Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on January 23, 2012 at 6:24pm

Again, this is great feedback.  I can't guarantee that it will change the roadmap for Collaborate, but you're sure making a great case!  :) 

There are configurations of Collaborate that allow you to establish the post-session URL yourself.  I don't know of any standard offering to allow your own logo-ing, but I'm not in the sales group so I might not be in the know...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mero on January 25, 2012 at 2:52pm

The Post-session URL is a great feature available for individual configuration, if one has access to the server administration page. Large-scale customers having a SAS contract (or ELM coming soon) may change the URL themselves, while contracts without customer-access to the backend have a fixed setting.

During the last year, Valerie started a campaign to evaluate customer´s success along the change from Elluminate v10 to Collaborate v11 by leading anybody to a vendor survey page as post-session URL, even for paid V-type contracts (vOffice, vClass). This did come to an end, as the survey statistics tended negative by many users feeling terrified to repeat their opinion on v11 again and again.

For trial versions (vRooms) it remains acceptable to have a fixed URL setting. Actually, my vRoom does lead to the Collaborate main URL, but my vOffice does not have any post-URL-setting (Free Live Classroom on Coursesites.com same behavior: No post-session URL set).

Coming back to my first sentence, Blackboard support is the instance having access to the V-type administration backend. It should be possible for you to open a support ticket requesting deletion/change of the post-session URL, if you have a paid contract, which includes support.

My clients dreamed of a Vclass contracting process, where I send an own customized introductory whiteboard (client´s logo on a localized start page) and a post-session-URL together with the signed contract. For small or medium sized organizations, this should be a sufficient branding option. On the vendor side, this would be cheap to provide, as it does not require to give customers access to any server admin page nor need to change any code on the server. It is simply an override of the default setting.

One remark on Learncentral vs. Ning:

Most members of Learncentral.Org did use the free functions only. Tammy explained, why this was aiming for individuals and small organizations. But there was a paid feature very interesting for large organizations too:

The "vOffice settings" page on Learncentral was a GREAT step to give each customer a limited access to some server-side parameter settings (name, rights granting, max. no of talkers/cams, ...). This (Drupal-)bridge connectivity was a remarkable USP! I know some vClass customers demanding that Learncentral dashboard on their contracts! 

Next steps like self-setting of the post-session-URL and other useful tayloring seemed to  be within reach.In fact, Learncentral.Org was a sneak preview demonstration server, what Blackboard Collaborate CMS bridges might offer in the future - available for any customer using Drupal CMS including large scale campus and enterprise scenarios.

For sure, Ning will never fit into that shoe, because it is a hosted service, not a CMS, where the owner can load a Blackboard Collaborate bridge extension.

Well, I´m still dreaming, this is not on the Blackboard pricelist. Hope, some Collaborate product manager will read this thread.

Best regards

Mero

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page