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Learning and Teaching Investment Fund final report

Beyond Blackboard Course Shells: what


on earth are they using?
Project leader Howard Errey
College of Design and Social Context
6 January 2015
Strategic objectives addressed:
This project contributes to RMIT University’s strategic plan by identifying use of online learning
tools (other than Blackboard course shells) and practices across all sectors. This included all three
colleges of the university and the project discovered what online tools are being used, and why and
how Blackboard program level shells are being used.

The project encouraged academics/teachers to embed new and innovative technologies into their
curriculum to support learning and teaching for a global audience, building creative solutions that
transform the future of teaching and learning at RMIT.

This project showed that all RMIT staff, across all three colleges, can support a global, connected
and responsive university by developing policies, processes and professional development, to
support academics/teachers to deliver excellent education and research. It also aligned with the
academic/teacher plan to improve the student cohort experience.

Internal order number: 360416


Project leader: Howard Errey
Email: ​howard.errey@rmit.edu.au
Phone: 0407770667
Project team members:
● Erika Beljaars-Harris
● John Benwell
● Rosemary Chang

Funding scheme LTIF contestable X


(please type an ‘X’ in Program Development Fund
the correct box)
RMIT Vietnam Program Development Fund

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1 Executive summary
The Beyond Blackboard Course Shells: What on Earth are they Using? project arose out of
numbers from the the RMIT University Office of the Dean for Learning and Teaching (ODLT)
indicating hits per student per course in Blackboard course shells. These numbers indicated that
the college of Design and Social Context (DSC) had significantly lower numbers than for the other
two university colleges, Science, Education and Healtth (SEH) or Business. Anecdotal evidence
suggested that an equivalent amount of online learning, if not more, was occurring. Much work was
known to be occurring in program based shells or non-award (NONA) shells in Blackboard, for
Vocatioal Education (VE) delivery and vertical studios. Additionally the use of tools other than
Blackboard was known to be prominent. Notwithstanding that numbers of hits in no way represents
any quality of design or quality of student experience, questions were raised as to what might be
occurring. Numbers can be made to appear as statistics, or worse, various guises of analytics,
ending up on board room tables of the university decision makers. As a result it was decided the
matter required further investigation, hence the question inferable from the title of this project.

This project set out to use contacts within the college of DSC and the other two colleges, to initially,
via word of mouth, uncover stories of how lecturers were using Blackboard and other tools. Good
practice examples were sought and interviews were conducted which were recorded, usually as
videos. Interviews were written up into blog posts with the aim of reporting on and contextualising
the projects activity within the RMIT community and beyond. Out of the earlier blog posts and
conversations emerging around these posts, a series of six workshops were conducted for the
purposes of further amplifying the context of diversifying online practice, networking across
disciplines and providing professional development. Later in the year a university wide staff survey
was conducted to further explore the extent of the use of Blackboard and other tools. Interviews
and online tool usage data from Vietnam was also included.

The ‘Whatonearth’ project was an unprecedented success in terms of awareness raising, cross
college collaboration and generating much better understanding of the use of online education
tools at RMIT. Workshop attendance numbers from staff were consistently high with a lively
audience participation in each event. Survey results confirmed that while Blackboard usage may
not be as high as in other colleges, the use of other tools, whilst occurring in all schools, is clearly
greater in DSC. Preliminary outcomes from the project were reported at the Ascilite 2015
conference.The blog will continue and it is hoped that the data emerging from the surveys and
interviews will be further analysed toward another conference paper.

The project team would like to thank the ODLT for funding the project and we look forward to
hopefully fulfilling the high expectations of our forthcoming learner analytics project.

2 Outcomes
Blog Results
The project blog (​www.whatonearth14.wordpress.com​) was established to collect and curate
examples of good practice.
Blog Hits
The blog was viewed 2485 times which is low by blog standards. Reasons for this are discussed in
part 2.

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Number of posts 35

Number of interviews 26

Best day (Wednesday 27 August) 109 hits

total views 2014 2485

total comments 21

Hits per Month


August was the peak month due to 2 workshops and considerable blog activity.

Top Referring sites

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Top Blog Posts


The top post represented an outstanding example of good practice in Google Sites. It was also
pleasing that one of the posts representing innovative Blackboard activity is included.

Top 10 blog posts Hits to date

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/06/2 266
3/google-sites-lms-everything-in-one-place/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/08/2 115
6/michael-fedyk-on-flickr/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/08/1 99
3/samantha-vardanedga-on-getting-started-wit
h-youtube/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/09/1 97
5/samantha-vardanega-get-started-with-google
-sites-and-blogger/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/08/0 82
6/joyce-seitzinger-on-personal-learning-networ
ks/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/10/0 77
8/twitter-for-strategic-management/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/07/1 60
6/student-peer-assessment-with-google-forms/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/06/1 56
9/naomi-herzog-on-engagement-facebook-and
-juxtapost/

http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/10/0 52
3/view-from-vietnam/

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http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/10/2 51
9/photography-on-facebook-immediate-social-
global/

A full infographic of the key blog statistics can be found here:


http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/annual-report/

Workshops
6 Workshops were conducted around the use of Blackboard and other tools during 2014.

Speaker/s & Topic Date & Time Attendance

Vision for eLearning 2 July Attended by 45


Geoff Crisp academic
RMIT University development
specialists

Mixing Learning Design and Personal Learning Wed, 6 August Attended by 52


Networks Workshop 1.00 - 2.00 pm teaching and
Joyce Seitzinger professional staff
Academic Tribe
twitter feed:
https://storify.com/RoseyChang/joyce-seitzinger-on-perso
nal-learning-networks

Get started with YouTube Tues, 19 August Attended by 50


Samantha Vardanega 1.00 - 2.00 pm teaching and
iSimplify Solutions professional staff

Get Started with Google Sites & Blogger Wed, 8 Oct Attended by 60
Samantha Vardanega 1.00 - 2.00 pm teaching and
iSimplify Solutions professional staff
twitter feed:
https://storify.com/RoseyChang/samantha-vardanega-get
-started-on-google-sites-and

The Basics and Beyond Wed, 19 Nov Attended by 38


Gregor Kennedy & 12.30 - 1.30 pm teaching and
Travis Cox professional staff
University of Melbourne
twitter feed:
https://storify.com/RoseyChang/blackboard-basics-and-b
eyond-with-prof-gregor-kenn

Going Beyond: Celebrating the possibilities Monday 1 Dec Attended by 35


Panel consisting of: 12:30pm teaching and
Tania Lacey (host) professional staff
Zosh Pawlaczek

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Jason Downes
Claire Beale
twitter feed:
https://storify.com/RoseyChang/going-beyond

Survey results
The survey was conducted between September and November 2014 with over 120 responses
across three colleges. The project demonstrate widespread use of other tools. In particular it both
reflects the current differences in Blackboard usage between colleges and differences in use of
other tools between colleges.

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Survey results can be viewed in a summary presentation here ​http://bit.ly/1BSA5LW


Full Survey results can be viewed here ​http://bit.ly/1uyUD89
The DSC college marketing team were a great help in promoting the project survey toward the end
of the project.

So What on Earth are they Using?


Research Question 1: Do staff use Blackboard?

The vast majority of survey respondents (92.7%) reported using Blackboard. All respondents from
SEH and Business reported using Blackboard while there is a small number of DSC staff who
reported they did not use Blackboard. Where usage was highest, 100% for announcements
(Business) and document distributing (SEH), usage in other areas of Blackboard drops off in other
areas.This could indicate a choice to use Blackboard as an organising rather than a teaching and
learning space. It may also indicate that the low useability of the current Blackboard results in
some users putting learning content elsewhere.

Use Blackboard n (%)


Yes 115 (92.7%)
No 6 (4.8%)
* 3 respondents did not provide a response

Use of Blackboard split according to College

DSC SEH Business

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Use Blackboard n (%) n (%) n (%)


Yes 49 (89.1%) 32 (100%) 31 (100%)
No 6 (10.9%) -

Research Question 2: Do staff use other technologies?


All but 8 survey respondents reported using tools other than Blackboard in their teaching and
learning. 66 other online tools were referred to by respondents.
Research question 3: What are the other online technology tools staff are using? How?
Facebook, Youtube, Google Sites, and Twitter are the other online tools most widely in use
according to the survey. There is a wide range of tools used referred to with a wide variety of
potential applications. Tools from the Google suite understandably feature strongly due to the
availability of Google tools within the RMIT standard operating system (SOE). Some users perfer to
use Google tools outside the RMIT SOE to take advantage of the full set of features and
integrations. Although there is small representation of Wordpress there is recent evidence of
increasing use due to the stonger capability to design attractive interfaces, as well as the limitations
placed by RMIT on the functionality of Blogger. Wordpress is increasingly viewed as a benchmark
for aesthetic and usable design for content management and the presentation of student work.
The following 4 typical profiles were extracted from the surveys:
Profile 1: Facebook user
Samantha* is a 56-65 year old lecturer within the DSC College School. She has been
employed for 6 years and rates herself as relatively comfortable with technology (7/10).

While Samantha uses basic Blackboard functions (announcements, document distribution,


group emails), she also uses a wide range of tools external to Blackboard, including
GoogleDocs, Creative Clouds, Doodle, Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter, and Facebook. With
regards to Facebook, Sam reports using it because “students prefer it [to Blackboard].”
Further, she reports it to be “useful for collaboration between students studying different but
similar courses.” The benefits of using Facebook as a teaching tool include being easy to
use, having good functionality, and being free of charge.

Profile 2: Primary Blackboard User


Some staff reported reluctance to use alternate tools, despite not reporting complete
satisfaction with Blackboard. For example, Jane* is a 46-55 year old lecturer within the DSC
College School. She has been employed at RMIT for 3 years, and rates her comfort with
technology quite high (8/10).

Jane uses several Blackboard functions (announcements, group emails, online assignment
marking, and social tools). She also reported providing videos and web links to students via
Blackboard. Despite perceived difficulties with Blackboard, Jane is reluctant to use other
tools, due to concerns about potentially overwhelming students:

“Blackboard has a range of annoying limitations but I have not found anything to replace it
although I did quite a bit of research into this. I also don't like confusing students with too
many different tools.”

Profile 3: Youtube user

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Many staff reported using YouTube as an additional educational tool. Perry* is a 46-55 year
old Senior Teacher within the DSC College. He has been employed at RMIT for more than
15 years, and rates his comfort with technology as extremely high (10/10).
He reports using Blackboard only for distributing documents, such as lecture notes. Beyond
Blackboard, he uses GoogleDocs, SMS (text messages), Dropbox, and YouTube.
Perry uses YouTube because it is easy to use, and “unlike Blackboard, it works!” He uses it
to place instructional materials online, and also uploads lectures for students to watch in
their own time. Perry reports that YouTube is congruent with student expectations and
allows students to have a collaborative role in their own learning:

“YouTube is the ‘language’ of the student, unlike clunky Blackboard.”

“Students not only access Youtube but they can share, subscribe etc. Teaching is more
effective if the forums are relevant to the student.”

Profile 4: Google Sites user


Michael* is a 56-65 year old lecturer within the College of Science, Engineering & Health.
He has been employed at RMIT for 30 years. His self-reported comfort with technology is
high (8/10).

He reports using various Blackboard tools (announcements, document distribution, groups,


online assignment submission and marking, quizzes). In addition, he often uses Google
Sites.

Michael was introduced to Google Sites when Gmail was installed several years ago. He
notes it is “easy [to] access and can be made visible to all students, not just those enrolled
in a course.” He notes the lack of wider access as a limitation of Blackboard.

The benefits of Google Sites for Michael are ease of use, good functionality, intuitive
design, fewer technical problems, and the ability to control the content directly. Michael
believes it offers an improvement on Blackboard, in that there is “more flexibility and
formatting options.” However, he continues to use Blackboard concurrently, as “it is an
alternative to Blackboard for distributing material but doesn't have the full functionality of
Blackboard.”

Research question 4: Why are staff using other technologies?


Of the 66 other technologies collected in the survey, these can be grouped into 4 areas, with some
tools falling in more than one:

Social/Collaboration Specific subject Content Other tools (eg


learning (eg management or dropbox)
Mathematica) curation

12 7 25 21

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Staff are predominantly choosing other tools for the presentation of content, because of the ease of
use, the better design and presentation options, and time saving. Social learning and collaborative
functionality also features amongst tools raised.
The comments contributed to the survey regarding reasons for choice of platform have been
categorised into the following areas with summary extractions:

Student preference/meets students’ needs ● Teaching where students are


interacting and learning informally
already.
● Access, accessibility and ease of
engagement.
● Student control and ownership.
● Archiving of student works.
● Students’ workplace firewalls blocking
Blackboard but not Google.

Functional/pedagogy purpose that ● Variety of functionality.


Blackboard does not allow (or other ● Aspects of Blackboard that perform
technology does better) poorly, which other platforms do well.
● Visual curation and collaboration.
● Easy transition between personal
use/convenience and teaching use.
● Disability friendly.
● Enables flipped classroom.
● More rapid and improved feedback.
● Combines engagement with industry.
● Develops other literacies and
competences.

Collaborative with students ● Sharing with and between students.


● Real time learning and collaboration via
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
● More dynamic chat that generates
transcripts as evidence.
● Document and file sharing.
● Engage students in live discussion.

Ease of use ● Easier access and interface design.


● Transparency and visibility for all
students, not just those enrolled in that
particular course.
● Students are more likely to do pre-class
work if it is quick and engaging.
● Easy to learn and easy for using for
creating engaging content.
● Better control over content.
● Synchronisation between devices.
● All users can operate at the same time.
● Already part of systems already open
(Google).

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This research question leads to the question, why the college of DSC is the leading user of other
tools? Blog interviews and anecdotal evidence suggests that lecturers with a design focus also like
to create and deliver online learning with what they perceive as good design. This means both
creating attractive online spaces as well as having exceptional functionality. As innovators,
designers like to be up to date with the latest tools and online trends, as well as modelling design
thinking in their teaching design and delivery.
The capabilities for online social collaboration delivered in tools other than Blackboard, would also
suggest that lecturers valuing ‘social context’ in online delivery will choose tools with strong social
networking capabilities.

3 Project outcomes and impacts


3.1 Project Intentions
3.1.1 Project blog
There were some good responses to the blog as outlined in part 2, however it would have been
better if numbers were higher. Despite getting expert advice from Megan McPherson to do more
cross posting and commenting on other blogs, this was often poorly executed. It would have been
good to encourage more discussion in comments amongst project staff and participants.
Some referrals came from cross postings with other blogs such as
http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2013/03/21/using-google-forms-for-peer-evaluation/​ and
The Teaching Tomtom. Success would also have been aided with more active use of project and
project staff twitter accounts, including participation in conversations around project hashtags
#whatonearth14 and #beyondbb. There could also have been better use of other outlets such as
Facebook and Google+.
Having said that the blog was a success and provided a starting point for conversation that lead to
participation in our face-to-face workshops and other places online in particular Twitter.
3.1.2 Project videos
Many of the project participants were interviewed on video which have been placed as a resource
on Youtube. Most of the videos have been included as part of interviews on the blog.
3.1.3 Project workshops
Excellent numbers attended all project workshops which created good levels of lively and thought
provoking conversation. Each workshop had high levels of interaction with some having
considerable exchange on Twitter. Attendees were from all colleges and included both academic
and professional staff. It must be rare that staff from IT would voluntarily attend an L&T event.

3.2 Project Impact


3.2.1 Conversation and buzz
One of the biggest impacts was the wide ranging level of conversation and “buzz” about the
project, through promotion using email networks, on Yammer, Twitter, the project blog and in RMIT
Update. Academic and professional staff were overheard in workshops referring others to the
project blog. It was not unusual for members of the project team to be stopped in the streets
around RMIT to be thanked or congratulated on doing the project. As with measuring any
collaborative Web2.0 impact it is sometimes hard to gauge the spread and impact of multiple
conversations. There were considerable exchanges on Twitter during project workshops viewable
in the Storify curations.

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3.2.2 Participation
As well as in public and online conversation and numbers at workshops, project participants were
very keen to participate often volunteering to be interviewed having heard about the project by
word of mouth or through the blog. Not all stepping forward could be interviewed and and it is
hoped the blog will continue beyond the project.
3.2.3 Voice
In an environment where it can often take years before the arrival of new functionality, it is
important to give a voice to innovations occurring in the mean time. Many lecturers spoke of
immense frustration with the current standard operating environment and it was an unexpected
outcome of the project to have to some extent relieved this ‘pressure valve’.
3.2.3 Uptake of innovative good practice
The project has lead to better use of online delivery regardless of platform. In working as education
developers we are often sharing examples of the blog and at times have had good practices from
the project quoted when being asked about online design. This includes efforts to develop ways to
help lecturers provide more meaningful practices in Blackboard than often currently exist.
The project has created a wider awareness of choosing the best platform for the required learning
task. As Geoff Crisp stated during a project meeting “Blackboard is a learning management
system, and not a teaching system.” Lecturers as a result of this project think differently when
going online as they understand options are available.
As a result of DSC college PAR data two of the workshops were based around Google Sites and
Youtube as these were found to be the most widely used tools apart from Blackboard. These
workshops proved to be exceedingly popular, possibly filling the vacuum of options to learn about
these new tools at RMIT. Samantha Vardanega from iSimplify Solutions has since been employed
across other areas of the university as a consultant (for example at the SEH open day and in the
Media and Comms Connected Studios project). Samantha will continue training into 2015 through
DevelopMe.
Sally Parrot in a consultancy role for The ODLT interviewed project leader Howard Errey to gain a
wider understanding of how the use of tools other than Blackboard can be utilised in Work
Integrated Learning.
3.2.3 Twitter
Twitter was an active part of the project extending conversations outside of the university and
overseas. 2 hashtags were adopted #whatonearth14 and #beyondbb. Finding unique hashtags is a
common issue on Twitter and #whatonearth14 became the preferred project tag when we
discovered #beyondbb was also used by a cosmetics company. Twitter was invaluable for
promoting blog posts and expanding workshop activity including questions from twitter ‘observers’.
This was particularly interesting during the workshop with Gregor Kennedy and Travis Cox. A
primary school teacher on Twitter questioned about Melbourne University adopting Google Apps,
complaining that their placement students have no Google literacy. Gregor responded that apart
from Gmail, there are no plans to turn on any Google tools. The implication of this question and the
answer, suggests that having only a partial installation of Blackboard with other tools such as
Google to fill in the gaps, may be providing our students with more digital literacy and resilience
than the exemplary Blackboard implementation at Melbourne University, that we saw demonstrated
by Gregor and Travis.

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3.3 Project Linkages


3.3.1 Cross college workshops
All six workshops during the year had wide representation across all three colleges as well as
academic and professional staff. Many conversations occurred during such sessions that continued
beyond the workshop itself. As well there was reference to the blog where understanding of
practices in other colleges was made available, if not linkages.
3.3.2 Peer Support
One outcome of the workshops was a collaborative support effort amongst staff. To quote project
interviewee Jason Downes:
“Since ​Joyce’s Workshop​ I have been working more on my own personal learning network.
There are 3 of us at RMIT who went to hear Joyce independently, ​Megan McPherson​, ​Terry
Johal​ and myself. We already knew each other through Twitter. I know and follow ​Joyce on
Twitter​ as well. Terry reached out to us all and said we could be a bit more smart about how
we intersect with this stuff and think better about our practice. We’ve had one meeting so
far. It’s an interesting way to think about what our identity looks like and how we are using
some of these tools. We share backwards and forward and adapt feedback for our
individual practice. We’ve even give each other homework! I have an audit to do about my
social media usage in private and professional life and check if this is the best way to go
about things. Rather than just letting it emerge I really need to think again about how I do it
all. We each bring different competencies and skills. Terry teaches into small cohorts
predominantly in first year subjects. I teach into massive cohorts of final year students. For
example, there are approximately 900 strategy students in Singapore – each semester. We
have different experiences that can be applied to each other’s practice. Often I find myself
saying, “ah yeah, of course I should be doing that!” So I have started employing social
media in a different context and a much larger scale. Having Megan there is also of great
benefit – she has already experimented with this stuff extensively and she brings a
“curatorial mind” to the process. I learn lots from both Terry and Megan – some of it
face-to-face, some of it online via social media.”
from the project blog at:
http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/twitter-for-strategic-management/

3.4 Project Challenges


3.4.1 Youtube workshop

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Following PAR data indicating that Youtube was being used by 67% of DSC courses it was
decided to offer a workshop on Youtube with Samantha Vardanega. Concerns were raised by
some staff that it was inappropriate to be seen to be promoting a service not offered by the
university. There were also concerns with anything about Youtube that social media policy and
copyright implications need to be considered. In planning for the workshop the provision of
information about social media policy and copyright implications had already been covered. A
specific blog post
(​http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/youtube-the-current-state-of-play/​ ) was added to
allay these fears. It is curious that Youtube touched such a nerve within the university when the
issues raised about Youtube are essentially the same for any social media platform.
3.4.2 Resourcing
If anything the project was under-scoped financially. A lot more dissemination could have
occurred.There were many blog posts that were not completed within the time frame and more of
the interviews could have been transcribed for later research.
3.4.3 Fear of being caught
Some participants were fearful that making public their good practice in platforms other than
Blackboard would get them into trouble. On reviewing blog posts of their interview they sometimes
requested details not be disclosed. For example there were some using Google applications with
students outside of the RMIT Google suite. As RMIT only partly turns on a wide range of potential
Google in Education applications and functionalities, the integratable nature of the Google suite is
‘hamstrung’. Lecturers wanting to innovate are therefore required to use private Google accounts,
in particular with Youtube but also with Google Analytics and add-ons. Despite the fear of being
told to cease their good practice activities, there may be as with the SOE limitations, a context
where limitations (or perception of limitations) leads to innovation.
3.4.4 Analytics
Several participants were asked in their interviews if they used any data to inform the effectiveness
of their innovations. This would have been useful for quantifying use of other tools. While some
had dabbled with Google Analytics there was usually a more intuitive approach where
improvements were made rapidly as an ongoing conversation with students. As innovators many of
the interviewees are time poor when it comes to adding on extra activity. Fortunately this project
team has secured funding for a more analytics focused project in 2015.

4 Dissemination strategies and outputs


Rather than 1990’s project design where dissemination is the end point of a process driven
‘sausage machine,’ this project created a more complex-adaptive project design, where
dissemination was part of an ongoing conversation that also informed the project. Many of our
project participants would have already understood prior to the project, that shelving project results
on a website with a link to an MS Word report is no longer an excuse for dissemination. Our
hypothesis was that in order for a project to succeed in engaging those using contemporary
technologies, it needed a contemporary engagement and knowledge development method. The
aim was to develop an “architecture of participation” to quote Tim O’Rielly where conversation in a
variety of contexts drives the knowledge development and outcomes.
As a result dissemination is difficult to tease out from the whole project. While not as well executed
as we might have liked, our blog was effective as the place to collate project knowledge,
disseminate about activities and curate information about technology use. It formed the ‘backbone’
for the project dissemination strategy and conversation starting points, enabling a stronger and
more flexible project. This set up the success of the workshops and wider coverage of discussions
in Twitter and other platforms.

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Dissemination other than already discussed.


Howard Errey made a presentation to the ASCILITE 2015 conference in Dunedin, Critical
Perspectives in Educational Technology. The presentation is here​ ​http://bit.ly/1vj1c1Z​. He has also
been accepted to present at THETA 2015 on cross university project collaboration.
Erika Beljaars-Harris and Rosemary Chang are considering a presentation at ISSOTL 2015 subject
to resourcing.
As well as the project blog there were 2 posts on the Teaching Tomtom.
http://teachingtomtom.com/2014/05/22/beyond-blackboard-course-shells-what-on-earth-are-they-u
sing/
http://teachingtomtom.com/2014/09/26/user-experience-design-ux-and-digital-literacy/

5 Evaluation of project outcomes


This project has met all deliverables and the project outcomes achieved. The project has
demonstrated that the use of educational technologies other than Blackboard is evident within not
only DSC but university wide.
This project highlighted the practices and experiences of using educational technology tools other
than Blackboard. To that end, the project achieved this deliverable via the use of the design praxis
education model where stories emerged and became visible via the project blog. The blog was the
initial part of the project, stimulating an environment of discussion on the uptake and use of
Blackboard and other educational technology tools.
Participatory processes involved academics and teachers who added to the project through their
contributions via the blog and video resources and the activities within their own schools, that
challenge adoption of new educational technology tools. The blog and other social media,
combined with face-to-face workshops and created a buzz around the university and beyond. The
blog will continue to be a source dissemination to RMIT and other institutions to promote
sustainability of the project’s focus and outcomes.
There was continuous evaluation through 2014, via consultations with key personnel from the
project contributors​. ​Feedback on the project was achieved via appropriate reporting channels
including six university wide presentations that provided an opportunity for feedback and input into
the project. Plans were established to evaluate the project at strategic points throughout the
project, with minor changes implemented throughout.

6 Budget report
The budget ($32,000) was expended with a surplus of $1,155.80
Some re-organisation of the budget's actual items was done during the project, with less spent on
food and catering and more on PD and wages as per the attached report.

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Appendix A
The project blog ​www.whatonearth14.wordpress.com
A full infographic of the key blog statistics can be found here:
http://whatonearth14.wordpress.com/2014/annual-report/
Survey results can be viewed in a summary presentation here ​http://bit.ly/1BSA5LW
Full Survey results can be viewed here ​http://bit.ly/1uyUD89
Ascilite presentation ​http://bit.ly/1vj1c1Z
Teaching Tomtom posts
http://teachingtomtom.com/2014/05/22/beyond-blackboard-course-shells-what-on-earth-are-they-u
sing/
http://teachingtomtom.com/2014/09/26/user-experience-design-ux-and-digital-literacy/
Posters and Postcard:

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