New models for Collaborative Programs and Shared Services

New model for Collaborative Programs:

One of the major orders of business the past several months has been the development of a business model for collaborative program development and operation, in support of both new and existing collaborative programs.

We have worked with the Applied Business Technology, Northern Collaborative Information Technology and Aboriginal Early Childhood Education collaborative programs to gather valuable perspective and input to develop or further refine collaborative program models, business models, operating models, and operational processes. We have also identified champions of new collaborative program proposals, such as Community and School Support – Behavioural Interventionist, to gain input and feedback to the collaborative program development process.

This valuable input from the BC post-secondary system has resulted in a newly proposed ‘learning community’ collaborative program model and operational processes to replace previous models. We hope the new model will better meet the varied needs of both the institutions and the collaborative programs themselves.

We’re helped by implementing new technology: with the BCcampus Connector and other systems, well be able to better automate program operation.

We’re also refining our models to provide necessary services for governance, coordination, operation and streamlined support for collaborative programs. With these in place, the next step will be to promote and expand the number of collaborative programs in academic, career, technical and trades programs.

A collaborative program meeting is planned for late May or early June, 2011 (perhaps adjacent to the Spring ETUG meeting) to present these developments to the community, solicit further input and feedback, and provide a networking opportunity across collaborative programs.

Shared Services:

Since the November 5, 2010 shared services meeting, we have been following up on action items from this meeting and have focused on shared service business models.

In terms of the business model, we have adopted a ‘life cycle’ approach to shared services and better coordinated learning management systems and web conferencing with collaborative program needs. Letters of agreement for institutional participation in Desire to Learn (D2L) and Moodle have been updated and sent to institutions.

One of the main goals for shared services this year is to enhance the Moodle shared service to an operating model similar to that of D2L, better able to support collaborative program delivery.

The first step in this direction was taken by Nicola Valley Institute of Technology which has integrated its Datatel student portal with the BCcampus Moodle shared service – work was performed by Lambda Solutions and OA Solutions. In addition, there has been interest from institutions currently using another LMS in evaluating the Moodle environment by means of the BCcampus shared service.

Updating versions of current shared service applications is also underway. The Adobe Connect version 8 upgrade is planned for late March, 2011 and D2L version 9 upgrade planned for June, 2011. The Moodle 2.0 upgrade will require further input and discussion to determine an appropriate time frame for implementation. We’ve scheduled several shared services meetings as follows: