Coming Soon! Enrollment Application Upgrade

The Enrollment Application is evolving with your needs to keep you a step ahead. It features a polished interface and enhancements designed to maximize productivity, improve predictability and fast-track new users while supporting all existing workflows...Most importantly, it was carefully crafted to make managing LMS training easier.  It’s worth restating: As we update this system, users of the legacy system will not be faced with a burdensome task of learning a whole new system.  After 7 years of use on the legacy system, we applied (more…)

LMS Downtime, Feb 14, 2018

Yesterday from 5:51pm to 6:06pm (all times eastern) the LMS was not responsive to users.  The system began to show increased response times at 5:47pm. The response times increased rapidly from under 100mS to 649mS. At 5:48pm we recorded response times above 4,000 mS. At 5:51pm the system was shut down. We rebooted two of the many systems that support the overall LMS and at 6:06pm response times returned and have been maintained at just under 100 mS.  Read on for some insights into how we know about and keep track of the system. (more…)

Internet outage for some, and for a while, on Monday, 11/6/2017

Internet outages were reported across the US on Monday, 11/06/17.  Reports began coming into sites like downdetector.com starting at roughly 1pm EDT and continuing until a bit after 4pm EDT.  Reports after 4pm EDT indicated the outage issues were identified and corrected.  Our LMS sites were at all times running smoothly, if you could access.  Two users sitting next to each other may have had different experiences with access to this and many major sites across the internet, based on the kind of outage that occurred.  This outage affected one of the major internet communication backbones.

Here are some articles that covered the incident:  Click on one/each to read details of the outage and resolution.

Click on the Image to Access the Article

Director, Bill Ball shared a very enlightening article yesterday with staff from vox.com.  It’s an interesting look at the construction and history of the internet.  It also explains much of what some of yesterday’s activities and investigations realized when looking for answers to why the internet was acting up.

 

We know how important these services are and will continue as always to monitor and communicate regarding site access.

Test Generator Server Maintenance

LOGOThe Test Generator server will be undergoing routine maintenance starting Friday, April 7th, 2017 at 11:00 pm (EDT). The maintenance should be completed before 11:00 pm (EDT) on Saturday, April 8th, 2017.  Please generate any tests needed for the entire weekend prior to 5:00 pm (EDT) on Friday, April 7th, 2017.

 

LMS course titles that included “with text” revised

Todd Stafford, Executive Director
Broadcast Memo
Textbooks No Longer Included with the Purchase of LMS Courses
The required textbook for all Advanced courses will need to be purchased separate from your LMS enrollments effective the weekend of February 25-26. The “with text” feature in the LMS Advanced course enrollments will no longer be available. The price for all impacted LMS courses will be reduced to reflect this change. You must still purchase your Core Curriculum textbooks by purchasing the SUITE package for each year.
The addition of the Installer/Technician curriculum to the LMS and the inclusion of the Residential curriculum in the fall of 2017 complicates the “w/ text” feature. Textbooks included in Inside Wireman Advanced courses that are part of the Installer/Technician and Residential curriculum are purchased in SUITES, just like the Inside Wireman program. This creates an ordering conflict where the books included in the Installer/Technician and Residential SUITES are also included with many of the Inside Wireman Advanced courses that feature “w/ text”, which would create duplication of many of the required textbooks. Due to this issue, the decision was made to discontinue the “w/ text” feature for the Advanced courses.
You must order the required textbooks for the Advanced courses at the
electrical training ALLIANCE online bookstore which is accessed from our website atwww.electricaltrainingalliance.org. Once you log in to the bookstore, select “New Order” and then select “Journeyman/Advanced” from the Group 1 drop down menu as seen below. You will need to select your topic from the Group 2 drop down menu. The courses are listed in alphabetical order. If you have any questions please contact customer service at 888.652.4007.

Fun LMS stats

reindeer_holding_signThe following stats are gathered partly by the comprehensive monitoring installed at the enterprise level facility where our system is located, and others are corralled by dedicated Alliance staff. Since not all Training Directors and instructors are present when these numbers have been included in presentations, some are posted here.

Metadata regarding all aspects of the LMS is gathered.  Among other things, it helps to verify the hardware is applied and rated correctly, performing as it is required.  It also (more…)

Disruption of LMS Service

The Blended Learning LMS experienced technical difficulties between 7:51am and 11:31am EST Sunday, December 18th.

A team of engineers, developers and Alliance staff worked to resolve the problem.  After a deep investigation, it is felt we have identified the root cause and resolved the issue. During the disruption of service some users would not have experienced issues, but for others a host of connection errors were seen.  A notification message to help in alerting users appeared on the login pages for both the LMS and the Enrollment Application.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.  All teams who work on the system are acutely aware of how important the system is for maintaining it’s fluid operation.