On 10/03/2010 09:08, Adam Elce wrote:

> I’m after some guidance with regards to the promotion, or encouragement
> of usage of the Blackboard VLE.


I can't help with a foolproof way of increasing adoption or improving
the quality.  There are some academic staff and some students who will
follow the path of least resistance.  If there's no pressing need to use
the VLE then they won't do it and there's very little that can be done
to change that.  Unfortunately at the point where they are forced to use
the VLE they will leave it to the last minute, avoid all training, and
then blame IT services when they have no idea how to use it.

I was once given some advice by Stephen Bruce at Napier University.  He
said that there are three types of people:  early adopters who will
explore the limits of the what the software can do and use every
resource to develop their content; the stalwarts who will avoid using
the vle at all costs making every effort to pick any kind of fault with
it; and the majority.

His advice was to ignore the early adopters as they will find their own
way and come to you when they need help.  Ignore the stalwarts as they
will never be happy and you will frustrate yourself trying.  What you
need to do is focus on the majority, the ones who would use it if they
could, the ones who are curious but don't know how to start.

Making a generalisation I would say that the most successful
schools/faculties here at Keele are those who have someone technical who
is an expert in writing courses.  They build the templates and do all
the fiddly bits while the academics focus more on the core content.
There is still a predominance of PDF files, but at least the icons,
descriptions and photos make the course look appealing and most courses
in that school have a presence on the VLE.  There is no reason why an
excellent teacher should also be gifted at building VLE courses and
having someone construct the course leaving spaces for the academic
content can make a big difference.

Other schools benefit from "early adopters" so elsewhere things can
still work well with the early adopter helping and encouraging other staff.

Jon