UW-ACE Project
Updates to UW-ACE Steering Committee
from Spring 2004
See the project pages (including meeting minutes) at the following URL:
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/project.html
Summary for 15 October 2004
1. User support
o 2nd IST support person – need assistance and backup for Jan (UW-ACE
Training and Support Coordinator) and Lorne (Computer Systems
Integration member).
o Faculty consultants – still need to arrange meetings/calls with AD,Cs.
2. System Support
o Total cost for UWone extensions: $29,000 USD
 Random Team Generator feature ("Team Wizard"): 65 hrs @ $200
USD/hr = $13,000 USD
 Team "Replicator": 60 hrs @ $200 USD/hr = $12,000 USD
 "CD export": 20 hrs @ $200 USD/hr = $4000 USD
o Replicator – response to CLL Service Order sent 13 October 2004. Expect
delivery end of November.
o CD Export – can no go ahead (dependent on Replicator). No dates yet.
o Other issues to resolve for project wrap-up:
 Determine and document regular production processes,
 Plan further integration to student system,
 Disaster recovery plan (backups, redundancies, recovery, etc.).
3. “Steering” issues
o Use for non-academic courses and groups – running 4 or 5 pilots to
determine support issues in using UW-ACE for other uses (candidate in
the UW Web Collaboration Tools project). See
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/support/non_course_use/f2004_pilots.html
o DE integration meetings (Cathy, Liwana, Andrea).
 Timelines for DE adoption (replicator/CD export, and UWone
migration dependencies), course registration & enrolment and
other issues for process, support and documentation models.
o Feedback mechanisms, e.g., surveys –correlating faculty survey with
Vivian Schoner’s (LT3) student survey questions.
o Other issues to resolve for project wrap-up:
 “Interfaces” group report
 Ongoing leader/driver for UW-ACE arch., extensions, etc.
Summary for 17 September 2004
1. Fall 2004 updates
a) Course statistics


UW-ACE houses 190 courses and over 11,400 unique students for fall 2004
(as of 13 September). There are over 21,700 enrolments (students may be
enrolled in more than one course).
In fall 2003 UW had approximately 19,000 students (numbers not yet
available for fall 2004), and ?? courses.
Faculty /
School
Distance Ed.
ART
SCI
Campus
AHS
ART
CGC
ENG
ENV
MAT
REN
SCI
STJ
VPA (CBET)
# Courses
2
1
1
188
19
64
2
10
23
13
3
42
1
11
# Students
99
30
69
11,381
1292
3902
126
771
1159
1641
83
4835
71
125
# Enrolments
99
30
69
21,733
2019
4771
129
858
1625
2573
94
9306
71
287
b) Support updates
 Jan Willwerth (IST) offered group training sessions for instructors using
UW-ACE, and also for IST and Faculty support staff who may want to learn
more about UW-ACE for queries that may come to their help desks
 Liwana Bringelson has assigned 40% of Peter Goldsworthy’s time (LT3) as
an extra support person for assistance at the start of the fall term.
 ANGEL was upgraded from V6.0 to V6.1 on August 16th.
2. Functionality Extensions (Teams and CD Export)
a) Team functionality extension
 Review of the team extensions that CLL is building: The Random Team
Generator (was named Team Wizard) facilitates breaking the class into
teams of requested sizes; the Replicator rapidly creates resources for sets of
teams (discussion areas, drop boxes, etc.).
 Random Team Generator – The first cut of tool was delivered in early
August. We gave CLL feedback on the interface (esp. scrolling) and a few
bugs; will be rolled into next ANGEL version, V6.2, due end of October.
 Team Resource “Replicator”
o Confirmed it will be rolled into standard distribution, but will not be
in the V6.2 at the end of October.
o Key functionality issues remain: replicated resource updates will not
be reported in the “What’s New” tool, a significant problem for
instructors and students.
o The “CD Export” (critical to DE) depends upon the Replicator.
o New estimate for Replicator is 60 hours (was originally 35 hours; an
improved design brought it to 45 – 50; recent review brought to 60).
b) Course “export” to CD extension (for DE and other use)
CD “Export” – confirmed it will be rolled into standard release (April 2005);
likely could deliver to UW for mid November; very low risk to tack on between
releases. We now have information on the direction and costs (for CLL to build)
to bring to the Steering Committee.
c) Timelines for implementing extensions into UW-ACE
 ANGEL V6.2 release from CLL, including Random Team Generator – end
of October 2004 (CLL timeline).
 ANGEL V6.2+, including Random Team Generator + Replicator and CD
Export “patches” – run in test mode on the UW-ACE Exploration server
(LT3) in W2005.
 ANGEL V6.2+ (or the April version release of ANGEL) will run on
Enterprise in S2005. DE can export courses to CD for fall courses.
3. Important processes for UW-ACE
We will regularize recurring UW-ACE course administration processes. The
following are examples. Others will be documented as we resolve them. See
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/processes.html to track them.
 Next term courses
 As next term courses are created, the students will be created as
“disabled” in the roster. They will not be able to access the course until
they are enabled. This is to prevent course materials that are still being
developed from being inadvertently revealed to students.
 A few days before the start of term the rosters will be enabled. For
F2004 this was Friday, 10 September 2004 (for class start on 13
September 2004).
 Current term archives
 The archive captures the course contents and all student data. It is kept
in the event that we need to retrieve the course, for example for a
student appeal that required reviewing student submissions to a course.
 Process: Disable all accounts in S2004 courses, except Instructors and
Liaisons, in advance of archiving S2004 courses. For archiving S2004
courses the accounts were disabled on Tuesday, 7 September 2004.
Course extensions may need to be accommodated.
 Version changes on the UW-ACE Enterprise system will likely occur in April
and or August. December is not suitable due to the limited window between
fall and winter terms (considering the one-week UW shutdown).
4. Use of UW-ACE for purposes other than academic courses
CECS, the Engineering student group Formula SAE, and other groups have
approached us about using UW-ACE for groups and collaborations which are not
academic courses. We have a couple pilots running in UW-ACE to try to better
understand the needs of these groups, and also determine support requirements.
Populating the courses/groups and maintaining non-UWdir accounts are key support
issues to resolve. UW-ACE is considered a candidate for IST support in the recent
IST project, UW Web Collaboration Project
(http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/cs/webcollaboration/), and the decision to support it now rests
in this project. However, we will also look for guidance and input from the Steering
Committee on issues to consider.
5. Faculty Survey results
A survey was created in UW-ACE, and on 8 July 2004 Course Editors within UWACE (including the 30 instructors of pilot courses, and other testers) were invited to
participate. We were looking for feedback in order to prepare for the fall term, in
terms of support and usage. 18 responded. Find the survey results here:
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/support/surveys/s04_instructor_summ
ary.html
6. “Interface” group topics
An informal group called the Interface Group met to discuss some topics related to
the UW-ACE entry page and the system defaults. Issues such as the following were
discussed: what links should appear on the entry page, whether Show Map should be
set on or off for courses by default, what announcements should go on the entry
pages. The group will meet again to collect some recommendations, which will be
brought forward to the Steering Committee.
Summary for 22 July 2004
1. The Fall 2004 UW-ACE Course Registration announcement
 The announcement to invite faculty members to register fall 2004 courses in
UW-ACE went in the Bulletin on Thursday, 22 July 2004. The Liaisons will
also distribute the message within the Faculties.
2. UW-ACE Training sessions – FACCUS and various IST members invited
 Jan has advertised the UW-ACE sessions to FACCUS (Faculty computing
users group) and various groups and individuals in IST to make sure support
people are aware of ANGEL, and to give them an opportunity to see and try it
in action.
3. Team functionality extension
 Team Wizard (random team generator) – On July 9th CLL sent prototype
images for UW to review. UW responded with questions and comments on
July 16th. CLL has replied to those. The UW team needs to meet to finalize
these last issues. The deadline to “sign off” on the Wizard, the 25th, will be
missed by a couple or few days.
 Resource Replicator (replicating quizzes, discussion areas, etc., for each of
numerous teams) – The Replicator has changed in concept from the initial
specification from CLL. It now more closely matches other functionality,
which is of benefit. In its previous model, CLL did not see rolling into the
base product. In its more recent form, that seems much more likely. However,
there are issues to resolve, the question of rolling into the product being one.
4. Survey of Pilot course editors
 The survey was sent to all course editors in UW-ACE, about 100 people.
However, with 30 courses running, the number of actual instructors using the
system is more like 30. We received 15 responses. Results will be sent to the
Steering Committee, the UW-ACE Project group, the UW-ACE course
editors, and others.
Summary for 9 July 2004
1. The feedback survey
 The feedback survey was (finally) made available on July 8th 2004, later than
intended, updated based on comments from the UW-ACE SC, the Liaisons,
and others. An end-of-term follow-up survey will not be sent as originally
planned. Instead, participants will be invited to give additional feedback when
the survey results are provided to them (week of July 19th).
2. UW-ACE training sessions – regularly held by Jan Willwerth
 May course registrations: Overview (20 participants), Gradebook (13), Quiz
(15)
 July course registrations (upcoming): Overview (16, waiting list of 6), Quiz
(8), Gradebook (10)
 August course registrations (upcoming): Overview (8), Quiz (6), Gradebook
(4)
3. Preparing for Fall 2004
 The proposed announcement for fall course registration
o It was circulated to the Liaisons, the UW-ACE Project team, and IST,
DE and LT3 members involved in UW-ACE. After their feedback it
was sent to the UW-ACE SC for discussion today (July 9th).
o Capping was not mentioned directly in the proposal, but there is a
“hedge” inserted by saying that the number of courses may need to be
limited in fall 2004, as an interim period to the “grand opening” in
winter 2005.
o Looking for wording on the participation of “some” Faculty consulting
offices!
 The course registration form (to request a course for fall 2004)
o It will be made available in conjunction with the announcement. The
form requires the professor to simply login using the UWdir/Quest
username and password. It shows the courses listed as taught by that
professor, and also “held with” courses.
o The existing data for the form is a month old. We hope to have
updated data Monday. Subsequently we hope to have it weekly.
o Instructors not finding their courses via the form will be directed to
send an email to uwacehelp@ist.uwaterloo.ca
4. Team functionality
 Contract with CLL to build the Team Wizard was signed and sent on 30 June
2004, on the timeline.
 The missing component from the previous CLL Service Order, i.e. the
“Replicator,” is now included in a separate Service Order. Including this

component in our contract, we are still within the original estimate proposed
by CLL. The Replicator was separated so that the Wizard could proceed on
schedule while details are worked out for the Replicator.
The UW team will finalize the details on the Replicator with CLL next week
(of the 12th).
Summary for 11 June 2004
1. The pilot
 The instructors teaching the 27 courses now hosted in UW-ACE for S2004
will be surveyed for feedback. The survey should be made available later
today, or by Monday at the latest. (Survey circulated in hard copy at the UWACE Steering Committee meeting.)
 More UW-ACE training sessions have been held by Jan Willwerth.
Gradebook was very well attended.
2. Preparing for Fall 2004
 ANGEL: The current version of ANGEL for UW-ACE is V6.0. Lorne
Connell is planning the upgrade to V6.1 at the end of the S2004 exam period.
 Course registration: Form is almost ready for release.
 Capping?: Question of necessity for any course number “capping” has been
discussed with support team, but remains a bit of an unknown. Information:
UWone migration courses (to UW-ACE) and courses running in UWone will
consume some of the Liaison time. The UW-ACE course support for the
pilots does not seem to be overwhelming. Arts may be an area where more
support could be applied to prevent support problems.
 Campus announcement: May co-ordinate a UW-ACE advertising “splash”
around the same time as the UWone/Task Users group meeting on 23rd.
 Non-course related use of UW-ACE is becoming a topic of some interest.
3. Status of Team functionality extension
 Received CLL specifications on 8 June. (Hard copy circulated at SC
meeting.) UW group met 9 June. Drafting response to CLL for June 14th.
 Issues for response: Spec is missing the “Replicate Team resources,” need to
clarify the “balance teams” interface, and check a few other items.
 Timelines (some potential to move final delivery earlier):
o June 30 – final response from UW (hope to do earlier)
o July 12th – prototype from CLL
o July 25th – UW finalizes changes to prototype
o Aug 9th – CLL delivers final product to UW
4. Migration planning to June 9th (provided by Liwana)
 UW-ACE-Exploration server is installed and running Angel 6.1.
 Two co-op students have been hired for Spring 2004. They have been
familiarizing themselves with the system and migration process (testing and
validating the migration process, and migrating and testing courses).
 LT3 Faculty Liaisons were consulted to identify courses (and versions) to be
migrated; these selections were verified with the faculty members.

Migration begins Thursday June 10th. Courses will be migrated in the
following priority, with the goal to migrate all Level 1 courses by the end of
Spring 04:
a) Level 1 courses to be offered in Fall 2004.
b) Level 1 courses to be offered in subsequent terms.
 Note: No DCE courses will be migrated until the Export functionality is
available in UW-ACE.
 Jan Willwerth and the Liaisons are aware of training issues for UW-ACE
users who have migrated courses from UWone
5. Disaster recovery planning
First meeting held with Lorne Connell and Mike Borkowski. Items to pursue: Dell
“service level agreements” for various response times, cost and viability of
redundant systems, statement of expectation for recovery in cases of “oops” to
disaster. Various scenarios to follow in a couple weeks.
6. Other:
PDEng program – Andrea met with the new director (Professor Carolyn
MacGregor) and group to talk about UW-ACE. More discussion to follow with
this group.
Summary for 20 May 2004 (sent as text via email)
We proposed May 28th as the next meeting. However, a number of people will be away,
and I have heard that another committee, which includes some of you, would like to have
a meeting on the 28th. Here is an update by email for now. I think that unless you hear
differently by noon Tuesday the 25th we should assume the UW-ACE SC meeting is
postponed.
1. The pilot
There are now 25 courses with about 2000 students, a good number for a test.
HYPERLINK "http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/%7Echappell/projects/angel/pilot.html"
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/pilot.html
Next step: survey participants to obtain feedback on experiences (objectives, startup, training, documentation, etc.). I hope to have something drafted at the first of
next week.
2. Preparing for fall 2004
We have 7 courses in UW-ACE for the fall. These are "OKed" by the Liaison and
me to ensure we don't overwhelm our support during the pilot. We want to resolve
the issue of registering courses automatically before opening up further to the
campus. I hope we can do so by mid June. Other issues include a UW-ACE
advertising "splash" for campus, upgrading ANGEL to V6.1, finalizing term
rollover procedures (especially carrying courses forward to the next term).
Next step: begin regular meetings (including IST, DE, LT3 where appropriate).
3. Status of the Team Functionality extension
We revised our functionality document to reflect more details on what the team
"wizard" should do, the result of our phone meeting with CLL of April 22nd. We
sent this to CLL on May 7th.
Next step: reponse from CLL with a detailed plan for delivery. (The ANGEL User
Conference and the imminent V6.1 release have occupied much of their time in
May.) Our preference is to have the extension on LT3's UW-ACE to pilot/test in
F2004.
4. Topics for the upcoming meetings:
o DE and UW-ACE - directions, needs, and next steps (Cathy)
o Update on the pilot, preparations for fall, and the Team extension
(Andrea)
o Migration planning (Liwana)
o Disaster recovery planning (Andrea, possibly with Lorne Connell)
o Reusable content and templates in UW-ACE (Liwana)
o Others?
Summary for 5 March 2004
 Team meetings Feb 24th and Mar 2nd
March 2nd
o Overviewed UW online course memo coming from Tom and Alan
(without showing it to the group). This group is mentioned in the memo.
o Discussed the pilot support flowchart. This prompted more discussion
about support after the pilot, and the topic will be taken forward to the
Assoc. Deans.
o Liaisons and Faculty computing reps on this project will collaborate to
come up with pilot participants.
o Agreed to meet in 2 weeks.
February 24th
o Updated group on non-user-support issues
 Separate installation of ANGEL V6.0 for UW CMS/ANGEL pilot
(technical and “directional” reasons for not sharing with the
UWone ANGEL installation);
 Memo coming from Tom and Alan;
 CyberLearning Labs – second call about the UWone extensions.
Expecting a response re: cost and timeline for moving extensions
into ANGEL (by CLL).
o Ensuing discussion:
 Confusion over the “no new courses” text of the UCIST minutes.
 Discussion on why not use UWone to build ANGEL courses.
o Comments on the LT3 Liaison document re: their evolving role definition
for CMS/ANGEL participation (especially issues of pedagogical versus
technical support).
o Communication mechanisms to each Faculty discussed and determined.
( HYPERLINK
"http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/communications.html"
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/communications.html )
o Pilot participants need to be identified soon. Asked Faculty reps to work
with their Faculty Liaisons.
Summary for 20 February 2004
 Minor project charter revisions
o Charter provided to IST management team, with result in minor revisions.
o Change wording to clarify participant list, document that the UCIST
ADCs act as faculty member consultants, and to emphasize investigation
of role of Faculty computing offices. (See HYPERLINK
"http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/project_charter_new.html
"
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~chappell/projects/angel/project_charter_new.htm
l )
o Will request UCIST review to approve changes.
 Team began discussions on support (meetings on 10th and 17th of February)





o Overview of what mechanisms Faculties now use for course support;
assure ANGEL not meant to supplant, rather to augment and replace if
Faculty sees merit.
o Need mechanism to register ANGEL courses, and to get the training and
documentation into this loop.
o Make use of existing Faculty TA programs to inform about ANGEL.
o Make creating “test” course easy (and yet identifiable so we can remove
them at some point).
o Involvement of Faculty computing help desks. Who do people now call
for course support in the Faculty? Varies across Faculties, but generally
involves Help Desk/Consulting Offices.
o LT3 Faculty Liaisons and their role in the UW CMS (“blending” of
pedagogical and technical support, with expertise in each area).
ANGEL client support in IST
o Andrea began discussions with Paul Snyder, and Bob Hicks (acting
Director for Client Services in Paul’s absence). Need to write role
description.
ANGEL system support in IST
o Linked to the support of current UWone, future UWone extensions (who
does what); will involve IST Systems and IST Production Support.
Discussions will progress once directions are set.
ANGEL hardware review (input from Penn State experience). New hardware.
Two separate ANGEL systems
o One for inaugural UW-CMS (V6.0), one for current UWone (V5.6, to
maintain “as is” for course commitments S04)
o Licensing and course population issues to resolve.
DE plans to move “traditional” courses to ANGEL
o Convert audio tapes to MP3, import to ANGEL, export for CD.
o 6-10 for S04 term as trial, possibly 70 more for next year; track issue of
disk space for so many hours of tape (~250M for each course).
Summary for 6 February 2004
 first team meeting 3 Feb. 2004 (3 people couldn't make it)
o question of “why ANGEL” arose
o question of faculty member involvement (told it is through UCIST now)
o no negative immediate reactions, but time may tell if they see downsides
o plan to meet weekly for the next 3 weeks
 next team meeting (10 Feb. 2004) will begin the discussion of a support model,
and also discuss their mechanisms for communicating the project to their areas,
and how to solicit participants to pilot
 need to involve the IST Client Services group now as well
 issue of two ANGEL installations (one "vanilla" and one modified for UWone)
will be discussed by Lorne, me, others, then taken to the group