Rollover, rollover

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTCopyright Universityof Reading
ROLLOVER, ROLLOVER…
How the University of Reading reviewed its course rollover procedures, to
make them more efficient, and to better meet users’ needs.
1
Andy Turner
Senior TEL Applications Manager, Centre for Quality Support & Development

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT
TEL AT THE UNIVERSITY
OF READING
2

ROLLOVER –
THE BACKGROUND
“Course rollover is the annual process whereby Blackboard courses from
the current academic year are copied for use in the next academic year.”
• Historically at Reading
• all courses were rolled over from one year to the next
• staff had no access to course copy tools (to prevent them making
mistakes)
• course rollover was carried out in batches over several weeks
• small teams responsible for Blackboard support (IT team of one!)
3

DRIVERS FOR CHANGE
• existing process very time-consuming for IT
• University TEL vision 2013. By 2014-15 had led to
• growth of academic and IT TEL teams
• move to Managed Hosting
• higher expectations
• increase in e-submission
• introduction of e-marking and feedback tools
• advent of EMA
• assignment and Grade Centre settings from previous years no longer
appropriate
• technical issues with copied Turnitin assignments 2015-16
4

2016 ROLLOVER CHANGES
• Clear communications plan
• Process: 2 Rollover days
• more efficient
• more transparent
• Grade Centre not copied as part of rollover
• to provide clean Grade Centre
• to avoid issues with copied Turnitin assignments
• to force staff to set up new submission points with correct settings
• Turnitin assignment deletion building block
5

DRIVERS FOR FURTHER
CHANGE
• improve transparency of the process
• give academics more ownership of their courses
• promote the pedagogical benefits of not copying courses forward
• avoid duplication of redundant content
6

ROLLOVER PROJECT 2016-17
• facilitated by Business Change team – input of Business Analyst invaluable
• collaboration between academic and IT TEL teams
• incremental improvement of existing process, or radical change?
• consultation with TEL Practitioners’ Forum
• survey to gather staff views
7

STAFF SURVEY
• “Preparing your Blackboard course for the next academic year”
• ran December 2016
• promoted to all staff enrolled as Instructor or Teaching Assistant
• questions not just about copying courses, also
• clarity of communications
• timing – does it work for staff/students?
• multiple free text boxes – provided opportunity for staff to feed back on
areas of concern
8

This survey is designed to collect the views of staff on the way courses are
set up in Blackboard in readiness for use by a new cohort of students. We
are looking at how and when new courses are created, and also at the ways
in which staff update new courses and prepare them for use by learners. We
want to be able to develop a process which
• best meets the requirements of academics and support staff alike
• supports sound pedagogical practices
• provides the greatest benefit for learners
• meets changing student expectations
• is efficient and works smoothly for all concerned.
Currently most Blackboard courses are created in the summer, through a
process called Course Rollover, as copies of the previous year's course.
Ignoring for the moment any technical considerations, we are asking you to
reflect on what you would like to get out of Course Rollover.
9

1010
What are the options?
In broad terms, the options for the creation and population of new courses
in Blackboard fall on a spectrum running from
A) creating all new courses as copies of the previous year’s Blackboard
course
to
B) creating all new courses as empty shells which it is the course team’s
responsibility to populate with content.

1111
Option A
This is what has historically been used at Reading, although in 2016 we
excluded the Grade Centre and assignments from course copies.
The same system, with some variations, is used at Universities including
Bristol, Leeds, and Newcastle.
Possible advantages and disadvantages
 Convenient for staff on courses where content and delivery do not
change greatly from year to year.
X More time-consuming for staff who want to make significant changes to
their Blackboard course.
X Increases the chances of incorrect or out of date material being made
available to students.
X Could discourage course teams / module convenors from regularly
reviewing and refreshing their online course.

1212
Option B
The main argument made in favour of this approach is that it prompts
course teams to review and refresh the content, structure and
presentation of their course each year.
This approach is used at Universities including Bedfordshire, Brunel,
Edinburgh, Southampton and UEA.
Possible advantages and disadvantages
 Encourages course teams / module convenors to regularly review and
refresh their online courses, which could bring pedagogical benefits.
 Easier to ensure that only current, relevant content is uploaded to
courses – with clear benefits for learners.
X Course teams / module convenors need to take action before any new
courses can be made available to learners.
X Course teams / module convenors need to upload or copy content to all
new courses.

SURVEY RESPONSES
• 108 responses
• 86% were academics
• satisfaction with current process (satisfied or very satisfied):
• when courses are created and made available to staff 86%
• when new students are enrolled onto courses 71%
• when returning students are enrolled onto courses 73%
13

SURVEY RESPONSES
14
were you clear about all of the actions you needed to take?
Very clear 28.70%
Reasonably clear 49.07%
Not very clear 16.67%
It was a complete mystery 3.70%
“Helpful reminder emails were sent with clear instructions”
“I know there is a big library with information and help for staff about BB.
But after creating a new course it will be good to receive just the
information regarding the setting up of the site for example as a list of
thing to do (with more links inside)”

TO ROLL OVER OR
NOT TO ROLL OVER?
15
Given the choice next year, would you prefer
all courses to be copied forward in their entirety 31.48%
to be given a blank shell for each course, which you could set up as
you wished
6.48%
to be able to select which parts of your course(s) were copied forward
(courses copied automatically if no choice is made) OPT OUT
47.22%
to be able to select which parts of your course(s) were copied forward
(empty course shells created if no choice is made) OPT IN
10.19%
Other 4.63%

COMMENTS
Option A – copy all courses automatically
• This has a very good track record. It is tried and tested. Why change it
when it works!
• Ensures consistent coverage of all necessary teaching & learning
materials and is easy to revise and update. Ensures ease of transition from
one lecturer to another when responsibilities change.
• By far the better option… Academics are perfectly able to review and
refresh when needed.
• YES I am quite capable of reviewing my courses as needed without the
help of IT to add to the workload by providing a blank shell each time
16

COMMENTS
Option B – Create empty course shells
• I can see the rationale but I consider it would be very time consuming to
have to set up from scratch. We don't have the admin support to do this.
• It is very doubtful if this option really would encourage greater review or
actually produce pedagogical benefits, especially given current time-
pressure on staff. It is more likely that it will just make more colleagues
more work.
• Fills me with dread… Each year I like to improve my blackboard module
site. If I have to build it from scratch each year I am pretty confident it
would be the bare minimum.
• Module providers work hard and care about their students - why
contemplate changing a system to add extra work for us because you
don't trust us to be sensible?
17

DO STAFF UPDATE THEIR
COURSES EACH YEAR?
18
Percentage of respondents who made significant changes to their new course(s)
revising the course menu / structure 22%
updating course content 54%
creating assignment submission points, deploying Tests 42%
creating online activities (e.g. blogs. discussion boards, wikis) 13%
setting up student groups 22%
enrolling other staff 12%

OUR RESPONSE TO STAFF
• “What you said, what we are doing” communications to staff. We will
• refine and improve Rollover
• provide opt-out mechanism
• explore additional options to increase flexibility
• Addressed specific queries raised in survey
• individual staff
• general communications
• what staff can do already (e.g. date management tool)
• workarounds (e.g. to hide old courses / enrolments)
• what’s not yet possible (e.g. set up course groups from SITS)
19

CHANGES SUMMER 2017
• further improved communications and request forms
• 1 course rollover day
• IT created 2017-18 courses early on request
• returning student enrolments processed earlier
• Module Convenors able to opt out of rollover
• automatically enrolled Module Convenors onto courses
• incorporated pre-populated Module Evaluation area on all modules
(course template with Reusable Objects)
• debated enabling Course Copy for instructors – but decided against
20

WHAT DID STAFF THINK?
• Most staff happy with the process
Overall - how happy were you with the rollover process in 2017?
• Very satisfied 54%
• Somewhat satisfied 32%
“I liked having the default that everything would roll over, but being able
to ask for that not to happen if I was changing things and wanted to start
afresh. It was also good that things like Turnitin assignments weren't
rolled over with the course”.
“I'm happy getting this right is such a priority”
21

• But of course not everyone was happy
“The roll over should take place as early as possible, at least a month
before the commencement of the academic year”
[rollover took place on 8th July]
“The most significant issue was the failure of Blackboard to link properly to
the TALIS online reading lists”
[this issue was introduced by a subsequent Blackboard upgrade]
22

“Adding module convenors automatically to all modules, even those that
are not actually used (e.g. when there are shared modules) was problematic
for many staff & resulted in unnecessary work in terms on establishing
which the correct iteration of the module was & then hiding those that we
didn't wish to see!”
[will investigate a “Shared Course” flag to avoid this]
Several questions had been asked and answered in response to original
rollover survey
[ongoing challenge - how can we improve our communications
and support pages, so that users read them?]
23

WHAT NEXT?
• Further refinements to process.
• Enable instructor access to Course Copy?
• Make more use of course templates, with pre-populated content areas.
24

WAS IT WORTH IT?
• Rollover process now more efficient, and improving each year
• Very low take-up of opt-out. But expect this to increase
• as staff awareness increases
• if we allow staff to copy content areas
• Curriculum Framework – all UG programmes to be reviewed by 2019
• Schools seeking to achieve consistency between modules – may
choose to opt out of rollover for a year
• Showed staff we are listening
• Exposed staff concerns, queries and suggestions
• Revealed staff appreciation of the TEL teams
25

“BB gets better every year. This year, the support from the TEL team is
better than ever. Questions are answered promptly and helpfully. You have
enabled me to do things I did not think possible! You always make useful
suggestions, as well. I really appreciate what you do. Thank you.”
“The TEL team are a key part of my ability to operate as module co-
ordinator. Thanks for your ongoing support.”
26

Andy Turner
Senior TEL Applications Manager
Centre for Quality Support & Development
University of Reading
a.r.turner@reading.ac.uk
@audinarymusic
@UniRdg_TEL
27

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT
28
and the little one said
There were ten in the bed

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT
• How the University of Reading reviewed its course rollover procedures, to
make them more efficient, and to better meet users’ needs.
29
Andy Turner
Senior TEL Applications Manager, Centre for Quality Support & Development,
University of Reading
a.r.turner@reading.ac.uk @audinarymusic @UniRdg_TEL
and the little one said
There were ten in the bed

Rollover, rollover

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