DSI

The International Baccalaureate’s Virtual Community is right on task! We are set to release version 0.3 on 14 December. Upon this release, our first external users will join the site, representing the following stakeholder groups: MYP students, DP students, Educators, Alumni, and PD providers.

Users will enter the site and create his or her personal profile page. From there, users will be able to add friends, update his or her status, create wikis and blogs, and participate in discussion forums. The site will also include school groups, IB managed groups, and user created groups. Our beta testers represent all of the IB regions, as our stakeholders will now be able to communicate with one another regardless of geographical distance.

Please see the presentation for further reference: ib-virtual-community-presentation. If you have any questions, please send an email to ibvc@ibo.org.

On June 25th it was announced  that the International Baccalaureate and ePals, Inc. would collaborate to create a customized online learning community for IB students, educators, alumni, volunteers and other stakeholders.

We are pleased to announce that on July 31st, the first release of the IB Virtual Community was launched.

Our testing community has already begun to evaluate features including:

o User group creation and membership management

o Friendship connection requests and management

o Profile and home page content (updates, messages, blogs, wikis and media gallery areas).

Release 0.2 is scheduled for September this year and will build upon the first release by incorporating enhanced features and capabilities that reflect the feedback received from our stakeholder testers.

The following screen shots of this first release will give you an overview of the site development (Adobe Reader required).

Download IB Virtual Community screenshots [PDF, 750KB]

We look forward to updating you as the project progresses. Please direct your IB Virtual Community related enquiries to dsi@ibo.org or comment through this blog.

Short, 5-minute screencast tours of the sketches for the IB’s new Stakeholder Gateway and Virtual Community are ready for viewing online!

We are inviting members of the IB community – students, parents, educators, alumni, staff, volunteers, and all other community participants - to review the sketches and to then give us feedback about the proposed features and functionality.

To begin, please watch the screencast(s) of interest to you at the links listed below. Viewing the screencasts will take no longer than 5 minutes.

We then hope you’ll take a 5-10 minute survey to let us know your opinions about the designs. The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=avrLKBQ5IbvWNH8vKWQUeA_3d_3d.

Links to the screencasts:

• Screencast of proposed Alumni experience
• Screencast of proposed Diploma Student experience
• Screencast of proposed Educator experience
• Screencast of proposed Middle Years Student experience
• Screencast of proposed  Volunteer experience

Remember to please take our short 5 minute survey after watching the screencast(s):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=avrLKBQ5IbvWNH8vKWQUeA_3d_3d

Thank you for your time and for your feedback. The data being collected from IB community members has a real impact on the direction of development for the Stakeholder Gateway and Virtual Community!

Following the feedback from our recent stakeholder research activities (see previous blog entries), the Digital Space Initiative (DSI) is picking up pace as we move in to phase 3 of the programme (November 2008 – January 2009).

We will be launching a clickable test site at the end of January for a select (and globally dispersed) group of educators, students, volunteers, alumni and staff. We intend to use this site as a primary tool for users to help us finalize designs and features of our stakeholder gateway and virtual community.

A screen-based tour of the conceptual sketches for the gateway and virtual community (and a few related survey questions) will be uploaded in the next few weeks for your initial review. Stay tuned!

All feedback we receive will be instrumental as we finalize designs and features. We are committed to delivering a stakeholder gateway and IB virtual community that meets our community’s needs.

Once again, we would like to thank all those who have been involved so far for their continued support.

For more information, please contact Marla Gerein, the IB’s head of Virtual Communities.

New Gateway and Virtual Community on the Horizon

The Digital Space Working Group – made up of IB staff from across the organization – has made significant progress on the DSI’s 10 projects. Developments of interest include:

Work on a stakeholder gateway – linked off of the IB homepage, the new gateway will allow IB stakeholders to access resources and tools related to their role(s) and interests from one location.

Work on a new IB virtual community – a platform that will allow IB stakeholders to interact, collaborate and communicate with one another in a safe, secure environment.

What this all means for you:

• Easier log in to IB resources
• A simple, more effective way to get the IB information you want/need
• The ability to connect with others in the IB community, around the world

Click to enlarge: DSI general user experience

The International Baccalaureate’s Digital Space Initiative (DSI) aims to enhance the experiences and functionality that the IB offers its community in an online, web-based environment.

The organization hopes to integrate digital technology more and more into the IB experience, in line with the increased use around the world of web-based communities to share educational and social experiences.

A result of DSI will be a more cohesive, more effective and more user-friendly web presence by aligning existing websites. For example, an IB teacher will eventually see relevant, highlighted news, resource and e-newsletter links when logging into the IB website, and will have convenient access to sites such as the OCC and the Community Theme site.

Over the course of the next three years, the DSI will:

- Provide new tools and online spaces that can be used by IB schools, teachers and students to enhance teaching and learning.

- Offer tools and IB web-based spaces for individual and course-related publication, collaboration, sharing and community-building (i.e. blogs, wikis, discussion forums, file-sharing, individual profiles, the ability to form groups and other social networking functionality).

- Be available globally, allowing schools, classes and individual students to share, collaborate, and work with each other.

- Foster an academic environment in which students can develop and refine their scholarly web and digital literacy skills.

- Provide opportunities for classes and individual students to have authentic, global interactions.

Academic input and feedback will be critical to the success of the Digital Space Initiative. Stakeholders will be asked to participate throughout every phase of the initiative, and are currently being organized to provide ideas, feedback and to eventually act as “testers” of the new online experiences that the DSI is creating.

For more information, contact Marla Gerein, the IB’s head of virtual communities.