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E-Learning Infrastructure Planning
Consultation Paper from the LLC
September 2011
The LLC is presently consulting on significant enhancements to the e-learning infrastructure and
support. These improvements are designed to meet academic staff and student expectations and
therefore require guidance through School representation, the eLearning Sub-Committee and the
Learning and Teaching Committee. In particular there appears to be interest in:
A. Enhancing the systems for video creation, storage, access and playback. (Initial capital costs of
£30k, plus licenses for video management and streaming software of £15k per annum).
B. Enabling lecture capture, storage and access. (Costs dependent on scale of implementation, full
lecture capture solutions likely to be £50K capital plus £15k annual license. More limited lecture
capture solutions will have lower costs).
C. Standardised scheme for online coursework submission (mainly requires LLC and School staff
attention, plus some small licensing components).
D. Development of standardised online module design, structure and activity (requires School and
LLC staff involvement, and agreement on standardised features).
E. Evaluation and possible licencing of Turnitin as an enhanced tool for originality checking
(plagiarism detection), online marking/feedback (GradeMark) and peer assessment (PeerMark).
(Potential additional costs of £15k per annum).
F. Evaluation of the usage of the Learning Object Repository (LOR), and consideration of its further
development including open learning opportunities (potential additional licensing costs, c. £10k
per annum).
LLC welcomes the prioritisation of these developmental activities. Following prioritisation and clarity on
funding, the LLC will be able to produce an outline timetable for implementation.
Additional guidance and decisions are required for clarifying the policy and practices for lecture capture
and the management of digital learning objects.
Lecture Recording
a. Can a policy be established on the shared (University and staff member) ownership of lecture
recordings?
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b. Is there a requirement (and mechanism) for audit to ensure appropriate quality, copyright and
accessibility compliance?
c. Is lecture recording proposed to be voluntary only and initiated by the staff member?
d. What is the lifetime of the lecture recordings?
e. The privacy of lecture recordings may fall into the following types: private to module
participants only, private to School or specified cluster, private to University of Dundee, open to
global audience?
f.
Metadata describing the lecture recording may be usefully collected at the time of recording:
lecturer, topic, keywords, date presented, place presented, module code, expiry date.
g. Accessibility requirements should be clear. We may reasonably expect imaged text presented to
be transcribed to text or audio format and the audio presented to be transcribed to text format.
See http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=oNU0SHndl0Q%3d&tabid=243
Learning Object Deposit
The Blackboard Content Management system has been utilised by staff and students since 2004 and
contains significant document collections including past exam papers and digitised reference resources.
In addition, many Schools have significant learning objects housed within the CMS (table in appendix 1).
a. The privacy of learning objects may fall into the following types: private to module participants
only, private to School or specified cluster, private to University of Dundee, open to global
audience?
b. Is there a requirement (and mechanism) for audit to ensure appropriate quality, copyright and
accessibility compliance?
c. Metadata describing the learning object may be usefully collected at the time of deposit:
author(s), topic, keywords, date created, module code, expiry date.
d. Should alternative LOR platforms to the Blackboard CMS be evaluated for functionality, usability
and cost-effectiveness?
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Ongoing eLearning Developments
The LLC, ICS and other parts of the University are continually developing the e-learning systems on
campus. Recent changes and developments underway include:
Service / System
Implementation date
Blackboard upgraded to version 9.1 (with additional
server & storage improvements)
Competed July 2011
Learning Objects upgraded to hosted deployment
(version 4.5)
Competed July 2011
Blackboard Mobile Learn deployed for all staff and
students
Available from August 2011
QuestionMark client upgraded and software due for
further update
Available from August 2011, 5.4
upgrade anticipated for early 2012
Maple TA mathematics assessment software
Pilot from September 2011
Maple mathematics student desktop tuition software
Pilot from September 2011
ExamOnline for online exam essay submission.
Pilot from September 2011
TurningPoint enhancement with clickers and mobile
phone audience response service
Pilot for mobile audience response
service from September 2011
Integration of module guides and reading lists within
My Dundee
From August 2011
Additional tuition and support documentation for elearning systems, especially LOR and new services.
From October 2011
Dr Richard Parsons, Director, LLC
Dr Lorraine Walsh, Assistant Director LLC (Educational Development) and Head of eLearning
21 September 2011
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Appendix 1.
Size of material within School folders in Blackboard CMS
Accountancy_Finance
Architecture
Art_Design
Computing
Edu_SocWk_ComEd
Eng_PhysSci_Maths
Humanities
Law
LifeSciences
Medicine
Nursing_Midwifery
Psychology
SocialSciences
59.3 MB
12.0 MB
2.92 GB
32.2 MB
628.4 MB
78.6 MB
76.5 MB
170.4 MB
1.23 GB
2.05 GB
3.74 MB
9.89 MB
36.6 MB
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