This document outlines Northern Illinois University's plan for upgrading their learning management system from the current Blackboard version to the next generation version. The plan involves 5 phases: 1) preparing documentation and support materials, 2) communicating new features to users, 3) preview sessions for faculty, 4) hands-on workshops over the summer, and 5) open labs and special sessions after the upgrade. Over 40 workshops and information sessions are scheduled on campus and online. The challenges will be updating all support materials for the new version and providing training to over 1,300 faculty during the summer months. Technical considerations around storage, building blocks, and timing of the upgrade outage will also need to be addressed.

1. LMS Upgrade:
Roadmap for
Successful
Implementation
Jason Rhode
Assistant Director, Faculty Development and
Instructional Design Center
Northern Illinois University
j.mp/niuplan

2. Presenter
Jason Rhode, Ph.D.
Assistant Director
Faculty Development and
Instructional Design Center
Northern Illinois University
niu.edu/jrhode
jrhode@niu.edu
twitter.com/jrhode
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3. Resources and Conversation
j.mp/niuplan
#niuplan
@jrhode
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4. Blackboard Usage at NIU
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5. Blackboard Usage at NIU
As of Fall 2011:
• 96% of students
• 78% of instructional Faculty/Staff/TAs
• 43% of course sections
• 3.97 course sections/student
More details: www.niu.edu/blackboard
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 5

6. Use of Blackboard by (Individual) Students
Spring Summer Fall
25,000
22,152
20,000
No. of Students
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Year
Usage % for fall „11 with 23,107 enrolled is 95.86% of total number of students
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 6

7. Use of Blackboard by (Individual)
Faculty/Staff/TAs to Teach
Spring Summer Fall
1,600
1,376
1,400
1,200
No. of Faculty
1,000
800
600
400
200
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Year
Usage % for fall „11 with 1,756* faculty/instructors/TA/teaching staff is 78.3%
*1,756 includes only those providing direct instruction
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 7

8. Number of Credit Course Sections in Blackboard
Spring Summer Fall
3,000
2,488
2,500
No. of Course Sections
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Year
Usage % for fall „11 with 5,727* sections is 43.44%
*No. of course sections including thesis, dissertation, and independent studies is 5,727
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 8

9. Number of Course Enrollments in Blackboard
Spring Summer Fall
100,000
88,050
90,000
No. of Course Enrollments
80,000
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Year
Students enrolled in several courses that use Blackboard in a semester
Approximately 3.97 courses that use Blackboard per student during fall ‘11
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 9

10. Blackboard Next Generation Upgrade
Faculty Support Plan
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11. Current Blackboard Support
• The comprehensive support provided by our Center on
teaching with Blackboard includes the following:
Hands-on workshops (series of 40+ different workshops)
Individual consultations (In FY10 alone, 917 consultations
on Blackboard were offered to 344 unique individuals from
78 academic and support units)
Usage documentation (250+ webpages)
(9,800 unique visitors per month to the help site in FY11)
246 answers to Frequently Asked Questions (searchable)
37 step-by-step online tutorials (searchable)
Podcasts (30+ episodes) on teaching with Blackboard
Quick Guides on using Blackboard
40+ archived online workshops, Ask-A-Question, etc.
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 11

12. Faculty Support Plan Phases
Install new system on Outline of features and 2 invite-only hands-on 10 Bb Tune-up sessions Blackboard Open Lab
a development pre-existing support preview sessions for for experienced users sessions [11AM-1PM]
(BbDev) server materials at support staff and faculty offering hands-on each day during 1st
niu.edu/blackboard/ng power users [3/29,4/6] overview of changes week of summer & fall
Test new features and and new features [6/6, 2011 terms [6/13,6/14,
system interfaces Articles in Fall ’10 & 3 online preview 6/7,7/19,7/27,8/4,8/9, 6/15,6/16,8/22,8/23,
Spring ’11 newsletters sessions [60 min] for 8/11,8/17(2),8/19] 8/24,8/25,8/26]
Create upgrade page and campus media faculty/staff & TAs via
to document new Wimba Classroom 7 Bb I & II hands-on College-specific
features, changes, and Episodes on Teaching [3/29,4/12,4/26] sessions for users new sessions available upon
include links to with Blackboard to Bb [6/2,6/15,7/13, request
applicable support Podcast devoted to 3 hands-on preview 7/21,8/15,8/19]
materials provided by changes sessions for faculty/staff Consultations with
Blackboard & TAs [4/8,5/3,5/18] 2 Bb NG Boot Camps (4 individual faculty/staff
Notices of new features in-depth hands-on and TAs upon request
Update Teaching with posted to FacDev blog, 2 invite-only hands-on sessions for
Blackboard support Twitter, and Facebook, preview sessions for faculty/staff on 9.1 new Phase 5: Open Labs
site and notices to users faculty teaching during feature sets) [6/3,8/10] & Special Sessions
(niu.edu/blackboard) intersession [4/28,
to reflect new Screencasts and/or 5/16]
quick tip highlighting Phase 4: Hands-on Face-to-Face Workshops
features major
changes (Beginning Summer 2011) All workshops 90 mins
interface changes
Convert site from Online preview sessions Phase 3: Preview Sessions (Beginning Spring 2011)
WebCRMA to new archived for on-demand Hands-on preview sessions 90 mins each; Online preview sessions 60 mins each
Cascade CMS as part viewing
of the redesign update
process Phase 2: Communications of New Features and User Interface Changes (Beginning Fall 2010)
Phase 1: Documentation and Support Materials Preparation (Beginning Summer 2010)
Hands-on preview sessions and face-to-face workshops will be 90 minutes in length; Online preview sessions will be 60 minutes in length

13. Faculty Support Plan Timeline
Version 9.1 Support plan drafted & Initial draft of Preliminary New support New tutorials, quick guides, etc.
installed on shared with Provost, redesigned info on 9.1 site goes live developed in response to questions
bbdev. Council of Deans, and support site available on received
Faculty Development ready on new current
Outage /
FacDev & Advisory Committee CMS support site New features in 9.1 covered in all
Upgrade
ITS begin future Blackboard workshops
Redesign of existing to Bb 9.1
testing
support site begins (5/29 -
system Consultations with individual
5/30)
faculty/staff and TAs upon request
2010 2011
9/10 10/10 11/10 12/10 1/11 2/11 3/11 4/11 5/11 6/11 7/11 8/11 9/11
Phase 1: Documentation and Support Materials Preparation
Phase 2: Communications of New Features and User Interface Changes
Phase 3: Preview
Sessions
Phase 4: Hands-on Face-to-Face
Workshops
Phase 5: Open Labs &
Special Sessions
Last updated: 11/7/10 13

14. Workshops Scheduled
• 40 workshops scheduled for Spring & Summer 2011:
10 preview sessions prior to upgrade
8 hands-on workshops for new users
10 “tune-up” workshops for experienced users
2 “boot camp” days of in-depth advanced sessions
open lab sessions every day of the first week of
summer and fall semesters for individual assistance
• Capacity planning to meet training needs
• Some workshops also offered online
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 14

15. Faculty Support Plan Challenges
• Updating over 80% of existing documentation
• Designing new documentation for new features
• Priority training for those teaching intersession courses
that overlap the upgrade in May 2011
• Training nearly 1,300 instructional faculty/TAs during
summer 2011 (when they are not on contract!)
• Retraining current basic to advanced users
• Training new faculty/staff/TA users from Aug 2011
• Responding to increased faculty support requests
• Staffing and facilities for handling all these needs
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 15

16. Communicating the Change
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17. Presentations on Campus
• Provost – Oct. ‘10
• Council of Deans – Nov. ’10
• President’s Senior Cabinet – Jan. ’11
• College of Engineering & Engineering Technology Faculty –
Jan. ‘11
• Computing Facilities Advisory Committee – Feb. ’11
• College of Health & Human Sciences Faculty – Apr. ‘11
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 17

18. Website
niu.edu/blackboard/ng
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19. Quick Tip Intro
youtu.be/ei8ufG8amk8
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20. Newsletters
niu.edu/spectrum
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21. Emails
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22. Blog
facdevblog.niu.edu
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23. Twitter
twitter.com/facdev
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24. Facebook
facebook.com/facdev
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25. Podcast
niu.edu/blackboard/podcast
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26. Postcard
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27. Online Workshop Archives
niu.edu/facdev/programs/archives
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28. Blackboard Login Page
webcourses.niu.edu
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29. Samples and Source Files
j.mp/niuplan
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30. Technical Considerations
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31. Technical Considerations
• Legacy Storage vs. Content System Storage
• Building Block Compatibility
• User Interface for Custom Building Blocks
• Testing Service Packs
• Timing of Outage for Upgrade
• Others?…
www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/2011/plan 31

32. Additional Comments and Plan Source Files
j.mp/niuplan
#niuplan
@jrhode
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33. We value your feedback!
Please fill out a session evaluation.
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