IM: senlibjenn