#ljmutlc16 from blackboard to brightspace: developing online learning spaces to foster increased...

From Blackboard to Brightspace: developing online learning spaces to foster increased student engagement and deeper learning Dan Robinson, Will Moindrot (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine); Alex Spiers (University of Liverpool)

Who are we?• Established in 1898• The first institution in the world dedicated to

research and teaching in tropical medicine• Heavy research focus – £300m portfolio • 600 students worldwide, 68 countries• Postgraduate, professional courses, short

courses

Sir Ronald Ross, 1st British winner of Nobel Prize, for discovery of transmission of malaria by mosquito

Founder Sir Alfred Jones, Liverpool ship owner, £350 in 1898

Dagnall Laboratory, still in use today

Venom extraction at LSTM herpetarium

School at turn of century

Our emblem, which is now embodied in our logo

Current work includes: Impregnated Bednet trials, Zika virus forum, Serious Gaming

Background to change• Historically systems and support provided by University of Liverpool• Recognition in 2013 following HEI status LSTM would need it’s own

systems• 2013/14 Review of school requirements and evaluation of VLEs• 2014/15 Implementation: configuration and integration• December 2014 first pilot course in BrightSpace• Full rollout September 2015

Institutional Challenges• Catering for a diverse student population

• Managing the user experience of different types of students

• Developing systems for future requirements• Integrating with an immature IT infrastructure• Integrating with a SIS which was in development• Sharing of good practice

Requirements Non teaching spaces

• Student and staff community spaces• Programme homepages

Early access to systems - Pre course engagement with students• Managed via the SIS

Personalised user experience• Use of multiple staff and student roles

Staff access to all courses • Use of ‘observer’ role

Integrations• SSO• LTI• SIS

Visual appeal

Use of roles to enable a personalised experience.

“Observer role”

Welcome widget

Integration with Zopim (live client)

Current Clinical Challenges in Tropical Medicine (Trop 938)

• 3 months, 1st Semester • 16 students • 10 topics (HIV, TB, …)• For each topic, clinical case scenarios with questions released via

Brightspace 5 days in advance to complete prior to contact time

Summary stats by topics

Overal Median (IQR) per topic Min Max

Cases scenarios 43 5 (3, 5) 1 7

Questions 221 23 (19, 28) 3 34

Posts 2338 246 (169, 317) 34 353

Post Expected 3536 368 (308, 444) 48 544

H I V TB D ia rr hoea R esp hea lt h Ma la r ia Neur olog y MNH NT D Ana emia NCD1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

88%

84%

110%

61%

64%

73%

58%51%

71%

36%

Posted/expected threads over the time of the modulePosted/expected threads

Summary stats by studentsOveral Median (IQR) per

student Min Max

Responses Posted 2300 (16 students)

142 (115, 179) 53 221

Reads of others posts 503 (13 students)

13 (6, 37) 0 158

Replies 63 (10 students)

1 (0, 7) 0 17

Average mark in % (exam 1 + 2)

80 (76, 84) 65 95

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“The discussion board for answering case discussion was a really great tool. It made answering the questions all the more fun.”

1

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“Many of the case studies were very helpful ways of approaching topics and issues.”

2

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“I think the case discussion preparation was helpful to learning.”

3

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“Clinical cases, and the possibility to read the other students' answers and approaches was very interesting.”

4

The future• Continuous delivery - eek!• Developing approaches to support off campus delivery• Promotion of the Learning Object Repository• Timetable integration• Revisit navigation + design in light of student and staff feedback