1. Status 2008 Ian D. Thompson ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk ©University of Strathclyde 2008

2. in-house VLE project started in 1998 initially one developer (Ian Thompson) development contributions from Tim Plumridge (SIPBS) Ian Thurlbeck (STAMS) Fraser Murray (Mathematics/ P&A Chemistry) additional modules e.g. CIS student projects SPIDER

3. Usage of SPIDER

4. 06-07 includes ~2000 alumni accounts

5. Table 1: Class and user growth since inception in 1998 * estimate, as true figures not available a includes alumni accounts Usage of SPIDER 08-09 26,249 a 1149

6. Usage of SPIDER Faculty of Science used by all departments organised in 7 “clusters”, ~800 staff used to support admin and research in addition to teaching Business School 1 cluster: economics, since 2003 MSc Economic Management & Policy MSc International and Financial Economics 37 staff, ~300 students (inc alumni) Education 3 clusters (education, CAS, SCA) PDP, questionnaires, classes for 2200+ students, 109 staff since 04-05

7. Usage of SPIDER Chemical engineering ePDP for ~300 students (17 staff users) since 2004 LASS cluster providing ePDP for all new ug since 05-06 approx 1800 students, 22 staff Law School from session 06-07 approx 145 staff and 2000 students 3rd biggest cluster (by usage) after pharmacy and bioscience Psychology migrated from webCT to use in 07-08 31 staff, 380 students

8. Usage of SPIDER Geogsoc Geography and Sociology currently testing with 1 class (2 staff, 36 students) Modern languages showing some interest ‘Other’ students/staff not affiliated to any of the above 47 staff, ~2700 students central departments, service teaching

9. Usage of SPIDER Monthly usage - term time ~1.5 to 2M+ page visits* per month, ~50-110,000 per day typically 4-7,500+ different users/ month 9,315 users in semester 1, 2006-07 10,005 users in semester 1, 2007-08 10,246 users in semester 2, 2007-08 8,200 so far in Oct 2008 alone * page visit - single page request by user, rather than “hits” - a single page request will generate many hits (one for HTML + each image or other media) - SPIDER gets 5M+ ‘hits’ a week

10. SPIDER hardware Primary server* Dual Xeon 3GHz CPU 2Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~90Gb SCSI ~£3,500 in 2004 Mirror server x2 PIII 800MHz, 1Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~60Gb SCSI rsync + MySQL slaves Development server PII 533MHz, 512Mb RAM, 10Gb HD * just ordered new Quad Core Xeon, 8GB RAM, 0.8Tb Raid 5 system (~£2k), will use iSCSI storage (shared with SIPBS file server) and offsite mirror in Royal College by end 2008/ Q1 2009

11. Typical VLE class is in class learner controls tutor VLE structure

12. SPIDER cluster department class SPIDER cluster 2 department class can view department is in class learner tutor belongs to can view cluster 3 department class cluster 4 department class department class profile classes, groups exam & quiz results progress ePDP... VLE structure

13. SPIDER “clusters” structure model university structure of degrees, departments and classes provide control & communication at course/ programme level (cluster) department level class level allow customisation

14. SPIDER management each cluster has own admin(s) one or more academic/technical/computing/administrative staff 11 user groups - flexible administration distributed/ shared “central”/ individual(s) mix of both to suit departmental needs after training  local expertise first line help & advice + help from other admins/ developers

15. Class/ cluster content control Editor, sub-admin and admins manage content at cluster level “Class editor” user any (staff) user can control one (or more) classes’: content exam returns class lists

16. open access to any class* curiosity/ general interest learner revision view good practice/ staff peer review no problems with late registration class list is stored independently * option to limit access to class list/ staff if required SPIDER classes

17. session tabs groups class material by academic session (e.g. 2005-06) auto-archiving of materials student access for revision session tab access can be restricted to students on class list for matching session e.g. only allow revision students to access solutions SPIDER classes

18. student “object” allows SPIDER to provide class independent: information to staff tools for students (+ staff) examples counsellees tool  student profile performance monitoring/ tracking - EWS ePDP myCounsellor attendance register blogs non-class groups User object

19. Any staff user can post news items appear on home page (+class page if relevant) +/- email copy - replaces email lists for many depts target any combination of 1 or more class(es), year(s), cluster user can filter news “feeds” moves to archive after 7 days or once “marked read” by user Private messaging appears in users private message space +/- email copy staff can target individuals, counsellees or sub groups of counsellees, user input list or any ‘group’ they own/belong to students can message each other via groups/ discussions News/ communication

20. EWS Early Warning System Uses myCounsellees tool Staff can quickly view student progress/results Indication of poor performance  Remedial action can be taken early

21. Development SPIDER is an in-house system we own the core code built to meet our needs/ teaching style customisation to meet the needs of our users flexible rapid bug fixing/ tweaks modular code cluster specific tools anyone can contribute developments/ new tools/ ideas not just for teaching dept web sites, radiation records, asset register, lab stocks, document store….

22. Addresses http://spider.science.strath.ac.uk Development server http://spider-dev.pharmacy.strath.ac.uk Ian Thompson x2969 ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk