Ecampus is Moving to the Common Collaboration and Learning Environment (CCLE)!

The UCLA Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) is leading the Humanities Division in a transition to the UCLA Common Collaboration and Learning Environment, or CCLE, where we are in the process of building all new Humanities course sites throughout the academic year 2007-08. The CCLE is a campus-wide initiative whose goal is to “create a consistent campus-wide environment that supports both instruction and research collaboration”. The CCLE runs on Moodle <http://www.moodle.org>, an open-source learning management system (LMS) software, and offers simpler login (no more separate Ecampus accounts!), integration with Library E-Reserves and MyUCLA, and built-in tools for online exchange and collaboration (e.g. wikis, forums, questionnaires, etc.) And because it’s a campus-wide initiative, more things are in the works to connect your course sites with the online services you already use.

This is clearly a significant change for all instructors (and students) in the Humanities, but the Ecampus Team is ready to help everyone make the transition comfortably. CDH has been a major contributor to the CCLE project; in partnership with other campus units we have been successfully running an alpha system of course sites since early 2007. As of winter 2008, already two full departments (AP/TESL & ESL and Classics) have made the transition, with additional Humanities courses by request, for a total of over 100 Humanities courses actively running on the CCLE this quarter. You can see which courses are using the CCLE for instruction by going to http://ccle.ucla.edu, scrolling down to “Course categories”, and clicking on the relevant quarter. Feedback from most instructors who have tried it is, “I’m staying with CCLE!”.

To support the changeover for each instructor, we are also carefully planning things so instructors have the time to preview the CCLE prior to using it officially, and are able to get whatever training works best for each individual or group.

Timeline
The Ecampus Team began the transition process for Humanities departments in Spring 2007, and we are working to ensure that all Humanities departments will be comfortably running course sites on the CCLE by the start of Winter 2009.

Here is the planned timeline for the Humanities transition to the CCLE:

Test phase:
Spring 2007 – 7 Humanities course sites (among a group of 20 campus-wide)
Summer 2007 – 25 Humanities sites in Session A, 30 Humanities sites in Session C

Departmental rollouts begin:
Fall 2007 – AP/TESL & ESL department in full plus other interested instructors (40+ total)
Winter 2008 – AP/TESL & ESL and Classics in full; other interested instructors by request to moodle@humnet.ucla.edu
Spring 2008 – AP/TESL & ESL, Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, Musicology, Philosophy, Scandinavian, Slavic, Writing Programs and individual instructors by request
Summer 2008 – All of the above plus Linguistics and Spanish & Portuguese
Fall 2008 – All of the above plus Asian Languages & Cultures, English, French, GE Clusters, Germanic, Honors, Indo-European Studies, Italian, LGBT Studies, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, Religious Studies, and Romance Linguistics
Winter 2009 and going forward – All of Humanities using the CCLE!

CDH is working with Chairs to schedule departmental rollouts to the CCLE on a rolling basis, as summarized in the timeline above. When your department is slated to move to the CCLE, we will contact all instructors (faculty and TAs) with information about how and when to get your sites ready, and get the training you need.

What this means for Humanities instructors: If you’re ready to try your course on the CCLE now, you can! You can request a “preview” site for exploring and trying out the CCLE, or you can ask us for an official course site to be used for instruction. (See “Ready to try the CCLE now?”.)
    If you’re not ready this quarter, you will have at least one quarter to prepare, and you can request a preview site any time. As outlined above, the Ecampus Team will work with each department to plan a graduated schedule of department-by-department “move dates”. As soon as we have your Chair’s approval on the timing of your department’s move date, we’ll notify you about how to plan for your upcoming course sites. This will include plans for individual and group training sessions, and for moving course content from prior Ecampus sites to the new ones on CCLE. Check this site for the latest information on confirmed departmental move dates, and on training and content migration help available to you.

Ready to try the CCLE now? Email your request to moodle@humnet.ucla.edu – include your name, and the course name, number, and section number for each site you want us to build. Please also specify if you want the site to be official (i.e., used for teaching this quarter) or if you want a preview site (i.e., only you have access to view and work on it). We are also happy to build preview sites for any of your upcoming courses in 2007-08, so you can prepare in advance of your official move date.

Where do I go to request a CCLE introduction and more help?

• Contact your departmental ITC <http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/itc> or Jonathan Jones (jonathanitc@humnet.ucla.edu) to schedule an individual or small-group training session.
• Drop in on the weekly “Introduction to Moodle and the UCLA CCLE” on Wednesdays, 10-12, and Thursdays, 2-3:45, in 186 Powell (no RSVP required). These sessions are offered OID’s Teaching Enhancement Center as a service to all instructors on campus. <http://www.oid.ucla.edu/units/tec/tectraining/introtoccle/>.
• Make an appointment with your department's Instructional Technology Consultant (ITC) at CDH or simply drop into the ITC lab located in the Public Affairs building, room 1041. See a list of ITC's and their schedules at: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/itc/
• Browse the CCLE: http://ccle.ucla.edu. There is also a CCLE Help Site open to anyone (you must enroll as a "guest"), with online documentation and help: http://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view.php?name=cclehelp.

If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns about the Humanities migration to Moodle/CCLE, please contact Annelie Rugg, Instructional Technology Coordinator, at annelie@humnet.ucla.edu or 310.903.7691.

 

Text of Email Announcement from UCLA Dean of Humanities, Timothy Stowell (March 23, 2007)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:    Changes to E-campus: Moodle
Date:       Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:20:30 -0800
From:       Stowell, Timothy <TStowell@college.ucla.edu>

Dear Humanities Faculty, Staff and Students:

I am writing to let you know about an important change in the Humanities
class websites system, Ecampus.

For several years now, a number of the Division faculty, along with
staff from The Center for Digital Humanities, have been participating in
campus wide evaluation of course management systems. These efforts led
to a recommendation from the Faculty Committee on Educational Technology
(http://www.college.ucla.edu/edtech1/fcet.htm) that Moodle be used for a
Common Collaboration and Learning Envionment (CCLE). Moodle is an
open-source learning management system, developed collaboratively and in
use around the world for several years. http://www.moodle.org.

In keeping with this recommendation, CDH will lead Humanities
participation in Moodle pilot efforts in the Spring quarter, with a view
to a full transition in Winter quarter 2008.

For more information see the CDH website at http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/ecampus

If you have questions or comments, please contact Dr. Annelie Chapman,
the CDH Instructional Technology Coordinator, at annelie@humnet.ucla.edu.

--Tim Stowell
Dean of Humanities
UCLA College

© UCLA CENTER FOR DIGITAL HUMANITIES 2007