Is Your Blackboard

Getting Its Five-a-Day?

Planning & Controlling Your SIS IntegrationNicola Randles, Rob Oakes & Gareth Hall

Staffordshire University

9th April 2013

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Who Are We?

• Business Applications Group• Information Services• Project leaders on Blackboard 9 since Easter

2012

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Objectives & Takeaways

• What this session is about…– Planning your Bb integration

• What this session is not about…– Step-by-step technical guide to SIS

• By the end of this session you should know…– What to feed Blackboard– When to feed it– Some planning tools and strategies – How to implement your plan

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Session Outline

• Where are you now?• Why change?• How to change

– Identifying stakeholders– Blackboard ‘diet’– Data mapping– SIS integration how-to

• Reflection/Q & A

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Where Are You Now?

SnapshotSnapshot

No Integration (Fully Manual)No Integration (Fully Manual)

Semi-AutomatedSemi-Automated

SIS IntegrationSIS Integration

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Why Change?

• No Integration (Fully Manual)/Semi-Automated– Time-consuming and error-prone– Mismatches with other systems

• Snapshot– Deprecated from Bb9 SP8– Not user-friendly – command-line

• Student Information System (SIS) Data Integration Framework

– Easy to support– Includes latest Bb objects (e.g. Terms)

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Poll Us!

What is your #1 issue with your current Bb integration?

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How to Change

• ‘Clean sheet’ approach• Revisit business processes• Involvement of stakeholders• Identify current issues• Holistic perspective• Connecting your relevant systems – logically

and technically

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Identifying Stakeholders

• Why?– Promotes ownership of business processes– Identifies areas of potential change– Understand who’s involved– Gain experience and insight

• Implications for our SIS integration– All courses created automatically– One-to-one mapping– All staff given Blackboard accounts

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Identifying Stakeholders• How? – Modelling

– Models help us by letting us work at a higher level of abstraction. A model may do this by hiding or masking details, bringing out the big picture, or by focusing on different aspects of the prototype. [UML User Guide]

• Technique 1: Use Case– A view of a system that emphasizes the behavior as it appears

to outside users. …Partitions system functionality into transactions that are meaningful to users. [Introduction to UML]

• Technique 2: Business Domain Model– Conceptual model of all the topics related to a specific

problem. It describes the various entities, their attributes, roles, and relationships, plus the constraints that govern the problem domain. [UML User Guide]

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Technique 1: Use Case

Student

A process – something that happens within the business function

An actor– something that interacts with the business function to achieve a specific goal

Search for Book

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Exercise: Use Case

• Example: Online teaching and learning business function

– Who are the actors?– What is their involvement?– Can you include them in your planning?– What are the processes?

Please split into groups of ~4 and have a go

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Technique 1: Use Case

Benefits:• Identified people• Identified potential entities and functions within SIS integration

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Technique 2: Business Domain Model

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What Next?

Your Business

Blackboard

…Now let’s consider Blackboard

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Blackboard Diet – 5+ a Day

• What can it eat?– Users– Terms– Courses– Course memberships– Organisations– Organisation memberships

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Blackboard Diet – Users

Academic Staff Admin Staff Students

Users

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Blackboard Diet – User Drill-Down

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Blackboard Diet

• What should you feed it? A lean diet!– What’s the purpose of your Bb system?– What data is relevant to your purposes?– Don’t overfeed your system– Who will be the data owner of each field?

E.g. Surname

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Blackboard Diet

• When should you feed it?– How fresh should your data be?– Options:

Store Refresh Delete

– Decide your feeding schedule– Review your feeding schedule

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What Next?

Your Business

Blackboard

…Data Mapping – Slice / Dice / Blend

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Slicing - Map Bb entities to one or more data sources

• Issues with doing this with brought-in systems

Your Business

Blackboard

?

?

?

?

?

?

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Exercise: Slicing

• What are your relevant data sources?• What Bb entities do they map to?

Have a go in your groups

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Exercise: Slicing

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Dicing – Map Bb attributes to fields in your data sources

• Look at the Bb entity’s attributes– Stick to your lean diet!– Not malnourished!

• Map attributes using a data-driven approach - look at what is stored, not how

• Look at issues of consistency both in a single data-source and across multiple ones

• Identify missing data– Use Blackboard or create a new source?

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Dicing – Missing Data

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Dicing – Missing Data

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Blending– Amalgamate your data sources into a single interface

Blackboard

SRS

ID Mgmt.

Personnel Interface

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Blending

• Advantages– Provides a level of data agnosticism should things

change– One main place to look for problems– Makes it easier to apply consistency between disparate

data sources

• Disadvantages– More upfront development– An extra link in the chain

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SIS Implementation

• Core Concepts– Data Source Keys– File types– Transfer mechanisms

• Practical Integration Implementation

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SIS Implementation

• Data Source Keys– Conceptual container– Way of organising and categorising– Why use them?

Makes archiving easier Separates your data from ‘system’ data

– Examples One per academic year One per entity

– Consider applicability to different entities

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SIS Implementation

• File types– XML– Flat file

• Transfer mechanisms– HTTP POST– Manual upload– Web service (IMS only)

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Practical Demonstration

• Example of how to set up SIS Integrations in Blackboard

• Demonstration is not all-encompassing!• In reality, this is the culmination of your

discussions and planning – should be easier as you’ve planned properly!

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Conclusion: SIS – Advantages for Us

• Speed of access to VLE for students after module enrolment

– Much positive feedback received

• Easy for IS staff to answer queries• Involvement of stakeholders/actors means

knowledge of processes is less siloed • Impetus to enhance virtual learning provision

at our institution

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Poll Review

What is your #1 issue with your current Bb integration?

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Q&A/Reflection

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/bbtlc5aday