1. Holistic Approaches for New Releases: Training, Implementation and Support Presented by: Dave Fraedrich Manager of Course Management System Maricopa Community College District Lori Malcolm Blackboard User Support GateWay Community College

2. Background Maricopa County Community College District Largest Community District in the US 7 of 10 Colleges use Blackboard Interface run includes over 100,000 students About 5,000 courses per semester About 1,500 faculty per semester

3. Bb Alliance Members from all 7 Colleges that use Bb Member include: –IT Directors –Campus Administrators (Inst. Deans) –Trainers –College Bb Admins –District IT Staff –District Bb Admins

4. Alliance Sub-Committees Training Content System Pilot Building Blocks Strategic Planning

5. Planning for a New Release Look at all Bb related release materials –Involve DBAs (ex. Unicode for V7) –Server Team (V7 needs Win2003) –Networking (New way to access content files in V7) Install on Dev Server –Document any issues with upgrade

6. Planning for a New Release Initial Testing Training sub-committee tests and creates training materials. Apply any Service Packs to Dev as needed.

7. Planning for a New Release Upgrade Opportunities –Spring/Summer Break (May) –Summer/Fall Break (August)* –Winter Break (Late December) * Faculty prefer that only minor changes be made at this time, no major features be added.

8. Select Upgrade Window Testing Results Can Quick Reference Guides be ready in time? Can classroom training be ready in time? What do the newsgroups say about the release? Is it stable? Check “Known Issues” on Behind the Blackboard ITS Support (DBAs, Backups, etc)

9. Performing the Upgrade Schedule ITS support, Backup Admin, Database admin, network support, etc. to be on hand during the upgrade. Schedule full backups for night before of both content files and SQL data. Special backup of web/app server Bb directory just before running the updater. Special backup of SQL data by DBA just before applying upgrade

10. Performing the Upgrade Apply Upgrade Initial login/testing Re-apply customizations & performance tuning Team Testing / Testing Plan Go / No-Go decision

11. Testing Plan Login as Administrator Test major components –Search Classes –Access Course Content –Etc… Test Login as Instructor Test Login as Student (uses different LDAP)

12. Next Steps… Make Development or Test environment more like Production Load Test

13. Thank You! Dave Fraedrich Manager of Course Management Systems Maricopa Community College District david.fraedrich@domail.maricopa.edu Lori Malcolm Blackboard User Support GateWay Community College lori.malcolm@gwmail.maricopa.edu