Storm stories: surviving an upgrade to WebCT Vista

ABSTRACT

West Virginia University recently upgraded from WebCT Campus Edition 3.8 to WebCT Vista 3.0, hosting multiple regional campuses on the same server. WVU went live with hosting four institutions on a single instance of WebCT Vista in January 2005; the main campus in Morgantown was simultaneously integrated with its SCT Banner student information system. This enterprise-level software upgrade required a significant investment of resources and contributed to a reorganization of our instructional systems support staff. I will share what worked well for us and what to be careful about. Some components of our support model could be applied to other large-scale software implementation projects.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Strategic information systems planning

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Training
      K.6.3 Software Management
          Subjects: Software maintenance

General Terms:
Experimentation, Management, Performance

Keywords:
SCT banner integration, WebCT Vista, WebCT migration, project planning, software upgrade