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Managing a Large Scale Student Environment:. A Case Study. Francisco López – E-Learning Operations Director, ITESM Carlos García – Logistics and Support Director, ITESM Jorge Salinas – Educational Technology Director, ITESM. Describing the Environment. What is ITESM? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Managing a Large Scale Student Environment:
A Case Study
Francisco López – E-Learning Operations Director, ITESMCarlos García – Logistics and Support Director, ITESM
Jorge Salinas – Educational Technology Director, ITESM
• What is ITESM?– Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey– Founded by civil society
in 1943 and supported by 27 non-profit organizations
Describing the Environment
Jorge Salinas
Describing the EnvironmentCampuses 33
Graduate Programs: Medical specialties Specialties Master Doctoral
1265010
Professional Programs: Traditional International
3529
Undergraduate Programs 7
Students: Master Professional High School Other Programs
10,22851,58525,6937,347
Faculty and Staff: Full time professors Partial time professors Administrative staff
2,9565,08113,057*
* Note:1,187 of this group are full time assistant professors and 411 are part time professors,
all of them are classified in “Full time and partial time professors)
Graduated professional and master alumni Total Professional Certificates Total Academic Diploma
155,556128,08727,469
Describing the Environment
• 8,200 faculty• 101,499 students• 140,829 alumni
• 80,188 students
• 12 programs
Tec de Monterrey33 campuses
Virtual University
Describing the Environment
Field Offices
Describing the Environment• Students
– Students from 66 countries– 59% in bachelor programmes, 30% in high school end
11% in postgraduate programmes– 32,768 students are in scholarship programmes and
student loan programmes
• Professors– Professors from 31 countries– 86.48% of professors have at least a masters degree– 61.28% of postgraduate programme have at least a
doctoral level degree– 40% of professors have been trained in diverse teaching
techniques
Jorge Salinas
Describing the Environment
• Who are Our Users and How Many Are There?– We have several on-line courses (through
our Virtual University System), most courses are a combination of on-line activities and in-classroom work
– 14,000 + Groups in Blackboard Learning System last semester
– 344,000 + Enrolled students last semester
Jorge Salinas
Blackboard Group GrowthYear Semester Groups
2002jan 1,251
aug 3,000
2003jan 5,342
aug 9,720
2004jan 9,667
aug 11,350
2005jan 12,953
aug 14,093
Number of Groups
02000400060008000
10000120001400016000
jan aug jan aug jan aug jan aug
2002 2003 2004 2005
Jorge Salinas
Blackboard Student Enrollment Growth
Year Semester Enrolled Students
2002jan 32,814
aug 88,794
2003jan 130,634
aug 256,316
2004jan 301,285
aug 291,756
2005jan 314,578
aug 344,348
Enrolled Students
-50,000
100,000150,000200,000250,000300,000350,000400,000
jan aug jan aug jan aug jan aug
2002 2003 2004 2005
Jorge Salinas
Why Blackboard?• Educational Model
– From Subject Focus to Student Focus• Previous Experience
– Other technologies...• Growth Expectations
– Fast implementation requirements• Organizational Strengths
– From distributed operations to centralized management
Jorge Salinas
The Support Organization
EquipmentOperating
SystemDisaster
RecoveryNetwork
OperationsDirectory
Infrastructure Layer
MaintenanceMass
ProcessingCourse Mgmt
PortalSystems
Integration
Application Operation Layer
OperationsHelp Desk
Course SpaceManagement
Course Logistics& Management
Operations and Logistics Layer
Academic Interface Layer
Jorge Salinas
Managing Student and Teacher Access o Working with Directories
o Use of Central Directory for user authenticationo One single password for all serviceso User account creation provided by administrative tasks
such aso Student admission process
o Involves creation of students user account in Blackboard
o Human resources hiring processo Involves creation of teachers user account in Blackboard
o Password set provided by a single Web pageo Users set their password trough a Web for all services
Managing Student and Teacher Access
Working with directories
Managing Student and Teacher Access
o Managing Student Information Integrity– Student information
• All student information is provided by Banner System (ERP)
– Identification information– Enrollment information
– One single point to modify student information
– Integrated systems
Managing Student and Teacher Access
Managing Student Information Integrity
Interfacing with Required Data Sources
oCourse, Student and Teacher Data oCourses : SCT Banner
o Batch process, enrollment runs 3 times a day o 32 campi on 3 banner instances
oStudents and Teachers: SCT Banner, Novell NDS
o Automatic account management through Banner - Novell Directory Service
o Event driven process
Blackboard Data Sources
API
Novell Directory
LDA
P
Data integrationUsing Snapshot tools
Provisioning-Students-Teachers-Employees
Support
API
BD WebTec
BD Blackboard
DDA &Teachers
Admin
Course Mgmt Portal
on-line services (jsp)
(JDBC, java beans)
Course Catalog extended
Data
mg
mt.
Rep
ort
s
DB SERVER Oracle 9.1 / Solaris
Lotus Notes / AIX(soon Oracle portal)
Bbscripts APP SERVER (Tomcat 4.1)
Course statistics & reports
Banner3 instances 32 campi
Crontab enrollment Snapshot tool
WT
BB
Course creation, archiving, copying & renaming.
Course registration data files download
On-line services(enrollment, change passwd)
Account Management (event driven)
FTP repository
Registration data files
WebTec APP SVR
Blackboard APP SVR
ITESM / February 2006
Student / Teachers
Cours
e
cata
log
Integrationof Services
Managing BB Infrastructure • Resources
– BB 6.1.5, Oracle 9i, Solaris 9– 6 webservers v880 (4 cpu 8 GB RAM each)– 1 appserver v880– 1 chatserver Netra X1– 1 database server 15K (32 CPU, 48 GB RAM)– 1.8 TB Filesystem (Disk Mirror)– 150 GB Database (Disk Mirror) – 34K courses (14K in production)– 1 loadbalance switch– 3 ISP redundancy – Akamai cache service– 3 server test enviroment– 1 development server, 1 integration server– 24,000 concurrent users peak, 16,000 avg.– 60% cpu-utilization on webservers, 40% cpu-utilization on db server
ITESM BB infrastructure
BB Infrastructure
•Capacity ManagementBB Performance and Capacity
Maturity Model – Phase 4: Business Process
Optimizing
• ITESM Capacity Management :
BB InfrastructureData Protection and Recovery
DATABASE• Disk Mirror (150 GB)
– On-line phisical data replication– On-line back-up system replacement
• Logical (Export)– Enables isolated restore of individual
tables – Reading each table can detect
corruption – May wish to restrict other activity– Runs daily, TSM 30 day history
• Cold ( Offline ) – Must shut down database. – Only on upgrades or OS maintenance
• Hot ( Online ) – no shutdown, run anytime, for 24 x 7
ops – BACKUP and RECOVERY using SQL-
BaskTrack from BMC Software. – Oracle Archive Mode– TSM, 30 day history
FILE SERVER• Disk Mirror (1.8 TB)
– On-line phisical data replication– On-line back-up system
replacement– Async Mirror, 10 minutes delay
• TSM backup every 72 hrs.– 26 million files– 30 day history
Connecting with Academia
• Experience Improvement Strategies– Educational Techniques– Experience Surveys and Studies– Usage Statistic Analysis– Knowledge Transfer Strategies
• Usage Enforcement Strategies– Strong Competencies Oriented Training– Core Subject Requirements
Jorge Salinas
Connecting with Academia
• Enhancing the Platform's Value for Academia– Different Technologies for Different
Subjects– Understanding our teacher population
Planning for the Future
• Next steps– Content administration strategy– Improved process automation– Enhanced teaching and learning
experience• New features• More flexibility (process, tools)
Recommendations • Communication strategy
– What?, How?, Who?, When?
• Integration with academy– What do they need?, What are they ready to use?, Are
we ready to provide them with that?
• Training strategy– Teachers, Students, Support people
• Content administration strategy– Too many copies vs. One single copy for all
• Support infrastructure– People, process and systems
Thank You!Francisco López – E-Learning Operations Director, ITESM – [email protected]
Carlos García – Logistics and Support Director, ITESM – [email protected] Salinas – Educational Technology Director, ITESM– [email protected]
