Updates

02/01/24

• A virtual town hall recapping the LMS Review process and introducing D2L's Brightspace was held. The hourlong town hall provided detailed information on:
  • Tri-C’s LMS review and recommendation process
  • The reasons behind the decision to adopt D2L’s Brightspace
  • Benefits of D2L’s Brightspace
  • Asynchronous/on-demand and synchronous training sessions, starting March 18 (register in Compass)
  • The transition timeline, adoption windows for faculty and migration options
  • Student training resources
  • Student communication plan
  • Watch the recording of the LMS Review Townhall 

01/25/24

• The Board of Trustees have voted to enter a four-year contract with D2L's Brightspace to be the College's Learning Management System (LMS).

01/24/24

• The College's Executive Leadership has previously received the DLSC's recommendation and forwarded their proposal to the Board of Trustees for a final vote at the Trustee meeting tomorrow, an. 25, 2024.

12/11/23

• The data collected from the faculty reviewers was presented to the Distance Learning Steering Committee (DLSC). The DLSC reviewed the data and crafted a recommendation to be forwarded to College Executive Leadership, who will then present the recommendation to the College's Board of Trustees for their final vote on Jan. 25, 2024.

12/07/23

• An email went out to faculty updating them on the current progress of the LMS Review and future implementation procedures. This email included a short LMS Review and Implementation Update video.
• The ID&LE, OLAT, and faculty reviewer teams met with Canvas for a Debrief Session to discuss Canvas's pilot stage (Fall 2023 term).

10/30/2023

• An email encouraging LMS Review Faculty members to also become an LMS Faculty Champion during the implementation phase went out. If you are interested or have questions contact:
  • Kevin Dranuski, Kevin.Dranuski@tri-c.edu
  • DeeDee Pfister, Delia.Pfister@tri-c.edu

10/05/2023

•  The internal RFP Presentation debrief meeting was held.

09/28/2023

• Anthology Blackboard Learn Ultra presented their RFP review at 10 a.m.

09/25/2023

• The three vendors (Instructure Canvas, D2L Brightspace, Anthology Blackboard Learn Ultra) scheduled presentations to review their response to the RFP. Each vendor was allotted 1 hour.
• Instructure Canvas presented their RFP review at 11 a.m.
• D2L Brightspace presented their RFP review at 1 p.m.

09/18/2023

• A call for sandbox reviewers has been sent to faculty and staff
• Weekly drop-in hours for faculty teaching with Canvas have been set up for every Thursday afternoon from 2-2:30 p.m.

08/25/2023

• A PDF with instructions for adding Vendor Tools to a Canvas course was added to the Resources section of the Canvas page.

08/24/2023

• The Ally integration in Canvas was installed and enabled for all current Canvas courses. Links for Ally Onboarding for Faculty and Ally Best Practices in Canvas are now on the Canvas page.
• The Live Chat help option is now available to all faculty and students in the LMS Review courses. OLAT Level 2 help desk staff are monitoring this live chat. It is live 8:30 am - 8 pm Monday through Thursdays, Fridays until 8:30 am - 5 pm and on Saturdays and Sundays in the afternoons. There is an email option during off hours.

08/23/2023

• A PDF with revised directions for importing your sandbox courses into your CRN courses has been posted to the Canvas page. Also included are slightly revised directions regarding the content that is in the Canvas sites that contains dummy text and needs to be edited or deleted

08/18/2023

• The Canvas Student Support video channel is now live, including the "How to Log In to Canvas Video".
• D2L Brightspace links have been removed and from the Bb student cards in My Tri-C Space, and now all LMS Review links are pointing students to Canvas.
• Bb institutional page has been updated with relevant information for students taking courses in Canvas this fall.

08/14/2023

• All training session recordings and the associated resource documents provided by Canvas are available on the Canvas page under Training Sessions.

08/06/2023

• The Help Desk is set and ready to go with helping faculty and students using Canvas. A Live Chat option will be available starting August 24 along with typical help desk options.

06/28/23

• D2L evaluation day - the team from D2L will meet with OLAT, CLOA, and the faculty reviewers.

06/27/23

• A recording of the LMS Review Update from Spring 2023 Convocation has been posted to the LMS Review homepage.
• Recordings of the recent Canvas training sessions are now available on the Canvas page.
• As the College switches its online plagiarism and tutoring vendors to TurnItIn and TutorMe, respectively, OLAT is working through dual implementations for both vendors; one in the current Blackboard Learn Original environment, and one in the Canvas environment to be reviewed in the Spring 23 term.
• The Level 2 help desk has completed in-house training for the Canvas LMS including creating courses, reviewing student capabilities and grading.

06/08/23

• A Canvas training schedule is now posted on the Canvas page.
• Recordings and documents from the training sessions will also be available on the Canvas page.

06/01/23

• A standard Tri-C template will be used for the LMS Review.
• OLAT is working with ITS to review the CSV files to test load students, faculty, and classes.

05/15/23

• "How To" videos specific to Canvas are being created by the L2 Help Desk.
• Vendors currently Integrated into our Canvas full production cloud:
  • Lumen
  • Playposit
  • Mediasite
  • Hawkes
  • Hypothesis
  • Pearson
  • Cengage
  • Wiley
  • McGraw Hill
  • Webex
  • MacMillan
  • Readspeaker
  • SoftChalk
  • ProctorU
• Awaiting to be integrated:
  • Ally
  Total: 14 (+1 to be integrated)

05/10/23

• L2 Help Desk summer hours will be:
  • During week before and week after the start of the semester: 
    • Monday – Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.
    • Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
    • Sunday: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
  • Typical weeks: 
    • Monday – Thursday: 8:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.
    • Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
    • Saturday: Noon – 5 p.m.
    • Sunday: Noon – 6 p.m.

05/01/23

• D2L review surveys have been sent to students, faculty, and LMS Review staff.
• OLAT and the ID teams will start training on Canvas with the LMS Review Faculty on May 2. 

04/13/23

• The ProctorU LTI integration with Canvas has been completed.
• OLAT is working with ITS to complete the SIS Banner integration with Canvas.

03/30/23

• Our Canvas production server is live.
• Of the 15 integrations used in Blackboard Ultra and D2L Brightspace, we have 13 integrated and currently being tested. Within the next week we hope to have some basic faculty documentation on how to add/link their publisher content to Canvas courses.
• The branding/theme of Canvas has been completed.

03/07/23

• A detailed tentative timeline for the LMS Review, RFP, and Implementation has been posted to the LMS Review homepage.

02/22/23

• Kick-Off Scoping call with Instructure Canvas team to discuss teaching with the LMS in the upcoming term.

01/12/23

• Student notifications will not be on by default for the pilot due to timing and the way system settings work for notification. Here is a quick video that can be used encourage students to enable notifications for D2L Brightspace. Students will need to enable notifications to receive text or email notifications when announcements are posted.
• Live Chat with specially trained Tri-C staff (Click LMS Review) – Goes live today, Jan. 12, 2023
• The D2L Brightspace Course Copy process has been updated.
• A discussion area has been created in the MISC LMSReview course in D2L Brightspace for faculty to ask questions that come up while working on or teaching courses next semester.

12/22/2022

• All D2L video tutorials completed and loaded into the D2L Mediasite recourse catalog.

12/15/2022

• LMS Review Website Updated with Student Support Information and D2L Resources.

12/7/2022 – Important dates for D2L LMS Review are confirmed:

• D2L Login will be posted in My Tri-C space starting on 12/16/2022 on the Blackboard LMS Card (How to videos created and sent to students)
• Live Chat will start for D2L Students on 01/12/2023
• Students will be loaded into D2L via CSV Files on 01/12/2023
• D2L Classes go live on 01/17/2023
• Sandbox Courses for non-teaching faculty will start to be made available on 02/06/2023

12/6/2022

• Testing with the CSV Files from Banner to D2L has started.

12/2/2022

• D2L Student notification have gone out to selected students with D2L Courses.

11/16/22

• OLAT has begun the initial process of conducting a Lecture Capture Review. So far two platforms, Echo360 and Panopto, have presented to DLSC. Recordings of those presentations can be found on the Lecture Capture Review Mediasite Channel.

11/09/22

• A Tri-C Faculty Feedback Session discussing the recent trial of Blackboard Ultra was held on 11/01/22. Representatives from Anthology (Blackboard's parent company), OLAT, and Tri-C faculty were all present. A recording of that session can on the Blackboard Ultra page.

11/02/22

• A D2L video tutorial page has been created.

10/13/22

• An updated D2L Brightspace Training Schedule is now available on the D2L Brightspace page

09/08/22

• D2L Brightspace reps will be on-campus for the training sessions scheduled for Sept. 22 and Oct. 6
• OLAT is working with D2L Brightspace to create a course template
• The OLAT Learning Design team has completed a preliminary look at the data and evaluating processes used and preparing for the comparison of all data once the results from all three LMSs are collected
• The Help Desk is reviewing, researching, and learning the functions of D2L Brightspace in preparation for supporting the platform during the Spring 2022 term
• Help Desk support for Blackboard Learn Ultra will continue through the end of the Fall 2022 term

08/25/22

• OLAT led training dates for D2L Brightspace have been set for Sept. 22 and Oct. 6. Contact Kyle Malmberg for more details
• Four courses during fall 2022 will be testing the new Blackboard Mobile app, the list can be found on the LMS Review Student Resources page

08/11/22

• OLAT will be meeting with Instructure Canvas on 8/30/2022
• A small select group of faculty will be testing the new Blackboard mobile app in live courses over the fall
• OLAT team members will attend two preliminary D2L Brightspace training sessions the week of 08/15/22

08/04/22

• Student reminder for the LMS Review Evaluation will go out tomorrow morning
• All evaluations for Sandbox and LMS Faculty must be turned in by 08/07/2022
• Live Level 2 Chat support for students and faculty using Blackboard Ultra courses will lend on 08/07/2022
• OLAT will have a meeting with D2L Brightspace on 08/11/2022

07/28/22

• The D2L Brightspace server setup has been completed, and sandbox sites for OLAT staff have been created.

07/20/22

• LMS Evaluation forms for faculty and students that are using Blackboard Learn Ultra are now available in their courses.

06/17/22

• Ultra: OLAT has created Ultra Sandbox Course Sites for non-review faculty members to test out.
• D2L: ITS has completed the D2L records in the Domain Name System (DNS) and D2L validated the DNS records.
• OLAT has completed integrating and testing a majority of the high-priority vendors.
• OLAT is in the process of creating Quick How-Tos for faculty on the chosen vendors.

06/16/22

• OLAT has submitted questions to ITS for our Ellucian counterparts to set a date to discuss the Ellucian ILP integration possibilities once a LMS has been chosen.
• OLAT submitted an ASR to End of Life (EOL) the CRN roll over process for spring 2023 (Effectively starting in late October when courses can be requested). By doing this, it effectively ends the re-adding of FERPA-sensitive student data from the existing LMS once the new LMS is chosen and after the LMS review process has been completed. It will also assist in debugging the new LMS by not allowing content that has not been reviewed for more than eight years.  

05/31/22 - Start of Summer Term

With the start of the 2022 summer term several courses are now being taught using the Blackboard Learn Ultra LMS as part of the LMS review. A complete list of the courses can be found on the Student Resources page.

05/26/22 - Live Chat

Live Chat support for students and faculty taking part in the LMS review is now available as part of Tri-C's regular Live Chat service. Just select the new "LMS Review" option to be connected with specially trained Tri-C Staff.

05/23/22 - Student Resources Page

A student-focused Student Resources page has been created. This page hosts a list of all the courses being taught using the LMS currently under review, as well as several links for student support and resources. To limit confusion for our students this page will only house information related to the LMS currently being reviewed - Blackboard Learn Ultra for summer 2022 - when the term ends and we move on to teaching with the next LMS, the page will be updated and previous information will be removed.

05/12/22 - Help for Faculty and Students

Separate help resources for students have been included in all LMS review Blackboard Learn Ultra course sites. Help includes a live chat available seven days a week, a help desk form, video tutorials and a link to Blackboard’s help web pages. 

For faculty, they also have a live chat seven days a week, the help form, video tutorials and a link to the Blackboard help pages. In addition, faculty in the LMS review program have been enrolled in Course Coach, Blackboard’s virtual coaching service. This program combines timely, regular emails with a series of drop-in office hours. The goal of the program is to guide faculty in making improvements to courses, and references both the mechanics of Learn Ultra and best practice in online course design and facilitation. The Course Coach program will begin on the first day of the semester. 

05/11/22 - D2L Brightspace News

• D2L Brightspace is finalizing URL and security certificates, work is continuing with Tri-C’s ITS, Network Security and OLAT on establishing the same Single Sign-on for the LMS review users.
• Within the D2L Brightspace environment super admin and standard admin accounts have been created, other roles privileges are being finalized.
• OLAT has reached out to a few of the high priority venders for documentation outlining the steps to integrate their product into D2L.
• Super Admins have been granted access to D2L’s Community and DataHub websites for training on using their datasets and insights reports.

05/10/22 - Blackboard Learn Ultra News

• Continuing work on identifying system waste (Non-CRN Sites) and improvements on data analytics.
• In preparation for the move to either LMS chosen, testing has begun on the conversion process from OVC to UCV. Original to Ultra first.
• Identifying a select number of resource heavy sites used by students and/or faculty that can be copied to give the conversion process the greatest amount of information.
• Basic Blank Template courses have been tested already.

03/29/22 

• Five LMS Review teams made up of five to six LMS Review faculty and an OLAT staff member have begun collaborating on summer course preparation.
• Blackboard Learn Ultra sandbox sites have been created for each faculty to add content for their summer course.
• Preparations have begun with Brightspace for the D2L review and LMS Reviewer training opportunities for Thursday afternoons in October are being discussed.
• A Help Desk Level 2 Knowledge Base has been created.

03/07/22 - Links to join the Blackboard Community, Submit a Product Idea, or become a Blackboard Ultra Insider have been posted to the Blackboard Learn Ultra page.

02/22/22 - An updated Training and Workshop schedule has been posted to the Blackboard Learn Ultra page.

02/02/22 - A Message from Blackboard:

The Blackboard Product Management team has identified multiple improvements that could be developed to improve the existing Messaging tool and Overall Grade calculation capabilities in Learn Ultra. We would like your help in determining the prioritization of the items included in these project below based off your experience managing Blackboard Learn Ultra and supporting users leveraging the platform.

Survey response close date: Feb. 9, 2022

Survey links:

Potential messaging improvements -  https://forms.office.com/r/S04GQ2ThuA

Potential overall grade display improvements - https://forms.office.com/r/qrAAYBnkic

If you, or any of your members have any questions about the project or the surveys, please reach out to Frederick Klemming (fredrik.klemming@blackboard.com) who is cc’d into this email.

As always, thank you for your help and input.

01/27/22

• OLAT has begun researching "Mass Course Conversion" vendors to assist in course migration once a new LMS has been selected at the end of the LMS review process.
• An LMS assessment/evaluation tool has been created to be used by faculty, students, and staff during the review process.
• D2L/Brightspace has set up a cloud hosted environment. OLAT has begun researching the necessary functions that need to be initiated to fit our online environment.
• Initial talks with Canvas to set up a cloud hosted environment have begun.

01/26/22

• OLAT Representatives have meet with Presidents Council to explain the LMS Review process
• OLAT will be meeting with Deans in March to discuss the LMS Review process
• OLAT Will be sharing the LMS Review process with College Wide Cabinet also in March

12/02/21 - Bb Ultra Training Session: Mastering the Gradebook

11/19/21 - Bb Ultra Training Session: Assessments

11/17/21 - Bb Ultra Training Session: Getting Started with Learn/Presenting Dynamic Content Combo

11/01/21 - OLAT started internally testing Blackboard Ultra courses.