Documentation:Learning Environment/What Do We Need to Find Out?

What Do We Need to Find Out?

Throughout the information gathering sessions, many questions have come up. We are working on answering those questions as we move through the project.

Many of the questions fall into similar categories and we will do our best to continually update this page as we continue to gather additional information:

Student Focused

How do students want the course designed?
What tools do students like and what tools are they going to actually use?
How do we engage the student?
Do Open Learning students want to interact? Or do they prefer individual work?
What Are students' needs (functionality-wise)?
What does not work well in Blackboard?

OL and Campus students have recently been surveyed as well as a focus group of campus students was also conducted. Previous surveys regarding BB will also be reviewed. We are in the initial stages of compiling the data to determine exactly what the students want from a Learning Environment

OLFM Focused

What are the needs of OLFMs (functionality-wise)?
Do different courses (subject, size and delivery format) have different needs?
What does not work well in Blackboard?

Information gathering sessions with several Senior OLFMs have been completed and the information is being compiled. Previous BB survey results will also be reviewed. We are in the progress of connecting with Campus Faculty as well.

LMS Options

What are others' experiences with online student environments?
What are the current viable options and the pros and cons of each?
Can we learn from others institutions?
What are other institutions using and why?

We recently had an information sharing session with D'Arcy from the University of Calgary, in which lessons learned were shared. We will continue to research other institutions experiences as we move forward.

Looking Forward

What course delivery format will we be using in the future?

We currently do not know what the future will look like. However, we are know we need to develop a system that can support change in this area

What training will be required?

Yes, training will be required. What that training looks like will need to be determined as we move forward.

How much modification will be needed?
How much different will the next system be?

TBD. One of the main objectives of this process is to find these things out.

Have we included everyone in our feedback?

We are including opportunities for engagement from OL students, OLFMs, Campus Faculty, Campus students, Student Union, OL staff, Centre for Student Engagement and Learning Innovation, IT, etc,. If you feel we are missing people who should be involved please let Tanya or Brian now.

What is the cost? (transition, continuing, research, etc.)?

TBD.

Are the needs of campus the same as OL?

Information gathering sessions with OL and Campus are still in progress.

Looking at the Bigger Picture

What influence does openness have on Open Learning and students ability to learn?
Should content be open?
Should system be both open and closed?
What influences does openness of information have on a learning environment? How does it influence what activities student do to learn?
Do students need to interact despite not wanting to?
How doe we encourage deeper approaches to learning and using high level skills for tasks which require them?
How do we remove the barrier between faculty and students (no non-verbal communication)?
How do we keep 1st year students engaged?

All of these questions are being considered in the system design as we work through setting the groundwork for interoperability.