Riverside Unified School District Adopts Haiku as its Online Learning Management Provider

[Jay McPhail]

Hi Everyone,

In March the District Technology Plan Committee made the decision to move from Blackboard to Haiku.  This transition will take place on July 1^st.  Price and functionality were the driving forces in making this decision.  In terms of functionality Haiku is much more user friendly as well as being fully integrated with Google docs and other web 2.0 tools.  We fully understand that change can be difficult and will be making every effort to provide training and support as needed but we will need your help in that process.   It’s important to understand that between now and July 1st Blackboard is still up and completely functional and should be used until July 1^st and or when we actually transfer your particular content into Haiku. Some key points to keep in mind:

 

1.  All content currently in Blackboard will be moved to Haiku for you, you will need to review your course or community once in Haiku to make sure it is setup the way you want but all content will be moved.
2. We will be providing a variety of face to face and online training opportunities.  Because of the nature of the other pilots planned and or in place all face to face training will be front loaded to take place before the beginning of the 2011-12 School Year.  There will be limited face to face trainings once the new school year begins.  We are developing a fully online course that will always be available as well.
3. NIS help desk analysts and a cadre of teachers will be trained to provide ongoing Haiku staff development and we strongly encourage sites to send lead teachers or other staff to these trainings in order to build site capacity.

I have included a link (below) to an online form that you can use to sign up for the appropriate training.  Please click on the link below to fill out the registration form:

 

RUSDLearns.net Google Survey Form

 

If you have specific questions or concerns contact Jay McPhail (McPhail@ rusd.k12.ca.us) or Tracy Arner at [e-mail]