Recommendations for Campus Rollout
Scholar, with a little bit of planning, can easily be rolled out successfully on campus. Use the below as a checklist for your rollout. Add additional stages you wish to include and remove any which aren't important to you.
1. Investigate the Scholar service at http://www.scholar.com
Reasoning: this will give users a quick feel for Scholar. Account creation, however, is required in order to edit and add resources and this can only be done from a Blackboard learning system which has the Blackboard Scholar Building Block or Powerlink installed.
2. Request a few test accounts from the Blackboard Beyond Team
Reasoning: a few accounts will allow instructional support staff a chance to explore Scholar and get any questions they have answered before any investment of time by IT staff. These users will select "Already a Member" when they first use Scholar on a subsequent Blackboard server, rather than completing a New User form, and associate their Scholar username and password with the subsequent Blackboard server.
3. Review Rolling Out Scholar on Campus and Technical Issues sections, on http://wiki.scholar.com
Reasoning: These will give you a quick background in Scholar from an administrative perspective and answer common administrator questions.
4. Install the Building Block or Powerlink on a test Blackboard learning system server
Reasoning: Installing the Building Block or Powerlink on a test server will allow you to resolve any installation issues and to test out usage prior to deployment on a production server. Any accounts created on a test server will need to go through the "Already a Member" process as above, on the production server. Deployment on campus is controlled by the Blackboard learning system administrator. Nothing is available to any end users until the admin has made the service available in the Blackboard Learning System via configuration of the Building Block or PowerLink. Similarly, faculty have control over when to release the Scholar Course tool within their courses via the course control panel.
5. Review other resources, as necessary, on the home page of http://wiki.scholar.com
Reasoning: Answers to common questions and other advice is maintained on the Scholar Wiki, including user help, technical answers and teaching approaches. These resources are available for use by institutions in rolling out Scholar
6. Think about recommendations to your users around Scholar account creation
Reasoning: When users first click on a Scholar link on your Blackboard server they are prompted to create a Scholar account. A Scholar username and password are separate from, but associated, to the user's Blackboard learning system account. Every time, after initial account creation, that a user access Scholar from your Blackboard learning system, they won't be prompted for their Scholar username and password, but they will have to have this available if they access Scholar directly via http://www.scholar.com. You may wish to give some direction to your users in your initial communications around Scholar account creation.
7. Put together rollout materials for your users, consider a faculty lunchtime introductory session and consider previous on-campus rollout strategies for new features to the learning management system
Reasoning: with a little bit of help, and most users need little, users will be off running with Scholar. The Scholar wiki contains many resources which can be used or repurposed e.g. Faculty Rollout Email, Student Rollout Email. Direct users to the resources you select and recommend they do the following to ensure Scholar is working for them:
8. Plan how you'll rollout Scholar within the learning management system
Reasoning: when you add the Scholar building Block or Powerlink to your production Blackboard system and make it available, any user who clicks on the Scholar tab or any other link to Scholar will be presented with a new user page. It would help your users if they had an announcement, with introductory material to orient them. Also consider a portal module in your Blackboard learning system.
9. Install, register and make the Scholar Building Block or Powerlink available on your production server
Reasoning: Scholar is now live for all your Blackboard learning system users
10. Directing your users towards help
Reasoning: Once installed and registered, Scholar is a low maintenance application and results in few user issues. All users, however, can get help from:
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