doing more with less: orientation and support for a large user population

Doing More With Less: Orientation and Support

For a Large User Population

Marsha Leeman-Conley, Ph.D.Instructional Technology Coordinator

American River CollegeSacramento, CA

AboutAmerican River College

• One of four colleges in the Los Rios Community College district

• Located in suburban Sacramento, CA

About American River College

• Celebrating our 50th Anniversary this year

Our Students• 18,000 Full Time Equivalent students • 32,000 individuals since many are part-

time students• Come to us with a wide variety of

technology skills

Some are like this:

But others are like this:

About Blackboard Use in the Los Rios Community College

District• Blackboard Enterprise system since 2001• Currently using version 6.3.1• Self-hosted and shared by all four colleges• 7 server array with load balancing• 55,000 student enrollments on Bb per

semester • 1700 + course sections per semester

About Blackboard Use at American River College

• Most Bb courses and most users in the district

• Over 750 course sites on Bb each semester– 200 fully-online courses per semester– 550 other Blackboard courses per

semester• 23,000 student enrollments using Bb per

semester at ARC

Bb Administration and Support

• Each college has its own Bb administrator• Bb Admins all full-time faculty, not IT staff • Instructional Technology Coordinator

positions• Work together and make shared decisions• District IT server support for hardware

Many other duties: • Train faculty, staff and managers to use all

types of technology, not just Bb• Train faculty to teach online courses and

how to web-enhance their classes• Provide one-to-one instructional design

help• Manage Instructional Technology Center,

including two computer labs and Project Center.

Growth in Online Courses at ARC

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Total ARC Online Course Sections

Spring 01 Fall 2001 Fall 2002

Fall2003 Fall 04 Fall 05

Increase of 637%Over 5 years

6565 students

Growth in Web-enhanced Courses

at ARC

15

133

233 260

324

522

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Spring 01 Fall 01 Fall 02 Fall 03 Fall 04 Fall 05

Number of non-online course sections using Blackboard at ARC

3380 % increase in

5 years

15,960 students

Rapid Growth at ARC• From 15 Bb courses to 750 in five years• From 12 fully-online courses to 200 in five

years• From 350 Bb users to 23,000 in five years

A Victim of our own Success• Good/Bad problem

– Good that system is being highly utilized– Good that instructors and students are

enthusiastic– Bad that growth is sometimes too fast

• Hard to plan• Difficult to keep ahead of need with hardware

purchases• No additional support staff have been added

• Decisions that worked when course numbers and users were lower, no longer feasible

Doing More with Less• Originally, no other support personnel• Had to streamline procedures• Try to reduce need for tech support by

making users self-sufficient

How to Make it Easy for Students

• Login and password easy so users don’t require assistance– Student ID for username– Birthdate for default password

• Automatically linked to course sites after enrollment

• Updated every night through linkage with SIS

Resources to Support Students

• Orientation materials • Support site• Help Desk• Best practices

for instructors

Orientation Materials• Available on support site BEFORE or AFTER login

– Written instructions– Orientation Flash Movie which covers common

tasks– Separate Video demonstrations for times they

just need refresher on one task• What to Expect in an

Online Class • What to Expect in a

Web-enhanced Class• Provided to instructors on CD

for in-class orientations

Orientation Quiz• Generic orientation quiz provided to instructors• Asks about common Bb tasks• Each instructor can modify it to add questions

based on specific course syllabus• Each instructor can remove questions on Bb

features they don’t plan to use in their course

Orientation Quiz Settings• Usually set so students can take it multiple times

over first week of course to increase their score• Option to use Adaptive Release so that student

can’t access course materials until Orientation Quiz score is up to an acceptable level

• Convince students that the key to success is to review materials ahead of time rather than waiting until they have problems

Los Rios eLearning Blackboard Student Support Site

• Written Instructions• Video demonstrations for all common tasks• Available before and after login• Browser and security settings• Plug-ins and players• What NOT to do during quizzes• Constantly updated

Help Desk – Phase 1• Initially staffed by CIS students• Enrolled in Tech Support Training course• 30 students per semester each doing 20

hours• Phone and email support• Monday – Saturday 7:30 am – 9 pm

– (whenever computer lab open)– Students signed up for own hours but

never more than 2 students at a time scheduled – usually only one

Using Students for Help Desk

• Special challenges– Access to needed information– Still preserve student confidentiality and

privacy– Training– Scheduling– Reliability– Consistency of service– Communication about unresolved issues– Supervision and documentation

Essentials • Headset phone• Voice mail system• Email account that all help desk staff can

access and use to reply• Tracking system for calls

Access to User Information:• Set up Help Desk Blackboard course site• Enrolled Help Desk staff as instructors in the Help

Desk site• Use Enroll User from Control Panel to:

– access student info, – confirm user name,– reset passwords, – replace email account information

of the caller they are assisting by phone or email.

Tracking System for Calls• Set up Discussion Board inside of the Help Desk

Blackboard course site• All calls or emails were posted as new threads• Nature of Problem in Subject Line• Message body identifies:

– user info, computer info, browser, enrolled course,

– details of resolution or assistance provided threaded as reply to initial posting• Indicate status in subject line – Resolved,

Pending, etc.• Remote supervision and intervention possible if

needed direct to user or via support staff

How did it work?– 350+ Phone calls per semester– 200+ Emails per semester– Peak periods at beginning

of semester and beginning of late start classes

– Bb 5.0 then and less need for tech support

– Overall, a win/win/win. • Users get timely help, Help Desk Students

learn skills, no cost to district

Phase 2 Help Desk• Problems during summer when no CIS Tech

Support class offered• Two staff members trained on Bb to

answer most common student questions and problems

• Monday – Friday• 7:30 am– 5:30 pm• Phone and email support

How does it work?• Support students using other systems, not

just Bb (PeopleSoft Student Enrollment System)

• Already provide tech support to staff on other programs such as email, voice mail, PeopleSoft, etc.

• Refer questions from students that they can’t resolve to Bb admins

• Refer ALL questions from faculty to Bb admins

Phase 3 Help Desk??• Current request to the district to purchase

24/7 Help Desk from vendor• Expense is big obstacle• Hope to convince them that retention of

students will justify expense

Best Practices• Encourage instructors to use Best Practices

that will reduce Help Desk calls• Example:

– Quiz problems – students “bounced out” – Choosing display “one question at a time”

prevents them from being logged out by ISP

– Use detailed quiz instructions• Encourage faculty to set up Questions forum

in each class where students help each other

How to Make it Easy for Instructors

• Login and password same as for students• Many automated processes• Course recycling• Lots of opportunities for learning how to teach

with Blackboard• 24/7 resources searchable by topic

Resources to Support Instructors

• Instructional Technology website– Written instructions– Video demonstrations for common tasks

• Blackboard Admin supports faculty members by phone, email and one-to-one support

• Many training workshops

Course Request Process• Web-based Course Request Form • Each instructor tells us what they need

each semester• In past, made new course each semester• Copied content for instructors from old to

new• Time intensive, server/processor intensive

process• Assignments/quizzes had to be re-deployed

Course Naming Scheme

• Disadvantages:– Multi-section courses required different

naming scheme– Every course needed copied every

semester– Search by instructor required user ID#

• Previous:– ARCSpring2005ESL350_21998

College Semester Course Section #

Course Recycling• Instructors re-use same site from semester

to semester• Automated archiving at end of semester:

– Last semester’s students removed– Current semester’s students linked to

site• Instructor’s update site with new syllabus

and schedule • All other content ready to go

Course Naming Scheme

• Advantages:• Only a few courses need copied each semester –

less than 5%• Less work transitioning to new semester for

instructors• Can search by instructor name• Students linked just before course starts regardless of

session start date• Course type apparent for reporting

• Current– ARC_conleym_CISA340_online_F9W

College Instructor Course Type Session

Instructors’ PrivilegesInstructors CAN:

• Copy content between own courses

• Enroll students or others manually

• Archive own course sites• For all of above,

– No need to do so– Most don’t

• Change passwords and email addresses for own students

• Remove students

Instructors CANNOT:• Create courses• Create user accounts• Copy entire courses• Use Course Recycle

Feature themselves

Training Opportunities for Faculty

• Numerous workshops– over 70 technology training workshops per

semester • Extensive website of instructions

– Over 1000 pages of handouts and instructions– Searchable to make it easy to find what they

need– Constantly updating and adding new content

Online Teaching Institute• 24 hrs in classroom, 30 hrs homework • Offered twice each semester – day or evening

– 3 hrs per week for 8 weeks• Offered once each summer also

– 6 hours per day for 4 days• Over 350 instructors trained to teach online over 5

years• 2 units of Salary advancement credit for completing

the institute• No other incentives for online course development

Keeping Faculty Up-to-Date• Bb Update Workshops every semester at

beginning of the semester and intermittently through the term

• Recent upgrade over Winter Break:– Held 7 Update Workshops, 86 faculty

attended– Held 6 Bb for Beginners, 57 faculty attended

• Post all handouts for every Workshop and more on the website

• Send out regular Tips and Tricks newsletter

Bb Instructors Community Site

• Use Bb Organization site• Use that for news, updates, and new ideas

and best practices• Discussion Boards where faculty can share

ideas• Mailing List to all Bb instructors using

preferred email addresses since not all use ARC email

Examples:• Orientation

– Using Los Rios eLearning Blackboard– What to Expect in an Online Course

• Los Rios eLearning Support Site• Video Demos

- List of video demos in three formats• Searchable Faculty Support Resources

Resource Information• Los Rios Blackboard Support Site:

– http://blackboard.losrios.edu• ARC Instructional Technology Center:

– http://ic.arc.losrios.edu/~itc• Contact Information:

– Marsha Leeman-Conley– 916-484-8996– conleym@arc.losrios.edu

Thank You!Marsha Leeman-Conley, Ph.D.

Instructional Technology CoordinatorAmerican River College

Sacramento, CA