1. VLE Strategic Review Where are we now and what’s next
Professor T.T. Arvind, Professor of Law
Lisa Fishburn, Development Officer, LTDS
21/3/18

2. From August 2020 we will be changing VLE
Explain that regardless of whether Blackboard wins the tender in 2018/19, it will not be Blackboard as we currently know it. Blackboard Learn will still exist but the product blackboard are now promoting and fully concentrating their development on is Blackboard Ultra. We want a system that will provide some longevity (usually a five year contract – TO BE DECIDED)
The review will encompass both Blackboard and the MLE (medical learning environment) to see if there is a solution that suits both. Still the option to continue to support current model of a centrally supported VLE and a separate medical school system if not.
21/03/18

3. Phases of review Phase Timing Consultation July 2017 – July 2018
Specification
July 2018 – Jan 2019
Tender
Jan 2019 – July 2019
Implementation
July 2019 – July 2020
Task and Finish group, chaired by Simon Pallett, is comprised of academic and professional staff representing all faculties. They are overseeing the consultation phase and development of the specification document based on the feedback and data that comes out of Phase 1.
21/03/18

4. 46%
90%
We are currently well underway with the consultation phase. Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what these figures relate to?
21/03/18

5. 46% 90% Staff Students Current VLE satisfaction levels
Response from staff/students using the MLE (Medical Learning Environment) was minimal so this primarily relates to Blackboard
Big difference in how staff and students perceive the current system which needs addressing
How have we found this out?
21/03/18

6. Staff Survey Staff Focus Groups Student Survey Student Focus Groups
Consultation
Staff Survey
Staff Focus Groups
Student Survey
Student Focus Groups
Supplier Visits
Excellent response rate: 413
Academic Staff: 339
Professional Service: 74
Hands on Workshops
21/03/18

7. Three key themes Module Build Assessment and Feedback
Creating/editing/ releasing content
Content types
Sharing content across modules/subject areas
System roles, e.g. External Examiner
Assessment and Feedback
Quizzes – Question types, functionality, settings
Assignment submission, marking and feedback
Grade Centre functionality and management
Reporting
Communication and Collaboration
Announcements/ s – functionality and settings
Document collaboration/file sharing
Creation and settings of groups
Discussion boards and other collaboration tools
Don’t talk about these in any detail – just to provide an overview of some of the common topics raised
Interface
Integration
21/03/18

8. Staff Survey Staff Focus Groups Student Survey Student Focus Groups
Consultation
Staff Survey
Staff Focus Groups
Student Survey
Student Focus Groups
Supplier Visits
Hands on Workshops
21/03/18

9. Gathered functional requirements on core themes
Staff focus groups
Gathered functional requirements on core themes
Lively discussions with academic and professional staff from all faculties
Discussions around what we don’t want to lose from current provision, what specific functionality we would like e.g. I would like to be able to apply an action to multiple items/folders, e.g. release them on a specific date / to specific students
Will help to share
Additional focus group has taken place with School of Computing
Additional focus groups at branch campuses will be taking place in the coming weeks as well as one with dentistry and School of Medicine. Discussions also taking place with student wellbeing regarding accessibility. Happy to talk to anyone else.
21/03/18

10. Staff Survey Staff Focus Groups Student Survey Student Focus Groups
Consultation
Staff Survey
Staff Focus Groups
Student Survey
Student Focus Groups
Supplier Visits
1150 responses – where the 90% satisfaction came from
Hands on Workshops
21/03/18

11. Student survey Strengths ReCap Simple to use
Assignment submission (Turnitin)
Online grades and feedback
Improvements
Consistency/availability of materials
Layout and interface
Grades and feedback in one place
Better mobile app
ReCap and Turnitin seen as part of the VLE  - examples of where integration is done well
Consistency/ availability and also where grades and feedback are located – not a feature of the VLE but how it is used (Implementation of Blackboard baseline addressing some of these issues)
21/03/18

12. Staff Survey Staff Focus Groups Student Survey Student Focus Groups
Consultation
Staff Survey
Staff Focus Groups
Student Survey
Student Focus Groups
Supplier Visits
As well as discussing the strengths and areas for improvement in more detail we focussed the session on collaboration as this was something students didn’t value as important within the VLE
Hands on Workshops
21/03/18

13. Student focus groups Word cloud came from responses in survey:
Clear that they are heavily using Whatsapp and Facebook messenger for many groups projects and activities. In the focus groups they said that setting these up is the first thing they do when put in a group. Prefer to keep this communication separate and out of view of the lecturers as they felt this would change the language they used. Felt that integration with Google docs / office 365 tools would be great but didn’t feel the VLE needed to have the collaborative functionality as there are so many tools that do these things well already.
21/03/18

14. Now what?
20/09/2018

15. Staff Survey Staff Focus Groups Student Survey Student Focus Groups
Consultation
Staff Survey
Staff Focus Groups
Student Survey
Student Focus Groups
Supplier Visits
We are now doing market engagement – we published a prior information notice (PIN) in the Official Journal of the European Union in February to make the market aware of our intentions to procure a new VLE
Hands on Workshops
21/03/18

16. Learning and Teaching Development Service
Market Engagement
Blackboard
Canvas (Instructure)
Desire 2 Learn
Its Learning
iWise2
Capita
We had 11 responses to the PIN notification and 6 companies met our requirements, e.g. must have had a presence in education for at least a year on a similar size/scale to Newcastle. We have invited them in to present and we have provided them with a range of topics, following the feedback from the focus groups and surveys, that we would like them to show us within their systems. This is taking place during Mar/Apr. It's worth noting that we aren't limited to these companies and it may be that when the tender is published, more companies respond to that. This is purely a market engagement exercise at this stage.
20/09/2018
Learning and Teaching Development Service

17. Staff Survey Staff Focus Groups Student Survey Student Focus Groups
Consultation
Staff Survey
Staff Focus Groups
Student Survey
Student Focus Groups
Supplier Visits
Following this we are going to ask suppliers for test accounts to their systems and this is something that you can get involved with. We will be looking for staff and students to come along to workshops to test out key work flows in the different systems so please look out for communications about this.
Hands on Workshops
21/03/18

18. Contact the project team
Consultation
Contact the project team
Get in touch with us at any time - We are more than happy to hear your thoughts and concerns
21/03/18

19. Tender document finalised and published
Formal requirements developed (July-September 2018)
FMBSG
Sept 2018
Oct 2018
Nov 2018
Dec 2018
Jan/Feb 2019
FLTSECs
ULTSEC
DCSG
Tender document finalised and published
These will be developed from information gathered during consultation phase, market research and workshop feedback and will be reviewed by the Task and Finish group before they go to the relevant committees for feedback and approval.
After feedback from FLTSECs and ULTSEC, the requirements will be finalised and will then go to DCSG and FMBSG.
DCSG – Digital Campus Steering Group
FMBSG – Financial Monitoring and Budget Scrutiny Group (a sub committee of UEB)
ULTSEC will decide on the composition of a Task and Finish Group whose role will be to score the responses to the tender. That decision will be made next academic year. Their task will be to score the submissions to the tender.
21/03/18

20. Any questions?
21/03/18