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Staying Ahead of the Higher Education Curve
Allan Christie
General Manager, ANZ

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Outline of Presentation
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Introduction
About me
The „new‟ Blackboard
Staying Ahead of the Higher Education Curve
Questions

3.
Introduction
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Three major takeaways:
• My approach to eLearning
o Who I am and what I stand for
• The „new‟ Blackboard
o Investment in International
• Staying Ahead of the Curve
o Understanding the macro environment
o Adoption – investment in services is critical to success

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I have been using educational technology in T&L for a long time!
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Allan Christie, GM ANZ
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Allan Christie, GM ANZ
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Allan Christie, GM ANZ
• 20 years on the ascilite Executive
• Post-graduate research “evaluation of educational
technologies in teaching & learning”
• Excellence in Teaching Award – UniSA
• 1998 – Founder and MD of NetSpot Pty Ltd
• 2012 – acquired by Blackboard Inc.
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Allan Christie, GM ANZ
• Christie tenets of eLearning:
– Technology seduces such like a Medusa while we turn to stone
pedagogically.
– Analytics – data is not knowledge – asking the right questions and
interpretation is critical. Action fuelled by insight is essential to
helping students succeed.
– Education is inherently complex – one size doesn‟t fit all.
– Implementation and evaluation followed by actions are critical to
success.
– It‟s not the technology but its adoption that counts.
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The ‘new’ Blackboard

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The ‘new’ Blackboard
• A better company with
• better people and
• better products.
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The ‘new’ Blackboard – a better company
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The ‘new’ Blackboard – a better company
Market focused restructure
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The ‘new’ Blackboard – better people
• Not just sales and marketing but also operational
including:
– consulting,
– development,
– support,
– helpdesk, and
– managed hosting.
• About 80 staff employed in region
• Local leadership
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The ‘new’ Blackboard – better people
Application Support
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Mike Bogle@edugnome
Very impressed with the speed and politeness of the
support responses I've been seeing from the @NetSpot
support reps. #kudos
12:29pm · 24 Mar 14 · Twitter for Mac
Approx. 60 active tickets in queue –
same time last year there were
approx. 300 active tickets!

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The ‘new’ Blackboard – better people
Investment in Client Adoption
Cost: Free
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Mark Bailye, Client Success Manager
Education
BEd (MidSecSch), BA, Dip IT (Software Application)
Areas
K-12, VET, Higher Education, Medical Education & Corporate
Expertise
Academic change management
Analysis of learning & development
Curriculum & instructional design innovation
Educational pedagogy
Functional support
Process improvement
Project management
Strategic VLE implementation

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The ‘new’ Blackboard – better products and services
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Give your community access to
all aspects of the educational
experience and campus
services on their mobile
devices.
Make life on and off-campus
more secure, convenient and
prosperous for everyone.
Make teaching more effective,
and learning more exciting –
and beyond the traditional
walls.
Reach you entire community in
seconds with personalised
messages, updates and alerts.
Offer a more social, interactive
learning experience that keeps
everyone engaged.
Get quick, self-service access
to accurate information so you
can make more informed
decisions.
Get the expert guidance to get
the most out of your
technology, build new
programs or improve existing
ones.
Deliver easy access to service
– from assistance with
financial aid and registration
to technical support.
We work with you to develop a
program that extends your
capabilities, meshes with the
uniqueness of your institution,
and fulfils your online learning
vision.
We provide a full range of
services that support the use of
open source technologies in
education, including Moodle,
Sakai and others.
Get a comprehensive program
of blended instruction and
online remedial courses
designed to improve student
achievement level cost-
effectively.
Achieve the highest levels of
uptime, availability and financial
aid and registration to technical
support.

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• We are an education company that does software rather
than a software company that does education – in other
words “we get it”.
• Full-scale learning technologies from open source to
proprietary; from the core LMS to integration with
collaboration, analytics, and mobile software
• All supported by consulting, managed hosting,
development, technical support and helpdesk
The ‘new’ Blackboard – authentic engagement
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The ‘new’ Blackboard
• By partnering with Blackboard, a global company that acts
locally, we can work together to expand your offerings
both within and beyond Australia.
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Where does your institution sit on the Curve?
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Australia - Macro Environment
• In Australia, there are the following macro factors:
– Casualisation of the academic work-force;
– Uncapped student positions;
– International student enrolments;
– Federal government „efficiency dividend‟;
– Government focus on particular disciplines for the future
employment market – STEM, STEAM;
– Common issues such as the challenges around technology,
increasing scale, open access, MOOCs etc. Finding a business
model and positioning Australian institutions in this arena;
– ?? What else am I missing
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Australia - Macro Environment
Casualisation of the academic work-force
• In 2013, estimated casuals rose 17.4 per cent to 22,958
full-time equivalent staff, the biggest increase since 2010;
• Student-staff ratios have doubled over a generation and
casuals now carry more than half the load in
undergraduate teaching;
• Last year, just over 50 per cent of total staff were
employed on a continuing basis, down from about 60 per
cent at the turn of the millennium, while the casual share
had risen from about 15 per cent in 2000 to 18.7 per cent
last year.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/05/part-time-employment-surges-australian-universities
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Australia - Macro Environment
Uncapped Student Numbers;
• Student numbers rose more than 350,000 between 2008
and 2013 with the system teaching a total of 1,060,316
actual students in 2013
• Overseas student numbers – after reducing from the peak
of 2009-10 they are starting to increase again
• The costs to the taxpayer of the current uncapped system
are expected to reach about $6.5 billion in 2015
• Pro‟s / Con‟s
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/the-australian-test-uncapped-student-numbers/2010630.article
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Australia – International Student Enrolments
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https://aei.gov.au/research/international-student-data/pages/default.aspx

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Australia - Macro Environment
Federal Government ‘efficiency dividend’;
• $900 million cuts to university budgets via a 2% “efficiency
dividend” in 2014 and 1.25% in 2015.
• The funding cuts are the third tranche of cuts, totalling
$3.5 billion, in two years.
• Other cuts include the:
– conversion of Start-Up Scholarships into loans;
– removal of tax deduction status for educational expenses, and;
– removal of the 10 per cent discount on the payment of HECs fees
upfront.
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Full list of funding cuts to HE institutions:
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2014/02/07/1226820/306561-aus-web-file-
highered-efficiency-dividend.pdf

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Australia - Macro Environment
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• The 3 R‟s of School:
–Reading;
–„Riting, and;
–„Rithmetic

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Australia - Macro Environment
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• The 3 R‟s of Higher Education:
–Recruitment;
–Retention, and;
–Revenue

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The ‘new’ Blackboard – authentic engagement
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The ‘new’ Blackboard – authentic engagement
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Conclusion
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Three major takeaways:
• My approach to eLearning
o Who I am and what I stand for in relation to education and
associated technologies
• The „new‟ Blackboard
o Particularly the investment in International and local leadership
• Staying Ahead of the Curve
o Understanding the macro environment & how this impacts you
o Adoption is critical – there needs to be investment in services

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Allan Christie
General Manager, ANZ
allan.christie@blackboard.com
@ns_allanc
Blog: christie.com.au