Despite Blackboard (Bb) LMS existing at Notre Dame for some years, the use of Organisations (known at Notre Dame as Community Sites) to enhance academic development especially in the area of promoting and exemplifying best practice is relatively recent. It became obvious in the light of the University's decision to progress and promote blended learning primarily using Bb LMS that staff required specific resources in a dedicated location and moreover, as benchmarks for best practice. eLLE was established by the authors to share practice and to build staff capacity for creating excellent e-learning opportunities for students. eLLE is also a unique vehicle for academic development as the enterprise creators are presented not as experts in the field of blended learning (which could be overwhelming) but as a practitioner with a great idea worth sharing and the willingness to show others how to create a similar resource. eLLE was primarily intended as a vibrant _community site_providing a 'how to' in developing blended learning resources. It has quickly become a 'what to', 'why to' and 'go to' in the suite of staff development offerings within eLearning at Notre Dame. The only question that remains for eLLE now is, 'where to'? Delivered at Innovate and Educate: Teaching and Learning Conference by Blackboard. 24 -27 August 2015 in Adelaide, Australia.

1. “e-Learning Learning Enterprises” (eLLE)
Learning and Teaching Office
Dr. Ainslie Robinson & Vijay Jesuraj
Academic Developer & Senior Lecturer Application Administrator
- LMS

2. Context
• Small institution
• Relatively young institution (26 yrs)
• Catholic ethos and values (Objects) (academic excellence, pastoral care,
training for the professions)
• Recent foray into ‘blended’ learning space as an institution
• No online for UG / some online for PG
• Focus on face-to-face delivery with 90% attendance requirement
• But…
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3. …most so-called traditional face-to-face
subjects today are more accurately labelled
as ‘ blended’ in nature, depending upon the
degree to which online resources are
incorporated into a subject in ways that
support student learning
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-Garrison & Vaughan, 2008
So…
The University has begun to make the shift as an institution and…

4. 4
To…
Plan, implement and evaluate effective online and blended
learning opportunities for students - Reeves & Reeves, 2012
– Untried teach-nologies for our university may not seem “new” to
other more advanced eLearning spaces but the concept we’re
introducing today allows institutions to find their own level and
therefore could be applied anywhere
– The LMS in this concept is used as a site of Academic Development
and is designed for staff

5. 5
• eLLE is a Bb Organisation (a.k.a. “Community Site”)
• eLLE stands for eLearning Learning Enterprises
• “Enterprises” substituted early for the original term “Experts”
so as not to intimidate creators or viewers of the site offerings
• “Enterprise” defined as “a project or undertaking, typically one
that is difficult or requires effort” or as “the ability or desire to
do difficult things or to solve problems in new ways”

6. 6
Aspects of eLLE

7. Innovation
• One small step from “enterprise” to “innovation”
• Innovation = “something new or different introduced”
• eLLE identifies learning challenges that have been solved “in
new ways”, and introduces these solutions in a way that
directly benefits and professionally develops our teaching staff
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8. Theoretical Underpinnings
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…of the eLLE philosophy

9. Foundational building blocks of all L&T (Hattie, 2009)
• Clarity in explaining content
• High academic challenge
• Time on task
• Timely feedback to students
• Positive teacher-student relationships
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10. 5 core strategies for blended learning (Reeves, 2012)
• Attend first to fundamentals of L&T keeping pedagogy ahead of technology
(Hattie 2009)
• Maximise alignment of critical components of an effective blended/online
environment
• Establish and maintain cognitive, social and teaching presence in the
blended/online environment
• Intro new technologies selectively seeking help from others (peers, learners
etc.)
• Use formative evaluations to refine the online/blended material
systematically each iteration
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11. Key components of design (Reeves, 2012)
• Unit design should not begin with fancy technologies,
…but with aligned key components of L&T:
• learning objectives
• content
• learning activities
• assessment strategies
…and the design of these together to achieve effective L&T
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12. Alignment critical
Alignment is critically required in the components of:
• Objectives
• Content
• Model of instruction
• Learner tasks
• Teacher roles
• Technology roles
• Assessment
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13. Communities of Practice
• Etienne Wenger (2007)
• 3 distinguishing elements of COP:
1. A shared domain of interest/shared competence
2. Members engage in joint activities, discussions, help each other, share
information, build relationships for mutual learning
3. Members are practitioners who develop shared repertoire of resources.
• Characterised by time and sustained interaction
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14. Think Global - Act Local
• eLLE positioning
• Small scale innovation – large scale engagement
• Realistic, local purpose/global application, skills development,
opportunity
• Graduate capabilities
• Responsibility to deliver big world view to staff/students
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15. eLLE is for our teaching staff a studio space of
small-scale innovation…
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16. eLLE showcases local innovation but positions
it in a broader context of global expectations
for graduate competency
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17. 17
demonstrates that “innovation
need not be system level transformation, but
rather can be small scale initiatives designed to
engage students in relevant and meaningful
learning activities” (Kuhn & Couros, 2012)