OU Selects Desire2Learn

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OU Selects Desire2Learn

• A Report from the Provosts Task Force on Course
  Management Systems
• (February 2005)

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The Provosts Task Force

• convened in Fall 2004
• charged with making long-term and short-term
  recommendations regarding course management
  software (CMS)
• involving multiple Colleges across the Norman
  campus and OU-Tulsa
• including members from administrative staff and
  teaching faculty

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Task Force Activities

• review of current CMS on campus (Blackboard,
  WebCT)
• assessment of faculty satisfaction with current
  CMS with an online survey
• selection, review and testing of alternate CMS
  (Desire2Learn)

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Blackboard 5

• Blackboard ending support for Blackboard 5 (our
  version) in September 2005
• Plans to upgrade to Blackboard 6 during Summer
  2004 cancelled because of problems with
  conversion of existing courses
• Additional conversion tests in Fall 2004 revealed
  ongoing problems
• Recurring Blackboard service outages in Fall 2004
  and Spring 2005
• Blackboard technical support consistently poor

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Blackboard 6

• Blackboard 6 offers only limited new features for
  faculty
• New user interface in Blackboard 6 would require
  substantial faculty retraining
• Review of Blackboard 6 usage at other major
  universities shows many bugs still unresolved in
  latest version
• Task Force Consensus Blackboard 6 upgrade is a
  highly unattractive option

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WebCT

• WebCT used in limited number of classes by
  faculty with need for advanced features
• WebCT offers many advanced features, but steep
  learning curve
• Most faculty members not prepared to learn to use
  the complex WebCT interface
• Task Force Consensus WebCT is not a viable
  campus-wide option

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Desire2Learn (D2L)

• Desire2Learn is a new competitor in the course
  management system marketplace, making steady
  inroads in Blackboard- and WebCT-school systems
• Desire2Learn was selected in rigorous state-wide
  competitions in both Wisconsin and Minnesota
• In both Wisconsin and Minnesota, the
  semifinalists were Blackboard, WebCT and
  Desire2Learn, and in both states Desire2Learn was
  chosen as the winning system

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Wisconsin and D2L

• Wisconsin selected Desire2Learn for
• ease of use
• encouraging active learning
• interoperability with student data systems
• interoperability with library systems
• reusable content
• standards-based architecture

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Minnesota and D2L

• Minnesota selected Desire2Learn for
• overall highest rankings by far
• best array of features for students
• best array of features for faculty
• ease of use (unanimously endorsed)
• extremely high vendor credibility

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D2L Testing at OU

• OU decided to test D2L in these Spring 2005
  courses
• Web-Supported Courses
• ACCT.5353 Financial Statement Analysis (Ayres)
• AFAM 2913 Digital Divide (Bender)
• C.S.4053.5053 Computer Graphics (Trytten)
• PHYS.2524 General Physics For Engineers (Mason)
• Fully Online Courses
• ANTH.MLLL.3043 Mythology-Folklore (Gibbs)
• HSCI.3013 History of Science to Newton
  (Magruder)
• MLLL.4993 Indian Epics (Gibbs)

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D2L Test Results

• General Consensus The results are excellent!
• Desire2Learn is both feature-rich and easy to
  use. It has help instructions accessible on each
  screen that greatly reduce the amount of time it
  takes to learn how to use this software.
• Finally a tool that offers flexibility for
  instructors without complexity for students.
• I get fewer questions from the students using
  Desire2Learn than I ever did with Blackboard
  students even sent me email thanking me for not
  making them use Blackboard!

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D2L Test Results

• D2L has tremendous flexibility, while it is also
  very easy to use and intuitive.
• D2L makes all the standard tasks much easier
  than Blackboard, and everything actually works.
  On the student side, everything is intuitive and
  works as it should.
• This is the first time I feel like the course
  management software is helping me to teach MY way
  I have customized almost every feature of
  Desire2Learn to match my teaching style. Its
  fabulous!
• Not one of my students has posed a question on
  how to use Desire2Learn.

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D2L Features Overview

• Course management systems are complex pieces of
  software with many types of features. Generally,
  those features can be classified as
• Interface and Navigation
• Communication Announcements, Calendar
• Communication Tools Discussion, Email, Chat
• Content Management
• Assessment Quizzes and Surveys
• Assessment Tools Dropbox, Gradebook

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Faculty Survey Results

• Before launching into a description of the wide
  range of features in Desire2Learn, we should
  start with features identified by faculty in the
  faculty survey administered by the Provosts Task
  Force.
• This survey gave faculty the chance to respond to
  a series of open-ended questions about features
  they found were inadequate or lacking in the
  current course management software used on
  campus.

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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Faculty Survey Results
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Desire2Learn Features

• Based on system features that were spontaneously
  requested by faculty, Desire2Learn clearly meets
  their needs more fully than Blackboard 6.
• In addition, there are many other exciting
  features in Desire2Learn that can
• improve teaching and learning online
• minimize faculty development time
• maximize reuse of learning materials

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D2L User Options

• Desire2Learn allows all students and faculty to
  select their own user preferences and user tools
• students faculty can set their default font
  size
• students faculty can access a locker of
  documents and share those documents with others
• students faculty can compile favorite links and
  bookmarks to course content items
• students faculty can keep a journal for
  note-taking and other writing

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D2L Environment

• Template-Driven Website Design. OU can create a
  variety of templates for easy out of the box
  use for instructors in different Colleges, for
  different types of courses, etc.
• Custom Navigation. You can design both the
  appearance and the content of all course
  navigation bars (including links to external
  resources).
• Widgets! Widgets allow you to add images, text,
  and dynamic scripts to your course homepages.

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D2L Content Features

• Search. All text content available in a course is
  indexed and searchable.
• Compile for printing. Students can select
  some/all of the content to compile in a single
  file for printing.
• Discuss. A discussion board area exists for each
  content area.
• Feedback. Students can submit anonymous ratings
  and feedback of each content item.
• Statistics. Individual student access statistics.

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D2L Content Uploading

• You can create content with an HTML editor, or
  you can upload existing content
• Single file. Use the web-based interface to
  upload single documents (as in Blackboard)
• Files and Folders. Drag-and-drop documents or
  entire folders containing documents (using
  WebDAV)
• Dreamweaver. Synchronize to a Dreamweaver website
  on your local computer and publish directly to
  Desire2Learn

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D2L Quizzing Options

• Question types. All standard types, plus
  calculated values-type questions with precision,
  units, etc.
• Access. Set access by date, password, IP address,
  and other forms of special access.
• Attempts. Single attempt only, or multiple
  attempt recording first, last, highest, lowest,
  or average score.
• Feedback. Customized hints and feedback
  show/hide other feedback as preferred.
• Randomization. Select random question pools and
  randomize choices in multiple choice questions.

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D2L Survey Options

• Question types. Standard question types, plus
  automatic creation of Likert-scale questions.
• Reports. Selectively choose to release survey
  results to instructors and/or students.
• Anonymous option. Surveys can be anonymous or
  they can record user information with responses.
• Reporting. Include numeric information in reports
  and/or text response information.
• Restricted release. You can release surveys by
  dates or only to specific groups of students.

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D2L Gradebook

• Import/Export. The gradebook can be imported or
  exported, in whole or in part, to an Excel
  spreadsheet.
• Points or Weighted. Final grades can be based on
  points or weighting (by item and/or by
  category).
• Numeric to letter grade. Numeric grades can
  automatically be converted to letter grades.
• Non-numeric grades. Grades can be recorded as
  P/F, Good-Fair-Poor, and other non-numeric
  values.
• Comments. Comments, public or private, can be
  entered along with grades.

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D2L Dropbox

• Folders. The Dropbox area can be organized into
  folders linked to assessment items in the
  Gradebook (you can grade comment from within
  the Dropbox).
• Date restrictions. Dropbox folders can be
  date-restricted, with the date appearing in the
  Calendar.
• Download options. You can download single items
  or a zipped file with multiple items from the
  Dropbox.
• Easy student upload. Uploading a submission to
  the Dropbox is easy students browse for the file
  on their computer and then click the Submit
  button. Thats it.

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D2L Communication

• Announcements. Includes HTML editor and
  Spellchecker, with easy-to-arrange items.
• Calendar. Quickly import events from text file or
  spreadsheet.
• Email. Includes Spellchecker and option to
  address students using To or Bcc and to add Cc
  address.
• Discussion Board. Searchable threaded or
  non-threaded discussion board, with student
  statistics.
• Chat and Pager. There is a group chat room and
  there is also a pager (instant messaging
  system).

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D2L Groups

• Group can be created by a variety of assignment
  options randomly assigned, instructor assigned,
  or student self-selected. You can then
• create group Discussion Boards
• selectively release a Survey to specific group(s)
• selectively release a Quiz to specific group(s)
• selectively release Content to specific group(s)
• send Email to specific group(s)
• view the Gradebook group by group

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Behind-the-Scenes

• Accessibility Desire2Learn course websites are
  readily navigated using a text-only reader (this
  was tested by the Task Force using the FANGS
  simulator)
• Security By being hosted on the OU campus, OU-IT
  can maintain all necessary data security and
  backups.
• Standards-Based Desire2Learn is the first
  academically-focused CMS to be SCORM-certified.
• Technical Support Desire2Learn has a strong
  record of excellent technical support and
  customer service.

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Next Steps

• For more detailed information about the Task
  Forces activities and next steps, visit the
  website at
• http//casweb.ou.edu/d2l/