Take the Mystery out of Digital Content Management

Take the Mystery out of Digital Content Management
by Robert Bobeldyk, Calvin College, 2 years
Erik Dearholt, Tulane University, New Orleans area, 1-2 years
Wayne Twitchell, Grinnell College, new to content system, piloting this year

Why did they start using the content system?
Needed e-portfolios (CC)
Repetition of files, not wanting to copy everywhere (CC)
Post-Hurricane Katrina – wanted to host more content off site (TU)
Try to enrich the student and staff experience – for competitive advantage (TU)
Try to lift administrative strain in the post-hurricane world (TU)
Came from IT department, crumbling old storage issues (GC)
Looking for web-based content (GC)

What examples of use, interesting initiatives?
Get support staff to support academics (GC)
WebDav caused confusion – so they used Xythos as a helper application (GC)
Use e-portfolios, to get students to record service performed in the community (TU)
Create a teaching portfolio (TU)
Reduce the university admin paper trail (versioning has been invaluable) (TU)
Career development sends out a portfolio of their trainee teachers for the student to potential employers, so the students are presenting a portfolio of their work (CC)
Everyone has a master course for CPS101 (that never disappears), the real course folder using the content system's course content (that does disappear each semester), and a collaborative space for their department (in the institutional space). - Teachers pull in materials from all three folders. So, uses the course/organisation folders but in a different way than just standard (CC)

GC – doesn't use course folders – only institutional – all set up by his secretary, as only 300 people, Not much of a help for our situation.
GC – had problems where users download a file and hit save, it doesn't work (as read-only without web dav). So managed to get Xythos drive that emulates the network using a mapped network drive. Another fee for Xythos (whose t-shirt I have incidently).
CC – has another different program which maps the content system to a drive for easy editing
TU – just using WebDav

CC- Created a directory for each department with two sub directories, resources and users for each one
-batch created user directories in the user field
-in resources, the directory is given equal rights to everyone with read/write/manage.

Another guy said when the divisional folders are set up, then only the assistant dean and his/her administrator gets manage access. Seems like quite a high level person to give access too.

What are the benefits?
Student webspace – used MyWebSpace tool to shorten URLs (CC)
Students with disabilities – realized things like audio files easier without IT department needing to make CDs and send them out to everyone (CC) – Why not doing this before?
Reduced administrative load on IT department (TU)
Working collaboratively on documents from around the globe (for student on foreign exchange for example) (TU)
Not many benefits yet as in pilot (GC)

Challenges:
Lots of administrative use – some concerns from administrators that their jobs would disappear (North Florida)
Persistent cookies can cause browser crashes and the learning system to never load sometimes (audience member) – though they must constantly login for WebDav – which is why GC used Xythos

Probably the best parallel session I went to today, as got to hear some different ideas for how things are set up. 2 of the 3 using a helper application to ensure WebDav-esque functionality is working right, though maybe if Blackboard lifts that 100 character limit in a new version, that would help. I do see a network drive mapping advantage though.

CC's use of fake master courses that don't disappear sounded interesting too, as it gets over rollover problems to some degree. I wonder if people remember to put the right files in the right places though with three different areas to choose from.