Integrating MERLOT with the Blackboard Community

Dr. Sorel Reisman Managing Director, MERLOT

Presentation Overview

• Overview of MERLOT

• LMS Initiative

• MERLOT Building Block– Administrator’s Perspective– Instructor’s Perspective

• A Comment on MERLOT PowerLink

• Questions

What is MERLOT?

A user-centered, searchable database of online learning materials, pedagogical support, and participants based on:

• COMMUNITY COOPERATIVES• Institutional Partners• Organizational Affiliates• Individual Members

• PROCESSES• Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications

of online teaching-learning materials • Building and sustaining online academic communities.

• SOFTWARE• WWW.MERLOT.ORG

MERLOT Homepage

• REGISTERED MEMBERS– Higher Ed Faculty, K-12 teachers, students, workforce

development programs, librarians, administrators, life-long learners

– 47,000+ members, growing at about 1,200/month – 12,000+ Student Members (25%)

• MATERIALS– 17,000+ as of June 15– 2,300+ Peer Reviewed– 7,300+ in Personal Collections– 4,600+ with Member comments– 975+ assignments

• USAGE – Average 67,500+ Users per month– 130 VSB Guest experts

MERLOT Metrics

• Website Services– Personal Collections & Virtual

Speakers Bureau– Communities and Portals

• 16 disciplines and growing • Workforce Development

Communities • Institutional Teaching

Commons– Carnegie Foundation –

Snapshots• Vineyard & Grapevine• JOLT• MERLOT International

Conference

Some MERLOT Services•Search Services

MERLOT LMS Initiative

Partner Objectives• Companies provide institutions content-free LMS

infrastructure• Companies want outstanding reference examples

of utility of their system over competition• Companies seek strategic alliances with content

partners to demonstrate their products’ superiority • All MERLOT partners consider MERLOT a

superior source of multi-disciplinary, high quality, academic content

MERLOT Objectives

• MERLOT collection and services exposed to hundreds of thousands of higher education instructors/student worldwide.

• Increased partnership possibilities• Increased MERLOT membership • Potential for significant growth of collection• MERLOT remains completely “agnostic” and

above board

Essence of Relationships

Advanced

Simple

I. Partners search MERLOT

Federated

II. MERLOT searches Partners

MERLOT Vendor Partners/Projects

1. Proprietary Vendors– Blackboard– WebCT– Desire2Learn– Angel Learning

2. Open Source– Moodle– Sakai– University of Toronto - UTutor

3. Innovative Opportunities– Epsilen Learning Environment– Second Life

Active LMSPartner Functionality

Blackboard - Integrated MERLOT Search Building Block

WebCT - Integrated MERLOT Search PowerLink

Angel Learning - Integrated MERLOT Advanced Search

Desire2Learn - Integrated MERLOT Advanced Search

Epsilen Learning Environment – Integrated advanced and “semi smart” search

UTutor – integrated MERLOT Advanced Search

Resulted in 310+ active keys & 152,000 queries in 2006

Repository Federated Search

EdNA Online - Education Network Australia

ARIADNE - ARIADNE Foundation for the European Knowledge Pool

NIME-glad - NIME Gateway to Learning for Ability Development

LORNET - Learning Object Repositories NETwork

Discipline Federated Search

Physics - MERLOT Physics: ComPADRE

Teaching and Technology - MERLOT Teaching and Technology: CATS, and UNC PDP

Information Technology - MERLOT Information Technology: IEEE Computer Society

MERLOT LMS “Affiliates” (310+)

Building BlockFree

Built by BlackboardPrimary support – BlackboardSecondary support – MERLOT

Blackboard Administrator’s Perspective

Installing the Building Block

The Process

• Download Building Block from Bb website• Install Building Block on server• Prompted to fill in ‘form/key request’• Agree to MERLOT terms and click

“submit”• Key sent to requestor• Building Block unlocked• Questions: Bb Tech Support

Instructor’s Perspective

Finding and Using Learning Material

1. Create Course Folder

2. Select MERLOT From Drop Down List

Select MERLOT

3. View MERLOT Search Form

4. Complete Search Form

Select keywords & Number of ResuttsSelect keywords & Number of ResuttsSelect keywords & Number of results

5. View Results

Link to actual learning material

6. View Items of Interest (in new window)

7. Select Items of Interest

Two ItemsTwo Items

Standard Blackboard Process

Items Added - Instructor View

Items Added – Learner View

A Comment onMERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

• Built by WebCT

• Released July, 2006

• Compatible with Vista 3, 4+, CE 6+

• View Appendix

The Future – Web Services

• MERLOT-built Building Block(s)

• Improved search

• Join function

• Direct federated and advanced search

• Other

QUESTIONS?

APPENDIX

WebCT PowerLink/Building Block

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink

The WebCT/MERLOT PowerLink