The Vista SWAT
Community of Practice
Bill Evans, CSU-Chico
Jane Himmel, U-North Texas
Bob Boufford, U-Alberta
Jeff Longland, U-Western Ontario
Michael E. Scheuermann, Drexel-U
July 11, 2007
What is “SWAT?”
• Community of Practice (CoP)
• Emphasis on WebCT CE/Vista technical
support issues of concern to community
• Bi-weekly conferences
– Using Horizon Wimba ~ Live Classroom
2
Background
• Started around 2003-2004
• Need for sharing information among
institutions using Vista for troubleshooting
• Bi-weekly phone conference
• Informally called SWAT
3
SWAT ~ Evolution
• Began with a few institutions in Texas
• Approximately 300 individuals currently
subscribe to the mailing list
• 25-40 people participate in the Wimba
conferences bi-weekly
• Approximately 65 institutions answered Bb
recommendations survey
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Recent Projects
• Blackboard Recommendations Survey
– Evolved from need recognized in Wimba
conferences to highlight specific technical and
support issues common to multiple institutions
– Prioritized issues and made
recommendations as a group to Bb
– Summary results presented to Bb
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128 Respondents ~ Primary Role
22%
2%
48%
13%
15%
WebCT CE/Vista
Administrator
Technical Support
Specialist
Instructional
Designer
Faculty Member
Manager
LMS Platform
60
60
58
50
Number
40
33
30
21
20
10
Respondents
Institutions
7
5
0
CE 4.x or
earlier
Vista 3.x
Vista 4.x/CE 6
Bb Recommendations Survey ~ Highlights
Top 3 Concerns with Bb Support1:
1. Response time on critical issues poor
2. Target resolution time poor
3. TSM not knowledgeable about product
1High
number of respondents “very concerned”
about these issues.
Bb Recommendations Survey ~ Highlights
Top 5 Technical Issues by Importance:
1. Section backup problems
2. Weblogic cluster/JMS stability
3. Java compatibility
4. JVM Memory leak
5. Garbage collection failed
Bb Recommendations Survey ~ Highlights
Top 3 Actions Recommended:
1. Improve response time on support requests
2. Demonstrate improvement in TSM knowledge
of Vista/CE products
3. Provide prompt, comprehensive, accurate
details on all known issues including those that
are user reported only
SWAT Accomplishments
• Met regularly and supported participant
needs
– Institution-by-institution
• Provided new avenues of communication
with Bb
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Some Specific Examples
• Shared training strategies / documents
– e.g., creating WebCT CE or Vista training
• Troubleshooting particular problems
– e.g., database indexing commands
• Migration discussions
– e.g., timelines and deliverables for migrating
institutions from CE to Vista, V 3 to V 4, etc.
• Hardware set-ups, back-up and
archiving strategies, etc.
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Current Projects
• Profile Survey (currently open)
– Institutional profiles (FTE enrollment, users on
system, support)
– System profiles (hardware, software,
database, backup strategies)
– Provides snapshot of community
– Helps participants to locate other institutions
of similar size or configuration
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Current Projects, pt. 2
• Migration Survey (just opened)
– Establish patterns among institutions
upgrading/migrating
• Staffing
• Costs
• Length of time allowed for migration
– Help other institutions with planning
– Summary stats will be shared with Bb
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Access to Active Vista SWAT Surveys
• http://www.vistaswat.net/
Lessons Learned
• Keep talking to colleagues at other
institutions
• Do not struggle too long on your own – ASK
• Contribute to the overall discussion
• Develop offline relationships and dialogue
• The power is in the (our) network!
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How You Can Get Started
• Find other institutions using the App that
you are using
• Get a dialogue started
• Establish regular meeting times / dates
• Set the theme ~ solicit agenda items
• Archive the sessions for re-viewing, etc.
• Conduct follow-up ~ offline
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SWAT ~ What the Future Holds
• We need to:
– Keep talking
– Expand the network
– Establish offline communication opportunities
– Make real contributions
•
•
•
•
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To the agenda
To the discussion
To the coming synchronous sessions
To like-minded, like-situated institutions
Questions / Comments
•
•
•
•
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What else would you like to know?
How can our SWAT experience assist you?
Where do you see these networks going?
How to expand this ~ yet keep effective?
Thank You !
• Our Contact Information:
– Bill Evans, CSU-Chico
– Jane Himmel, U-North Texas
• jhimmel@unt.edu
– Bob Boufford, U-Alberta
• bob.boufford@ualberta.ca
– Jeff Longland, U-Western Ontario
• jeff.longland@uwo.ca
– Michael E. Scheuermann, Drexel-U
• mes27@drexel.edu
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