TEL029 Completion Report
Project Summary:
Technology enhanced learning is playing a vital part in supporting change within Schools through facilitating pilots of assessment systems and working with Student Services to improve processes. This project is one of a series of the development of pilot projects exploring the use of technologies and functionality for innovative assessment and feedback practice. It carries on from TEL014 (Online Assessment Evaluations - Adaptive Learning which delivered 9 lectures within Introduction to Geophysics (EASC08008) and 10 lectures within Global Tectonics and the Rock Cycle (EASC08020) via the CogBooks platform (which is reached by a link in Learn).
The project will focus on three main areas
- The update of materials created in TEL014 plus the creation of new materials in CogBooks
- Improvements to the student and staff feedback surveys
- Improvements to the system analytics
Objectives and Deliverables
No | Description | Delivered? | Reason for not delivering |
O1 | Update and creation of course materials | Yes |
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D1 | Technical issues resolved | Yes |
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D2 | Updated current materials | Yes |
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D3 | Creation of new materials | Yes |
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O2 | Improvements to the student and staff feedback surveys | Partial | Surveys had been updated by lead editor but at time of project closure had not been delivered to students |
D4 | Updated student and staff feedback surveys | Partial |
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O3 | Improvements to the system analytics | Withdrawn
| Withdrawn SME and Lead Editor believed that the current analytics delivered what they required |
D5 | Configuration of analytics | Withdrawn
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Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 23 days
Staff Usage Actual: 26 days
Staff Usage Variance: 13%
Other Resource Estimate: 1 days
Other Resource Actual: 1 days
Other Resource Variance: 0%
Explanation for variance:
Cost
- The project was approved by WIS as a 23 day project (planning milestone)
- Budget was increased from 23 days to 30 days on 13 May 2016 in order to accommodate the completion of iteration 3 materials which extended the closure date to 29 July 16. However this extension turned out not to warrant the same level of project management as the initial work and the project completed in 25 days.
Time
Major milestones | Project Brief date | Actual date | Reason |
Project brief & Planning | 11-Dec-15 | 6-Jan-16 | Due to annual leave and sick leave |
Deploy to Live Iteration 1 | 11-Jan-16 | 11-Jan-16 | It was expected that some materials would have to be carried over. Lectures 15 and 16 from Global Tectonics were not included in the signoff as there were issues in authoring. They were included in iteration 2. |
Technical issues updates | 1-Feb-16 | 10-Feb-16 | Took longer than expected to confirm |
Deploy to Live Iteration 2 | 22-Feb-16 | 17-Feb-16 | Deployed on time but were late in delivering to CogBooks. CogBooks graciously rearranged their dates to accommodate us to ensure the materials were delivered on time |
Deploy to Live Iteration 3 | 11 Apr-16 | Withdrawn
| Iteration 3 materials are not being released until semester 1 in 16/17 so will not actually be deployed within this project. Materials will just be signed of as ready to use within the project. Materials were ready on 19 July |
Close | 3-May-16 | 29-Jul-16 | Due to iteration 3 delays and authors extended contract |
Issues
- Lead editor tested to ensure he could get all data out of CogBooks in XML format and confirmed it is possible to repurpose the content. There is a Course Export option in XML available in the latest Authoring platform. This ensures the content is not locked-down to CogBooks and can be recovered and repurposed in a different platform (e.g. as a ‘flat’ website) through the use of stylesheets and XLST transformation.
- Iteration 2 materials were late but CogBooks rearranged their dates to accommodate us and worked with us to deliver on time
- Iteration 3 milestones were due to be deployed on 11 April but the author working on iteration 3 had his contract extended to the end of July which meant he was would be developing iteration 3 materials within this time. This impacted the closure date of the project and the project was extended to 29 July.
- Iteration 3: The format had changed from lectures to topics but we also went into iteration 3 without a decision on which materials were going into it so was increasingly difficult to plan it. PM raised awareness with project sponsor around delivery but lead editor was able to agree dates for delivery to CogBooks.
Key Learning Points:
- LTW informed that they need to look at the authoring processes when using CogBooks but the Lead editor was able to confirm that latest CogBooks authoring system is more integrated and editing of materials much simpler than in earlier versions (it is possible to edit and preview the course/content in a single interface) making the process of last minute changes much easier and straightforward.
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Outstanding issues:
- Feedback surveys were continually delayed and at the time of closure have still to be delivered to students. Lead editor has however updated them from last year but the surveys and the collation of their feedback will now have to be delivered outside the project. As the delivery of materials is still running from GeoSciences they will collect this data and collate with feedback from the Semester1 – 2016-2017.
- Iteration 3 materials to be deployed outside the project in semester 1 2016/17. All this will involve is setting the LTI parameters for Learn connectivity for early September (Lead editor informed that was not an issue as they know it works and is just a matter of adding a couple of lines of code to the connector)
- SME and Lead Editor believe that the current analytics within CogBooks deliver what they required. They said however that it was difficult to evaluate without student data and they will have better feedback once more data comes through students' use. They will therefore monitor this outside the project but any updates would come under future improvements (i.e. no development within this project)
- Lead editor will investigate who else is expressing an interest in authoring outside the project
- Following an internal consultation with the GeoSciences Teaching Organisation Wyn Williams, SME, and Eduardo Serafin. Lead Editor are to meet with Jo Spiller and Amy Woodgate in September to discuss how GeoSciences can capitalise from the CogBooks experience and look at options to move forward.
- Initial investigations into the CogBooks contract did not give enough information should we wish to take any work forward. Project Manager contacted CogBooks to ask advice about contracts and they are now following this up with the project sponsor outside the project.
- It should be noted that GeoSciences paid a license fee up to Semester 1 of the Academic Year 2016 but any work they undertake in this will not be part of TEL029.