Ending the Debate on Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom

November 2005
Alicia Russell, Deanna Brown Aho, Sue Aman

I. Introduction

The debate over off-the-shelf vs. custom development of a university's course management system is one few institutions can afford to hold. While Harvard and M.I.T. developed custom course management systems, the majority of institutions have entered into agreements with Blackboard or WebCT, the two off-the-shelf systems currently cornering the higher education market. However, whether your institution uses a home-grown course management system or a commercial product, there will always be faculty who want to do it themselves. Clearly, long before there were course management systems, there were pockets of faculty trying new technologies to increase students' learning outcomes and enhance the learning experience. These early adopters acquired multimedia and web-based skills and developed interactive tools to supplement traditional course materials.

Faculty who build teaching and learning tools acknowledge the process is both complex and time consuming. With the advent of course management systems, the need for web skills to host discussion boards, post PowerPoint lectures, administer quizzes, and calculate grades online is virtually nonexistent. Because of systems like Blackboard and WebCT, adding web-based components to a college course today requires no web skills and only basic computer skills. These systems offer functionality that meets the needs of most faculty, including increasing numbers of early adopters. But faculty members interested in developing a custom web environment for their courses, programs, and research interests are seeking an alternative solution. Some faculty seeking a custom solution do not have the requisite web skills to develop the tools they want and either grow frustrated trying to learn to build the tools or hire a web developer to build custom sites. Therefore, Northeastern University's Educational Technology (EdTech) Center decided to support members of both camps - Blackboard users and those who want a custom solution by increasing Blackboard training and creating the Web Developers Control Panel, a suite of interactive tools that allow faculty with few web skills to add functionality to custom websites. A third camp with significant ranks also exists - faculty who have never used technology in their teaching. EdTech has also been charged with convincing this group that incorporating technology into teaching is necessary to respond to student demand and to increase learning.

This paper will describe the process that the EdTech Center underwent beginning in the summer of 2002 to attract increasing numbers of faculty to use Blackboard, to encourage faculty to add interactivity to their Blackboard sites, and to develop the Control Panel for faculty wanting to add interactivity to their own websites.

II. Increasing Blackboard Use

Northeastern currently uses Blackboard Version 6, which is integrated with the university registrar's database, allowing for automatic enrollment into Blackboard courses. Because of this significant investment in Blackboard, the university is committed to increasing use by faculty. Though hundreds of courses are currently available on Blackboard, the university is seeking a bigger return on its investment and is looking both to Information Services and the EdTech Center to attract greater numbers of faculty to use Blackboard.

At a retreat in the summer of 2002, the EdTech staff devised a plan to meet the needs of faculty members whose technology experience ran from none to extensive. The EdTech Center would increase Blackboard support services and develop The Control Panel, a user friendly, interactive tool builder. The Center's first priority was to build a framework to attract and support large numbers of Blackboard users. Adopting a multi-pronged approach to address faculty's varying comfort levels with technology, the EdTech Center developed and now offers the following Blackboard support services:

• Build a Blackboard Course in a Day - day-long summer workshops blending instruction and lab time;
• Build a Blackboard Course in Half-A-Day - four-hour workshop offered during the beginning of each semester; condenses information from the summer program;
• Custom Advanced Blackboard Training - custom workshops for groups of faculty from specific disciplines; workshops are frequently taught in departmental computer labs, and training is customized to meet disciplinary needs;
• EdTechies - service based on University of Central Florida's Techrangers in which students visit faculty in their offices to assist them with Blackboard and other web-based curriculum projects;
• Open Lab Hours - service based on a program at Harvard in which faculty drop-in to the EdTech computer lab for Blackboard assistance;
• Teaching with Technology Workshops - one-to-four hour workshops offered on a scheduled basis and by appointment that focus on different ways to integrate technology into teaching;
• Online Documentation - complete documentation related to nearly every workshop is available on the EdTech web site, www.edtech.neu.edu;
• Syllabus Builder or Three Steps to an Online Syllabus - workshop that teaches faculty to upload a syllabus in Blackboard; responds to recent Student Government Association resolution requesting that all faculty post an online syllabus; and
• Effective Course Design Award - program that asks students to nominate faculty who are using Blackboard or course web sites in ways that enhance learning.

Early Results
The programs EdTech has implemented to increase Blackboard use have been well received. This summer more than 100 faculty enrolled in the full-day Blackboard workshops. The workshop included an overview of basic Blackboard functions, followed by electives such as Basic HTML for Blackboard, adding multimedia to Blackboard sites, and developing PowerPoint presentations for Blackboard. These summer workshops also resulted in increased use of the EdTechies service and Open Lab Hours, as faculty completed their Blackboard course sites with EdTech support. Departments from five of the university's seven colleges have requested custom workshops. And, two weeks after the call to students to nominate faculty for effective use of technology in teaching, more than 280 nominations have been received. Plans for next semester include training for faculty seeking to use Blackboard to teach hybrid courses, in which part of in-class time is exchanged for increased online learning; and the Teaching with Technology Day, an outreach effort co-sponsored by the EdTech Center, Center for Effective University Teaching, and Library Services to inform faculty of the range of support services available for faculty who are either new or experienced users of technology.

II. Web Developers' Control Panel

Northeastern University has long supported faculty's development of their own websites. Academic Technology Services provides web space and account management service to all faculty. Therefore, the infrastructure was in place to support the development of the Web Developers' Control Panel, a user-friendly suite of tools which allows faculty with a web account to add the following components to their web sites:

Interactivity Builder

• Poll
• Counter
• Forums
• Blog
• Site Search
• Custom FAQ
• Calendar
• Emailer
• Feedback Form

Content Protector

• Password Protection
• Limited Access By IP
• Copyright Questionnaire

Also under development are an online faculty portfolio builder and web page templates.

Each of these tools is forms driven, and, therefore, simple to use. Additionally, the tools require very little support/maintenance beyond what the client is comfortable with. The Control Panel is in the testing phase, so its use is not yet widespread. However, plans to integrate the Control Panel with the University's new faculty portal are underway. Initial feedback regarding Control Panel tools has been quite positive - a hybrid training site developed by faculty in the English Department and EdTech staff uses the Control Panel's e-mailer, FAQ, and discussion forums. Another English Department project, the Advanced Writing in the Disciplines site, uses password protection. A professor in the Political Science department is using the blog, and a few university centers are using the poll. Following the completion of the testing phase in December 2003, the Control Panel will be formally launched, and training workshops will be offered.

The Control Panel has served two very important purposes for Northeastern. First, by offering faculty new tools and functionality, such as the blog or numbered discussion threads, before a course management system like Blackboard does, the Control Panel fills in the development gap that occurs when waiting for commercial products' upgrades. Second, the R&D efforts related to the Control Panel allow the EdTech Center to work in concert with early adopting faculty to meet their needs and capture their enthusiasm to develop cutting-edge learning tools. The tools developed are then not only made available to Control Panel users but are adapted and used by EdTech staff for University clients working on grant-funded or college-sponsored projects.

As a result, the EdTech Center is developing tools that respond to faculty requests and preclude faculty from hiring expensive web designers. Another model that has emerged from the control panel development is building web sites that use Control Panel tools on the web page and link to Blackboard course sites. For example, a portal developed for first year students in the Bouve College of Health Sciences links to university resources and provides email access on the main page, which also connects students directly to their Blackboard courses. Similar models have been adapted by introductory Anatomy & Physiology courses and a graduate program in Early Intervention Studies.

III. Conclusion

The enthusiasm expressed by the student nominations recognizing faculty who use technology effectively, the mandate from students that faculty post an online syllabus, and the numbers of faculty who are building Blackboard course sites indicate that providing a university-wide course management system with its in-house and external support is necessary. What is equally necessary at a research university is to keep abreast of the latest technologies and engage early adopters by continuing research and development efforts. The EdTech Center's research and development process is both responsive and proactive. The staff listens to problems that faculty want solutions for or ideas they want to implement and develops tools that solve their problems or put their ideas into practice. The staff then adapts these tools for other applications and/or makes it available on the Control Panel.

Northeastern University's EdTech Center continues to support Blackboard and to develop custom interactive tools for faculty. The satisfaction that comes from winning over faculty to use technology in their teaching, and the intellectual stimulation that comes from exploring innovative ways to use technology in teaching has allowed Northeastern's EdTech Center to end the debate between off-the-shelf and custom solutions, enjoying the best of both worlds.