Synopsis
Deployment refers to the way Concourse is introduced to and adopted by end users at an institution. It is not a specific point in time or exact set of steps; rather, deployment is a process that is informed by your data provisioning choices, quality assurance requirements, training tools and personnel, and communication methods. In this article, we consider how Concourse can be deployed to groups at your institution rather than the specific methodology for training and communication. The methods you use for deployment are heavily dependent on your institutional context. For more information about training options, see
Configuration Options: Training End Users.
Key Terms
- Pilot: a small-scale launch of Concourse at your institution; pilot groups can be limited to a specific domain or function.
- Domain: an organizational unit within Concourse; default domain labels are Campus, School, and Department.
- Agnostic training: agnostic training is not specific to any institution’s Concourse environment; instead, it focuses on universal functionality of the platform, default labels and orders of items, and provides an overview of the ways Concourse may be used at different institutions.
- Syllabus Resource Center: Concourse’s live and on-demand agnostic training is facilitated in and hosted by the Syllabus Resource Center. The information available in this platform is free, but users must create an account to access the site and resources.
- Internal training: training developed by the institution for its users is considered internal. Internal training typically includes images and language that reflects your end users’ experience with Concourse.
- Feed: a data file that is used to migrate information from external systems to Concourse; feeds can be automated or processed manually.
- Integration: the way in which Concourse is connected to your institution’s LMS or SSO.
- Middleware: a tool that translates data in your institution’s systems to a format that Concourse can consume. Concourse’s middleware partner is Apidapter.
- High-level users: users at your institution who have increased access and permissions to Concourse; this category includes users with domain and system permissions.
- End users: all the users at your institution who engage with Concourse, from students to instructors, from template editors to reporters.
- Sandbox environment: a test environment where you can train users and attempt new processes without disrupting data in your production environment.
- Production environment: the Concourse environment where instructors and students will be registered to courses. This is where your “real” data is stored.
Important to this Decision
Before making decisions about how your institution uses Concourse, you should consider how stakeholders, systems, timelines, and other factors are impacted. Review the important elements below to be better prepared to make changes to your Concourse configuration or implementation.
Academic leaders, staff whose work is related to accreditation and compliance, staff whose work is related to syllabus and/or curriculum development, and faculty trainers should all be consulted when making this decision.
Concourse deployment depends upon many non-technical factors, such as institutional timeline (re: accreditation or compliance), training infrastructure, personnel workload, and instructor attitudes toward new technology. Try to find the deployment option that will best support your end users while also meeting institutional requirements.
Concourse deployment only occurs once at your institution, and the decision about how to deploy Concourse is made during the implementation phase. It is important to consider related systems, training and communication timelines, and instructor workloads carefully when making this decision since it is very difficult to change the approach after it has begun.
The implementation team and some special users (e.g., LMS admin) will likely use Concourse prior to its integration with your LMS and/or SSO and prior to the implementation of data feeds. However, most end users should not access Concourse until after data feeds have provisioned important system data and until the preferred entry point has been integrated. As a result, setup of data feeds, the middleware adapter, and LMS/SSO integration are crucial to effective deployment of Concourse.
- The role-based deployment option introduces Concourse to small groups of high-level users first to lay the groundwork for later users.
- The small pilot group deployment option introduces Concourse to one domain at a time until it is in use by all domains.
- The institutional deployment option introduces Concourse across your institution all at once.
Successful deployment of a new technology is crucial to its adoption and long-term use. You should introduce and deploy Concourse in the way that will be most beneficial to your users so that they become confident with the tool and are better able to meet expectations. Poorly planned deployments may contribute to negative instructor sentiment and poor adoption, which can present challenges for meeting institutional goals.
Configuration Options
There are many dependencies involved in the decision of how to deploy Concourse. Given the number of “moving parts” in Concourse implementation, we encourage you to be flexible and adaptable when it comes to deployment. Although you might prefer to deploy in a specific way, keep in mind how you could use other approaches as well. For example, it is extremely difficult to train instructors on Concourse before system data has been provisioned and all templates have been finalized; if your institution delays decisions about template or domain hierarchies or falls behind schedule on creating courses, your window for deploying to end users will likely decrease, and then you may not be able to deploy Concourse to a small group before introducing it to the entire institution. Below, we explain three common approaches for deploying Concourse to your institution, based on group size.
- Option A: Role-Based Deployment
- Option B: Small Pilot Group Deployment
- Option C: Institutional Deployment
If the choices below don’t fit your needs, reach out to Client Services for assistance.
- Approach: After users with system and domain permissions are trained on Concourse, course managers and other template editors throughout your institution are introduced to Concourse. After these user groups are successfully trained, they serve as leaders and guide other end users through adoption. Deployment may then continue on a role-guided basis, one domain at a time, or across your institution. High-level users may be trained in the sandbox or production environment; instructors typically do not enter the sandbox environment. If the next phase of deployment focuses on end users in a specific domain, then only students registered for courses in that domain will be able to access Concourse syllabi while other courses will continue to publish syllabi in the previous manner. If the next phase of deployment introduces Concourse to instructors across the entire institution, then all students will access Concourse syllabi in every course during the same term.
- Better For: This is the most commonly used deployment option. It works very well regardless of institution size or system complexity because a graduated release of Concourse ensures system readiness at every step and supports a community of Concourse users; high-level users become confident using Concourse and provide support to instructors as they come onboard.
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Role-Based Deployment: Role-based deployment allows you to introduce Concourse to your campus community deliberately, build buy-in from key figures or faculty influencers, and test out training and communication methods before deploying to the entire institution. This approach allows you to reflect on each introductory phase and material before revealing to the larger community, ensuring that the larger campus roll-out is more polished, thoughtful, and well-received. Role-based deployment also allows you to finish populating your Concourse system’s templates and train high-level users before bringing instructors into the environment. It is not necessarily a disadvantage, but role-based deployment does require a longer deployment timeline or runway. If your timeline for deployment is condensed, it may be more difficult to implement role-based deployment.
- Effort: Both role-based and small pilot group deployments introduce Concourse to end users at the pace your institution sets. For example, you may facilitate many training sessions simultaneously and delegate quality assurance checks to numerous domain reporters to speed up deployment. On the other hand, you may choose to centralize training and reporting, which requires more time, in order to take more granular control of deployment.
- Approach: A domain, such as a department or program, is chosen to be the pilot group for its urgent syllabus management needs or its history of successful technology adoption. Domain users, template editors, and instructors in this domain are all trained (either simultaneously or separately) in a cohort. Training in this approach typically occurs in the production environment in test courses that aren’t linked to LMS shells. Concourse syllabi are made available to students registered for courses in the selected domain while courses in other domains continue to publish syllabi in the prior approved methodology. During and after the pilot, its successes and challenges are noted and used to improve deployment for another domain or group of domains until Concourse is deployed to the entire institution.
- Better For: This option is used most often by larger institutions, institutions with complicated Concourse systems, or institutions where a specific domain must quickly meet accreditation or compliance requirements.
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Small Pilot Group Deployment: This approach allows you to effectively deploy Concourse in its entirety to one domain or selected group of your campus at a time, which is helpful for reflecting on the deployment process and improving training or communication methods before deploying Concourse to other groups. This approach is also helpful for providing a successful model of implementation to other domains, especially if representatives from the pilot group are willing to serve as influencers or ambassadors to the rest of the campus. While not necessarily a disadvantage, this approach assumes that deployment can occur over the course of multiple academic terms. If this timeline is not feasible for your institution, it may be better to consider a different approach.
- Effort: Both role-based and small pilot group deployments introduce Concourse to end users at the pace your institution sets. For example, you may facilitate many training sessions simultaneously and delegate quality assurance checks to numerous domain reporters to speed up deployment. On the other hand, you may choose to centralize training and reporting, which requires more time, to take more granular control of deployment.
- Approach: In this approach, system data and the majority of syllabus content are typically populated via feeds from other systems, such as the SIS, therefore leaving little work for instructors to do. Once this data is provisioned, domain users and instructors are trained simultaneously in separate sessions to quickly demonstrate the use of Concourse and clarify the expectations of each role. End users typically start modifying live/section syllabi in the production environment instead of training in the sandbox. End users are provided asynchronous resources to support their Concourse use, and students access Concourse syllabi for all their classes during the same term.
- Better For: This option tends to be more effective for smaller organizations, institutions with less complicated Concourse systems, or institutions that populate the majority of syllabus items for instructors. This approach may also be used by institutions that must deploy Concourse quickly due to external pressures, such as accreditation or legislative requirements.
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Institutional Deployment: The major advantage of institutional deployment is that it can be accomplished quickly. A disadvantage of this approach is that it isn’t conducive to institutions that allow a high degree of instructor syllabus customization; in other words, the more syllabus items instructors have to edit on live/section syllabi, the more training is required and the longer it will take for users to meet expectations.
- Effort: Institutional deployment requires significant planning effort. This type of deployment typically occurs over a shorter timeline than the other options, but it takes more strategic communication and coordination to ensure that it goes smoothly. In this deployment approach, there may be a large group of people responsible for leading training and quality assurance efforts.
Post-Decision Changes
While many configuration settings can be “undone” after a while, your institution only has one chance at deployment. The approach you choose sets the tone for institutional use, so it’s important to make a good first impression. Once you have introduced Concourse to a selected group, it’s crucial to provide support and training so that users are more likely to be successful. Whatever deployment approach you choose, we encourage you to be realistic about what you can accomplish and be flexible to support your end users. For example, you may determine mid-deployment that your timeline is not quite as long as you expected, or you might realize you need additional training materials; any number of occurrences can cause you to rethink your deployment and necessitate shifts. Remember that–regardless of deployment size–you are able to change your methods for training and communication in whatever way will best support your users.
Before making a decision about deployment, you should be familiar with some related issues and contexts. See the following articles for more information:
- Learn more about domain permissions to get a sense of the access and abilities domain users have; this information can help you decide whether the role-based approach or small pilot group approach is better for your institution.
- Read about group permissions to understand how instructors can engage with live syllabi after your system has been populated with important information from external sources and high-level users.
- If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of developing training materials for instructors, we have a resource to get you started. Download the slide decks and documents available in our Instructor Training Templates article to jump start the training phase of deployment.
- Check out the agnostic training materials available to System Admins, domain users, and instructors in the Syllabus Resource Center.
Tell Us About Your Experience
Did this article answer your question? If you made a decision like this for your Concourse instance, let us know how it turned out. If we missed something in this article or if you have a question that isn’t addressed in our Knowledge Base, let us know how we can help by reaching out to support@campusconcourse.com.