WebCT Vista 4 Support Corner

• Generalities
• Official Announcements
• Sep. '07': Vista upgrade to version 4
• Dec. '06': Letter: SWITCHelp - e-Learning platforms for the Suisse Universities
• Oct. '05: State of the Negotiations with the National E-learing Server
• Jan. '05: 3 Years Financing
• Maintainance information
• News

Generalities

Any member or institute belonging to a Swiss academic organism is entitled to use the Swiss National Content Server that is financed by the Swiss Virtual Campus. This includes (in the limits of the existing funding) free

• access and use of the Vista learning platform.
• attribution of courses (sections)
• participation to training for designers and instructors
• access to online and face-to-face support
• help with needed software developments (API, etc)

Official Announcements

Zürich, 19th of October2007

In our mail "Bb Vista run by SWITCH: Tariffs from 2008" of November 21st we informed you about the decision of the SWITCH Foundation Council to establish a new tariff model.

As a reaction some current Vista users have asked us for tariff details and specific clarifications. In order to keep you updated and hopefully prevent misunderstandings we'd like to provide all active Vista users with some additional information.

SWITCH Service
--------------
SWITCH Blackboard Vista is formally a service like any other SWITCH service (AAI, SWITCHmobile, network, lecture recording, Web-SMS, ...).

Billing
-------
The invoice recipient will be the IT services of your institution. SWITCH has never charged individual university members and it is not planned to do so in the future. Consequently, a teacher using Vista will not receive an invoice by SWITCH - your IT services are dealing with it.

Active Users
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Institutions will only be charged for active users (teachers, students, administrators). An active user is a person who has more than once per semester logged into a course and actively used its contents.

Course providers are charged
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In the case of inter-institutional course offerings the course provider is charged. For example: if a student from university A attends a Vista course at university B, then university B will be charged for the student.

Zürich, 21st of November 2007

Dear partners

In its meeting of November 8th 2007, the SWITCH Foundation Council has approved the tariffs 2008. The tariff structure comprises new “unbundled” services, to which also our „Blackboard Vista“ belongs.

As you all know, Vista is funded by the SVC until the end of this year. From 2008 the operational cost for the national Vista service will have to be paid by the users. The accepted tariff is

25 CHF per student per year

The fee is applied to every student in Bb Vista per calendar year, independent of the number of enrolled courses.

The foundation council advises clearly to keep the hitherto existing practice of sending a combined SWITCH bill for all services, including the unbundled ones, to one address per university (typically the IT Services).

The first bill for Bb Vista will be issued in April for the 1st quarter of 2008, counting all active students. Additional bills, taking into account only newly enrolled students, will be issued every three months: in July for the 2nd quarter 2008, in October for the 3rd quarter 2008 and in January 2009 for the 4th quarter 2008. The counting and billing cycle will be restarted in 2009.

A detailed description of the service will be available soon. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

The managers of the universities' IT services and the board members of the foundation have already seen the individual cost projection 2008. It is based on presently available figures. The actual amount billed in 2008 can differ and will be levied according to the above-described procedure.

Kind regards,
Martin Sutter

Fribourg & Zürich, 27th of August 2007

In our first major upgrade since Blackboard acquired the WebCT company, Switch executed the migration from Vista 3.07 to 4.1.2. This brought a number of improvements to course designers (with a very limited number of new 'issues') and seems to be the most stable version of the tool so far.

Zurich , 19. December 2005

SWITCHelp – e-Learning Platforms for the Swiss Universities

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

SWITCH has been successfully hosting the Swiss Virtual Campus (SVC) WebCT VISTA™ platform since two years, in cooperation with EduTech.

A task force has elaborated a business case for e-learning platforms in Switzerland after 2007. The task force recommends to centrally host two professionally supported platforms, one based on commercial software and one on open source software. The three rectors' conferences Conférence des Recteurs des Universités Suisses (CRUS), Konferenz der Fachhochschulen der Schweiz (KFH) and Konferenz der Pädagogischen Hochschulen der Schweiz (SKPH) endorse the task force's recommendations.

Following this business case we have designed the e-learning platforms SWITCHelp services:

• The existing WebCT VISTA™ Enterprise installation now offers access to 20'000 licensed students, effective immediately, and is open to all Swiss cantonal universities, federal institutes of technology, universities of applied sciences and pedagogical universities. The number of licensed students may be further increased as necessary.
• The alternative platform can reasonably go into service in 2007. A new working group, assembling members of the Swiss tertiary education, will tackle the evaluation of this open source platform next year, under the auspices of the SVC and SWITCH.

SWITCH and the SVC will jointly finance the development and deployment of the SWITCHelp services until the end of 2007. The CRUS, KFH and SKPH agreed to find a financing model, based on user and central funding, from 2008.

The new e-learning platforms services are well in line with the overall SWITCH strategy of e-academia, including the support of virtual academic communities, and complementing our services for e-conferencing, ubiquity & roaming and authentication & authorization.

Please direct all inquiries concerning SWITCHelp to me.

Kind regards and best wishes for a successful new year,

Dr. Martin Sutter, Head of NetServices eMail: martin.sutter@switch.ch

October 26th '05: State of the Negotiations with the National E-learing Server

Version française

A la demande du président du Comité de pilotage du Campus Virtuel Suisse (CVS), nous vous transmettons quelques informations sur la situation et l'état actuel de la négotiation concernant la réalisation d'un "service national de plateforme":

1. Le Comité de pilotage du CVS a soumis à la Conférence Générale (Conférence des Recteurs des Universités Suisses CRUS, Conférence Suisse des Hautes Écoles Spécialisées CSHES, Conférence Suisse des Recteurs des Hautes Écoles Pédagogiques CSHEP) la proposition qu'un service national de plateforme soit offert par SWITCH à partir de janvier 2008. Il est prévu que la plateforme WebCT Vista et une plateforme en logiciel libre soient hébergées. Une répartition du financement entre des contributions fédérales fixes et des frais d' exploitation variables en fonction du nombre d'utilisateurs doit permettre une utilisation peu onéreuse de l'offre.
2. La CRUS, la CSHES et la CSHEP plaident pour la mise en place d'un service national de plateforme à partir de 2007 et recommandent à SWITCH de négocier avec le Comité de Pilotage du CVS pour réaliser l'hébergement et l'opérationnalisation des plateformes correspondantes.
3. Le Comité de pilotage du CVS dispose de licences auprès de WebCT Vista jusqu'à la fin 2007 et négocie pour le moment avec SWITCH pour l'acquisition de licences à vie.
4. Les négociations doivent être conclues entre WebCT, SWITCH et le Secrétariat d’Etat à l'éducation et à la recherche SER. La Conférence universitaire suisse CUS doit approuver formellement la décision. Nous espérons qu'une décision sera encore possible cette année.
5. La fusion de WebCT et de Blackboard a peu d'influence sur le service de plateforme à court et à moyen terme. A long terme, une modification concernant les produits software est possible.

Concernant les processus, nous vous tiendrons informés prochainement.

Deutsche Version

Im Auftrag des Präsidenten des Lenkungsausschuss des Swiss Virtual Campus (SVC), informieren wir Sie über den aktuellen Stand der Verhandlungen und die momentane Situation betreffend der Realisation eines "Nationalen Plattform Dienstes":

1. Der Lenkungsausschuss SVC hat der Gesamtkonferenz (Rektorenkonferenz der Schweizer Universitäten CRUS, Konferenz der Fachhochschulen der Schweiz KFH, Schweizerische Konferenz der Rektorinnen und Rektoren der Pädagogischen Hochschulen SKPH) den Vorschlag unterbreitet, dass durch SWITCH ab Januar 2008 ein nationaler Plattform Dienst angeboten werden soll. Vorgesehen ist, dass die Lernplattform WebCT Vista und eine Open Source Plattform gehostet werden. Eine Aufteilung der Finanzierung in feste Bundesbeiträge und nutzerabhängige Hostinggebühren soll eine sehr kostengünstige Nutzung des Angebots ermöglichen.
2. CRUS, KFH und SKPH befürworten die Einrichtung eines gesamtschweizerischen Serviceangebots ab 2007 und empfehlen SWITCH, mit dem Lenkungsausschuss des SVC zu verhandeln, um die Unterbringung und den Betrieb der entsprechenden Plattformen zu realisieren.
3. Der Lenkungsausschuss SVC verfügt über WebCT Vista Lizenzen bis Ende 2007 und verhandelt zurzeit zusammen mit SWITCH den Erwerb von „lebenslangen Lizenzen“.
4. Die Verhandlungen müssen zwischen WebCT, SWITCH und dem Staatssekretariat für Bildung und Forschung SBF abgeschlossen werden. Die Schweizerische Universitätskonferenz SUK muss den Entscheid formell bestätigen. Wir hoffen auf eine Entscheidung noch in diesem Jahr.
5. Der Merger von WebCT und Blackboard hat kurz- und mittelfristig voraussichtlich wenig Einfluss auf den Plattform Dienst. Langfristig ist eine Veränderung bezüglich Softwareprodukten möglich.

Über den weiteren Prozess werden wir Sie auf dem Laufenden halten.

January '05: 3 Year Financing Guarantee Until End of 2007

Deutsche Version

Der Lenkungsausschuss des Swiss Virtual Campus (LA SVC) hat sich in seiner letzten Sitzung für eine Verlängerung der Finanzierung der bestehenden WebCT Vista Lizenz bis Ende 2007 ausgesprochen. Darüber hinaus hat sich der LA SVC für eine Verlängerung des Mandats EDUTECH, ebenfalls bis Ende 2007, ausgesprochen. Somit ist für diesen Zeitraum der WebCT Vista Support gewährleistet.

Die CRUS hat in ihrer Plenarsitzung im November 2004 die Notwendigkeit bestätigt, eine gemeinsame e-Learning-Plattform langfristig zu entwickeln. Die CRUS hat ihren Vorstand und den LA SVC beauftragt, einen Finanz- und Finanzierungsplan für eine gemeinsame Plattform nach 2007 vorzulegen.

Version française

Lors de sa dernière séance plénière de novembre, la CRUS a affirmé la nécessité de développer à long terme une plate-forme commune e-learning.
La CRUS a chargé le Bureau et le Comité de pilotage CVS de proposer un plan financier et un plan de financement pour la plate-forme commune après 2007.

Maintenance shut down! The first Wednesday morning of each month is reserved as a permanent maintenance slot for the athena virtualcampus server at Switch. Please take note that an access to your Vista courses can not be guaranteed on these dates.

Login

• National Content Server http://athena.virtualcampus.ch

• "Swiss Vista User Meeting", April 7th, 2006. Registration.
• "Introduction to Vista" 2 (+1/2) hours, on October 5th, 2005. Registration.
• "Introduction for Vista Institution Administrators" 2 hours, on September 8th, 2005, UniZH-IRCHEL. Registration by mail to edutech support.
• "Presentation of Vista" 1 1/2 hours, on April 20, 2005. Registration.
• "Introduction to Vista" 2(1/2) hours, on April 26, 2005. Registration.
• "Introduction to Vista" (2 hours) on March 22, 2005. Registration.
• Two new pages have been added to this site on February 17th:
  Vista Resources, and
  What is Vita.
• First Vista Usermeeting online: 27.1.05
• WebCT-Conference Barcelona on February 6-9, 2005.
• Next Hotfix will be installed beginning of February.
• The national server now hosts 120 courses with 2600 students.
• WebCT hast accepted a 6 months migration phase from Campus Edition to Vista.
• New Vista support website implemented on January 15th.