1. Institutional Implementation of a Virtual Learning Environment Andrew Booth & Jon Maber The University of Leeds

2. Large civic university Single campus (at the moment) 24,000 undergraduates on-campus Total student population of 75,000 Research culture - Russell Group Faculties, schools and departments very independent of centre Modular teaching system with overlapping modules

3. Bodington System 1995 - ‘Forums’ - online bulletin boards in Biochemistry made available to others in University 1997 – Nathan Bodington Building – student support system – no web publishing 1999 – Development project with LiNM introduction of web publishing and sophisticated group management 2000 – Bodington Common 2001 – Accessibility and interoperability

4. Bodington Common FacultyLevel 1Level 2Level 3Level 5Non- modular Total Arts132226869 Biol. Sciences27343610107 BLESS31503287200 Earth & Environ1418171261 Engineering3635219101 Maths & Phys. Sci212230174 Medicine12521837 Total15418616412718649 Courses supported at 1/3/2001

5. Institutional Issues Acceptance by Staff Acceptance by Students Support by Senior Management

6. Staff acceptance of Bodington Must fit our ways of doing things Ease of use - ‘semi-MLE’ Flexible - does not restrict pedagogic models Control over resource creation and access Support and training (low training overhead) Students like it (so did QAA) Staff have input into development Developers are teachers Development is not project funded

7. Student acceptance of Bodington Design informed by student preferences e.g. Layout is grouped by module Access to communication is verifiable Development informed by students’ needs Emphasis on student support rather than shovelware Anywhere, any time, any pace - freedom from timetable Student demand is a major driver for uptake

8. Support by Senior Management Funded centrally through L&T - not C&IT Cost recovered through overheads not usage Continuation - small team on permanent contracts, not project funded Sensible policy on IPR Development driven by pedagogy, not commercial imperative - open source Protection of investment - interoperability

9. Policy on IPR Right to publish University grants copyright to authors irrespective of medium Right to use University retains right to use material Right to exploit University shares net income with originators via a clearly defined formula

10. Technical Issues Functionality Reliability Scalability Continuous development Interoperability Accessibility

11. Functionality Above all a VLE is a communication tool Learners must perceive that they are in contact with teachers and other learners via the VLE The VLE must give on-line learners a sense of place Technical features can help or hinder

12. Reliability Keep the VLE running Down time in unsociable hours Keep in mind time zones Network reliability Keep the data safe Server reliability Database backups

13. Scalability Does the VLE scale up? Database issues Hardware issues Software issues

14. Continuous Development Users have good ideas for new functionality It is good to be able to respond to demand This requires a VLE with an API (Application Programmer’s Interface) & modular design

15. Interoperability Between a content provider and your VLE Between your VLE and another organisation’s VLE Between your VLE and your other systems Between your old VLE and your new VLE!!!

16. Instructional Management Systems www.imsproject.org Attempting to create interoperability standards; Content Packaging Question and Test Metadata Student Profiles Users and Groups

17. Interoperability - IMS IMS doesn’t allow you to transfer an entire course from one VLE to another It allows you to transfer content (I.e. web pages) Practice assessments separately and individually transferred It can’t transfer communication tools

18. Adoption of IMS Some have endorsed IMS standards but not yet implemented them Some claim to be close to releasing versions with IMS compliance Non commercial systems may be quicker off the mark

19. IMS and Bodington System Successful interoperability with QuestionMark and with home grown question banks Successful import of content packages produced with Microsoft LRN Successful import of content produced in Colloquia Metadata search engine operational

20. Accessibility New legislation requires you to provide access for all Having a VLE that strips pages down to text only is not enough

21. Accessibility – Bodington System User selectable style sheets for; Visually impaired Dyslexic Users who use a mouse with difficulty Narrative interface for blind users Restores context that is lost when the graphics are stripped out Extra navigational aids