implementing webct dit’s institutional strategy dublin institute of technology (dit) dublin...

Implementing WebCTDIT’s Institutional Strategy

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

• Ireland’s largest third-level institution, established by the DIT Act (1992)

• Six faculties: Applied Arts, Built Environment, Business, Engineering, Science, Tourism & Food

• 22,000 students (10,000 whole-time, 7,000 part-time, 4,000 Apprentices, 1,000 research and short courses)

• 1,150 academic staff (including whole-time and part-time)

• Currently spread across 38 sites in Dublin, but planning to move to a new state-of-the-art campus within 5 years

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

DIT’s Strategic Plan 2001-2015

The Strategic Plan acknowledges and responds to the challenges facing Higher Education in Ireland. It identifies 8 themes and strategic objectives, each underpinned by specific goals to be achieved over the duration of the plan. A Technical Working Group was set up to advise on the implementation of the Plan.

Theme 1: Enhancing a learner centred environmentTheme 2: Developing a strong postgraduate and research capabilityTheme 3: Developing links with IndustryTheme 4: Developing and enhancing a culture of excellenceTheme 5: Developing leading edge electronic capabilities within DITTheme 6: Enhancing a caring and supportive ethos within DITTheme 7: Fostering an entrepreneurial culture within DITTheme 8: Development of the Grangegorman campus

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

DIT’s Strategic Plan 2001-2015

The Strategic Plan acknowledges and responds to the challenges facing Higher Education in Ireland. It identifies 8 themes and strategic objectives, each underpinned by specific goals to be achieved over the duration of the plan. A Technical Working Group was set up to advise on the implementation of the Plan.

Theme 1: Enhancing a learner centred environment•Modularisation•E-learning/ Distance learning•Learning, teaching and assessment strategy•Student retention/ Career development•Widening student base•Craft education•Bologna ladder/ progression system•Continuing professional development/continuing education and training

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

The Learning Technology Team

• Established May 2002

• 1 manager, 1 administrator and 3 designers

• Role• to support the implementation and promotion of technology-based teaching at DIT

• to support academic staff in their efforts to create new ICT approaches to learning • to have 50% of the courses at DIT using WebCT to enhance teaching by 2005

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

Three-year roll-out plan, involving:

• Technological change• Pedagogical change• Cultural change

• Academic staff in six faculties

• Library staff

• Central Computer Services (including the MIS)

• Student support services (counselling, careers, disability etc.)

• Learning & Teaching centre: prioritising pedagogy over technology

We raise awareness of accessibility, intellectual property and copyright issues (including the use of an approved disclaimer on all courses) 

Technological Change

Software in use:

• SteelEye LifeKeeper 4.1, distributed by Open Minds

• WebCT 3.8 Campus Edition

• Redhat Linux 7.2

Implementing WebCT

Hardware in use:

• 2 x Dell PowerEdge 6650, 2 x Xeon 1.4GHz Processor,

4GB RAM

• 2 x Network Card

• HP HBA QLogix (qla2x00)

• HP MA8000 SAN

• 2 x 18GB internal hard drives (RAID 1)

• 12 x 36GB disks (RAID 0+1) and

3 x 36GB (RAID 5) external in SAN

Implementing WebCT

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

Kevin St

Aungier St

Bolton St Cathal Brugha StMountjoy Square

Rathmines Pembroke St

Sackville Place

Linen Hall

90Mbs-HEAnet

(Internet Access)

Adelaide Rd

Mount St

Chatham Row

Temple Bar2Mb LL

256kb LL

Fibre

34Mb

128kb LL

WAN Design:

Green Street

• DIT installed Redhat Linux on the two servers

• Open Minds configured HBA and installed SteelEye LifeKeeper on site

• WebCT was installed by DIT running on a virtual IP number (Apache)

• Open Minds installed the LifeKeeper Application Recovery Kit (ARK) for WebCT

• ARK was configured to protect the WebCT application

• Failover was tested

Installation:

Implementing WebCT

• Active and passive servers are connected via a private network connection on a second NIC with a heartbeat between them

• When the heartbeat is missed LifeKeeper fails over to the passive server and:

- moves the mount points to the second server

- starts up the WebCT application services on the second server- moves the virtual IP number so that it now points to the second server

What happens during failover?

Implementing WebCT

Data HP MA8000 SANHBA connections to serversWebCT Campus Edition 3.8

Active serverRedhat Linux 7.2

Passive serverRedhat Linux 7.2

SteelEye LifeKeeper 4.1distributed by Open Minds

[http://webcourses.dit.ie]

System configuration & failover:

---------------------

Active server

-------------------

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[http://webtutors.dit.ie]Development server

Redhat Linux 7.2

• Administration by GUI or command line

• Manual failover, putting passive machine in service

Failover administration:

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Failover administration:

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•During failover

• Minimal loss of service in the case of hardware failure- failover time at present is less than 1 minute

• Less downtime for hardware maintenance and OS upgrades as the second machine continues to run

• Automatic failover out of hours

• LifeKeeper customizable scripts can check the system processes to monitor the WebCT application

What failover solution gives us:

Implementing WebCT

• Protection of data on disks

- Shared storage mount point is only moved

- SAN hardware RAID protection protects filesystems

- Long term plan is data mirroring

• Complete preservation of client connection. Users suffer brief disruption and must re-establish their connection – High Availability Solution

What failover solution does not give us:

Implementing WebCT

• Failover was successful in a real-life situation when access to a mount point was lost

• Positive experience

Experience to date:

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• Server monitoring – cpu usage, processes, disk space, etc.

• Operating System upgrade – Red Hat Enterprise Linux

• WebCT upgrade

• Offsite data mirroring

Where do we go from here?

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WebCT and SCT Banner ® Integration

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• Interim solution - manual scripted download of students from SCT Banner® to WebCT

• DBA runs script and monitors logs for import errors

• Run daily during registration periods

SCT Banner ®:

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• SQL script extracts students with RE (registered) or EL (eligible to register) status

• SQL script extracts information such as student ID, lastname, firstname, date of birth (ddmmyyyy), registered course (FTxxx/x)

• SQL script puts information in standard form if necessary,

e.g. Mc/Mac, O’, with no spaces

• SQL script ensures password is at least 4 characters

SCT Banner ®:

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SCT Banner ®:

• Output file must have no commas

• File is transferred to the live server by FTP

• API tool is used to import the file into WebCT. This must be run as the webct user from /webct_home/webct/generic/api.# webctdb [fileadd|update|delete|change] global

• Students are assigned to a default course according to their faculty (course must exist in WebCT)

• Student ID becomes the WebCT ID

• Date of birth becomes the password

SCT Banner ®:

Implementing WebCT

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

Pedagogical and Cultural Change

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

• There is no simple way to adopt e-learning…it’s a complex process, and to a great extent doing it absolutely right is still an unknown process

• The technology is only a means to an end: what’s important is the teaching

• Successful use of VLEs is dependent on the quality of course design and pedagogy

Supporting face-to-face teaching

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

• Presentations at board level to all 6 faculties

• Each faculty encouraged to develop its own strategy

• Focused pilot on Tourism & Food

•Training at local level (currently weekly)

• e-Learning days, December 2002/2003

• Summer School 2003/2004

• Support: Designer Central and Resources Site

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

• As of 4 May 2004, we have worked with 521 staff, 355 of whom have

received formal training

• 270 live courses/modules, 300+ in development, growing daily

• School of Hospitality Management and Tourism using WebCT for all first

years across their main programmes

• Uptake across faculties is accelerating: we now employ students as

additional support resources

• Ambitious use of design (e.g. OADL, Simulation Modelling)

• All 6 faculties live by September 2004

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

• Student feedback: extremely positive

• Independent DITSU survey (March 2004)

• 19.5% of students used WebCT in 2003–4

• 75% of those who used WebCT rated it as

“Excellent”, and all believed that it should

be introduced to every DIT course

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

On 77 CAO advertised undergraduate programmes at DIT, WebCT is now being introduced to 36 of them

This equals 46.75% in under two years

Implementing WebCT

Dublin Institute ofTechnology

Tracey RocheSenior Systems Administratortracey.roche@dit.ie

Dr Kevin O’RourkeProject Manager, Learning Technology Teamkevin.orourke@dit.ie