Overview

Background

Collaborate is the University supported virtual classroom/online meeting service. Collaborate is used for online teaching, virtual office hours, one-to-one meetings, tutorial space, student discussions or informal chat. Collaborate is available to all students and staff, who can schedule Collaborate meetings via MyEd and can invite people from within or outwith the University to a Collaborate session; they do not have to be members of the University. Collaborate is utilised widely across the organisation, for example Student Recruitment and Admissions run very successful online open days using the tool. It is integrated with the University VLEs (Learn and Moodle) and MyEd, so is easy to access and use from a variety of entry points. 

Since the upgrade from Collaborate to Collaborate Ultra some features were lost and although they are gradually being released this has led to some dissatisfaction from users and there are still some users experiencing technical issues. At a recent meeting the virtual classroom user group voiced an interest in reviewing what other market place products are available. Skype for Business is now available through the University's Office 365 subscription and may offer a similar feature set to Collaborate. In particular the group chat software will be investigated to see if it is available in the institution and if it provides comparable functionality to the existing solution. There are significant functional differences between the products and their integration with various learning environments that need to be considered. Other market products such as Adobe Connect and Moodle's BigBlueButton will also be reviewed to see if they have been enhanced since the last review (https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/insite/Collaborate+Matrix).

The current Blackboard Collaborate contract ends 31/07/17. This project will review the current product and the market, to ensure that our current provision is meeting user requirements whilst offering the university value for money. The APUC Framework agreement for Blackboard is in the final stages but is not expected to be completed until late February 2017. The decision to continue or replace Collaborate will therefore have a bearing on license negotiations for Blackboard in 2018. 

It is important to note that if the decision is to replace Collaborate with a different tool, this will not be implemented until summer 2018 at the earliest. The adoption of Collaborate Ultra is still relatively recent and we recognise the change effort required to move to another tool. The licence for Collaborate Ultra will therefore be renewed in July 2017 to ensure continuity. 

Scope

This project will review the current virtual classroom/online meeting solution (Collaborate Ultra) to identify any areas of functionality working well and any that are working less well or missing

It will provide up to date market analysis of virtual classroom/online meeting tools to allow a decision to be made about the most suitable solution for the University

The Collaborate license should be renewed at the end of July 2017 for 12 months. However, should another tool be selected as the preferred longer-term option, a procurement process should be initiated and further work will be required to manage the change to a new provider in 2018.

Objectives

To articulate what the University requires from its virtual classroom/online meeting solution

To review Collaborate and other tools against these requirements 

To ensure the University's virtual classroom/online meeting solution meets the organisation's requirements and offers best value

Deliverables

D1 A Project Brief (must have)

D2 An options appraisal document to inform a decision about the Collaborate license renewal that includes:

- A list of functionality (e.g. integration with Learn and Moodle) required by the University in its virtual classroom/online meeting solution (must have)

- A list of features (e.g. virtual classrooms, group chat) required by the University in its virtual classroom/online meeting solution (must have)

- A market analysis of virtual classroom/online meeting solutions (will include Collaborate, Skype for Business, Adobe Connect, BigBlueButton and others) (must have)

- A matrix showing a clear comparison of tools and the functionality that they provide / do not provide (should have)

- A review of what other Russell Group institutions are using (should have)

D3 A decision about the course of action from July 2017 (must have)

D4 A Project closure report (must have)

Benefits

Students and staff are able to access reliable virtual classroom/online meeting services to deliver and participate in online teaching, meetings and discussions with ease

To ensure that future virtual classroom/online meeting provision meets user requirements whilst offering the University value for money 

Success Criteria

An agreed plan of action for the University's virtual classroom solution from July 2018

The agreed solution should deliver the features and functionality required by the University for online teaching, meetings and discussions

Feedback from the user group on the results of the review will indicate if we have adequately reviewed the current provision and other tools on the market

Project Milestones