Innovative training and support interventions with respect to a commercial learning management system

Abstract

During 2006, the University of Pretoria embarked on an upgrade from WebCT Campus Edition to WebCT Vista 4, now called the Blackboard learning management system. The customised name for the system at the University of Pretoria is clickUP. The ethos behind the choice of name, besides the incorporation of the UP acronym, is to spread the idea of ‘clicking up’ teaching practice, ‘clicking up’ assessment strategies and ‘clicking up’ with ICTs. The project implementation team followed the recommendations of the WebCT (UK) consultants (Dark & O'Brien, 2005), which included establishing various task teams to handle all aspects of the upgrade. This paper reports on the strategies of the Training and Support task team.

Innovations in the training strategy include lunch times sessions, just-in-time and customised training for lecturers, a help website, fact sheets and the use of props, analogies and storytelling during face-to-face training sessions. Participant feedback is exceptionally positive. The main support intervention was the establishment of an e-support office to support lecturers with technical and administrative tasks in the electronic environment and to provide one central point for assistance.

The members of the team developed and matured in their understanding and usage of clickUP, including best practices which were incorporated in the training strategy. Important lessons were learned by the instructional design team, which are shared in this paper. It is possible for other training and support teams to modify many of these ideas and resources for their own needs.