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Overview
Outcome
Implementation Timeline
Key Dates
Pilot Launch of the New System
Arrangements of Current Systems
New Course Site Arrangements Starting 2012-13
Course Migration Schedule and Content Checking
Online Resources
Open-to-all Hands-on Training Workshops & Tailored Training Workshops
More Hands-on Opportunities - Development/Practice Sandboxes
Departmental Liaison Persons for the Implementation Project (Volunteer)
The Preview
The Pilots
The University has been using three central support eLearning platforms – WebCT, Moodle and CU Forum for years.
Under the auspices of Academic IT Steering Committee, the University conducted an eLearning System Review in 2010. The Review resulted in a recommendation to implement "Blackboard" (Blackboard Learn System) as the University-wide eLearning System by AUG2012 for the new 3-3-4 curriculum. The new eLearning system will be in production by AUG2012 to support teaching and learning at the University. Technical support for Moodle and CUForum will cease by August 2013. (Read more about the Review at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/eLSReview)
This project will manage the implementation of the new CU eLearning System (Blackboard Learn) as the University-wide eLearning System for the University and prepare the University (academic units, teachers, teaching support staff, and students) to move to the new system in a 2-year time frame.
Outcome
The project goal is to set up a new eLearning System which can support teaching and learning activities of the whole University.
The new features in the new eLearning System will improve the teaching and learning experience of teachers and students at CUHK. More importantly, teachers and students will benefit from the consistency in teaching and learning experience brought by the new unified system after all users have been migrated to the new system.
In a 2-year time frame, the project team will also assist current users of existing eLearning platforms (WebCT, Moodle) and CUForum to migrate to the new system.
The implementation project began in Fall 2011. Here are a few things you should know.
Implementation Timeline
The new eLearning System is being implemented using a phased transition approach.
Key Dates
Remarks:
#1) With the New CU eLearning System being implemented, technical support for Moodle and CUForum will cease with effect from 2013, with a view to streamlining the manpower deployment of ITSC to support other new IT development of the University.
Pilot Launch of the New System
The new system with new hardware has been pilot launched in May 2012. Some early adopters of the new system have started using it for their summer course teaching and the eLearning Team is looking forward to hearing from them their comments and suggestions towards the new system. With their input, we hope that we can better tune the system for you to use before the beginning of the new academic year.
If you are interested in seeing the new system in real, you can do so now by visiting http://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk. You can also find a link to the new system through our eLearning homepage at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning (CU eLearning System).
After logging into the system, you may find some migrated course sites from current systems ready for your checking or blank course sites created for your summer courses if you teach in the summer. You will find more information regarding these course sites in the following sections. All of these course sites are good starting points for you to start getting you hands on the new system. We can be reached at elearning@cuhk.edu.hk if you have any questions or suggestions for us when you review these course sites.
Some of you may notice that development of some local customizations and integrations have not yet completed. Our programming team is working at full speed on them and will make sure that they will be ready around August..
Arrangements of Current Systems
Please be reminded that with the implementation of the new system, support given to the current systems will cease at various stages.
No new course sites will be created on WebCT to support teaching under 2012-13 academic year. However, the system will still be accessible by staff and students in 2012-13 academic year to allow time for them to download any materials they have on WebCT to their local computers if they wish to.
Moodle and CUForum will still be in service under 2012-13 academic year. According to the plan, technical support to these 2 systems will cease by end of 2012-13. The eLearning team would like to take the chance to suggest users of the two systems begin learning the new system even if you are not migrating to the new system this year. Let us know if you have any specific concerns toward moving over to the new system. The eLearning team is committed to assisting you on the move.
* Updates on Cease of Moodle and CUForum services by End of 2012-13
Moodle
No new course sites will be created on Moodle to support teaching under 2013-14 academic year. However, the system will still be accessible by staff and students in 2013-14 academic year to allow time for them to download any old materials they have on Moodle to their local computers if they wish to.
CUForum
As announced in ITSC Digest Issue 127, CUForum will retire on 31 Aug 2013. This is as part of the University eLearning strategy to centralize resource for supporting only one single eLearning system. The centralization to one eLearning system has been started in 2010. For details, please refer to eLearning System Review.
Forum administrators had been notified through an email and are recommended to launch their courses through the new CU eLearning System (Blackboard Learn) and also other platforms to support non-teaching activities.
We are sorry for the inconvenience that may bring to you in this system decommissioning.
New Course Site Arrangements Starting 2012-13
With the implementation of the new system, all new course sites are created automatically before the beginning of each semester by importing course information from CUSIS into CU eLearning System. This takes place approximately 1 week after course information is made available on CUSIS.
For academic year 2012-13, it is expected that course information will be available around July 2012 on CUSIS. New course sites will therefore be created according to CUSIS data and ready for teacher access around mid-July.
For those of you who want to build your new course site from scratch, you can start working on your course sites around that time. However, if you would like to work on your course site earlier than that, you can request for a development sandbox (a.k.a. course template) that can be used as a course placeholder by contacting us at elearning@cuhk.edu.hk. Once you have finished setting up the course template, you can submit a copy course request to copy materials from the course template to your new semester course site when they are auto-created following the schedule.
For those who need custom course sites such as combined course sites for serving multiple course sections or custom course sites for serving courses not listed in CUSIS, please contact us at elearning@cuhk.edu.hk.
Course Migration Schedule and Content Checking
ITSC provides course migration services to migrate courses from WebCT, Moodle and CUForum created under academic years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 (Moodle and CUForum only) for teachers at CUHK.
All course sites under 2010-11 academic year have been migrated from WebCT and Moodle to the new system and are ready for content checking. We are experiencing a slight delay regarding migration of course sites under 2011-12 Term 1 and Term 2 but most of them should be ready for content checking on the first week of June. You will receive an email notification from us when they are ready for checking.
Course sites under 2011-12 Term 3, Term 4 and Summer Term will be migrated from WebCT and Moodle to the new system after teaching activities have been completed around August. Similar arrangements have been planned for course site to-be-created on Moodle under 2012-13 academic year as well.
Users of CUForum should contact Mr. Edman Chan at edman-chan@cuhk.edu.hk to discuss about forum migration arrangement.
Please spend some time to read the respective migration checklists, a document prepared to help you understand the new system and where to find the content and features in it as compared to the old system you have been using, before you begin to check your migrated courses sites.
Online Resources
The support website of the new system is http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/elearn. It provides users at CUHK one-stop access to useful information and resources to get them familiar with the new system.
Under the section Quick Reference, users can find seminars’ and workshops’ handouts, tutorials in pdf format and short how-to videos for instructors and students on the most common tasks in developing, delivering and using Blackboard Learn 9.
The tutorials in pdf format and short how-to-videos are prepared by Blackboard Inc. They are also available in Blackboard's On Demand site (http://ondemand.blackboard.com).
More information will be added to the support website as we proceed through the implementation project.
Open-to-all Hands-on Training Workshops & Tailored Training Workshops
The schedule of our open-to-all hands-on training workshops has been released. Visit this page http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/c_resources/resources/training.html to view the schedule and register.
Custom hands-on workshops can also be designed and conducted for different departments/programs to serve their specific teaching needs, visit the section Training and Support in the support website for more information.
We expect that training room booking schedule will be tight around August 2012. If you are interested in requesting us to organize tailored training workshops for your colleagues and teaching assistance, please do contact us at elearning@cuhk.edu.hk in advance to get a training room reserved as soon as possible.
More Hands-on Opportunities - Practice/Development Sandboxes
The best way to get your hands on the new system is to join our training workshops. A practice course site (a practice sandbox) will be created for you to try out different features of the new system.
If you don’t have time to join our training workshops, you can also request for a practice sandbox by contacting us at elearning@cuhk.edu.hk. With the sandbox, you can follow materials on http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/c_systems/elearn/quickref.html to learn to use the new system at your own pace.
Development sandboxes can also be created for those of you who would like to work on your course site before course information is ready in CUSIS (refer to this section for more details). Once you have finished setting up the development sandbox, you can submit a copy course request to copy materials from the development sandbox to your new semester course site when they are auto-created following the schedule.
Departmental Liaison Persons for the Implementation Project (Volunteer)
The project team is calling all interested teachers and teaching support staff to volunteer to be our departmental liaison persons for the new eLearning System implementation project. Their role is very close to our current eLearning Liaison Person (eLLPs) but this group of liaison persons focus on the eLearning System implementation project. On one hand, they will be the contact person if their colleagues in their department/program would like to learn more about the new system. On the other hand, they will also be the key persons who the project team will consult for comments/suggestions they have for the new system during its implementation.
Register through this URL if you are interested.
The Preview
A PREVIEW site was previously set up for members of CUHK to get to know about the new CU eLearning System before the new system is ready. All users should switch to the new system (http://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk) from now on.
The Pilots
Teachers have 2 chances to try using the new system for real teaching in academic year 2011-12 before the system is launched in AUG2012. The 2 chances are the Spring Pilot and the Summer Pilot.
Participants of the Summer Pilot have started using the new system for their summer course teaching in May and the eLearning Team is looking forward to hearing from them their comments and suggestions towards the new system. With their input, we hope that we can better tune the system for you to use before the beginning of the new academic year.
Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact ITSC eLearning Team at email: elearning@cuhk.edu.hk.
Last updated: June 2012
