Spent some time today with Meg Houston Maker, Director of External Information Services at Dartmouth and the author of the amazing Engaging Experience blog.
In a fast hour I learned how much I don't know about web analytics. Meg has instrumented all the sites she designs and runs, and therefore can make arguments for campaigns and practices informed by data.
The conversation with Meg led to other conversations, and to an open source building block called Project Astro. The Slideshare linked below provides a marvelously convincing case for the ROI of having Blackboard metrics easily available in a dashboard.
Astro alone may be enough of a compelling case (for me) to move to Blackboard 9. Perhaps the most intriguing element would be the ability to expose the Blackboard dashboard data to our community. Allowing all of our learners to see courses that are heavily used, or that use active learning tools such as blogs and wikis, would go a long way towards rewarding this innovation. Learners (students and faculty) who are big users of Blackboard could be identified, supported, and celebrated.
Don't forget Meg's other blog, Maker's Table (http://www.makerstable.com/).
Posted by: Anthony Helm | July 30, 2009 at 05:31 PM