1. Three Pillars: Content, Structure, Collaboration

2. High-level View Talking point: identifying main components when building a learning environment is critical to: – Decouple these components to faster meet new challenges and ensure independence – Properly map educational capabilities to technologies – Ensure scalability and reusability – Understand roles, responsibilities, budgets …

3. Content Important focus area Cost implications Three-tier approach: Provide the necessary technology and support services to accommodate all scenarios, from faculty self- support to video production by professional videographers. Applies to all content types, not only video.

4. Structure This is where using LMS makes a difference. Always a must for online and blended formats, but nowadays becoming a mainstream for on- campus learning. LMS is “just” a technology, but at the end of the day we need to work with details that sometimes aren’t pretty. Some learnings from our research in the following slides.

5. Collaboration Key for learning for all delivery formats Keep students engaged, maintain a learning energy conduit, transcend distance and time with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous capabilities: 1. Video collaboration (distance) 2. Classroom and personal multimedia recording (time)

6. Practical Benefits Use content developed for online courses in blended and on-campus programs Properly manage new technology introductions Intelligent design of support services and managing learning curves Maintain technology independence and avoid obsolescence (introduce new/replace old without creating a catastrophe) Maintain focus on capabilities and interfaces instead of standardizing on vendors Support different business models (e.g. on-campus model alone might not be able to support the use of dedicated instructional designers)

7. Real Examples Benefits of online/on-campus coexistence: Online content developed for reward-winning MS CIS program is used in blended/on-campus courses Recorded on-campus lectures and seminars are made available to online students Mixed project teams, on-campus students present team projects in class while online team members participate remotely in real time

8. Experiments BU MET edX Instance

9. 3-Phase Project Phase 1: Convert a complete online course from Blackboard 9.1 to edX Phase 2: Identify edX elements not available or not currently used in our Blackboard courses Phase 3: Develop/integrate new learning activities/virtual labs to investigate integration capabilities

10. Phase 1: Blackboard  edX Converted online Blackboard course to edX platform, same page on both platforms below: Blackboard 9.1 edX

11. Phase 1 Learnings: Pretty much straightforward conversion, most of Blackboard features have direct edX equivalents Different user interface (faculty and ID), not always straightforward, training will be required Estimated 1-2 weeks to convert of a full online course (after training) Manual re-entering of quizzes Most differences in discussion support (groups were not supported in edX at that time) An LMS is an LMS (“Content is the King, and Motivation is the Kingdom”) …

12. Phase 2 – edX Innovations Cross-linked video and text in combination with variable speed, two- way navigation, supports different learning styles. We believe today this is the most attractive edX feature.

13. Phase 2 – edX Innovations (cont.) Ease of combining video with other content, with sequence navigator to control the flow.

14. Phase 2 – edX Innovations (cont.) A wide variety of assessment options to make quizzes more engaging and cheat-proof

15. Phase 2 – edX Innovations (cont.) Crisp and engaging quiz design

16. Phase 2 – edX Innovations (cont.) Warning: Some design elements involve Python or java script coding, which might not be a typical competency for faculty and/or instructional designers today.

17. Embedded Virtual Lab (Oracle) Easy access to real-world virtual environments helps students to develop practical workplace skills Avoid setup overhead and focus on learning objectives Accommodate students with various technical backgrounds Instantaneous assessment and feedback

18. Embedded Virtual Lab (Excel) Example from BU MET AD 715 ”QUANTITATIVE & QUALITATIVE DECISION-MAKING” course

19. Embedded Virtual Lab (Cybersecurity) SQL Injection, Kali+Metasploitable

20. Workspace Design

22. Example: Embedded Hands-On Monte Carlo Simulation