eLearning Systems Service Status Communications Procedure

Objectives

1. Provide current information on disruptions to users as they are happening.
   1. Why? This helps users understand what the disruption is and that they don’t need to overload support teams with calls. The ITS service status message is usually accessible in cases where Blackboard is not  reachable. In worst case scenarios people attempting to access Blackboard may be redirected to the Service Status information.
   2. ITS post a message on service status page at https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-For services/information-technology/it-service-updates
   3. Elearning post a message inside Blackboard’s Institution Page under Spotlight explaining when the disruption started, the impact, an apology and a message about high priority attention. The elearning message should sync with the ITS service status message in terms of starting time, duraction and impact, but may provide more detail. 
   4. In cases of very urgent or high impact disruptions an Impact popup message can be displayed to all users inside Blackboard. This is much more noticable than an email. Where Blackboard is completely unavailable for all users a redirect will be put in place to send Blackboard users to the ITS service status page which provides information about the outage and remediation efforts.

2. Provide historic information on service disruptions to help staff and students manage the impacts of interruptions to assessment or study.
   1. Why? This is done to provide accurate evidence for both students and teaching staff to use in negotiation on impacts to assessments.
   2. It also serves to provide a history of disruptions for all stakeholders to understand trends.
   3. ITS post notices on all historical descriptions under the ‘Resolved notices tab  on the ITS service status page https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-services/information-technology/it-service-updates
   4. Elearning post notices on all historical descriptions on the Institutions page under eLearning Services Status – Resolved
3. Provide background information on service disruptions to University executives and key stakeholders that may not necessarily be using/reading the Blackboard messages and ITS messages.
   1. Why? These notifications help prepare stakeholders in case they are contacted by staff asking about the disruption. They also help assure due process is being carried out by support teams in case they are asked. 
   2. The communication is normally in the form of an email update from the elearning service manager describing the duration and impact and cause to stakeholders (listed below). It may provide more information that avaialble on the other notices.
   3. A supplimentary Teams chat message should be sent to the DVCA(cc DDDL). See example in templates below.
   4. Recent incidents and incident reports (from vendor or ITS) will always be discussed at the fortnightly elearning operational forum meeting with all elearning service provider and the faculties.
   5. Post incident reports from ITS or the vendor can also be shared if desired to stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• eLearning: These communications are the responsibility of the Elearning Manager (Elearning Service Owner).

• ITS: Apart from resolution responsibilities ITS is required to 

  • notify the Elearning Service Manager (Simon Collyer 0401991111) in the event of a service outage, or supervisor Deputy Director of Digital Learning (DDDL) (Greg Winslett 0477398943) and

  • post the ITS service status notice as quickly as possible, before the full resolution,  so it can be linked to in all other communications as the authoritative source. 

  • follow internal ITS communication protocols, but not to business owner or system users.

The eLearning service manager will communicate as follows

Communication Templates

Inside Blackboard - Institution Page - eLearning Service Status - Current (Seen by staff and students)

Learn.UQ unscheduled service interruption

Start time and date. Description of issue including impact breadth and frequency. Resolution time if applicable. Link to ITS service status page notice. Empathy e.g. "ITS is giving the matter its highest priority" or "ITS apologises for the inconvenience" or "ITS appreciates your understanding while this urgent work is carried out."

Impact Notice - popup inside Blackboard for high impact outages (Seen by staff and/or students)

Impact notices are 1-2 sentences with a link to the ITS Service status page. e.g.

Starting 1pm today 2 May students have been unable to submit Turnitin assessments. ITS is giving the matter its highest priority. More information link <to ITS service status page>

Advice to DLSC, DVCA etc.

Same message as eLearning Service Status - Current

Add summary of communications sent (service status in Bb, ITS Service status, any Impact message)

Advice on interruptions to examination systems during central exam periods

Include "Examinations will be in contact with staff and students about cancelled exams and rescheduling plans"

Executive Stakeholder Group 

• Current Digital Learning Sub-Committee members
• Director of ITaLI, 
• DDDL, 
• PVC (T&L)
• DVCA office- Director, DVCA Portfolio who should advise DVCA 
• ITS Director, Higher Education Technologies Manager of Examinations (if during exam period)

Enhancements

Based on feedback from the Digital Learning Sub Committee (DLSC) in February 2021 it was decided to enhance elearning service status communications to help teaching staff be aware of elearning service interruptions. Based on subsequent feedback collected from Associate Deans (Academic) by DVC(A) communications staff - the following adjustments were made.
 

• Elearning service status communications will be increased to include five channels including: 1) ITS service status page; 2) Spotlight inside Blackboard; 3) emails to UQ Management Service Disruption list; 4) if required - emails to all teaching staff (with unsubscribe option); 5) inclusion in fortnightly Teaching and Elearning Newsletter emailed to teaching staff. 
• For system wide or medium impact service changes a key management group will be emailed with alerts and clear calls to action. The group will include: ADSs, HOSs, School managers, Faculty executive managers, UQ School Teaching & Learning Chairs, Student and Academic Administration Management Committee.
• For system wide or medium impact service changes all teaching staff will receive an alert matching that in Spotlight but with an option to unsubscribe. ITaLI-MarComs are currently confirming an unsubscribe version of the updated teaching staff list is possible. 

Spotlight messages have been confirmed to be effective. A survey in spotlight inviting staff to indicate if they read Spotlight for service status information attracted 759 unique pageview sessions over two weeks – from 1,600 courses. Its therefore recommended that Spotlight remain an important communication channel.  Teaching and ELearning News will promote Spotlight to staff as an important repository of up-to-date elearning service information. 

Communication Channels Available

• Reports
  • To ELOF
  • To Teaching and Learning Committee
  • To ABUG
  • Special for PVC (e.g. Late activating courses) – usually around 10/year
• Monitor
  • Elearning helpdesk submissions
  • Training feedback
  • Helpdesk complaints or trends
  • Library AskIT student submissions
  • UQ Facebook page comments.
• Newsletter:
  • Elearning Update newsletter 3K coordinators and associated prof staff
  • Seasonal advices (activate your course; order your course etc)
  • Awareness building of capabilities: e.g. desktop recording
  • Advertise workshops
  • Service changes or disruptions.
  • Awareness building of services (e.g. coaching, or helpdesk).
  • Key high level messages: e.g. grades security or academic integrity.
  • Case study videos
• Web Site:
  • elearning.uq.edu.au web site
  • Staff Guides
  • Project status pages 
  • Service definitions
  • Contacts
  • Blogs
  • Case studies
• Roadshows 
  • New staff expo
  • T&L week 
  • Teaching @UQ
  • H1 School T&Ls every year twice a year (currently on pause)
  • H2 full school meets every year twice a year (currently on pause)
• Elearning Operational Forum (ELOF)  under teaching and learning committee.
  • Chair & Agenda; 
  • Presentations; 
  • updates on projects; 
  • Formal written reports;
  • Consultations and discussions.
  • Faculty presentations (from the coalface)
• Teaching and Learning Committee:  Formal reports via DLSC
• Digital Learning Sub Committee: Formal report
• Faculty T&L meets: formal report for each meeting in each faculty
• ITALI Annual report: Formal report on elearning service uptake.
• ITaLI Advisory Committee: Formal report
• Elearning Designers Forum – Attend and contribute
• ITS Service Status page – Concise information about planned or unexpected outages
• Spotlight on Blackboard Welcome Page –– any upcoming or unexpected interruptions (so coordinators know to give an allowance) + important messages (grades security; academic integrity training) & seasonal items (can order your course)
• Impact: Pop up messages inside Blackboard on Welcome page or inside courses. Can go to staff or students or both.
• Presentations: at various forums including: 
  • ELOF 
  • IT Leaders forum; 
  • ITaLI forums; 
  • Standing committees
  • Project steering committees
  • ACODE
  • ABUG
  • Conferences
• Workshops – scheduled and custom
• Blogs on capabilities on elearning.uq.edu.au web site
• Coaching – Elearning Solutions Service
• Case study videos – youtube
• Student guides (hosted on Library site).
• Staff guides (hosted on elearning.uq.edu.au)

Communication Templates

For Inside Blackboard - Institution Page - eLearning Service Status - Current (Seen by staff and students)

Learn.UQ unscheduled service interuption

Start time and date. Description of issue including impact breadth and frequency. Resolution time if applicable. Link to ITS service status page notice. Describe importantce e.g. "ITS is giving the matter its highest priority" or "ITS apologises for the inconvenience" or "ITS appreciates your understanding while this urgent work is carried out"

Example Spotlight Notices inside Blackboard

Impact Notice - popup inside Blackboard for high impact outages (Seen by staff and/or students)

Impact notices are 1-2 sentences with a link to the ITS Service status page. e.g.

Starting 1pm today 2 May students have been unable to submit Turnitin assessments. ITS is giving the matter its highest priority. More information link <to ITS service status page>

Example Impact Notice

Advice to executive stakeholders - DLSC, DVCA etc.

Same message as eLearning Service Status - Current

Add summary of communications sent (service status in Bb, ITS Service status, any Impact message)

Example advice to executive stakeholders

Advice on interruptions to examination systems during central exam periods

Include "Examinations will be in contact with staff and students about cancelled exams and rescheduling plans"

All staff student communications

Where a significant part of the VLE is fully unavailable a recommendation may be made to the DVCA for an all staff student memo-email as a supplement to the communications above.

Example email memo from DVCA on Normal Maintenance (rare now with cloud systems)

Example email from DVCA for Emergency Maintenance

Example email from DVCA for Inspera affecting Exams