T-Square bugs cause system downtime

Two weeks ago, T-Square ended up going down because of a glitch in the system. Since adopting the new T-Square course management system, students and faculty have been learning how to utilize its capabilities as well as dealing with the struggle of adopting a new system.

"In the last couple of weeks, we had problems with the resubmission tool. It had been slowing the whole system down, and it was hard to track down the problem."

"We decided the best thing for the stability of the whole system was to disable [the resubmission tool]," said Clay Fenlason, director of Education Technology for the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL).

The developers have been working on fixing the tool and will spend the next few weeks testing it.

"We're going to move slowly to not reintroduce problems into the system," Fenlason said.

Other issues that users of T-Square have been encountering revolve around trying to adapt the system to deal with larger classes.

"Any time you have a very large class, you're going to see problems that you're not going to see in a class of, say, 40."

"One of the issues is that the grade book system isn't as sophisticated as it could be, and professors are having to go through an older system to submit grades," said Donna Llewellyn, Director of CETL.

Students have had issues getting used to the new interface and getting a feel for its layout.

"The tabs in T-Square are displaying my old classes, and I find it a little annoying," said Andrea Huber, fourth-year Electrical Engineering major.

"The biggest thing [we hear] from the students is that 'when [T-Square] slows down, it kills us,'" Fenlason said.

As one way to communicate with students, Fenlason set up the "T-Square Talk" group on T-Square to allow users to ask questions, provide feedback and interact with the T-Square development team.

The questions range from T-Square automatically logging out to the performance of T-Square on computers running the Linux operating system.

One of the obstacles that needs to be overcome is that many people see T-Square as a replacement for WebCT, Fenlason said. T-Square was intended to be more than just a course management system.

"One of the unique things about T-Square is that people can use it in non-traditional ways. Being able to use [T-Square] as a general management tool will help faculty to adapt. The more people are comfortable doing things that don't have classroom applications, the more likely they will be to use it in the classroom," Llewellyn said.

For example, T-Square can allow research groups to collaborate their information, and users can set up their own groups and even their own websites.

Students and faculty have also requested abilities like adding users who aren't associated with Tech, integrating features like content management systems and implementing tools like shared desktops.

"There is more of an emphasis on collaboration of material versus the broadcasting of information," Fenlason said.

The problem that the development group is facing is the fact that they have to deliver the same functionality that WebCT provided and also provide the new capabilities that users want from T-Square.

"[T-Square is] broader than just course tools. That being said, we need to make sure our tools are sophisticated enough," Llewellyn said.

"T-Square has a lot of features with potential, but the base features still need some work," said Antonio Salazar, fourth-year Computer Science major.

Even with the problems people have experienced with T-Square, adoption has been widespread.

"16,543 people have logged on at least once to T-Square and 15,105 of those have been students....That's an excellent adoption rate of people trying it. WebCT will be gone next year, so the usage rate will go up," Llewellyn said.

A faculty priorities committee is being created to organize the areas in which the development team needs to direct its focus, balancing work on improving course tool issues with expanding T-Square's features.

Fenlason said that students could also be included on the committee to improve communication lines with the students.

"Communication lines with students have not really been there, but it's improving."

"I feel really good with this path [we're taking]. [We are] able to grow around what is necessary for the students and the faculty," Fenlason said.