End of Year Course Rollover 2011

This post covers:

  1. What is Rollover?
  2. When will Rollover take place?
  3. What do you need to plan for?
  4. What do you need to do?
  5. Summary

Please note that, while this is targetted toward staff using Blackboard, students should also make themselves aware of this process.

This is to inform you of the process to ‘rollover’ the VLE from the current academic year (2010/2011) to next academic year (2011/2012). After ‘rollover’ you will no longer have access to 2010/2011 course areas, you will instead gain access to your 2011/2012 course areas.

This process will take place at the end of summer after the resit exams. We plan for the VLE to be offline for five days from 22nd of August to the 26th.

The date for Rollover is aligned with the College calender which is available here: http://www.qmul.ac.uk/about/calendar/

What is Rollover?

Rollover is essentially our ‘cleaning house’ on the VLE.

Normally we remove your old course by default but this year we will keep it on the system. This is to try and make certain that as much live content as possible is copied to the new VLE in 2012.

Therefore, this year we will backup existing course areas, keep them on the system BUT remove access to them  and give you access to fresh areas for the 2011-12 academic year. These fresh areas will have the files and structure of the previous ones but all student-generated data will be removed to make room for the new cohort.

When will Rollover take place?

This year Rollover will take place from the 22nd August to the 26th August.

During Rollover the login page to the VLE will be removed and our team will not be available. After Rollover you will no longer have access to 2010/2011 course areas, you will instead gain access to your 2011/2012 course areas.

What do you need to plan for?

The VLE is a live teaching environment – it reflects what is happening ‘right now’ at QMUL. Data that must be kept for a longer period of time than the academic year must be archived off the VLE. This means that exams, assignment submissions, etc. must be kept locally by departments under the same regulations that govern paper copies. We do this as we cannot guarantee a retrievable archive of this data over upgrades or migrations of VLE’s.

Please see the full text of the VLE Description of Service, to see how the VLE is run at QMUL.

What do you need to do?

You should archive any student-generated content that you need before Rollover. Please see this blogpost for some guidance: http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/howto/archiving-assignments/

Anyone who is attached to a course area as a designer/instructor should have received an email from us requesting information. You should have responded to this email by 1st June 2011.

If you have not already done so, then please let us know what you would like us to do with your course area ASAP. We will need to know:

  1. Whether your course is required for 2011/2012 (please provide the course codes)
  2. If you are no longer teaching this course, let us know the name and username (e.g lewXXX) of the primary contact for the course – this person must be a member of QM staff and will be our point of contact for requests about the course in the next academic year.
  3. The usernames (e.g lewXXX) of the instructors and designers for the course – Note that if you would like this to remain the same simply state ‘same’.

Do also let us know whether there should be any changes to the way students are enrolled. For example, if your module codes are changing – we need to know that.  See here (https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk/helpdesk/WebObjects/Helpdesk.woa/wa/FaqActions/view?action=a405000f6d4b257a&id=1) for information on student enrolment.

Key points

1. What Rollover is and when it is happening?
This summer we will backup existing course areas, remove access and replace them with fresh areas for the new year. These fresh areas will have the files and structure of the previous ones but no student data. More information can be found here: https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk/helpdesk/WebObjects/Helpdesk.woa/wa/FaqActions/view?action=b00100049d4b3548&id=1.  Rollover will happen in the week following the exam resits according to the QM academic calendar. This year Rollover will take place from Monday, August 22 to Friday August 26.

**Note that the login page to the VLE will be removed during this time and our team will not be available**.

2.  Rollover will remove all user-generated content
This means that all student work – assignments, quizzes, grades, feedback, discussion posts, etc – will be wiped from the system. According to QM policy it is the responsibility of the academic department to archive assessment data. If you need help doing this please get in touch now by replying to this email with “Assessed Work for Rollover” in the subject header.

3.  In the next academic year all courses will be automatically linked to the SIS
Previously we have had a mixed model where enrolment to some courses has been controlled manually.  Student access will now be controlled by SIS integration. Where a record exists on the SIS – the relevant VLE course will be automatically controlled. If this is likely to cause difficulty for you please get in touch now and we will work with you and the SIS team towards a solution.  Please see the following link for detailed information on how student access is controlled by the SIS: https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk/helpdesk/WebObjects/Helpdesk.woa/wa/FaqActions/view?action=a405000f6d4b257a&id=1

4.  We will delete unused course areas
If a course has not been accessed or used over the academic year 2010/2011 we will delete it during Rollover. If you know that you or a colleague has not used an area this year but plans to make use of it in future – please let us know.

5.  Turnitin assignments will need to be rebuilt
Last year we consulted with staff in academic departments using Turnitin and we will continue to be informed by that consultation. Rollover will render all existing Turnitin assignments non-functional. These assignments will need to be rebuilt by staff in departments. If you need training on how to do this please get in touch.

If you have any immediate concerns about this process, please email vle-support@qmul.ac.uk

Regards,

VLE Admin

Photo Credit

David Michael Morris on Flickr

For our FAQ’s and to submit a query to our support team about the VLE please access the IT Services Web Help Desk at https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk/helpdesk/.  See also our support pages with online guides at http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/support/vle/