Job Description: Course Developer

This description outlines the responsibilities of IDS's Course Developer position. Currently this is a student part-time position filled by Nattaphon "Golf" Pipatchotikul, Ken Woodward, and Yoshito Endo.

Duties & Responsibilities

1. Format, edit, and prepare learning content and materials as directed by Instructional Design Services project leads and instructional designers


2. Create and maintain online learning materials for Distance Education courses using XHTML, Flash, and CSS


3. Construct & complete hybrids and fully online courses within major Learning Management Systems such as WebCT and Moodle


4. Collaborate with peers and project leads on the development of Web-based applications, systems, and projects


5. Work with the Design Center as directed to create, maintain, and improve the visual design of e-learning materials and objects


6. Research current and emerging e-learning technologies such as: wikis, blogs, collaborative or social networking tools, etc.


7. Assist instructional designers in the assessment and evaluation of the usability and effectiveness of Web sites, educational materials, and learning objects.


8. Contribute to idea generation for DE courses and related IDS projects.


9. Other duties as assigned

Job Description: Web Developer

This description outlines the responsibilities of IDS's Web Developer position. Currently this is a regular part-time position filled by Eric Liu and Clark Nielsen.

Duties & Responsibilities

1. Collaborate with Distance Education directors and Instructional Design Services project leads to create Web-based systems and applications using JavaScript, PHP MySQL, PERL, and other client and server side Web technologies


2. Create innovative online learning materials for Distance Education courses using XHTML, Javascript, Flash, and CSS


3. Assist instructional designers and project leads in the organization and supervision of IDS course developers


4. Design, develop, and maintain Distance Education Web sites, intranet sites, and education-related resource sites under the direction of DE Administration and the Director of IDS.


5. Construct complete hybrid and fully online courses within major Learning Management Systems such as WebCT, Blackboard, and Moodle.


6. Research current and emerging e-learning technologies and applications such as: Moodle, SCORM, Flash, AJAX, Common Cartridge, streaming media, etc


7. Contribute to idea generation for DE courses and related IDS projects.


8. Assist instructional designers in the assessment and evaluation of the usability and effectiveness of Web sites, educational materials, and learning objects.


9. Other duties as assigned

Developer Task Lists and Work Log Policy

Task Lists

This is a reminder that everyone in IDS should stay on top of their Task Lists in Google Docs, and keep it current with ongoing projects, assignments, and tasks.

Two more requests re. task lists:

1. Make sure that your tasks have been cleared with your supervisor _before_ you mark them as a"completed"

2. Always move completed tasks to the "completed" sheet of your task list. This will allow quicker scanning of your current tasks.

Time Card/Work Log

You also should keep your Time Card/Work Log current on Google Docs. This is critical for all PT and hourly employees, and highly recommended for FT employees.

Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange 2007

Tomorrow we kick-off this year's Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange. We have some extremely stimulating presentations scheduled for June 7th and 8th, and invite you all to attend.

Darren Draper of the Jordan School District will be giving this year's keynote presentation.

TTIX is and always will be an open conference with no admission fee, though pre-registration (at the TTIX web site) is required.

If you need info on parking or location, check out our custom Google Map of the UVSC campus.

Vista 4 to Vista 4 Course Migration Process

I've written a new tutorial detailing how to migrate an existing course from one Blackboard Vista 4 server to another Blackboard Vista 4 server--much like we have to do to 100+ courses before the semester begins in two weeks! This tutorial ain't pretty, but it should do the job.

How to Manually Move a Blackboard Vista 4 Course from One Server to Another

This tutorial is especially relevant if your new Vista 4 server has automated or semi-automated course/section/enrollment management like ours does.

LI Courses for Summer 07 Vista Migration

Because LI courses are not offered in the Summer, make a Vista backup and save it to the "G" drive in the course's 073 folder for storage until Fall.

Current Moodle LMS Usage Policy

UVSC's new open educational resources efforts will be officially published through the Moodle learning management system using the Moodle Open MetaMod. In order to justify maintenance of the Moodle server on campus, we will be asking all instructors who wish to use Moodle to make some or all of their content available as opencourseware under a Creative Commons license.

Instructional Design Services' Primary Responsibilities

These have been condensed or expanded from the previous draft of IDS' Role Statement. Note that Setup and maintenance of DE Web and Intranet servers will be moving to Monty's Operations unit:

1. Design, develop, and maintain Distance Education courses and technology-enhanced learning media


2. Ensure the accessibility of all Distance Education learning materials


3. Investigate, research, test-pilot, and report on new distance education technologies and practices to DE faculty and staff


4. Innovate in the fields of instructional design and educational technology


5. Encourage faculty to engage in effective teaching practices through the use of technology


6. Foster openness of educational resources through OCW participation


7. Present to and collaborate with peer institutions and organizations to foster research, innovation, and best practices


8. Spearhead the TTIX conference


9. Support Distance Education units in the accomplishment of their objectives by developing and maintaining Internet-based workflow solutions such as Web sites and Intranet sites

And, of course...

10. Outwit the limitations of time and space

Notes on Blackboard Vista 4 (AP1) Rebuilds

Based on our collaborative construction of ENGL 2010 IN on Blackboard Vista 4 with App Pack 1 last Tuesday, here are some more guidelines and standards for future rebuilds of courses in Vista:

• Quizzes should be exported from CE and imported into Vista at the first Vista screen.


• Course Content Map setting should be set as follows: Manage Course > Course Menu > General Settings > Course Content Map: Display as drop-down


• All HTML content pages must have appropriate but simplified titles, e.g. "Lesson 1 Objectives and Tasks" rather than "ENGL 2010 - Intermediate Writing - Objectives and Tasks", certainly not "[course_#]: [course_title] - page name"


• Remove all WebCT CE hack hyperlinks to activities, e.g. <a href="#" onclick="discussion('Topic 01: Introductions',190023569)">Topic 01: Introductions</a>


• Begin putting all upfront materilas in a Learning Module on the home page called "Course Orientation"


• Learning Modules (lessons) should also be linked directly from the home page in most cases (use a "Lessons" folder if that makes more organizational sense)


• Learning Module's should have, for example, "Lesson X" for title and "Introduction to Z" for description


• Discussion links should be labeled with a "Discussion:" prefix, e.g. "Discussion: Practice Paraphrase"


• Assignment links should be labeled with an "Assignment x:" prefix, e.g. "Assignment 07: Learning to Paraphrase"


• Create and apply Goals to Learning Modules based on stated objectives. Try to identify objectives in collaboration with instructor if necessary.


• Go through each and every page, assignment, and assessment and create and associate Goals as part of a full revision process. This should be done collaboratively with the instructor.


• Create and use Grading Forms collaboratively with the instructor. This can be sold by demonstrating the efficacy of grading with such forms.

I will eventually compile these into a master document with previous notes and guidelines.

IDS Objectives and Measures for Summer 2007

At our end-of-semester planning meeting, IDS discussed the following objectives for Summer semester 2007:

Objective 1
Complete 3 course redesigns in Blackboard Vista.
Measure(s):

• Redesigned courses have superior usability over CE versions
• Significant new features of Vista are properly utilized
  
• Faculty guidance, input, and feedback is implemented
  
• Instructional Designers' all review redesigned courses
  

Objective 2
Active engagement in opencourseware/open education movements
Measure(s):

• Official OCWC membership status for UVSC
  
• OCW server running public
  
• 10 OCW courses on server
  
• Faculty buy-in

Objective 3
by Janel M
Publish Online Faculty Orientation Modules on the Web.
Measure(s):

• Relevant DE orientation content available via the Web
  
• Some number of assessments or interactions to gauge effectiveness
  
• Integrate Web content into DE Faculty Orientation process
  

Objective 4
Ensure ongoing quality learning experiences for all IDS staff.
Measure(s):

• Monthly 2-3 hour training/dev experience on topic of interest or use to all IDS staff
  
• Each staff member to host 1 (breakfast?) training per year.
• Schedule:
• April - Rick C.
• May - Golf P.
• June - Eric L.
• July - Janel M.
• Aug - Cheri D.
• Sept - Jared S.
• Oct - Marc H.

Objective 5
Create a Distance Education Intranet system for all units .
Measures:

• Increased access to departmental information.
• Better facilitation of departmental communication.
  
• Staff/area usage statistics and general feedback.
  

Objective 6
Begin creation of online task/project/error tracking system, (bugzilla).
Measure(s):

• Project assigned and planned.

Google or Yahoo Home Pages

As mentioned in our staff meeting, all IDS staff members should set their Web browser's home page to a customized Google or Yahoo! home page with relevant RSS feeds. Here are some ideas for home page features:

• Google Docs and Spreadsheets feeds for IDS docs
  
• The IDS 'blog feed
• A del.icio.us tab with feeds of your recent sites and the sites of other developers in the unit.
• dictionary.com, babelfish, and wikipedia search widget
• Feeds from various instructional design, ed tech, Web design, and usability lists or Web sites.

Our Weekly Challenge showed off some great examples; talk to Jared, Rick, or Richard for help on setting up your Google or Yahoo home page with some of these useful widgets.

A new widget we plan to add in the coming weeks is a course task/course nitpick widget.

--Jared Stein

WebCT Into Vista Transitional Login

Because we are in the first semester of a 3-semester transition from WebCT CE 4.1 to Blackbloard Vista 4, only part of our DE faculty will be using Vista in the Spring. We need to work out a script that will securely forward and authenticate users--both instructors and students--securely from each course's CE 4.1 home page into the correct Vista 4 course.

The forwarding/authentication process looks like this for most users:

UVLink Portal --> WebCT CE Course --> Blackboard Vista Course

We need this script in place by Jan 1. In the meantime, instructors will access courses by going directly to http://utahelearning.uen.org

--Jared Stein

Instructor Affidavits of Original Work and Release

We'll be requiring all faculty developing a new Distance Education course to sign an affidavit of original work and release, verifying that all content submitted for use in said course is original and that the faculty owns the rights to reproduce and distribute the content for educational purposes.

Janel will maintain these forms.

--Jared Stein

IDS Objectives and Measures for Spring 2007

Based on internal conversations and our discussion board postings, IDS plans to focus on achieving the following objectives during Spring semester 2007:

Objective 1
by Rick C
Complete migration of all UVSC DE courses from WebCT CE to Blackboard Vista.
Measure(s):

• Tracking via Google Spreadsheets.
• Faculty feedback.
• Instructional Designers' review.

Objective 2
by Janel M
Improve tracking and accountability of internal projects and tasks.
Measure(s):

• Review work orders for completion records.
• Instructional Designer satisfaction.
• Developer satisfaction.
• Faculty satisfaction.

Objective 3
by Bryson T
Reduce # of unfinished projects and resist accepting new projects (for one semester only).
Measure(s):

• Shorter Projects list due to completions.
• Manageable developer load.
• Ability to begin training units and staff on finished projects.

Objective 4
by Jared S
Increase DE departmental communication, access to information, and work efficiency by creating a highly usable Distance Education Intranet system for all units.
Measures:

• Staff/area usage statistics and general feedback.

Objective 5
by Richard S
Ensure ongoing quality learning experiences for all IDS staff.
Measure(s):

• Weekly trainings.
• Completion of "new skills" projects.

--Jared Stein

Weekly IDS Meeting Agendas on Google Docs

In addition to all project tracking, we'll be posting weekly IDS meeting agendas to Google Docs. Be sure you have access to this, and feel free to add agenda items or discussion points as needed, while respecting the time limitations of the meeting.

--Jared Stein

IDS Vista Migrants on Google Docs

We'll keep track of our migration from WebCT CE 4.1 to Blackboard Vista on Google Docs. If you don't already have access to this tracking sheet, ask Richard Snapp to add you as a collaborator.

--Jared Stein

IDS Project Sheet on Google Docs

We'll keep our current projects defined and tracked on Google Docs. If you don't already have access to this tracking sheet, ask Rick C or myself to add you as a collaborator.

--Jared Stein

Blackboard Vista Migration Hand-Off Notes

Just some friendly reminders/clarifications/articulations about the Vista migration process:

IDS developers:

- When you complete a Vista migration you need to review it with Janel or myself.

- You must verify the functionality of each tool before we meet.

- Any Web page or content problems or nitpicks discovered during a migration review must be logged by the developer in the DE omni/nitpick system, assigned to the appropriate developer.

- Once all revisions or fixes have been made, you must e-mail Janel and let her know that the migration is complete.

- Upon receipt of e-mail verifying migration completion, Janel will e-mail Marc to let him know that faculty X's course(s) is ready and training can commence.

- Marc and I have agreed that since DE faculty are responsible for updating their assignment and quiz due dates, this task will be addressed in the faculty's Vista training. If IDS has time after all migrations are complete, we will try to go back and update some due dates, however.

We are discovering new issues and tricks all the time, so be sure to ask if you're not certain about any part of the migration process.

Thanks folks.

--Jared Stein

Standard Format for Blackboard Vista Lessons Folders

When creating and working with lessons in Vista, remember the following:

The "Lessons" folder should be 1 column, no icons (for now).

Each learning module's properties should be set to show the table of contents on the left, and start on the first page unless the design of the course dictates otherwise.

Each folder should have the folder script in the header to provide the CSS "look" for the page, as supplied by Rick Chaides. This script is slightly different from the front page script.

--Jared Stein

Using Org Pages/Folders in Blackboard Vista

When a course in Vista has several linked items of a similar category, e.g. Practice Exams or Study Guides, one has a couple design choices:

1. One might put individual links to each of these docs inside a Vista Org Page/Folder

2. One might create an XHTML page that links locally to each of these docs

I recommend using the second choice, simply because this allows us to better maintain a whole structure independent of Vista.

So, as you migrate and review your courses, if you see WebCT Org Pages/Folders that could be replaced with XHTML pages that simply link to those files, please make that a nitpick to change.

The exception would be instances where it's clear that the instructor is doing the edits and updates to the site--in these cases we should leave them as WebCT Folders because that's easier for faculty to edit.

--Jared Stein