Loyola has implemented a more advanced version of Blackboard in order to continue classes online and to temporarily communicate should a long-term forced evacuation occur again.

In preparation, all classes are being registered with Blackboard. This may prevent school from being extended into December, should classes only be canceled for a short period of time, administrators say.

According to Loyola’s Hurricane Emergency Plan, a university closure of four class days or longer would result in the fall semester being extended for one additional week in December. Should the university be forced to close for an indefinite period of time, Blackboard would be used for online instruction.

Brenda Joyner, assistant provost for teaching, learning and faculty development, had a disclaimer, saying that, “there is no intention of trying to make Loyola an online institution.” Blackboard would instead be used as a way for students to stay in touch with faculty and to continue their education online, she said.

“If we would have had a hurricane in early September (of this year), we would have wanted to use Blackboard to continue classes for three to four weeks,” Joyner said. “We could do it for an entire semester if we needed to.”

According to University President, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., and those planning to use Blackboard as a backup, online instruction would not only prevent school from being extended at the end of the semester, but would also help as enrollment into other schools would be difficult for students if an evacuation occurred later in the semester.

“If Katrina had happened a few weeks later,” said Wildes, “then we would have had to do something different, as classes would have been well underway and it would have been difficult to impossible for our students to join in (at other universities). If we were forced to evacuate – and stay away – it would allow us to continue classes,” he said.

Whether students would be allowed to withdraw from Loyola without having it appear on their transcripts is yet to be determined.

“Students can always withdraw from the university,” said Deborah Stieffel, dean of admissions and enrollment management. Specifics on what would happen to students’ financial aid and transcripts cannot be given, she said, because those decisions would depend on when the storm hit.

“There are so many variables to consider,” she said, “but we are trying not to close the university.”Financial aid is left up to the federal government, Stieffel said. Last year the Department of Education allowed students who were from storm-ravaged areas to continue receiving financial aid as visiting students at other universities.

One of the reasons Loyola students were able to continue receiving financial aid after the storm, Stieffel said, was because the university’s advanced Information Technology system was able to protect students’ financial aid files.

“With our IT system, we were the only school in the city that had backup tapes that we could access,” she said. With a remote server in Chicago during Katrina, the school’s whole mainframe system was backed up a week after the storm hit, Stieffel said. This same IT server would act as the Blackboard server for Loyola, she said, allowing classes to resume online if the university was closed.

This improved version of Blackboard will have new features such as a 24-hour online help desk and animated tutorials, according to Deborah Poole, public services coordinator of the Monroe Library.

“Each discipline poses certain challenges,” she said, “because what’s going to work for science and music may be different.”

“There are a lot of faculty who are doing a lot of innovative things with Blackboard,” Poole said. Music instructors will have audio reserve and streaming video to supplement their courses, she said, while biology instructors can use slideshows online to replace their labs.

“I love it, and I’m very happy with the system,”said Elizabeth Rota, Ph.D., director of choral activities. She said Blackboard lends itself very well to her music theory and choral methods classes, because she is able to send worksheets and books out through the system. Rota said she was not sure how to teach her three choir classes online using Blackboard, but she could easily coordinate with other music theory instructors about a schedule.

Robert Thomas, Ph.D., interim director of the School of Mass Communication, who has an adjunct in biological sciences, said he has already used Blackboard extensively for his herpetology labs.

“I’ve actually photographed all of my lab specimens and put them online,” said Thomas, who also has accompanying slideshows posted. Blackboard would work well in a situation where students and faculty aren’t able to meet in person because faculty would just work on Blackboard instead of in front of students, he said. Thomas added, “The main thing you lose, though, is connectivity.”

For faculty in traditional classroom settings, the new Blackboard seems to be an extension of the previous version.

“I think it is a great idea,” said Liz Scott, part-time instructor in the School of Mass Communication. “I have never mastered Blackboard, so this should be an incentive.”

“Some faculty have been using Blackboard for years to teach off-campus courses and they are pleased with the results,”said Larry Lorenz, interim dean for the College of Social Sciences.

Lorenz said he has encouraged the social sciences faculty to use Blackboard to continue their courses in the event of another evacuation; though, he said, the extent to which they use it remains up to each faculty member.

The excitement of the faculty isn’t shared by all, though. Some students fear that problems with the older version of Blackboard would be repeated in the new version.

“It’s a good idea in theory, but in practice it would be a disaster,” said Caitlin Fowler, business and marketing senior.

“It would be pretty difficult to continue class lectures, especially with kids who have visual and auditory preferences or difficulties,” she said. “And if New Orleans natives had to evacuate without their computers, it would be difficult to get online to take their classes.”

Mike Jones, music industry senior, said online learning would be difficult for him. Jones, whose classes usually involve playing guitar with others, is less familiar with traditional discussion-based classes. “I have a Legal Issues in Music class that meets three times a week that is all discussion, and I honestly don’t know how I’ll get through it,” he said. “So if it were online, all I would have to follow is words on a screen.”

Jenna Harris can be reached at [email protected].