A group of folk at Durham last week discussed how we might better work together in the UK in make effective use of the Bb Content Management System, and support Blackboard development by specifying and lobbying for key enhancements.
We also agreed that it would be appropriate to use this usergroup list to communicate generally as the UK Bb community may be interested in the issues and development of the CMS.
We also proposed that those available may meet in Cardiff in February 2006 to discuss the prioritisation of the feature enhancements that we might identify. This is unlikely to be a large meeting, but those unable to attend could forward their thoughts to the meeting. Everyone is extended an invitation, but it is likely to be of most interest to those using or planning to make use of the Bb CMS.
Notes of items for enhancement are below. This list is not in any order, a number are similar, and other items will be missing. Please forward additions to me directly and I will keep the list up-to-date.
- Metadata flexibility. Issues of adding wider search capabilities, flexibility of metadata, packaging of metadata with the asset.
- Support delegated management of content at the department, academic and student level
- Support for development of high value content (accessible / searchable)
- Support for resource discovery (DC metadata/searchable)
- Tools to support import /export of entire directories of files of content
- Ability to move/copy resources. Can the movement of assets between folders be engineered?
- Greater management of content information. E.g. cope with orphaned content, space allocations by role, course, etc.
- Standards compliant * for packaging and import /export of LTOs (SCORM 2004)
- Full archives and backup tools for material in the CMS.
- Resolve the issues of persistent cookies.
- ePortfolio assessment rubrics.
- ePortfolio management tools * instructors to be able to view, manage, remove, reorganise.
- CMS and ePortfolio compatibility with Bb Backpack. Students to be able to download resources and work off line. How important is upload? Recognises the potential importance of synchronisation with the desktop as storage space within an ePortfolio area is likely to be limited.
- External links in. Greater ability to support the serving of material to external VLE type systems which should be able link securely to content in the
- External links out. Support the ability to link to content within other CMS sources, repositories. Do we need better metatagging, packaging etc.
- CMS Building Block development. How can we utilise these? Should we expect different APIs to be made available? Should we coordinate independent building block development?
- Use of Global Services to develop UK CMS solutions. Are there areas we should team together to be able to fund a joint building block extension.
- Sharing CMS training resources. How can we facilitate this?
- Developing policy and procedures for ePortfolio publication. Recognising this represents a developing, potentially controversial area.
- ePortfolio import and export.
- Ability to make some changes to the graphical user interface * eg change the grey background.
- Facility for virus scanning.
Richard
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