Living on the Cutting Edge
Client Perspectives of Beta & Early Release Programs
Session Focus
• Educate – Who are we?
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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
• Toronto Area - Nine Locations
– Newnham
– Seneca@York
– King
– Markham
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 (themore-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
• Centre of the Netherlands
– 45 locations
About ROC Midden Nederland
• Senior Vocational training
• 6 sectors:
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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:
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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 Nederland
today:
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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
[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]