Status 2005
Ian D. Thompson
ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk
©University of Strathclyde 2005
SPIDER
• in-house VLE project started in 1998
• initially one developer (Ian Thompson)
• development contributions from
• Tim Plumridge (Pharmaceutical Sciences)
• Ian Thurlbeck (STAMS)
• Fraser Murray (Mathematics/ P&A Chemistry)
• additional modules e.g. CIS student projects
Usage of SPIDER
SPIDER - class growth
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Classes
98-99
99-00
00-01
01-02
02-03
03-04
04-05
05-06
1
30
60
100
120
350
430
706
Academic session
Usage of SPIDER
SPIDER - user growth
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Users
98-99
99-00
00-01
01-02
02-03
03-04
04-05
05-06
120
400
1000
2000
2200
4100
7200
11000
Academic session
Usage of SPIDER
Table 1: Class and user growth since inception in 1998
Session
Users
Classes
98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06
120 400* 1,000 2,000 2,200* 4,100 7,200 11,000
1
30*
60
100 120*
350
430
706
* estimate, as figures not available
Usage of SPIDER
Faculty of Science
• used by all 10 departments
• organised into 7 “clusters”
Business School
• Master of International Management
• MSc Economic Management & Policy
• MSc International and Financial Economics
• ~40 staff, ~600 students + alumni
LASS - providing ePDP for all new ug (~800+)
Education/ CAS/ SCA
PDP and classes for 395 students + 31 staff
Chemeng - ePDP for ~200 students (17 staff users)
Usage of SPIDER
Monthly usage
- term time
~1.5M page visits* per month,
~50-70,000 per day
- 4,000 different users/ week
* page visit - single page request by user, rather than “hits” - a single page
request will generate many hits (one for HTML + each image or other media)
SPIDER hardware
Primary server
Dual Xeon 3GHz CPU
2Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~90Gb SCSI
~£3,500 in 2004
Mirror server x2
PIII 800MHz, 1Gb RAM, RAID 5 ~60Gb SCSI
rsync + MySQL slaves
Development server
PII 533MHz, 512Mb RAM, 10Gb HD
VLE structure
Typical VLE
tutor
controls
class
class
is in class
learner
class
class
VLE structure
SPIDER
SPIDER
cluster 4
cluster 3
cluster
department
department
department
class
class
tutor
can
view
class
class
belongs
to
department
department
cluster 2
department
class class
class class
class
is in class
can view
learner
profile
classes, groups
exam & quiz results
progress
ePDP...
class
class
class
class
class
class
SPIDER “clusters” structure
• model university structure of degrees,
departments and classes
• provide control & communication at
• course/ programme level (cluster)
• department level
• class level
• allow customisation
SPIDER management
each cluster has own admin(s)
• one or more academic/technical/computing/administrative staff
• 11 user groups - flexible administration
• distributed/ shared
• “central”/ individual(s)
• mix of both to suit departmental needs
after training  local expertise
• first line help & advice
+ help from other admins/ developers
Class/ cluster content control
Editor, sub-admin and admins manage content at
cluster level
“Class editor” user
• any (staff) user can control one (or more) classes’:
• content
• exam returns
• class lists
SPIDER classes
open access to any class*
•
•
•
•
•
curiosity/ general interest
learner revision
view good practice/ staff peer review
no problems with late registration
class list is stored independantly
* option to limit access to class list/ staff if required
SPIDER classes
session tabs
•
•
•
•
groups class material by academic session (e.g. 2005-06)
auto-archiving of materials
student access for revision
session tab access can be restricted to students on class list for
matching session e.g. only allow revision students to access solutions
* option to limit access to class list/ staff if required
User object
student “object” allows SPIDER to provide class
independent:
• information to staff
• tools for students (+ staff)
examples
• counsellees tool  student profile
• performance monitoring/ tracking - EWS
• ePDP
• myCounsellor
• attendance register
• blogs
• non-class groups
News/ communication
Any staff user can post news items
•
•
•
•
•
appear on home page
+/- email copy - replaces email lists for many depts
target any combination of 1 or more class(es), year(s), cluster
user can filter news “feeds”
moves to archive after 7 days or once “marked read” by user
Private messaging
•
•
•
•
appears in users private message space
+/- email copy
staff can target individuals, counsellees or sub groups of counsellees, user
input list
students can message each other via groups/ discussions
EWS
Early Warning System
• Uses myCounsellees tool
• Staff can quickly view student progress/results
• Indication of poor peformance
•  Remedial action can be taken early
Addresses
http://spider.science.strath.ac.uk
Development server
http://spider-dev.pharmacy.strath.ac.uk
Ian Thompson x2969 ian.thompson@strath.ac.uk