Comments on: Perceived Negativity about Blackboard http://aimlessmusing.com/2009/07/19/perceived-negativity-about-blackboard/ Occasional writings on things that interest me Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:20:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Scott Kodai http://aimlessmusing.com/2009/07/19/perceived-negativity-about-blackboard/comment-page-1/#comment-31 Scott Kodai Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:48:35 +0000 http://aimlessmusing.com/?p=79#comment-31 Thanks for your thoughts, Corinna. I agree that most of the improvement appears to have been coming from the staff, rather than the management. I'm hopeful that Ray Henderson is going to change that, but I'm realistic enough to know that corporate culture is very sticky and tough to change. Still, it's better today than it was a year ago, so hopefully it will be even better one year from now. Thanks for your thoughts, Corinna. I agree that most of the improvement appears to have been coming from the staff, rather than the management. I’m hopeful that Ray Henderson is going to change that, but I’m realistic enough to know that corporate culture is very sticky and tough to change. Still, it’s better today than it was a year ago, so hopefully it will be even better one year from now.

]]> By: Corinna http://aimlessmusing.com/2009/07/19/perceived-negativity-about-blackboard/comment-page-1/#comment-30 Corinna Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:27:21 +0000 http://aimlessmusing.com/?p=79#comment-30 I think we should distinguish between the some of the management decisions and the work of their staff. I remember during the rough time after the Blackboard/WebCT merger, there were some support managers worked hard to try to solve the cases for us despite of their tremendous workload, lack of timely fixes from the development team. Here again, like you said, the development teams were also merged, and the staff have to deal with unfamiliar millions lines of code. Our TSM at that time, Aaron Share, in particular, worked tirelessly on our cases, and with development to make sure fixes would be coming. Gradually, good things come... John Porter and Danny Thomas have made such great contributions via as many channels possible to the user community, which in turn reflect so positively on the company. There is now knowledgeable support managers in Australia to talk to us when we open Severity 1 emergency cases in our evenings. The development team have been wonderful in delivering the fixes. Then the good decision in the company in making effort to reach out to the community, via beta programs, working with user groups, to make improvement and introduce stability into the product. I'm sure there are more good management decisions behind the scene, such as staff retention/ minimizing turnover, to make sure the skill set and knowledge stay in within the company. That said, they did make a change last year I was not happy about...... At end of August 2008 (which is the beginning of our usually busiest Fall semester!), they changed the Level I technical support service to an external company. The new support team were unfamiliar with the product, and need time to catch up. They were not very helpful at a time we would need them most. Changes happen. How Blackboard manage it, and co-ordinate with clients still need improvement. Well, we do not have any support case opened for quite a while. The product CE8 has been much more stable. So, I will stop complaining... I think we should distinguish between the some of the management decisions and the work of their staff.

I remember during the rough time after the Blackboard/WebCT merger, there were some support managers worked hard to try to solve the cases for us despite of their tremendous workload, lack of timely fixes from the development team. Here again, like you said, the development teams were also merged, and the staff have to deal with unfamiliar millions lines of code.

Our TSM at that time, Aaron Share, in particular, worked tirelessly on our cases, and with development to make sure fixes would be coming.

Gradually, good things come…
John Porter and Danny Thomas have made such great contributions via as many channels possible to the user community, which in turn reflect so positively on the company.
There is now knowledgeable support managers in Australia to talk to us when we open Severity 1 emergency cases in our evenings.
The development team have been wonderful in delivering the fixes.
Then the good decision in the company in making effort to reach out to the community, via beta programs, working with user groups, to make improvement and introduce stability into the product.
I’m sure there are more good management decisions behind the scene, such as staff retention/ minimizing turnover, to make sure the skill set and knowledge stay in within the company.

That said, they did make a change last year I was not happy about…… At end of August 2008 (which is the beginning of our usually busiest Fall semester!), they changed the Level I technical support service to an external company. The new support team were unfamiliar with the product, and need time to catch up. They were not very helpful at a time we would need them most.

Changes happen. How Blackboard manage it, and co-ordinate with clients still need improvement.

Well, we do not have any support case opened for quite a while. The product CE8 has been much more stable.

So, I will stop complaining…

]]> By: Mark Kauffman http://aimlessmusing.com/2009/07/19/perceived-negativity-about-blackboard/comment-page-1/#comment-29 Mark Kauffman Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:54:23 +0000 http://aimlessmusing.com/?p=79#comment-29 My kudos to John Porter as well. He's never let us down. My kudos to John Porter as well. He’s never let us down.

]]> By: ez http://aimlessmusing.com/2009/07/19/perceived-negativity-about-blackboard/comment-page-1/#comment-27 ez Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:30:28 +0000 http://aimlessmusing.com/?p=79#comment-27 I remember back around the time of the merger when some answers were, "You'll need Global Services to help you with this." Porter describes the issue(s) and advices what might be possible. We clients feel helped rather than a moneybag. Pre-merger, we talked quite a bit with engineers and architects. Post-merger until Porter took over support, we were kept away from people with the answers. Getting to talk to these folks deeply involved with the product provides them the opportunity to better understand the issue. I suggest lurking on BBADMIN-L and BLKBRD-L to compare their support to what we get at WEBCT-USERS and WEBCT-ADMIN. :) I remember back around the time of the merger when some answers were, “You’ll need Global Services to help you with this.” Porter describes the issue(s) and advices what might be possible. We clients feel helped rather than a moneybag.

Pre-merger, we talked quite a bit with engineers and architects. Post-merger until Porter took over support, we were kept away from people with the answers. Getting to talk to these folks deeply involved with the product provides them the opportunity to better understand the issue.

I suggest lurking on BBADMIN-L and BLKBRD-L to compare their support to what we get at WEBCT-USERS and WEBCT-ADMIN.
:)

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