Introduction

Increasing adoption can occur from many different angles.  From showcasing innovative faculty to creating awareness around capabilities and to revealing survey data, the possibilities are nearly endless.  It does take time, however, to locate faculty and to determine what tools are being used (or not) in Blackboard.

Institutions have approached the "Who is using Blackboard" and "What are faculty doing with Blackboard" questions in different ways.  Some colleges use end user surveys, some use the limited "built-in" reports offered to system administrators, and yet others have discovered custom SQRs and scripts to pull usage data out of Blackboard.  All of these approaches have been very time consuming and difficult.  Enter Project ASTRO.

A Brief Review of Project ASTRO

The goal of Project ASTRO (Blackboard Greenhouse Grant Funded) was to create a system that allowed system administrators to easily access reports on how Blackboard is being used by faculty, staff, and students which in turn would help: inform stakeholders, improve the engagement of end users, increase adoption, and to encourage deeper use of Blackboard by faculty, staff, and students.

The key functions of Project ASTRO are:

• Tracking
  Automatic tracking (via Building Block) of courses, organizations, users, and tools.
• Reporting
  Easy point and click access to advanced reports.
• Discovery
  Ability to measure trends and analyze usage.
• Sharing
  Inform key stakeholders of usage levels.
• Acting
• Identify, target, and engage users using reports.

More information about Project ASTRO can be found here: BbWorld'09 - Project ASTRO Session Materials

Leveraging Reports

Step 1) Identify and Target

What are the tools that are being used on the system?  What tools are not being used? In this first step, Project ASTRO can be used to easily identify tools that are being used (or not) on Blackboard.  In fact, a system administrator can drill down to identify specific courses and faculty.  Once a target group of faculty have been identified, these faculty can be easily contacted.

Step 2) Engage Faculty

Armed with the information about courses, tools, and instructor usage obtained in Step 1, specific faculty can be contacted that are using a specific feature in Blackboard.  This is valuable data, as faculty can share their real world uses of Blackboard in teaching and learning.  These case studies are very helpful in conveying to"non-users" of Blackboard the value and potential of using the tools available to teach and to help students learn.  These faculty can be trainers, presenters, and overall change agents within the institution.

Step 3) Inform Stakeholders

In Step 3, Project ASTRO provides valuable information for administrators, deans, CIO's, etc. It's crucial that there is a common understanding around what Blackboard is being used for at an institution.  Often, many administrators that aren't directly involved with teaching or with students do not have a complete picture of what Blackboard means to the institution.  The data and reports can be easily shared via email or other methods and used to create awareness of the levels of usage of Blackboard, which in turn will help promote a common understanding around the value of using Blackboard.

How do you approach reporting at your institution?

Please comment below!