Vancouver Island University's Transition to Continuous Delivery

Editor's Notes

1. Melissa Robertson – Melissa.Robertson@viu.ca Stephanie Boychuk – Stephanie.Boychuk@viu.ca We have both been members of the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning since 2012 and work with faculty and students to support the use of learning technologies at Vancouver Island University
2. Our campus has a diverse group of faculty – 550 permanent and 200 sessional – spread across 2 campuses and 3 sites across Vancouver Island We have about 17, 000 students, roughly 11% International students, 9% Aboriginal students and roughly 8% of learners over 40 BC privacy laws state that student data cannot be stored or processed outside of Canada without written informed consent from students – so our instance is hosted out of Ontario, many of our systems are directly on site, and some of our systems are cloud-hosted within BC
3. While we manage, support and train instructors to use learning technologies, we are a Teaching and Learning Centre that focuses on curriculum and pedagogy development and support Our IT deparment supports hardware and software across campus We made the decision to move from Moodle to Brightspace in 2012 – on an elevator! (story) Since 2012 we have moved through 10.0 to 10.4 – commitment to cutting edge technology and providing best opportunities for faculty and students possible When we moved to 10.4, we had custom integrations with our SIS systems (holding tank), as well as a Blackblack Collaborate integration Word cloud is from our website
4. 4 versions in 2 years! Fall 2012 – First pilot group in Brightspace Fall 2013 – All online course components and offerings in Brightspace, Moodle discontinued May 2013 – first major interface change (10.1 – 10.2) Summer 2014 – second major change (10.2 – Continuous Delivery/10.4) 10.1 – 10.2: Interface change Documentation challenges Faculty buy-in challenges (especially since we recently changed from Moodle) Offering Workshops, Previews and Seminars (minimize) Transition over the Summer May 2013 term (low number of course offerings) 10.2 - 10.4 10.1-10.2 informed our management of 10.2-10.4 Starting testing 10.4 May Through run-through of entire system, lots of contact with dev team Documentation created ahead of switch No major interface changes, so was not advertised to faculty as a major change
5. Commitment to cutting / bleeding edge! Less Downtime Updates happen behind the scenes Can work through updates Big improvement in access for fully-online and/or remote faculty Fewer issues to report to D2L Helpdesk Support Overall ticket numbers down Less time spent documenting/communicating with support Testing cycle less cumbersome Documentation is better online D2L Resource Centre is clearer to faculty Some improvements to tools Functional improvements import/export/copy Quiz tool functionality Add Video / Audio Marking in Dropbox Easier to support our faculty (we see fewer Tier 1 tickets)
6. Followed same workflow as we had on all SP changes
7. Full-time testing began May 2014 and ran until June 2014 when the transition started Testing was done on-site using existing university infrastructure and their software environment, including browsers Included full tool testing, testing specific courses copied into test instance, and specific use cases for fully-online programs Bugs and concerns were reported in the Helpdesk and generally escalated directly to the development team Tanya Chisholm was point of contact – product specialist and program manager – continues to be a point of contact today A copy of our instance was mock-transitioned by D2L 5 times before the official transition No issue with our (then) current integrations Reported approximately 10 bugs that were fixed before transition, at least two others fixed by 10.4.2 Image of test instance hyperlinked to it, can show the testing course
8. Update-specific handouts and videos Highlighted changes to workflows “What’s new” video Hosted in our Kaltura instance and on our mediawiki All other documentation is not versioned Refer to LMS as “VIULearn” no need to change names No versions (10.4.1) mentioned Allowed us to prioritize document updating Fully online training course for faculty Course built in 2013, major updates needed Fully online student orientation course Self-Registration enabled Remote students Specific communications with fully-online programs Preview changes (no major interface changes) No other major communications to campus community
9. Old Testing Workflow 5 people in the office testing for about a day All campus supported browsers, all campus environments New Testing Workflow 1-2 people in the office testing for about a day Focused testing on system changes Focused testing on major tools for fully-online faculty
10. Continue to keep pace with LSOne / 10.4 upgrades Seeing more functional improvements to Brightspace Less basic support for Brightspace needed – our staff can focus on higher-level projects Curriculum support Best practices for online Platform is allowing more courses to move to blended and fully-online formats Health and Human Services Trades Enrollment Management / Transitions Developing better accessibility standards Platform has many standards built-in Brightspace can be used to help faculty develop more accessible content