Interesting that they think its only Tues and Thurs where the issue is. I meet on a Mon and Wed and we have the issue as well.
[b]The Bader Team are continuing to work with Ultimedia to find a resolution to the poor performance we are currently experiencing during parade times particularly on a Tuesday and Thursday night. We have today been advised by Ultimedia that they may have a possible solution to the problem and are currently developing the new code required for the fix. Currently we do not have an exact date for deployment however we will provide a further update once we have any more information.
It’s funny… Even when I play around with it at, say, 1423 on a Tuesday afternoon - it’s still junk!
That’s also funny… We’ve all had a far quicker and more effective solution in mind for months…cut your losses and ditch the rubbish system! If someone up there had thought about what was actually needed and then searched for something which filled that need in the first place (instead of rushing into an agreement with a product that was never intended to work the way we want) they could have saved a lot of time, money, and effort.
We have been carrying out our first set of exams on ultilearn over the past few nights, slightly slow, but we have relativly aged hardware running XP however we only had one cadet who failed to comlpete the exam due to it freezing on him. Most passed, and those that failed only on the one LO which they will revisit shortly.
My opinion having now seen the system in use, although not directly involved, its better than the paper exams in that the cadets get the results instantly, they are clearly told where to work on and no longer need to wait for the next set of exams and sit through all of the training a second time. There are still some software issues that need resolving, I think that in 2-3 years time we will a excellent system that will be vastly improved on teh old paper system, giving more credability to the BTEC awarded. Prehaps also the presentations should be stored on Sharepoint rather than Ultilearn itself to improve accessability.
I don’t know if something has been done yet, but I could log in, register and start a “course” all within a couple of minutes last night. Witchcraft I tell ye!
They’ve effectively had 3½ years already developing the system, given I saw a document in mid 2009, as a result of an earlier meeting stating the new system would go live in Sep 10. So 2-3 years from now means upto 6 years to get it right. Poor project management in the extreme, but then it is part of the MoD, a public body not renown for management/expedience when it comes to projects.
Plus while this is still ongoing our training gurus by the token of the suggestion in the RTO minutes linked on here, are going to introduce a booklet for 1st Class.
The cause of poor performance of Ultilearn on parade nights has now been identified and a major rewrite of the software is underway. It is anticipated that a solution will be in place by the end of February 2013.
In the meanwhile there are a number of things that can be done at user level to alleviate the problem - which is caused by a surge in demand as too many people try to access the system at the same time.
Here are a few simple workarounds which could help:
• Instead of registering cadets for online assessments during parade nights, try doing it at some other time
• When you have a number of cadets sitting at the computers ready to start online assessments, instead of letting them all log on at the same time, get them to log on in turn – with each one waiting until the cadet before has the online assessment up and ready to go before they attempt to log in.
• If you can’t get your cadets through the online assessments during squadron time consider allowing them to sit them elsewhere: perhaps at school, in the local library – or even at home.
There is also a workaround for when cadets have completed an online assessment but find that they are being asked to sit the assessment for a third time because they have failed on a criterion that they passed on their original attempt:
• Send as much detail about your cadet and the online assessments they took to the BADER helpdesk.
• The Helpdesk Manager will check the details and then give you authority to do a manual input.
While there may be other outstanding issues, priority is being given to the main problem – poor parade night performance. Hopefully most of these will also be resolved by the software rewrite. In the meantime if you do experience problems you should continue to register them on the BADER Helpdesk site.
Seriously, the level of rewrite required to make this a usable system will mean starting from scratch.
I’m not sure whether the other solutions out there will be able to handle peak traffic (which I doubt is a purely application-layer issue), but that is by no means the sole limiting factor of Ultilearn. It is a crippling one though.
I did like that they assume in the year we’ve used it, we hadn’t thought to not use it on a parade night (although I’ve often thought about not using it at all! )
I would also try and encourage your cadets to avoid Piston Engine propulsion. It is proving impossible to pass the exam. We have 3 cadets who at different times have failed one LO. They then log in after the 10 days to try again and it makes them resit the whole thing and then fails them on sections they have already passed (as witnessed by myself or another staff member). All other exams seem to be ok once you can get access to ultilearn.
Hopefully a solution one way or another is found soon as it ultimately isn’t fair on the cadets who are trying sit the exams.
[quote=“treacle” post=3577]I would also try and encourage your cadets to avoid Piston Engine propulsion. It is proving impossible to pass the exam. We have 3 cadets who at different times have failed one LO. They then log in after the 10 days to try again and it makes them resit the whole thing and then fails them on sections they have already passed (as witnessed by myself or another staff member). All other exams seem to be ok once you can get access to ultilearn.
Hopefully a solution one way or another is found soon as it ultimately isn’t fair on the cadets who are trying sit the exams.[/quote]
Is there a problem with the answers or learning material, ie either not covered.
however we only had one cadet who failed to comlpete the exam due to it freezing on him. Most passed, and those that failed only on the one LO which they will revisit shortly.