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Living on the Cutting Edge

Client Perspectives of Beta & Early Release Programs. Living on the Cutting Edge. Session Focus. Educate – Who are we? Seneca College Kettering University ROC Midden Nederland Salzburg University Innovate – What are we doing? Beta Partners Product Development Partners

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Living on the Cutting Edge

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  1. Client Perspectives of Beta & Early Release Programs Living on the Cutting Edge

  2. Session Focus Educate – Who are we? Seneca College Kettering University ROC Midden Nederland Salzburg University Innovate – What are we doing? Beta Partners Product Development Partners Everywhere – Where are we & What have we learned? US, Netherlands, Canada, Austria Benefits outweigh the risk of Beta Testing

  3. About Seneca • Toronto Area - Nine Locations • Newnham • Seneca@York • King • Markham

  4. About Seneca • Seneca Student Profile • Full-time students 20,000 • Part-time students 90,000 • More than 45,000 full-time and part-time students pass through Seneca’s campuses each week

  5. About Seneca • My.Seneca Facts • Every course has web support • 25,006 course shells(4 semesters) • Every Student has a personalized My.Seneca • 68,326 Student accounts • Every Faculty has a personalized My.Seneca • 3,627 Faculty accounts • My.Seneca server • Over 1 million hits per day

  6. Beta Testing @ Seneca • Seneca was a Beta test site for: • Blackboard Release 6.0 • Application Pack 6.1 • Application Pack 6.2 • Application Pack 6.3 • Blackboard Release 7.0 • Application Pack 7.1

  7. Beta Testing @ Seneca • Why Beta Test? • Seneca’s vision is to lead in • In Innovation…… • by developing a culture that encourages risk-taking, entrepreneurship, flexibility, and by embracing change in the interest of organizational effectiveness • Access to latest and greatest product functionality • Ability to bring recommendations to Bb Development

  8. Beta Testing @ Seneca • What Skills & Resources are needed? • Risk Management • Good Documentation & Support • Dedicated group of users wanting to participate • Ability to ‘think outside the box’ • Duplicate production environment • People Time

  9. Beta Testing @ Seneca • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Blackboard Release 6 (6.0) • Good - Portal Improvements were great. • Bad – Building Blocks had to be rewritten • Ugly- Migration of Production System • Application Pack 1 (Bb 6.1) • Good – Content System, Text Box Editor, Fixes for Migration Issues • Bad – Course Copy Process duplicated content items

  10. Beta Testing @ Seneca • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Application Pack 2 (Bb 6.2) • Good – Multiple Roles, Unlimited Institution Roles • Bad – Email Problems – Bad Addresses • Application Pack 3 (Bb 6.3) • Good – Survey & Assessment Question Types, Adaptive Release • Bad – Timing of Release, Amount of Documentation Required for users, Adaptive Release Rules don’t copy

  11. Beta Testing @ Seneca • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Blackboard Release 7 (Bb 7.0) • Good – Language Packs (ability to change labels not just language) • Bad – Time requirement for Database conversion • Application Pack 1 (Bb 7.1) • Good – Discussion Board Changes, Cross Browser VTBE, Beta Communication Processes • Bad – Documentation Requirements & Timing of Release

  12. About Kettering Private engineering and business school in Flint MI Formerly GMI Institute of Engineering & Management (GM-owned from 1919-1982) 2,500 undergraduates 1,200 graduates Two sections of undergraduates Distance Learning graduate students Fully co-op school

  13. About Kettering March 2000 - Blackboard (Basic) purchased Fall 2000 - first online classes run July 2001 - Blackboard system administrator hired July 2002 - Enterprise implemented October 2004 - Content System added Today - more than 150 courses have an online component 200+ organizations

  14. Beta Testing @ Kettering Kettering was a Beta test site for: Application Pack 6.3 Application Pack 7.1

  15. Beta Testing @ Kettering Why Beta Test? Kettering's mission is to educate technical leaders of the world so the university needs to be on the cutting edge System administrator is a risk-taker Get the latest and greatest before others (the-more-toys-you-have syndrome)

  16. Beta Testing @ Kettering What Skills & Resources are needed? Troubleshooting skills, e.g. steps for replication, patterns of behavior, viewing problems from all angles, etc. Ability to be creative – when bugs are found are there ways around them? Being vigilant (a constant eye on everything) Hardware (production, testing, development)

  17. Beta Testing @ Kettering The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Application Pack 3 (Bb 6.3) Good – adaptive release before start of school year in July meant I could set up software licensing courses and train Helpdesk staff for Blackboard support Bad – zip files for assignment downloads did not work for files with spaces in file name

  18. Beta Testing @ Kettering The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Application Pack 1 (Rel 7.1) Good – discussion board upgrade will benefit our distant learning courses, new domain capabilities mean sharing Blackboard administration with others Bad – first beta releases were out when I was attempting to install new hardware for production environment, bb-config.properties can not have IP address for database – must have full machine and domain names

  19. About ROC Midden Nederland • Centre of the Netherlands • 45 locations

  20. About ROC Midden Nederland • Senior Vocational training • 6 sectors: • Technology • Health and welfare • Economics • Tourism • Adult Education (f.i. Dutch as second language) • Contract training

  21. About ROC Midden Nederland • Senior Vocational training • 4 levels: • Level 1: Assistant • Level 2: Basic trade practitioner • Level 3: Trade professional • Level 4: Middle management / Specialist • Age 16 - …..

  22. About ROC Midden Nederland • 11,175 full time students • 13,650 part-time students • staff: 2500 (1711 FTE)

  23. About ROC Midden Nederland • Dec 2000 - Blackboard (Basic) purchased • Feb 2004 – Bb Enterprise installed • Feb – July 2004 - migration Bb basic 5.5 and Bb basic 5.7 ML into one Bb enterprise • October 2004 - Content System added

  24. About ROC Midden Nederland today: • 1000 + courses • 250+ organizations • 1500 Content System users • 3 sectors have their own portal in Bb

  25. Beta Testing @ ROC MN ROC Midden Nederland was a Beta test site for: Application Pack 3 Version 7 Version 7.1

  26. Beta Testing @ ROC MN • Why Beta Test? • Getting insight in the technology behind Blackboard • Some influence on product development • The shift from traditional to competence based education creates a need for new tools and features:We want to use these tools and features as soon as possible for optimal support of the educational process.

  27. Beta Testing @ ROC MN • What Skills & Resources are needed? • investigate problems analytically • creativity in finding workarounds for problems that are not directly solved • testing from an technical but also educational point of view • good knowledge of the way new features and tools wil be used • enthusiasm to try, test and report • time and equipment (test server) for testing

  28. Beta Testing @ ROC MN • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Application Pack 3 • Good – finally a complete Dutch version, release just before summer break gave instructors and TA more time to experiment with all new possibilities. • Bad – problems with multilanguage functionality (how to convince Bb they really had a problem?)

  29. Beta Testing @ ROC MN • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Version 7 • Good – language pack editor, better email functionality (although we lost our tweaks). • Bad – little exchange of experiences between beta testers, testperiod during our summer holidays,late release of SP for problems that were already solved in 6.3

  30. Beta Testing @ ROC MN • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Application Pack 1 (Bb 7.1) • Good - discussionboard, self defined new system roles, working with domains for system management,very good communication with other beta testers and Blackboard • Bad - almost no development in CS and integration with LS

  31. About Salzburg Traditional Medium Size University: 11.400 Students 1.040 Faculty staff 4 Schools (Theology, Law, Natural Science, Arts & Humanities) Advantage of location: Situated between Vienna and Munich Strategy meets the needs of the University

  32. About Salzburg • Center for Flexible Learning – ZFL: • Centralized service & support structure tasks: Service and elaboration of strategies • Directly responsible to the vice rector for education • Since 2001: working with Blackboard (Blackboard learning and community system) • Since 2006: additional license for „Bildungsregion“ (Blackboard basic system)

  33. About Salzburg • Every-day-use of Blackboard: • 7.000 Students (out of 11.400) • 840 Instructors (including freelancers) • 535 Blackboard backed courses in winter term 2005/2006 • = 23% portion of all lectures being held at the Salzburg University

  34. Beta Testing @ Salzburg Salzburg University was a Beta test site for: Application Pack 3 Version 7 Version 7.1

  35. Beta Testing @ Salzburg • Why Beta Test? • to get new product features as soon as possible • to „act“ instead of „react“

  36. Beta Testing @ Salzburg • What Skills & Resources are needed? • Source Control/Bug Tracking Skills • Hardware: additional server for a real life capable test environment • active Beta group (providing feedback):

  37. Beta Testing @ Salzburg • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Application Pack 3 • Good – adaptive release • Bad – problems with zip files

  38. Beta Testing @ Salzburg • The Good, The Bad & The Ugly • Version 7 • Good – better performance (faster!) • Bad – German characters are not supported in some parts, e.g. assessment

  39. Get Involved In… • Blackboard’s Development Process • Product Strategy • Blackboard Idea Exchange • Product Development Partners • Beta Partners • Early Release Partners • General Availability

  40. JoAnna Hunt – Seneca College [joanna.hunt@senecac.on.ca] Donna Wicks – Kettering University [dwicks@kettering.edu] Henk van Rijssen – ROC Midden Nederland [h.vanrijssen@rocmn.nl] Richard Posch – Salzburg University - ZFL [richard.posch@sbg.ac.at] Questions/CommentsThank You!!

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