Integrating the Student Information System and Blackboard – you just press a button, right?

Alice Fage, Andrew Matthews and Marcus Uy

About Victoria University of Wellington

• 4 sites within Wellington and 1 in Auckland along with a presence in South East Asia.

• In 2014, Victoria University employed 1,990 full-time equivalent staff, 930 are teaching and research staff

• A total of 20,357 students YTD1 (16,730 EFTS) are enrolled. Of these:– 44.3 % male and 55.7 % female– 17,759 domestic students and 2,598 International students– 9.7% Māori students and5.8% Pacifika students

• In 2014 Victoria awarded 5659 degrees, doctorates, diplomas and certificates.

• 9 Faculties and 27 Schools. 11 Central Service Units, including ITS.121,202 students in 2014

About Victoria University of Wellington

About the Data Integration Project

• Scope of the project– Courses– Student accounts– Student enrolments– Staff assignment to courses

• Systems involved– Learning Management System (Blackboard)– Student Management Systems (Ellucian Banner)– Identity Management Systems (multiple)

• Business owners– Centre for Academic Development (Blackboard)– Student Academic Services (Banner)– Information Technology Services

Stakeholders and end-users

• CAD

• SAS

• ITS

• Lecturers

• School Admins

• Students

Drivers and Goals

• Replace existing integration– Unsupported technology (server versions, Snapshot, Crystal Reports)– Did not support functional changes– Move to Managed Hosting

• Make full use of Banner and Blackboard functionality

• Reduce administrative overhead

• Drive improvements in business processes

Stages of the Project

• Requirements gathering

• RFP process

• Project– Phases– VUW project team– Blackboard SIS mentoring service team

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Blackboard Consulting

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Why SIS Framework?

• Reduced manual labor for data entry

• Improved service delivery to end-users

• Consistency in data across systems

• Launching point for expanded platform usage

• Comes in a few flavors in terms of the data feeds/files that are presented to Blackboard

• Flat file is popular because it supports the widest range of data types, and in many instances is very easy to manipulate

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Support for Data Types

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Manipulating Flat files

#! /bin/bash

OLDFEED="$1"NEWFEED="$2"STORFEED="ready_store.snap"DEL1FEED="ready_delete1.snap"DEL2FEED="ready_delete2.snap"DELIM="|"

# Check if Old Feed File is Readableif [ -r "$OLDFEED" ];then # Check if New Feed File is Readable if [ -r "$NEWFEED" ]; then # Extract Feed File Headers OLDHEAD="$(head -n 1 $OLDFEED)" NEWHEAD="$(head -n 1 $NEWFEED)"

# Test if Feed File Headers Match if [ "$OLDHEAD" == "$NEWHEAD" ]; then echo "" echo "GENERATE STORE" echo "$NEWHEAD" | tee "$STORFEED" grep -v -x -f "$OLDFEED" "$NEWFEED" | tee -a "$STORFEED"

echo "" echo "GENERATE DELETE1" echo "$NEWHEAD" | tee "$DEL1FEED" grep -v -x -f "$NEWFEED" "$OLDFEED" | tee -a

"$DEL1FEED"

echo "" echo "GENERATE DELETE2" echo "$NEWHEAD" | tee "$DEL2FEED" awk -F "$DELIM" 'FNR==NR{a[$1]; next}; !($1 in a)' "$STORFEED" "$DEL1FEED" | tee -a "$DEL2FEED"

# Explanation for awk script: # FNR == NR: # This test is true when the number of records is equal to the number of records in the file. # This is only true for the first file, for the second file NR will be equal to the number # of lines of STORFEED + FNR. # a[$1]: # Create an array element index of the first field of STORFEED. # next: # skip to the next record so no more processing is done on STORFEED. # !($1 in a): # See if the first field ($1) is present in the array, ie in STORFEED, and print the whole line # (to DEL2FEED). # $1: # Adjust this column positional value to encompass one or more External Keys for the feed file # (e.g. $1$3 is the first and third columns). # Based on one of the examples from the #awk

wiki.

echo "" echo "Processing complete. Load $DEL1FEED *or* $DEL2FEED against your preferred DELETE endpoint before loading $STORFEED to a suitable STORE endpoint. Confirm the configuration (store/disable/purge) of your endpoint(s) prior to processing." fi else ###echo "$NEWFEED is missing" echo "Usage: $0 [oldfeedfile] [newfeedfile]" fielse ###echo "$OLDFEED is missing" echo "Usage: $0 [oldfeedfile] [newfeedfile]"fi

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Manipulating Flat files

• It’s easy to do using simple scripts

• The magic is mostly in TWO commands:

grep -v -x -f "$OLDFEED" "$NEWFEED“

and

awk -F "$DELIM" 'FNR==NR{a[$1]; next}; !($1 in a)' "$STORFEED" "$DEL1FEED"

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Beyond SIS Framework

• As more clients move to managed services, we’ve noted a “blip” in terms of interest around Web-Services/SOAP

• Blackboard Learn supports SOAP

• In the SIS context is it used in a support role to enhance feedback channels, e.g. checking if a particular user has been updated correctly

• Plays an enhanced role beyond using the SIS built-in Data Set Status URL:

https:// ... /webapps/bb-data-integration-flatfile-BBLEARN/endpoint/dataSetStatus/afc3d6e84df84f51944a06cccee8f59a

• Is a project unto itself, due to some level of complexity, but very powerful once mastered… With a caveat that we will be seeing an improved REST API very soon

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Overall Project Path

ITS involvement in the project

• Requirements gathering workshops

• Blackboard technical and functional expertise

• Banner technical and functional expertise

• Liaison with business owners

• Liaison with Blackboard SIS Mentoring Service team

• Technical build and deployment

Blackboard SIS Mentoring Service

• [Yoda image]

Challenges

• Assumptions– Accuracy of data in Banner– Ways in which Banner was used– Ways in which Blackboard was used– Business process issues

• Move to Managed Hosting– Resources stretched across projects– Technical environment management– No direct access to databases

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More Challenges

• Conflicting requirements

We don’t want any delays for students in going into their

Blackboard courses. As soon as they express interest they should be in so

they don’t miss anything

First name should show first nameEmail address should be

institutional email address

First name should show preferred name

Students must only get access to their courses when

they are fully registered

Email address should be their preferred email address

We want to see some withdrawn students in our courses

We don’t want to see any withdrawn students in our courses

Decisions

• Technical architecture

• Integration model

• Timing– Academic calendar– No going back…

• Scope / requirements included– Project phases

Decision-Making Principles

• Cost vs benefit

• Strategic alignment

• Impact and risk

• Reasons for change or keeping status quo

• Future-proofing

• End-user documentation as part of the process

Project Status

• Phase 1 Part 1 in production– Full automation of students, courses and student enrolments

• Phase 1 Part 2– Staff assignment, technical completed, business process to come

• Phase 2– Course Outlines into Bb and anything left from Phase 1

Outcomes

• Old system replaced

• New functionality in use

• New processes in place

• Phase 1 implemented (mostly…)

• Built a network of people with the right skills

• Reduced some administrative overheads

What didn’t work well

• Implementation timeframe– Additional manual workarounds required– Had to commit to project before completion

• Lack of dedicated project resources

What worked well

• Workshops and requirements gathering– Thorough– Wide range of participants– Well documented

• Longer term improved relationships with stakeholders

• Good communications and consultation

• Tight alignment with University strategy

Reflections

• Different opinions and requirements – every School is different

• Competing projects within a congested programme

• Interdependencies within systems and projects – the new norm

• Triggered a lot of new thinking around our use of Blackboard

• Always provide biscuits

Future Enhancements

• Next phases– Staff assignment to courses– Staff self-provisioning of course materials– Course Outlines– Blackboard Organisations– Unknowns

• System may have a limited lifespan – new products

• Grade Exchange from Blackboard to Banner?

Grades Journey

• Overview of Grades Journey

• Michael Garner’s session– Thursday 3.15pm in Hickinbotham Hall

Contacts

• Andrew Matthews: andrew.Matthews@vuw.ac.nz

• Alice Fage: alice.fage@vuw.ac.nz

• Marcus Uy: marcus.uy@blackboard.com

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