Viewing Blackboard as a
Strategically Vital Application
Shirley Waterhouse, Director,
Educational Technology
Becky Vasquez, Director, I.T. Services
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
J. Paul Riddle
Cofounder
The Wight Flyer
T. Higbee Embry
Cofounder
• Educating 28,000 + students per year
• 30+ Degrees Sciences, Aviation, Business, and
Engineering
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Two residential campuses (Florida and Arizona)
• Extended Campuses – 130 Teaching Centers
worldwide
– 2500 Students are enrolled in Distance Learning, fully utilizing
Blackboard for online courses.
Daytona Beach
Campus
Extended Campuses &
World Wide Centers
Prescott
Campus
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University
• US News and World
Report
– “Best Colleges” Guide - #1
for the past 5 years in
Aerospace Engineering
• State of the Art
Facilities
– Flight simulators,
engineering labs, weather
centers, wind tunnels, etc.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University
United States
Air Force Flight
Training Academy
U.S. Air Force Academy
USAFA, CO
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue and Embry-Riddle
collaborate on “Train the trainer”
program for JetBlue’s simulator
trainers.
Why View Blackboard as Strategic?
Because it represents a very basic
and “critical” issue that must be
addressed at our institutions if
elearning is to “really” move
forward.
Here’s what we are up against….
6,000 gamers in one room, and
they are on their way to our campuses!
Adapted from Marc Prensky’s EDUCAUSE ELI keynote address,
January, 2006, San Diego, CA.
We must be prepared and we must prepare the
top leaders at our institutions.
We must look carefully at “our” students and “our”
faculty and create elearning systems that work for
“our” institution.
In fact, we have to get ready for students with
EOE syndrome.
EOE…Engage me or enrage me.
Adapted from Marc Prensky’s EDUCAUSE ELI
keynote address, January, 2006, San Diego, CA.
You have heard of the millenials, the NetGeners, and
the digital natives…..
And our job is to help to create the ideal 21st century
educational experience for them.
Not only will the 21st century education have to be
engaging with many technology enhancements, but
it will also have to be flexible--evidenced by this
recent headline..
“Students prefer online courses.” (The Associated Press,
January 13, 2006)
.
Technology leaders (those of us in this room) must find ways to
help all other institutional leaders including Presidents, VPs,
Provosts, Deans, Department Chairs, and others, to
understand their important roles in creating the educational
environment for the 21st century.
We recommend 10 steps that leaders should take (and that
you should help them take) …..
Leadership’s Role - Ten Steps
1. Get focused.
2. Get personally involved. Accept responsibility and get some firsthand
experience.
3. Get real. (About the urgency, the obstacles, and what is needed to move
forward.)
4. Get the right people on the bus.
5. Start the “we need to refine elearning at our institution before the
technology tsunami hits” conversation.
Leadership’s Role – Ten Steps (Cont)..
6. Create programs that facilitate faculty’s adoption of
elearning.
7. Implement an elearning strategic planning process.
(institutional and academic departmental)
8. Take a realistic look at funding to insure that
there is a proper allocation and balance for BOTH academic
technologies and administrative technologies.
9. Insure a robust technology infrastructure.
10. Insure technology support for faculty, staff, and students.
For the remainder of this presentation we would like to
focus on one of our recommendations…
8. Take a realistic look at funding to insure that there is a
proper allocation and balance for BOTH academic
technologies and administrative technologies.
The White Paper
“Academic ERP Learning Management Systems:
An Enterprise-Wide Strategic Investment for
Core Teaching and Learning with Significantly
Reduced Costs and More Value per User”
Written by:
Martin A. Smith, Chancellor, Extended Campus
Howard Muffler, Director, Enterprise Services
Becky Vasquez, Director, I.T. Services
Shirley Waterhouse, Director, Educational Technology
December 2004
Online at: http://it.erau.edu/ua/prewhitepapers.htm
Greentree Gazette
Getting What you Want From
Software Series
“LMS Takes Flight at Embry-Riddle”
May 2005
“If the principal mission of higher education is to educate, why
isn’t education at the top priority of college information
technology systems?”
How it all came about…
• CIO’s Vision
• Culture
• When you think about it…it makes perfect
sense!
• NOT a foundation to support gouging price
increases for LMS vendors.
ERPs and LMSs
• Commonalities
– Integrated with other technologies
– Both core and critical in respective areas
– Enhance “business”
• Differences
– Administrative versus Academic
Hybrid Courses
• Offering external classroom resources
• Our instructors report “students learn
more”
• Opportunities for faculty
• Supports sound teaching disciplines
Distance Learning Transformation
• Remember when…
– Video Tapes
– US Postal Service
– Collaboration?
• Today
– Classrooms created without physical structure
– Virtual collaboration possible
Learning Systems Today
• No other automated tool more significantly
impacts the ability of an institution to accomplish
its teaching and learning mission, especially in
today’s competitive online environment.
• Supports the primary missions of instruction and
research.
– Core mission is not to offer a highly effective way to
provide online pay checks.
Embry-Riddle Growth
Average Hits per Day
Average
Hits Per Day
2800000
2320845
2400000
1741071
2000000
1600000
1200000
800000
400000
6071
69916
61534
2001
2002
2003
0
2004
2005
Available Courses
5500
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Available Courses 5045
4906
1881
109
2001
464
2002
2003
2004
2005
“Embry-Riddle also provides distance
education, or online learning, around the globe.”
Delivering Courses
Around the World
Flying high in the sky over Iraq.
Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.
Issues
• Funding
– Administrative ERPs have a history and more
generally understood.
– LMS is typically launched under the Provost
where historically, funding is more scarce and
difficult to justify.
• Deployment
– Not purchased or supported for the enterprise
Power Constituents Usage
40
35
30
25
20
Power
Constituent
15
10
5
0
HR
Financial
SIS
Learning
System
End Constituent Usage
80
70
60
50
40
End Constituent
30
20
10
0
HR
Financials
SIS
Learning
System
How Important is a LMS?
• Here’s what our students tell us:
– “Whether or not a University has an online learning system is a
deciding factor for students. ERAU Online (Blackboard) offers
me convenient access from anywhere and helps to insure that I
retain information that I might have missed in class by being able
to access classroom materials later.”
– “An institution having a LMS is very important. I want to be able
to take quizzes at home and eliminate some of the paper that
traditional classes generate. Being able to get my syllabus,
notes, and homework online is a big help.”
Running the Numbers
Small
College
Medium
University
Large
University
University
System
2,000
7,500
35,000
75,000
Faculty (Full Time)
250
600
1,500
6,000
Staff
500
1,200
2,000
10,000
Total Constituents
2,750
9,300
38,500
91,000
ERP Acquisition and
Implementation
Costs
$7.5M
$15M
$50M
$150M
ERP
Cost/Constituent
$2,727
$1,613
$1,299
$1,648
LMS Acquisition and
Implementation
Costs
$0.5M
$1M
$1.5M
$2M
LMS
Cost/Constituent
$182
$108
$39
$22
Cost Differential
per
Constituent (%)
1,398%
1,394%
3,231%
7,391%
Component
Students (FTE)
Cost per Constituent
Academic Learning Management System (LMS) vs. Administrative (ERP) System
Cost Per Constituent
3000
$2,727
2500
Cost in
Dollars
2000
$1,613
$1,648
$1,299
1500
1000
LMS
500
$182
ERP
$108
$39
0
ERP
$22
Small College
LMS
Medium University
Large University
Institution
University System
What our LMS Costs Us
• Embry-Riddle Costs
– Costs per FTE constituent is approximately
$33.00
• Licenses
• Infrastructure/Hosting
• Personnel support
Future Roles
• Open Source
• Commercial merging with Open Source
• Adaptation of open standards and
integration
• Focus on adding value
• LMS poised to become dominant
application and foundational
In Closing
• Embry-Riddle has taken a giant leap forward in
a way that is meaningful and supportive of our
strategic directions.
• We have determined that the ERP academic
LMS systems are far more critical and cost
effective than their ERP Administrative
counterparts.
• We will focus on innovation going forward.