This slidedeck summarises lessons learned from the JISC-funded W2C (Widgets, Web services and Cloud services) project, which demonstrated that a core VLE (Moodle) could be extended through a service-oriented approach to wrap useful resources around the learner

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DVLE Programme Showcase: W2C
Widgets, Web services & Cloud services
January 2012
Professor Mark Stubbs
Head of Learning & Research Technologies
m.stubbs@mmu.ac.uk | http://twitter.com/thestubbs
Context | Objectives | Outcomes | Reflection
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 1

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Context: MMU
• Large, popular, multi-campus university
– 37,000+ students | 1,000+ courses | 7 sites
• Major institutional change
– new buildings | new curriculum | new admin processes & systems |
new learning & mobile technologies | new quality processes

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W2C objectives (from July 2010)
• enhance VLE for current & future needs
• enhance user satisfaction of learning systems
• understand engagement & success
• facilitate discovery of learning resources
• accelerate understanding of educational widgets
• share lessons learned
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W2C outcomes (at Dec 2011)
• enhance VLE for current & future needs
– institution-wide Core+ DVLE architecture based around Moodle
• enhance user satisfaction of learning systems
– improved perception of „hygiene‟ factors: organisation & resources
• understand engagement & success
– partnering with ULCC
• facilitate discovery of learning resources
– partnering with Talis Aspire
• accelerate understanding of educational widgets
– experimented but „played safe‟ with Moodle blocks & campusM
• share lessons learned
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c 4

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Our Core+ DVLE model
Scenarios & focus group work for VLE
review led us to conclude that we
needed to be alive to emergence…
Learning technologies not isolated :
interaction with personal and
administrative systems and underlying
infrastructure are major determinants of
the quality of the overall experience
Arranged: we set up & train staff to use
Recommended: staff set up & we train
to integrate
Recognised: watch & learn how staff
use them
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http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview

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Integrated core of our DVLE architecture
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And making it all work …
• Consistent tagging (so relevant data can be aggregated)
• Web services (to power the aggregation)
• Moodle block (to present personalised results)
– Every Moodle course area set up as Code_AcYear_Occurrence
– We know the Moodle authenticated user & course area id so we have
everything we need to query corporate systems for relevant content…
UserID Code AcYear Occurrence
Announcements X X X X
Deadlines X X X X
Timetable X X X X
Reading list X X
Podcasts X X
Past papers X 7

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And what does it look like …
“simple”
“organised”
“resources are easy to find”
Behind the scenes…
a Moodle block calls &
displays xhtml output from
“mega-mashup” web service
which gets content from:
• Coursework receipting system
• Talis Aspire reading
• ….
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And has it improved student satisfaction?
• We‟ll have to wait & see in the NSS !
• We compared responses from 8,000+ students on our internal survey
over 2 years + found evidence of improved scores for course
organisation & resources:
4.5%
4.0%
3.5%
3.0%
2.5% Year 1
2.0% Year 2
1.5% Year 3
1.0%
Year 4
0.5%
0.0%
Improvement in Improvement in Improvement
9
Organisation Resources Overall

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And weren‟t you doing mobile too?
• We‟ve been asking students about their mobile info needs
• Multi-method approach triangulating surveys & interviews
• Standard survey questions agreed with other universities
– Device ownership & contract limitations
– Device usage & previous experience
– Preferences & priorities
• Self-selecting survey sample
– Followed a link from student portal
• Responses
– First term 2010: n=980
– First term 2011: n=343 (ongoing)
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Mobile survey results
Q4 2010 (n = 980) Q4 2011 (n = 343 so far)
Smartphone ownership Smartphone ownership
#1 Blackberry 19% #1 Apple 29%
#2 Apple 18% #2 Blackberry 24%
#3 Android 8% #3 Android 19%
Most useful mobile features Most useful mobile features
#1 Course/info deadlines (79%) #1 Course/info deadlines (80%)
#2 Course/exam timetables (76%) #2 Course/exam timetables (76%)
#3 Accessing VLE (56%) #3 Accessing VLE (75%)
#4 Library account (48%) #4 Library account (47%)
#5 PC Availability (42%) #5 PC Availability (38%)
IT used several times a day IT used several times a day
#1 Websites (67%) #1 Websites (76%)
#2 Email (51%) #2 Email (62%)
#3 Facebook (49%) #3 Facebook (60%)

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Reported device ownership (Q4 2010)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60% iPod Touch
50% iPhone
Blackberry
40% Android
30%
20%
10%
0%
F < 20 M < 20 F 20-29 M 20-29 F 30-39 M 30-39 F 40+ M 40+

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Device-led interviews (Q1 2011)

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Mobile use when studying (Q4 2011)
Checking deadlines/timetables
Discussing/arranging coursework
Listening to music/blocking noise
Accessing learning materials
Looking up references
Taking notes
Producing coursework
Voting/interacting in class
Commenting on learning
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
% of respondents

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Device registrations of our CampusM users
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And are the students using it?
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W2C
• an ambitious project supporting an ambitious change
programme, which demonstrated how
– value can be added to a core VLE through web services
– strong strategic partnerships can deliver a “core+” VLE
through shared services
• eg Moodle, EQUELLA, Talis Aspire
– consistent tagging can enable content to be aggregated
around the user
• And proved that a mega-mashup service-oriented
approach can work at institutional scale