Using Blackboard in Campus Emergency Response

Karen Gage, Blackboard, moderatorPaul Heydenburg, Northeastern Illinois University

Ken Sadowski, University of ChicagoKaye Shelton, Dallas Baptist University

Potential Emergencies…

• Natural disaster• Loss of building or access

to building• HVAC failure• Fire• Terrorism/security threat• Loss of key personnel• Strike(s)• Updates, upgrades, new

installs, service outage• Disease/ pandemic

Should You Have a Plan?

• Would you lose students if the campus suddenly closed?

• How would closing the campus affect the integrity of the school?

• Would classes continue?

• Could employees effectively do their work?

Kaye SheltonDallas Baptist University

Dean, Online Education

Statistics Fall of 2006

• Xavier University 1,000-500 new freshmen (Worley, Brandi. “Student Life in New Orleans One Year After Katrina”)

• Tulane’s freshman class down 35% (Pope, John. “College Enrollment is Down Across Area”)

• University of New Orleans lost 10,250 students in 2005 and in Fall 2006 enrolled just less than 12,000 students (Konigsmark, Rochell. “New Orleans Universities Seeing Real

Homecoming;” Maloney, Stephen. “College Counts Tower: Post-Katrina Enrollments Exceed University Estimates”)

• Southern University of New Orleans went from 3,647 students in 2005 to 2,351 in 2006 (Chollette,

Shawn. “New Orleans’ Historically Black Colleges Fight to Recover”)

Ways Blackboard Can Help

• Classes could temporarily meet online

• Departments could communicate through Virtual Classroom, Discussion Board, and Messages

• Work could be loaded and saved into Blackboard shells until access to the campus is resumed

Dallas Baptist University

• Automatically create course shells for every course

• Train all faculty on Blackboard basics• Aid faculty in Blackboard support through email• Faculty mentors by discipline for each college• Presentation to students• VPN, Cell Phone, and Home Email• Work with faculty to load syllabi, handouts, lecture

notes, PowerPoint files, etc.

Ken Sadowski, University of Chicago

Paul Heydenburg, Northern Illinois University

Representing SLATE user group

Blackboard as a Tool for Disaster Recovery

• Loyola University Chicago• Northeastern Illinois University• University of Chicago

From a discussion at the April meeting of SLATE, the Midwest Blackboard Users Group – hosted by Loyola University Chicago

http://slategroup.uchicago.edu

Disruption Scenarios…

• High Impact, Unplanned Disruption– Many users affected and/or

considerable disruptive potential• Low Impact, Unplanned Disruption

– Few users and/or small disruptive potential

• Planned Outage– Scheduled maintenance

or upgrade to system

What Actually Happened…

• Scenario– Summer 2006– Upgrade to email system– Hardware/software– Minimal downtime expected

• Required– Ability to keep open contact with

University community

• Solution– Blackboard Messages tool

BCDR at LUC…

• Loyola University Chicago Emergency Response Planning

• Impetus behind the plan– Katrina Disaster and

impact on Loyola New Orleans

• Concerns of Avian Flu – threat provided focus

for campus plans

Main Features of Plan…

• Main objective: to continue instructional services

• Semester calendars providing response scenarios

• Every academic unit required to file preparedness plan

• Website communication

Initial Implementation…

• Provided intensive training opportunities for faculty

• Blackboard ASP ensured continuity of instructional delivery

• Prior determination of systems management best practices positioned us for instructional continuity– Created ability to login to Bb

without LDAP authentication– All courses and instructors

added to Blackboard

Impact of Training…

• Beginning fall 2006: Bb usage increased 32-35%

• 87% of all enrolled students (14,500) had at least one active Bb course

• 60% (of 1300) faculty have at least one active Bb course

• Increase in use of discussion and assessment tools

ASP Service Provides…

• Utilizing the Blackboard System as part of their response plan for campus emergencies

• Leverage Blackboard– what planning is necessary/wise ?

• ASP service provides a redundancy of services and access

• Communication and information from administration

• Access to course materials

Make the Call…

• Identify the chain of command/authority to post announcements and statements to public

– This is rarely the Blackboard system administrator

• It is possible that we answer “don’t know” to some of the plans - which are not usually communicated to staff

• Emergency phone/email chain to pass authorized communication through the various channels

• Coordination and authority issues are still being addressed

• Multiple levels of planning yet to be implemented

– Our present plan is “silo” approach putting the responsibility on several departments to communicate

Any Good Plan…

• Make certain everyone understands Who is responsible for What

• Communicate vital information in a variety of formats and mediums

• Regularly review, test and update procedures and information about the plan

• No effective DR plan is ever “complete”• Even the best plan is useless if people do not

know the procedures and details Alexander Hague“I am in charge.”

Mayor C. Ray Nagen, New Orleans