Dallas College eLearning Operations to Conduct New LMS Survey

As many faculty may recall, in early December 2017, the DCCCD eCampus Blackboard system crashed repeatedly and badly, leading to many faculty to call for accountability and some to call for a new Learning Management System (LMS) vendor to be selected.

The then-faculty Council, with Bill Hammerschlag as president, began collaborating with Chancellor May, Vice Chancellor Lonon, and Chief Innovation Officer Tim Marshall, to prepare DCCCD faculty to lead a process to select a new LMS provider. The Council then developed a comprehensive survey instrument and made it available to faculty in April 2018.

The results of that comprehensive survey were released to the then-Faculty Council on May 27, 2018. Note that this was just four days before four Council members – Bill Hammerschlag (BHC), Matt Henry (RLC), Margo Silva (MVC) and Matt Hinckley (EFC) were succeeded by Scott Sires, Carlos Martinez, Ryan Pettengill, and Stacey Jurhree, respectively. Before the 2018-2019 Council could process and share the results of the survey widely, they had to respond to the initial and flawed report of the Boston Consulting Group. (The 2018-2019 Council, with Shaun Gilligan as president, and the 2019-2020 Council, with Carlos Martinez as president, understandably focused their efforts on rectifying the errors of the initial BCG report, driving toward adoption of the FLRG recommendations though the PIT process, and representing faculty interests in discussions taking place around consolidation into One College.)

Meanwhile, many faculty found that while Blackboard remained cumbersome and fussy, at least it became more reliable and less prone to widespread outages during peak grading periods throughout 2018, 2019, and 2020. As a result, the LMS moved to the “back burner” of the Faculty Council.

For the sake of transparency, the results of the April 2018 DCCFA LMS survey have now been posted on the DCCFA site on SharePoint.

However, even though the LMS has not been on the radar of the Faculty Council since Summer 2018, the shared governance structures that the Faculty Council has created and that have included faculty have been engaged in LMS and related discussions over the past two years.

Specifically, the Instructional Technology User Committee (ITUC), which was created to respond to a need to engage faculty in the identification and implementation of instructional technologies in January 2018, decided later in 2018 to conduct a biennial review of the LMS needs of the DCCCD. That biennial review is due in 2020.

As a result, the new Vice Provost of eLearning, Terry DiPaolo, is developing a new LMS survey for faculty to share their thoughts on the Dallas College LMS. (Note that the 2018 LMS survey results have been shared with Dr. DiPaolo.) Given that many more faculty have had to use Blackboard to a much greater degree both due to the COVID-induced pivot to primarily online instruction and due to accommodating IncludED by pairing publisher LMS environments into eCampus, it is expected that results would be very different compared to the survey conducted in 2018. According to Dr. DiPaolo, we can expect that the new survey can be taken on one’s phone, tablet, or computer, in less than five minutes.

Because the Council believes that LMS selection should by made collaboratively by faculty and other leaders in the instructional operations of Dallas College, the Council urges all faculty – both full time and part time – to complete this new LMS survey when it becomes available.

Faculty Survey on LMS Usage

As noted in this previous blog post, the Faculty Council is leading an effort to engage faculty in assessing our current LMS (Blackboard) and deciding which product the DCCCD should adopt as the official LMS (which could be Blackboard and or an LMS from another vendor).

As a first step in this effort, the Faculty Council has developed a comprehensive survey of faculty usage of LMS systems. This will help us assess what functionalities and features faculty now use or don't use, what they like and do not like about the current LMS, and what elements they consider to be important elements or would prefer to have in a future LMS.

Please set aside adequate time to complete they survey in one sitting. It is comprehensive, and it should take you approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Please click this link to access the survey: http://webteched.com/LMSSurvey/LMSSurvey.aspx

Your participation with this effort is greatly appreciated. To gather information from as many faculty as possible, the survey will remain open and available until May 4, 2018.

Faculty Council to Lead Effort to Engage Faculty in Selecting the Next District-Supported LMS

Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) has been the District-supported environment for online courses since the late 1990s. In addition, many faculty have used other LMS solutions, including those provided by publishers, to support certain courses. The ongoing use of Blackboard as the District-supported LMS has not been reviewed in a comprehensive way in many years, and until recently the District has not in any strategic sense engaged in a conversation about which LMS product might best support the rapidly growing and evolving needs of DCCCD students and faculty.

Bringing a greater sense of urgency to this fundamental issue, increased reliance on the Blackboard Learning Management System – both for online sections as well as to supplement traditional face-to-face sections – has exposed a growing litany of concerns regarding peak usage availability and maintenance down time. Faculty and students have grown increasingly frustrated as a result. When these issues resurfaced in late Fall 2017, District Faculty Council leadership immediately met with Chancellor May, Vice Chancellor Lonon, and Chief Innovation Officer Tim Marshall numerous times starting in December, to discuss these concerns and express our frustrations, which they share.

As a result, the Faculty Council is pleased to announce CIO Marshall has charged the Council to lead an effort to engage faculty in identifying the next LMS for the DCCCD. It is important to note that, whether this process culminates in a recommendation to renew the relationship with Blackboard, or to select another vendor to provide the official District-supported LMS, faculty would still be able to use other LMS environments, including those provided by publishers, to support their courses. 

Of more importance, however, is that other than identifying certain basic technical specifications, District has agreed that faculty will drive the decision to select the product that the District will adopt as the official LMS. As a result, faculty input will be crucial to the next steps in this conversation, both directly, and through the DCCFA Instructional Goals and Academic Freedom Committee, and the DCCCD Instructional Technology Users Committee (ITUC).

Beginning later in April 2018, faculty will be invited to participate in a comprehensive survey to determine what functionalities and features faculty need the DCCCD LMS to provide. That survey is being designed presently, and will be made available as soon as possible. Meanwhile, a Request for Proposal (RFP) is being developed to be sent to all interested LMS providers. It is anticipated that the RFP will be sent to LMS providers in early summer, with their proposals due back later in the summer. Vendors will demonstrate their products in Fall 2018. Finally, faculty would be given an opportunity to test the LMS products from the various vendors during the late summer and early fall. 

Faculty then would be invited to share their thoughts, questions, and concerns, on each of the LMS products under consideration. It is anticipated that a second survey would be sent to all faculty sometime during the fall semester, perhaps in October.

Based on faculty input, the Faculty Council then would make a formal recommendation for a preferred vendor/LMS product, to CIO Marshall in late Fall 2018.

While the membership of the Faculty Council will change June 1, 2018, the current Council is planning to engage significantly during May 2018 with the incoming representatives from Brookhaven, Eastfield, Mountain View, and Richland Colleges, so that the next Council can carry this faculty-driven process to completion.

The Faculty Council encourages all DCCFA members to participate in all facets of this process, beginning with the survey. A subsequent Advance Blog post will announce the survey and provide a link.

District Web Services Seeks Faculty Input on New Browsable Class Schedule

District Web Services is working on a new Browsable Class Schedule. They are asking for faculty input, suggestions, and feedback on what we think of the prototype. They have set up a test environment where faculty can explore and formulate suggestions for further improvement.

If you are interested in evaluating the Browsable Class Schedule environment, please see below. We know Spring Break is upon us so the cutoff date is March 28.

The test site is at (https://www1.dcccd.edu/Demos/BCS/) . You are welcome to comment on:
Functionality
Look and Feel
Data Integrity
Anything else

Provide your feedback by using this link:

https://forms.dcccd.edu/WES/Feedback/pages/feedback.aspx

New Task Forces Succeed DELT to Address Distance Learning

The pace and scope of change across all levels of the DCCCD has accelerated, even as we respond to events and circumstances that are outside of our control. Over the past few years, the District has increasingly taken a strategic approach to Distance Learning, as various stakeholders have negotiated differences in philosophy and practice. Among the positive changes has been Chancellor May and Chief Innovation Officer Tim Marshall developing a model where users – faculty and colleges – are empowered at the strategic level, and entities such as District IT and LeCroy Center evolve to support student learning regardless of modality. As part of this ongoing evolution, the Faculty Council engaged with instructional leaders from all seven colleges and with the LeCroy Center on a Quality Scorecard initiative, which identified areas of good practice as well as areas where improvement is needed, in distance learning.

Among the recommendations to arise from this ongoing conversation was the decision to sunset the Distance Education and Learning Technologies committee (DELT). Because of its composition and the fact that it had been commissioned by the Vice Presidents Council, DELT focused on a wide variety of issues related to technology and learning, but tended to focus its reporting upward, and often to LeCroy Center. Over time, DELT was not able to devote necessary attention to certain vital operational issues, and in those cases where solutions were developed, they were not sufficiently or equitably communicated to faculty at the colleges. In addition, strategic issues often were not addressed, and thus strategic decisions were made by LeCroy Center leadership without significant or broad faculty input. In short, the all-encompassing increase in Distance Learning, and the use of DL technologies in campus-based instruction, proved too massive for DELT alone comprehensively to address.

In response, the Quality Scorecard project recommended that a Quality Scorecard Steering Committee be constituted, to include representation from faculty, instructional leaders, student services, IT, and LeCroy leadership, specifically to address improvement in a wide variety of areas related to distance learning and the use of DL technologies for campus-based instruction, at the strategic level. Among the types of issues to be addressed by this group would be identifying and promulgating best practices in course navigation, online orientation, training, and success measures.

Meanwhile, to address the user-level issues, the Quality Scorecard project recommended, and the Faculty Council and Academic Vice Presidents also endorsed, creating the Information Technology Users Group (ITUC). This group has two charges:

1.       To advocate for the users of instructional technology;

2.       To reconcile the suggestions/needs of various stakeholders including instructional leadership (including faculty), technology leadership, and those helping to advance the outcomes of the Quality Scorecard project.

Among other stakeholders, ITUC will include a faculty member from each college. ITUC also will communicate consistent messages regarding learning technology to stakeholders, including and especially faculty, at each college. Among the types of issues for ITUC to address are how to use specific technologies to solve specific problems, such as when a feature in Blackboard isn’t working properly, or identifying building block solutions that might help numerous users.

Having played a role in the process that created both the Quality Scorecard Steering Team, and ITUC, the Faculty Council is hopeful that both groups will be of benefit to faculty as we continue to improve how we serve our students.

UPDATED 7 AM WEDNESDAY - Official DCCFA Response to eCampus Outages

Since last week, faculty at all seven of the DCCCD colleges have reported numerous service and system interruptions and outages in the Blackboard/eCampus system.

In response to faculty concerns, DCCFA President Bill Hammerschlag and DCCFA Vice-President Matt Hinckley, on behalf of the DCCFA faculty council, met with DCCCD Chancellor Joe May and Executive Vice Chancellor Justin Lonon at noon Monday.

Chancellor May and EVC Lonon said they were equally frustrated by the repeated service and system interruptions and outages. Both said they have been in communication with Blackboard senior leadership, expressing that, as one of Blackboard’s top-five largest clients, DCCCD has a right to expect priority service, particularly given that the District subscribes to “premium” level support from Blackboard.

In a separate communication sent to college presidents and authorized for distribution to all stakeholders, DCCCD Chief Innovation Officer Tim Marshall said, “Please let everyone know that we are on the same version of Blackboard as other institutions. Bandwidth is not the issue. The main issue is with their ability to handle the number of transactions that our size of the district presents."

In addition, it may be that the District’s use of Blackboard – both for online courses and for face-to-face courses – has grown with a rapidity and to a scale that Blackboard did not know to anticipate.

Both Dr. May and EVC Lonon also reassured us that, in the short term, District IT and LeCroy Center personnel are working with Blackboard to help speed the fix of whatever issues arise.

As for a longer-term strategy, CIO Marshall also said that “Presidents, AVPs, and Faculty Senate (Council)” will inform discussions on the future of the LMS for the DCCCD, to ensure we have a system that meets our complex needs and performs satisfactorily throughout the year.

Similarly, both Dr. May and EVC Lonon said they want and expect faculty to play a significant role in identifying the capabilities our next LMS should have, so that students will have seamless technology support, regardless of the modality of the courses in which they enroll.

The Faculty Council welcomes the opportunity to participate in these ongoing conversations, as a means to ensure that faculty interests are represented at all stages of the process.


UPDATE AS OF 7 A.M. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6:

The Faculty Council requested, and the District has granted, a one-day extension for the filing of Fall 2017 semester grades. Here is the statement released by Anna Mays, Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational Policy:

Due to recent issues with Blackboard outages which delayed student submission of assignments and access to exams on eCampus, the deadline for posting grades is being extended (from 12/11 to 12/12 by 11:59 p.m.) to allow additional time for faculty grading and posting of grades.  

If possible, faculty are encouraged to submit grades by the previously established deadline of 12/11, because delays in posting grades prevent students from accessing grades on eConnect, registering for the appropriate courses for the next semester, and submitting updated transcripts to transfer universities. The deadline is 12/12, 11:59 p.m.; any further delay  in posting grades may be detrimental to students, especially those on financial aid, because Satisfactory Academic Progress and continued financial aid will be calculated later that week based on final grades.