IMPORTANT
What you need to do:

1. Please log into Blackboard and check that you have access to your course areas. If there are any missing courses or content, please get in touch ASAP via our online helpdesk so that we can rectify this before term starts. (Login at https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk and select ‘Blackboard – VLE’).
2. Rebuild any Turnitin assignments (details below)
3. Update any dates carried across from Blackboard assignments or assessments
4. Also update any calendar entries or selectively released content
5. Update content as approprate

The following is information about what has happened with your courses.

New Course Areas (2011-12)
Unless otherwise requested, content has been copied across from 2010-11 into the 2011-12 course AND all student data and activity has been removed (assignment submissions, quizzes, grades, feedback, discussion postings etc.)

Student Enrolment: In general, student access is being controlled by SIS integration. This means, where a record exists on the central student records database (SIS), the relevant Blackboard course will be automatically populated. Students will be enrolled onto Blackboard courses when they are correctly registered in SIS – based on the module or programme codes that have been set for your Blackboard course.

Visit the Course Listing Page to see which module or programme code is being enrolled onto your course, and whether your course is being automatically enrolled or not.

Old Course Areas (2010-11 and before)
If you requested for your course area to remain as it was in 2010-11, then you should still have access to your old course area as before. Otherwise, 2010-11 courses have been archived and your access to them has been removed.

If you requested for an old course from 2009 or before to be restored, where we were able to locate it, we have done so, otherwise we have assigned either a template or content from the last copy of the course that we have.

Turnitin Assignments:
If you had Turnitin assignments in your old course area, these would have been copied across automatically to the new course area – however, they will not work as that link to Turnitin will remain with the old course area. You will need to rebuild your Turnitin Coursework in your new course area. If you wish to refer to your old course area, please let us know and we can arrange temporary access. If you need training, please get in touch via our online helpdesk – (login at https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk and select ‘Turnitin – Plagiarism Detection’).

Q-Review content
Any recordings made using the automatic lecture recording service, and automatically linked to your Blackboard course area, have been removed for the new year. This follows QM policy to refresh recorded content. If you would like to reinstate any of this content, please let us know.

Finally,
The E-Learning Unit, in The Learning Institute, run a programme of workshops on using the VLE at QMUL. Details of this programme will shortly be available, under the  category “Learning and Teaching: E-Learning”, here: www.esdcourses.org.uk. We can also arrange bespoke sessions tailored to the needs of your team or department. Just get in touch.

Best Wishes,
E-Learning Support Team

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

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

This is the first in a series of communications to inform you of the process to ‘rollover’ the VLE from the current academic year to 2010/2011. After ‘rollover’ you will no longer have access to your 2009/2010 course areas and will have 2010/2011 areas created for you.

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 23rd of August to the 27th. In practice the process usually takes at most three days.

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

What is Rollover?

Rollover is essentially our ‘cleaning house’ on the VLE. Basically we backup existing course areas, take them off the system and replace them with fresh areas for the new 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.

Last year we also used the Rollover process to update staff access to online course areas. We will not be carrying out this specific task on a yearly basis and will not require that information from you this year.

Do however be aware that we are investigating methods to make use of the new SIS system as it comes online and this may involve some automation of staff access to the VLE.

Please see our Support site for a full description of the Rollover process – http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/staff/#rollover

What do you need to plan for?

The VLE as 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, here: http://www.esddelu.org.uk/news-and-events/vle-description-of-service/

What do you need to do right now?

Nothing. This is simply a communication to alert you to an upcoming event. We will send out more detailed communications and requests for more information and will be hosting Q&A sessions about the process. If you are working on a course that you know typically falls outside of the Rollover process – we will contact you directly. If you are concerned that we may not be aware of your specific needs – please get in touch.

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

Regards,

VLEAdmin

The VLE is now available again after the rollover period. The course areas have been refreshed for the coming academic year. In many cases we’ve been asked to keep 2008 – 2009 courses active for a few days, so you’ll see these disappearing shortly. You will begin to see your areas for 2009 – 2010 as the enrollment data settles.  See: http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/students/#see_course for infomration about how you are given access to VLE course areas.
This page (http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/courselisting.shtml) lists existing course areas in the VLE.

You will see a few changes when you log in.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the name of the VLE has changed from “CE6″ to “Blackboard”. You can read about this here: http://www.esddelu.org.uk/news-and-events/name-change-on-college-vle/

If your account begins with the prefix ‘ns’ then please note this (don’t worry about this if you aren’t): We have denied access to some non-standard accounts (any account beginning with the prefix ‘ns’) that have not been used in a while. So any NS accounts that have not logged in once in the last academic year are no longer able to log into the system. We will delete these accounts at the end of this academic year. If you need any account reactivated please contact us.

In the coming year we will continue to publish VLE Service Announcements via the VLE itself and also via our blog (http://www.esddelu.org.uk/category/vleservice/). The blog announcements are visible on the VLE homepage (http://www.elearning.qmul.ac.uk/) and the log in page that follows. The blog has comments turned on so users can ask questions either there or via our request form on the support site (http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/)

If you have any questions at all please get in touch via out query form: http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/forms/ce6query/index.htm

Regards,

VLE Admin”

The VLE is now available again after the rollover period. Thanks again for your help in providing information a bit earlier than usual for your 2009 / 2010 courses. Doing so has really helped us clean up the system. Your 2009 – 10 areas are now available. Enrollment will come in as students are formally enrolled. See http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/staff/#student_access for information about how your students access your course.

You will see a few changes when you log in.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the name of the VLE has changed from “CE6″ to “Blackboard”. You can read about this here: http://www.esddelu.org.uk/news-and-events/name-change-on-college-vle/

Users should also note the following changes:

• We have denied access to some non-standard accounts (any account beginning with the prefix ‘ns’) that have not been used in a while. So any NS accounts that have not logged in once in the last academic year are no longer able to log into the system. We will delete these accounts at the end of this academic year. If you need any account reactivated please contact us.
• Unless you have agreed to a different course of action with us previously; your course has been ‘rolled over’ meaning that it has been refreshed for the coming year. Students have been removed and the course is ready for your new cohort
• If you did not reply to emails sent to you regarding rollover it is likely that your course has been removed from the system. Please contact us if there are any problems.
• Users in the MBBS programme should note that we were requested not to rollover these course areas. Enrollment data for the 09/10 year will start coming in shortly.

Our new sessions about the VLE for the coming year will be available under ‘E-Learning’ at www.esdcourses.org.uk from the first of September. Note that we can also offer bespoke training for your team or department, just get in touch for details.

In the coming year we will continue to publish VLE Service Announcements via the VLE itself and also via our blog (http://www.esddelu.org.uk/category/vleservice/). The blog announcements are visible on the VLE homepage (http://www.elearning.qmul.ac.uk/) and the log in page that follows. The blog has comments turned on so users can ask questions either there or via our request form on the support site (http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/)

If you have any questions at all please get in touch via out query form: http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/vle/forms/ce6query/index.htm

Regards,

VLE Admin