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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Beta Testing @ Kettering
• Kettering was a Beta test site for:– Application Pack 6.3– Application Pack 7.1
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)
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)
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
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
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
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 - …..
About ROC Midden Nederland
• 11,175 full time students
• 13,650 part-time students
• staff: 2500 (1711 FTE)
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
About ROC Midden Nederlandtoday:
• 1000 + courses• 250+ organizations• 1500 Content System users• 3 sectors have their own portal in
Bb
Beta Testing @ ROC MN• ROC Midden Nederland was a Beta test site
for:
– Application Pack 3– Version 7– Version 7.1
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.
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
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?)
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
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
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
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)
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
Beta Testing @ Salzburg
• Salzburg University was a Beta test site for:– Application Pack 3– Version 7– Version 7.1
Beta Testing @ Salzburg
• Why Beta Test?– to get new product features as soon as
possible– to „act“ instead of „react“
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):
Beta Testing @ Salzburg
• The Good, The Bad & The Ugly– Application Pack 3
• Good – adaptive release• Bad – problems with zip files
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
Get Involved In…
• Blackboard’s Development Process– Product Strategy– Blackboard Idea Exchange– Product Development Partners– Beta Partners– Early Release Partners– General Availability
Questions/Comments
Thank You!!JoAnna Hunt – Seneca College[[email protected]]
Donna Wicks – Kettering University[[email protected]]
Henk van Rijssen – ROC Midden Nederland[[email protected]]
Richard Posch – Salzburg University - ZFL [[email protected]]
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