Here are the slides from the blackboard conference session. New connections and spaces, developing a data exchange system to support innovations in blackboard. This session showed the details of how data is kept up to date and exchanged from the student information system into blackboard. This allows us to make accessible the blackboard community sites 4 weeks prior to students arriving on their course. I discussed the impact of the blackboard programme sites and Jack Butterworth provided the details of the process. There were many questions, and people were interested in the efforts these sites might have on retention. Many of those who came to the session were in developer roles. They also commented that many of the presentations at the conference lacked a technical system wide detail.

1. New Connections and
Spaces:
Developing a Data Exchange
System to Support Innovations
within Blackboard
Jim Turner & Jack Butterworth
Liverpool John Moores University
10th April

2. About Us
~25,000 students (FTE: ~20,000)
~2,500 full time staff.
~5000 student/staff PCs
Primarily a Microsoft site, at least student
facing.
Large Linux infrastructure on the business
side.
2

3. Data Exchange System (DES)
Project started in 1999 as a tool to manage the
creation of users accounts.
Went on to automate, in real time, post-user-
creation tasks, previously run as nightly batch
jobs.
This helped to control workflow: a user must
have an account before a mailbox, and more
recently, an email address before a Blackboard
account.
3

4. What Does It Solve?
Meanwhile, the number of systems within the
University was growing, and these systems all
needed information about the users.
Keeping these systems up-to-date was rapidly
turning into an unmanageable spider web of
point-to-point links, all running jobs at different
times.
This resulted in data discrepancies between
systems for, occasionally, up to a month.
Centralise synchronisation using DES.
4

5. What Is It Made Of?
Microsoft Active Directory acts as the central
hub for DES. We have extended to cope with
or needs and use it a full directory service.
DES collects these changes, hourly.
Source systems must detect changes however
they can, and DES is written to understand.
Processes and distributes them as necessary.
For the distribution we use Microsoft Message
Queuing and XML (at least it does now).
5

6. 1000 Words…
Active Directory
Blackboard
Source Systems
SIS
Print Accounting
HR DES
Libraries
Target Systems
Other
Security
Home Drives
...
SIS
HR
Data Flow
6

7. Extensibility
The systems are loosely coupled.
Data contracts are drawn up by the integration
team and the target system’s custodians.
An integration piece is written, which
processes the data sent from DES and
interacts as needs be with the target system.
DES is updated so that it knows that this new
system exists, and what it needs to know
about.
7

8. Blackboard: What We Maintain
Users
 Account details (41,000);
 Enrolments (current/past and their states);
 Certain roles (used to manage access rights for tabs
and building blocks);
Courses
 “Master modules” (14,000)
 “Offering modules” per year / term (71,000)
Programme Community Sites (125)
Updated hourly
8

9. Blackboard: How We Communicate
Through various versions of Blackboard we
have had to revise how we interact with it:
Batch files and the batch file loader;
Using the Blackboard .NET API;
Current: almost exclusively using the
Blackboard web services API.
Though we’ve also written one of our own web
services (using the Blackboard Java API), and
still make the occasional database call.
9

10. Additional Benefits Within Blackboard
Queuing the messages means that new data
is always received in order (FIFO).
Processing stops on serious errors and the
queue is left building up until the issue is
resolved.
This has proved invaluable during upgrades.
Keep multiple instances up-to-date:
development, upgrade testing by adding one
more queue pointing at that new instance.
10

11. Programme Community Sites
Gist: Allow a space to create a sense of
community shared between all levels of a
programme.
No notion of programme within our Blackboard
setup.
Programme vs. Plan (Campus Solutions).
Consult with programme leaders to merge
programmes/plans into communities.
11

12. Programme Community Sites (cont.)
Modify DES to allow programme
creates/modifies/deletes to be collected.
Modify the integration piece to understand.
Create them programmatically, with default
content (and modify / delete).
Programme information was already in the
DES message, to organise course enrolments
in the XML, but was never used.
Started using it…
12

13. Aims
13

14. Factors identified as most likely to allow the successful transition and retention of a
student into this new learning culture are:
Proactive management of student transition
Early access to information and avoidance of information overload
Developing understanding of expectations of university study
A focus on integration and developing a sense of belonging (eg building
staff-student / student-student relationships)
A supportive climate that focuses on goal-setting and developmental
feedback in the early stages, but then sustains the focus on development
and personal growth
Better integration of support services.
Being alert and responsive to changing patterns of students’ engagement
in higher education
14

15. Process
15

16. Existing Practice
Online induction
Induction
Jan 2012
Jan 2013
16

17. Sites were
created with
content
Induction
Jan 2012
Jan 2013
17

18. Level 4 induction
Merging programmes
Automated induction
Induction
Jan 2012
Jan 2013
18

19. Jan 2012
Induction
Jan 2013
19

20. Outcomes
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
20

21. Did you login to Blackboard before arriving? Yes No Can’t
remember
58% 33% 11%
The Programme Handbook gave me
a good overview of my course
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
21

22. 45%
I had a good understanding of what 40%
to expect during my induction and 35%
first few weeks at LJMU 30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
45%
The induction timetable provided 40%
clear details on where my induction 35%
30%
sessions would be taking place. 25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
22

23. 14
Some sites having a higher 12
percentage of percentage of 10
cohort logging on and frequency 8
of times accessed (a statically 6
significant correlation). 4
2
0
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2/10/2012
23

24. Architecture
24

25. Architecture
Student N = 307
Students visited = 61%
Student logins = 6 per student
25

26. Architecture
Student N = 307
Students visited = 61%
Student logins = 6 per student
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41
26

27. Architecture
Student N = 307
Students visited = 61%
Student logins = 6 per student
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41
27