RPP #195: Thomas Waite & Steve Mildner of K16 Solutions

Interview with Dr. Thomas Waite, CEO, and Steve Mildner, CRO of K16 Solutions. K16's Scaffold Designer is the industry’s first cloud-hosted, fully integrated LMS migration and course development tool that automates manual processes and improves efficiency. "Migrate Course Content. Archive Student Data. Build Better Courses. LMS Solutions for Educators by Educators." We discuss: 

• Thomas and Steve's backgrounds

  

  Thomas Waite, CEO & Steve Mildner, CRO

• Mission: course design, LMS migration, and archiving
• Partners: Blackboard, Canvas, D2L, and Open LMS
• Reduced cost of migration between LMSs
• Global text replacement during migration (LMS name, phone numbers, etc)
• Migration duration shortened from months to hours
• No need to run both LMSs during the migration
• Historical data from legacy LMS archived on the K16 platform for easy retrieval
• Scaffold solutions for efficient course design  


• Podsafe music selection
• A Passage Of Life by Kitaro

Duration: 50:53

RPP #187: CoursePlan - Interview with Maria Andersen

• Interview with Dr. Maria Andersen, CEO of CourseTune, makers of the new CoursePlan product for individual faculty users to design their courses using visual tools. 
  
  
  
• We discuss:
• Background of CourseTune and how CoursePlan is different
• Course design layers: “What are students learning” and “When will they learn it”
• Aligning learning and assessment activities to the learning objectives
• Visualizing the entire course at once
• Support for HyFlex delivery
• Accounting for student load and time on task
• LMS integrations and future directions
• Contingencies for teaching this Fall during the pandemic

• Podsafe music selection
• New Age Piano: Lines Build Walls by Ehren Starks

Duration: 42:13

RPP #174: Aula Education - Interview with Anders Krohn

• Interview with Anders Krohn, CEO and Co-founder of Aula Education. Aula brings students, staff, and educators together in a digital environment that encourages interaction and collaboration. 

Anders Krohn, CEO

• We discuss:
• The meaning of the name "Aula"
• How Aula got started
• Social and conversational pedagogy
• Integrations with the SIS, Google, Microsoft
• Experience with traditional LMSs
• How faculty respond to AULA
• How AULA replaces an LMS
• Institutions that dumped their LMS
• Links
• Aula Education
• Putting $4.2M to work — building ‘digital campuses’

• Podsafe music selection
• "Woods of Chaos" by Rob Costlow - New Age Piano

Duration: 44:23

RPP #168: The Blackboard Ultra (Conversion) Experience

• Discussion with Rob McCunney, Blackboard Sysadmin and Instructional Designer, University of the Sciences. We discuss our conversion from Blackboard Learn managed hosting to SaaS and then to the Ultra Experience and Ultra Courses. 
• We discuss:
  

  

  Adoption of Blackboard Learn Ultra

• Moving from Managed Hosting to SaaS:
• What were some of the conversion issues?
• How much time/effort was expended?
• Were there any surprises?
• What advantages did you see?
• Turning on Ultra Experience:
• What were the conversion issues?
• What are the limitations?
• Turning on Ultra Course View:
• What are the limitations?
• How was Blackboard support?
• Links
• Blackboard Learn Ultra Experience
• RPP #157: Blackboard Roadmap - Interview with Jim Chalex
• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) from the CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

[Disclaimer: The University of the Sciences is a customer of Blackboard.]

Duration: 31:13

RPP #144: ExamSoft - Interview with Jason Gad

• Interview with Jason Gad, Vice President of Business Development, ExamSoft Worldwide Inc.
• We answer the questions:
• How does Examsoft work?

  

  Jason Gad

• What are advantages over online LMS exams?
• Does it work with Scantron-type paper exams?
• Can exams be proctored?
• Do exams work on all smart phones and tablets?
• What happens if the Internet connection fails?
• Can you map questions to learning objectives?
• Links
• ExamSoft
• RPP #137: ProctorU - Interview with Don Kassner
  
• Podsafe music selection 
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) from the CD entitled "The Four Seasons by Vivaldi" by the American Baroque Orchestra. 

Duration: 36:33

RPP #134: Bb World 2015 Recap: SaaS vs Ultra

• Rod discusses his experience at Bb World 2015, especially what he learned about the new SaaS offerings and Ultra Experience. Listen to the audio podcast as usual or listen and watch accompanying slides via Youtube. 

• Thanks go to Jim Chalex, Sr. Director of Product Management, and Greg Ritter, Product Management Director at Blackboard Inc, for their BbWorld presentations on this topic. I hope I got it right!

View Rod's #bbworld15 Tweets

• SaaS vs Ultra
  
• Bb Learn 9.1 & Ultra Roadmaps
• Bb Collaborate Ultra Roadmap
• Bb Mobile Ultra Roadmap
• New Persona-based Apps
• Benefits of SaaS
• SaaS: Standard, Plus & Advantage
• Transition and Migration Options
• Ultra Tabs and Modules
• Blackboard up for sale!

• Links
• try.blackboard.com
• www.bbworldlive.com

• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• Don't Be Long: The Beatles v Elken, a mashup of George Harrison's Blue Jay Way by Elken, a 60's influenced band from Dublin, Ireland. 

Duration: 21:58

RPP #133: Blackboard Ultra: Interview with Mark Strassman

• Interview with Mark Strassman, Senior Vice President, Industry and Product Management, Blackboard Inc.
• Mark Strassman oversees the company's product and integrated
  
  portfolio strategy to ensure Blackboard continues to build solutions that serve institutions, administrators, educators and students. 
• We discuss the new Blackboard Ultra:
• What are Core, Essentials, Insight, Student Retention?
• What is the update roadmap for hosted systems?
• Versions of Ultra SaaS, multi-tenant, single-tenant
• New web REST API
• Is Ultra completely adaptive/responsive? 
• New Bb Student app
• Ultra workflows subset for Community
• Mobile compatibility; adaptive design
• Future of Mosaic
• "Persona Apps" 
• New Collaborate Ultra
• Links
• Blackboard Inc.
• Bb Student App
• What's the Ultra Experience for Bb Collaborate?
• EdTech Connection
• Podsafe Music Selection
• Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (Summer) by the American Baroque Orchestra. Purchase the full CD: The Four Seasons by Vivaldi 
• Duration: 35:26

RPP #132: D2L Brightspace - Interview with John Baker, CEO, D2L

• Interview with John Baker, CEO, D2L
  D2L (formerly Desire2Learn) announced the next generation of its learning platform, Brightspace. By featuring a new faculty user experience and bringing adaptive learning to the masses, D2L says that Brightspace is more flexible, smarter, and easier to use.

• We discuss D2L and their next generation LMS, Brightspace
• We answer the questions:
  
• Does it replace "legacy" D2L?
• What is adaptive learning and LeaP?
• What features can be used in-class?
• What about student retention support and e-portfolios?
• What's the new faculty UI?
• How is it delivered? Multi-tenant Cloud? Hosted? On premise?

• Links
• D2L Launches Next Generation of Learning Platform Brightspace

• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• "Fly Fly Fly" by singer/song writer Adrina Thorpe - Influenced by Sarah Mclachlan, Tori Amos, and Coldplay

Duration: 27:12

RPP #127: Blackboard: Interview with Jay Bhatt - Part 2

• Interview with Blackboard CEO, Jay Bhatt - Part 2. We talk about the NEW Blackboard user experience and more:

• The new User Experience 
• New User Interface (UI) "Ultra"
• Fully responsive - dynamically adjusts
• New Collaborate - no more Java
• Massive data integration between Bb and other components
• New delivery choice
• Public cloud implementation
• Multi-tenant public cloud
• Uses 1st instance of the new Ultra UI
• Product bundling
• Changes to Mobile Learn
• Blackboard Labs 

• Polls App
• Mobile Grading App
• Job Genie App 
• "Tip/Txt" Anti-Bullying free to all K-12 schools
• Bb fundamental cultural change 
• #PayMyTuition Challenge
• Links
• Blackboard World 2014 (Youtube Videos)
• Sneak Peak of Blackboard Ultra

• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• Angels We Have Heard On High by Bill Meyers

Duration: 31:59

RPP #117: Blackboard xpLor: Interview with Brad Koch

• Blackboard xpLor: Interview with Brad Koch, VP Product Management, Blackboard Learn.
• We discuss xpLor, Blackboard's first cross-platform learning object repository
  
• We answer the questions:
• what is xpLor?
• how does it work?
• does it work with LMSs from other companies?
• is it for learning objects or complete courses?
• what's available to share in addition to Khan Academy content?
• how do features compare between xpLor and Bb LMS?
• why would anyone continue to develop courses in the Bb LMS?
  

• Northeast eLearning Consortium UnConference at USciences
• Please save the date of Monday, December 16, 2013 for the first Northeast E-Learning Consortium Un-Conference. The event will be hosted by the University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA. The event will also include the first Philadelphia stop on Blackboard's "Never Stop Learning Tour". 
• Podsafe music selection from Ioda Promonet
• Laura Sullivan plays "Pachelbel For The Potomac" from "Pianoscapes For The Trails Of North America"

Duration: 31:32

RPP #105: Blackboard Analytics for Learn

• Interview with Mark Max, Vice President of Blackboard Analytics (formerly iStrategy)
• Blackboard Analytics for Learn combines the data from Blackboard Learn with student and course attributes from the student information system to create reports and dashboards. We discuss how this product is used by students, faculty and leadership, for example:
• Students: How do I measure up to my peers?
• Faculty: How can I easily find students who are at-risk?
• Leadership: Who are the most innovative instructors?
  
• Podsafe Music Selection from the Music Alley
• "Stress" (song and flash animation) by highly caffeinated Jim Infantino of the band, Jim's Big Ego.

Duration: 23:25

RPP #95: Moodlerooms: Interview with CEO Lou Pugliese

• Interview: Lou Pugliese, Chairman and CEO, Moodlerooms, Inc.
• Moodle: a “free” course management system that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.
• Moodlerooms, Inc.: a hosting and support company for users of Moodle.
  
• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley
• "Ain't No Reason" by Brett Dennen - featured on several TV shows including "House", "Scrubs" and "Grey's Anatomy"

Duration: 25:17

RPP #94: ConnectYard: Interview with CEO Donald Doane

• Interview: Donald Doane, CEO, ConnectYard Inc.
• ConnectYard a centralized social media communications platform that seamlessly integrates Facebook, Twitter and video as well as text messaging with popular Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard, to better engage students and expand overall institutional communication.

• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley

• "50 Ways to Lose Your Luggage" by Robert Lund of the Funny Music Project

Duration: 15:42

RPP #92: Interview: Ray Henderson on Blackboard Learn - Part 2

• Interview: Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn
• Learn about Blackboard's ePortfolios offerings, and
• Open Database Inititative
• Open-source competition

• Blackboard Resources
• Blackboard Learn
• Blackboard Learn: On Demand Learning Center
• Ray Henderson's Bb Blog
• Rod's Annotated Bookmarks on Blackboard
  
  
• Podsafe music selection from Music Alley 
• "Midnight" by singer/song writer Adrina Thorpe from the album “Halflight & Shadows”

Duration: 21:03

RPP #88: Wimba, Elluminate and Blackboard Collaborate

• Picks from Rod's Podcaster Guide and E-Learning News
• Follow Rod's e-learning news sources and his Delicious bookmarks
  

• Interview:  Matthew Wasowski, Senior Manager of Customer Programs, Blackboard Collaborate

• Learn about industry leading tools for synchronous and asynchronous learning. Matthew discusses Wimba Classroom, Pronto and Wimba Voice and how these products and Elluminate will be combined in the upcoming Blackboard Collaborate, due this summer.
  

• Podsafe music selection from Ioda Promonet
• Laura Sullivan plays "Pachelbel For The Potomac" from "Pianoscapes For The Trails Of North America"
  Buy at iTunes Music Store
  Buy at Amazon MP3
  

Duration: 21:42

RPP #78: News from the Podosphere and Blackboard Buys Angel

• Picks from Rod's Podcaster Guide and E-Learning News
• HigherEdCamp Philly - higher education technology unconference on June 6 at the University of Pennsylvania
• Online Education in the United States - from the Sloan Consortium
• YouTube EDU - Google launches higher ed YouTube site
• Wolfram Alpha - computational knowledge engine from maker of Mathematica
• These Lectures Are Gone in 60 Seconds - microlectures encourage active learning, says developer David Penrose
• Text Message (SMS) Polls and Voting - alternative to expensive audience response systems
• Blackboard Brings LMS App to iPhone - get alerts, read learning content on the go

• Blackboard Buys Angel Learning
• Report from the 2009 Angel Users Conference in Chicago
• Angel Learning CEO, Christopher Clapp, explains the reasons for joining with Blackboard
• Blackboard CEO, Michael Chasen, introduces the new Blackboard Learning CEO, Ray Henderson, former Angel VP

• Podsafe Music Selection from Jamendo
• "Woods of Chaos" by Rob Costlow - New Age Piano

Buy at Amazon

Duration: 20:17

RPP #66: Desire2Learn Interview and New Soul

• New Interview Recording Setup
• Skype - make calls over the Internet to other Skype users free of charge and to landlines and cell phones for a fee
• Zoom H4 Handy Recorder - puts a remarkable amount of recording power in the palm of your hand


• Desire2Learn - Interview with Kenneth Chapman, Lead Product Manager

• Desire2Learn is recognized as a leader in educational enterprise software with a suite of applications, services, and support to power your learning infrastructure
• We discuss their course management system including usability, single sign-on, portals, custom branding, blogs, wiki's, e-portfolios, and learning objects
• Other software mentioned
• Adobe Captivate
• iTunes U
• Confluence Enterprise Wiki
• MediaWiki

• Podsafe Music Selection from the Podsafe Music Network
• "New Soul" by Yael Naim, the acclaimed singer/songwriter from Israel, from her album Yael Naim. 'New Soul' has gained fame as the music played during Apple's Macbook Air ad campaign

Buy at Amazon

Duration: 25:30

RPP #65: Night Kitchen Interactive Interview and Bohemian Financial Rhapsody

• Night Kitchen Interactive - Interview with Juan Leon, Senior Consultant
• Night Kitchen Interactive is an award-winning interactive design studio providing elearning, interactive exhibits, and marketing communications solutions for corporations and non-profit organizations
• Topics discussed: simulated environments, personalized learning, social media, Web 2.0, museums, kiosks and CD-ROM
• Products and companies mentioned:
• Articulate Presenter
• Articulate Quizmaker
• Blackboard
• eCollege
• Impatica for PowerPoint
• Ninth House

• Podsafe Music Selection from the Podsafe Music Network
• "Bohemian Financial Rhapsody" by Geoff Smith - a parody cover based on "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
• Read the lyrics that appeared on the Huffington Post

Duration: 23:29