Allan Ellis, School of Social and Workplace Development and Sue Sawkins, Southern Cross University Online, Southern Cross University, East Lismore, NSW, Australia aellis@scu.edu.au and ssawkins@scu.edu.au
Southern Cross University was an early adoptor of Web technology having its first server up in late 1992 and a university home page online in early 1993. Earliest Web-based were courses developed and offered in 1995 and 1996, were "hand stitched" mixes of text and images and only catered for a small number of postgraduate students. In 1997 course materials from existing paper-based distance education program were Web-mounted and along with email lists, used to support existing units and programs.
In mid 1998 the decision were taken by the University's Executive to develop two full undergraduate degree programs online and this lead to the adoption of the commercial product LearningSpace(TM) as the course development and delivery shell.
Many problems were encountered with this initial shell which lead to the decision being taken in late 1999 to phase it out over the next 12 months and replace it with a new course shell, Blackboard's product CourseInfo. A plan was developed for this transition process which is to be completed by the end of 2000.
The poster presentation will discuss the lessons learned during these 10 years and demonstrate some of the course materials developed.
Southern Cross University was an early adopter of Web technology with a trial Web server operating in the Computing Centre in late 1992. This Web server was the second in Australia and within the first 100 globally (Hill, 2000).
In 1993 the Web was demonstated at a number of university seminars and its potential to displace an existing gopher-based campus wide information system was discussed.
In late 1994 discussions between two Southern Cross academics, Allan Ellis and Roger Debreceny hatched the idea of staging a national Web conference. In April 1995 the first AusWeb conference [HREF1] was held at Ballina, NSW. The conference was a sellout. It presented several keynote speakers, refereed paper tracks as well as a poster session and one workshop. The latter involved hand coding html in text files for at that time there were no sophisticated wysiwyg html editors. AusWeb [HREF2] has now established itself as Australia's National Web conference and was recently granted the status of an Endorsed Regional Web Conference by the IW3C2 [HREF3].
In 1995 a number of proposals were developed for new course development and delivery systems. These included a "Network Learning" model and a model for "Telecommunications-based Education". Each of these proposals sought to integrate the Web onto traditional forms of course delivery (Chua, Debreceny and Ellis (1995), Debreceny, Ellis and Chua (1995), Ellis (1995 a & b), Ellis, Debreceny and Hayden (1995)).
In 1996 the School of Social and Workplace Development offered a fully online post-graduate unit in Future Studies. All study materials, interaction and assessment was handled online and details of the unit are provided in Ellis, Wildman and O'Reilly (1996). In 1997 the materials for a further 10 post-graduate units were moved online and duplicated materials already produced in traditional paper-based distance education format. Staff in other Schools also began to offer some course materials online. At this time the University funded a three year Technology in Learning and Teaching (TiLT) project, whose brief was to encourage and support the development and use of information technologies in the learning, teaching and other scholarly activities of the University. TiLT assisted in the development of courseware and associated technologies and support systems; provided training and development programs for staff, including an online self-paced Web development course undertaken by over 140 staff.
In early 1998 the University Executive took the decision to allocate specific innovations and development funding to two major projects that would use the Web for the delivery of entire degree courses: A Bachelor of Social Science and an Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies.
The first stage of development commenced in the second half of 1998. A project management methodology was employed to facititate the integration of discipline expertise, educational design, technology and learner support components. In the School of Social and Workplace development this involved a multidisciplinary team working to prepare 5 units for delivery in first semester 1999. In the same timeframe the School of Law targeted the development of 2 units. Each School prepared a detailed project plan involving development, delivery and evaluation stages under which extra new units would be brought online each semester until the academic program structure was complete.
In order to gain consistency and efficiency the decision was made by both Project Boards to adopt LearningSpace as the course delivery shell. This decision was taken quickly without completing a detailed evaluation of the product but more or less going on the reputation of the company behind the product. IBM/Lotus LearningSpace [HREF4] is part of the Lotus Notes suite of products and enables users to access their materials, collaborate with peers and submit certain types of assessment.
Whilst the underlying structure of the LearningSpace system obviously suited its corporate origins it did not translate at all well to the Southern Cross academic/student environment. Busy academics with no Lotus Notes experience found it difficult to use, the issue of client installation and use proved problematic (Patterson, Ellis and Brice, 2000) and student support needs became excessive. As a result of all these factors in December 1999, the University's Executive accepted the recommendations of a special working party that the University migrate to Blackboard's CourseInfo, now simply termed Blackboard [HREF5].
To ensure a smooth transition during 2000, full support has been maintained for LearningSpace while the new online system,Blackboard CourseInfo, is set up, tested and training/support mechanisms established. Delivery in the new environment commenced in Semester 2. In addition to the range of courses being delivered online, many lecturers are making use of the Blackboard CourseInfo environment to enhance their on-campus and distance print-based offerings. Students are able to access lecture notes, announcements, additional resources and activities, and discussion forums.
Adopting Blackboard CourseInfo has also brought the concept of a personalised online homebase for students to reality. All students at the University, regardless of whether they are engaged in online units or not, can now log in to their own online homebase, called MySCU, and from there access a range of intranet services &endash; a calendar and tasks area, links to their units, as well as links to the Library, Computing, and the other services currently available. This personalised portal is a synthesis of the functionality of the Blackboard CourseInfo application with the student intranet resources and services.
The technical architecture required a robust fail-safe server environment providing redundancy through each level of the architecture to ensure reliable access to Blackboard Courseinfo. Access times will be reduced by the design's ability to load share requests across multiple processors. Single point user login authentication is enabled by hooking into the existing security features currently utilised by other university systems. The processor architecture has also been designed to allow for future expansion as the student population increases and more courses become available online.
Support and training for staff in using Blackboard CourseInfo is an important priority. Whilst the application is an easy-to-use, intuitive program, staff are encouraged to take advantage of the half-day orientation/training sessions regularly held throughout the year and an email helplink and Web site resource provide follow-on support. Students are being supported in accessing and working in their Blackboard/CourseInfo environment by an online operations phone and email service.
In this first semester of delivery nearly 100 individual units have an online dimension to their delivery, from supplementary resources and interactiivity to full delivery online. In addition, about half as many again are in the process of development for delivery in 2001.
The speed of the uptake of online facilities by staff and students raises a number of important issues that will need to be addressed as part of any efforts at consolidation.
Chua, K., Debreceny, R. & Ellis, A.(1995) Networked Learning: Some Issues in Implementation at Southern Cross University, Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for Computers and Learning in Tertiary Education, ASCILITE95, (eds) J.M. Pearce and A.Ellis, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 63-71.
Debreceny, R. & Ellis, A. (1996) Developing and Implementing Information Technology in Teaching and Learning: A Critical Success Factors Perspective, 13th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, 2nd-4th Dec, (eds) A. Christie, P. James and B. Vaughan, Uni of South Australia, Adelaide, pp. 149-161.
Debreceny, R., Ellis, A. & Chua, K. (1995) The Integration of Networked Learning Delivery - From Strategy to Implementation, Proceedings of the 7th World Conference of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, ED-MEDIA95, Graz, Austria, (ed) H. Maurer, Association for the Advancement of Computer Education, Charlottesville, pp 169-174.
Debreceny, R. and Ellis, A. (2000) The production of World Wide Web multimedia resources by Australian Universities - an institutional analysis, J. Education and Information Technologies, vol. 5, no.1, pp7-18.
Ellis, A. (1999) Instructor Support for the Development and Implementation of Web-based courseware" Intl. J. Educational Telecommunications, vol.5, no.4.pp397-400.
Ellis, A., Wildman, P. & O'Reilly, M. (1996). Migrating from Paper-based Course Materials to Interactive Web-based Multimedia Courseware, 1996 IEEE International Conference on Multi Media in Engineering Education, University of Melbourne, 3rd-5th July, (ed) M. Aldeen, IEEE, New Jersey, pp. 345-354.
Ellis, A. (1995a) Networked Learning: Developments at Southern Cross University, Proceedings of the 1st North American World Wide Web Conference, University of New Brunswick, Fredricton, Canada, (eds) A. Ellis & R. Hall, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, pp. 194-206.
Ellis, A. (1995b) Mapping the Transition to Telecommunications-Based Education at Southern Cross University, Proceedings of the Open Learning and Distance Education of Australia Biennial Forum, Port Vila, Vanuatu, F. Nouwens (ed), ODLAA, pp. 195-198.
Ellis, A., Debreceny, R. S. & Hayden, M. (1995) The Management of Change towards Telecommunications-based Education - A Student Perspective, Proceedings of the World Conference of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, ED-MEDIA95, Graz, Austria, (ed) H. Maurer, Association for the Advancement of Computer Education, Charlottesville, pp. 211-216.
Fisher,K., Phelps,R. & Ellis,A. (2000) Group Processes Online: Teaching collaboration through collaborative processes, J. Educational Technology & Society, vol. 3, issue 3, pp484-495.
Hill, G. (2000) A recent personal communication with Geoff Hill who was the manager of the Southern Cross Computing Centre in the early 90's confirmed that contact with CERN in late 1992 resulted in a server being mounted and some trial pages being developed.
Patterson, K., Ellis, A. & Brice,D. (2000) Client Versus Browser: A Case Study from Southern Cross University, in M. Wallace, A. Ellis & D.Newton (eds) Proceedsings of the Moving Online Conference, pp190-202, Southern Cross University Press:Lismore.
Sawkins, S, & Archer, F. (1999) Designed for Online: Making use of the Internet to enhance students' learning environment, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Educause in Australasia Doing IT Right 'People and Technology' Sydney, Australia.
A. Ellis and S. Sawkins © 2000. The authors assign to the University of New Brunswick and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The author also grants a non-exclusive licence to the University of New Brunswick to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web.