BCesis - The crashy program that teachers are forced to use that even has a Hitler Parody - General

What is BCesis? [Quote=Wikipedia]BCeSIS (the British Columbia Enterprise Student Information System) is the implementation of a common student information system by independent schools and school districts of British Columbia, Canada. eSIS is commercial software developed by The Administrative Assistants Ltd[1] of Ontario, Canada, that provides the foundation for the centrally hosted, web accessible student information system. The BCeSIS System is currently hosted by Fujitsu Canada under contract to the British Columbia Ministry of Education. Currently all districts have signed a memorandum of understanding to voluntarily adopt BCeSIS on their own timeline. Support for schools and districts adopting the new system is provided by their own local staff resources in conjunction with Fujitsu Service Desk [url]http://www.isw-bc.ca[/url] and the Ministry of Education. A number of districts have utilized the services of Student Information System Specialists such as Draper Creek Consulting [url]http://www.drapercreek.ca[/url] to ease their transition and minimize demands on their own support staff. The Independent School implementation of BCeSIS is managed by the iGroup. More information can be found at [url]www.bcesisigroup.ca[/url] The First Nations school implementation is managed by FNESC (First Nations Education Steering Committee). More information can be found at [url]www.fnesc.ca/bcesis[/url] iGroup and FNESC launched a new user forum for all BCeSIS users (public & independent) on March 11, 2009. More information can be found at [url]www.bcesisigroup.ca/forum[/url] A interactive teacher training module using the Moodle platform has now been launched at [url]www.TrainingForBCeSIS.com[/url] Some teachers dislike the system, believing it to be a tool of social control, centralizing potentially sensitive private information, and placing important decisions about student education in the hands of unelected committees with no background in education. Others find having complete access to information on their students to be beneficial. The system also draws criticism for its archaic user interface. Some screens within the program allow arrow key movement, some functions use icons or multi-level text clicks, others require mouse clicks. The general design was not field tested on its intended users, nor was it tested on multiple browsers, and resulted in a poor user experience. For example, fields containing parent phone numbers only display the part of the number; a mouse click and arrow clicks are required to see the rest. Students lists (a typical class consists of 24–30 students) shows only thirteen names on the screen; one has to scroll down for the rest. Marks entry encounters similar design faults: sideways scrolling within student field-sets are required to access the three types of data typically entered (percent, work habits, comment selection). Combined with a start-up beset with server problems the introduction of BCeSIS was met with sharp anxiety and a call to examine whether the system was worth the $80 million expenditure. Using the Teacher Assistant interface, the teacher has access to the student demographics and contact information as well as details regarding the students' performance, programs and special education needs. BCeSIS gathers attendance in the classroom using an electronic attendance checklist and allows both the teacher and the office to share information regarding student absences. In an upcoming release of BCeSIS the province will be implementing a new capability called Parent Assistant that will allow parents to monitor their children's attendance and performance as it is entered into the system. [/quote] tl;dr: it's a program that keeps track of marks that gets sent to the Government of Canada and friends. Why does everyone hate it? [B]It's slow as fuck and it crashes[/B] Every school in the province of BC must use this program, and There are about 4 million kids that are in school. Each average teacher supports 90 kids per day So on any given day, there are about 44,000 teachers trying to log on and enter marks. The program only supports about 3,000 users. The only way to sign in without errors/crashes is when you sign in at the time of 1am-4am. This was even on the front page of my newspaper. [release] Teachers are fuming this week over the sluggishness of a computer program that's used widely in B.C. schools to centralize student data, and their union said the program's repeated failures put children at risk. "The system simply isn't working," Susan Lambert, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF), said in a news release. "Teachers can't log on, they can't get class lists, can't help students arrange programs or course changes, can't take attendance properly." In large schools, that creates safety concerns because teachers don't have class lists and therefore don't know which students should be in their classes, she said, adding: "Teachers are absolutely at their wits' end." The British Columbia enterprise Student Information System, known as BCeSIS, began causing havoc around the province when schools reopened last week. The problems were greater this year than in previous years because more school districts have signed onto BCeSIS and so there are more users, Lambert said in an interview. Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid admitted the program caused significant challenges last week but said most problems were fixed by late Friday. "I certainly acknowledge that it was very difficult during the first week of school," she told The Vancouver Sun. BCeSIS is used mostly to collate attendance and marks, but it can also track student behaviour issues, discipline, medical conditions, court records, custody orders and special needs. Although it's optional, 56 of 60 public-school districts and many independent schools are using it. They're required to pay an annual licensing fee of $10 per student, which in Vancouver -- the second-largest district -- adds up to $500,000 a year. But MacDiarmid said that's far cheaper than the $50 to $140 per-pupil fee paid previously by districts when many had their own data programs. The BCTF has opposed BCe-SIS from the get-go, describing it as slow and archaic. But Mac-Diarmid said the advantages of having one centralized system include the smooth transfer of school records when students relocate, a process that used to take months. Still, teachers who contacted The Sun in recent days weren't impressed. "This is a Mickey Mouse program in a highly technical world," Abbotsford teacher Pat Lee said in an e-mail. "The program crashed on the first day of school for most of the day throughout the province. ... Now that up to 40,000 teachers are on it daily, it is mind-numbingly slow." Teachers weren't the only ones complaining. "We are very disappointed with the level of service we are receiving," Hugh Gloster, superintendent in Central Okanagan district, said in an e-mail to staff. "For many of you, this translates into you being unable to do your jobs in the dedicated and professional manner that you are accustomed to." NDP education critic Robin Austin said he was deeply concerned about BCeSIS's shortcomings. "School districts pay for this. It's another cost that they have to cover for a system that isn't working." Read more education news at vancouversun.com/reportcard [email]jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com[/email] © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun Read more: [url]http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Widely+used+computer+program+causes+chaos+during+return+school/3526921/story.html#ixzz10VqYKCK4[/url] [/release] Here's a hitler parody (if anyone could find the youtube version, it would be very nice of you) [url]http://vimeo.com/15169691[/url] The reason why this is not in the news section, is because it is about 2 days late. If there has been another thread like this, please lock this thread

I've heard of it. My physics teacher can never figure it out.

I fucking love this program, Can skip all you want and they never call home because they can't enter attendance til many days later

We use a similar program here called STI which is a piece of shit. They have either crashes or updates every hour on the hour.

[QUOTE=McCarthy;25033096]I fucking love this program, Can skip all you want and they never call home because they can't enter attendance til many days later[/QUOTE] But they still bitch at you :smith: [editline]09:59PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Onlyonebowman;25033222]We use a similar program here called STI which is a piece of shit. They have either crashes or updates every hour on the hour.[/QUOTE] Sexually Transmitted Infection? :v:

Better than what my schools use to use. Something called sassy? Let me see if I can find it.... Nope, can't find it. But it constantly went down, was easily hackable in about 5 minutes, tried it myself to prove, and it froze every 3 fucking seconds.

Over here in manitoba, we use a better program, I think it's called first class or something.

I think the teachers in my school use eSis. Is it the same thing?

[QUOTE=Superstormj;25033595]Better than what my schools use to use. Something called sassy? Let me see if I can find it.... Nope, can't find it. But it constantly went down, was easily hackable in about 5 minutes, tried it myself to prove, and it froze every 3 fucking seconds.[/QUOTE] Yeah. Its amazing to think that, with the computing capabilities we have now, they can't design something better. I'm certain they could do this effectively with a proper cloud network or P2P system. Hell, if they are having so many people access at once, a P2P system would be great. Probably won't largely because of the pirating stigma though.

[QUOTE=Superstormj;25033595]Better than what my schools use to use. Something called sassy? Let me see if I can find it.... Nope, can't find it. But it constantly went down, was easily hackable in about 5 minutes, tried it myself to prove, and it froze every 3 fucking seconds.[/QUOTE] We used that. It didn't work at all. (You can't find it because it's SASI, also the name of a sex toy as a google search revealed :v:) Then again, we also shared every C: over our network, including faculty computers. (Great for stealing assignments, the first person to finish would instantly get it copied dozens of times as soon as they saved) The IT department wasn't very good there. You could really fuck with people by replacing all their system sound files with horrible screeching noises. Our teacher actually stood at his computer watching it trying to figure out who was putting all of his files in folder mazes, because he didn't know his hard drive was shared. :v: It also meant any time anyone put a game on their computer, the rest of the school would have it. Every time the teacher was out, we would LAN.

[QUOTE=Karmah;25033667]Over here in manitoba, we use a better program, I think it's called first class or something.[/QUOTE] Here in Saskatchewan we used paper Supports unlimited users and works in a power outage

Our infrastructure is a joke. Turns out after googleing what the hell the shit program my school uses, I found out that the software behind 6 versions. We also have the magnificent shared drive for easy file stealing and fucking up.

[QUOTE=Karmah;25033667]Over here in manitoba, we use a better program, I think it's called first class or something.[/QUOTE] Where the fux u at Karmah? Winnipeg? Anyways, we use a program called Integrade, or some sheeit. It marks well, and marks all absences and automatically calls your house if you are absent.

I want to email that hitler thing to my teacher and get him to show it in class.

All the computers at my old high school had keylogging and remote viewing programs installed.

I don't know why the goverment can't afford to hire a decent programmer, you'd think that with all the money thay have their systems would be way better than that of private corporations. But no, here we still have computers with Windows 95, and with most of the software pirated (hypocritical because we have laws against piracy :v:).

we've been over this in several topics BC education system is just shit altogether really

[QUOTE=Janizaurd;25034260]I don't know why the goverment can't afford to hire a decent programmer, you'd think that with all the money thay have their systems would be way better than that of private corporations. But no, here we still have computers with Windows 95, and with most of the software pirated (hypocritical because we have laws against piracy :v:).[/QUOTE] I don't think the government cares anymore

[QUOTE=lum1naire;25034275]we've been over this in several topics BC education system is just shit altogether really[/QUOTE] qft Even the teachers and councilors I've talked to hate it. The program fucking sucks. And $10 a student? What a waste of cash.

Seemis. Ass kicking shite

Lucky!!! Our teachers use ASPEN, which the teacher knows INSTANTLY when you're skipping (._.')

We use E-School at my school. It's alright for the most part but it seems to crash every 5-6 weeks for at least a day.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;25033768]Here in Saskatchewan we used paper Supports unlimited users and works in a power outage[/QUOTE] where do I download this

Haha, I remember my chemistry teacher fuming at this program during class. She was like "Fuck this shit I wanna go play Assassin's Creed 2"

[QUOTE=Karmah;25033667]Over here in manitoba, we use a better program, I think it's called first class or something.[/QUOTE] We used to have that in BC, but no, they had to fuck with something that already works.

we use skyward, its okay.

My school uses PowerSchool. Piece of crap, has errors all the time.

When I see threads like this it seems my school seem to be the only place who knows what there doing. We have something called Facility ePortal, it works too well the teachers stalk us with it. :saddowns:

At my school, the program we use is just awful. It just doesn't work sometimes, and it has a built in report card feature. To 'make it easier' it has all these default comments for students that can't be changed. This wouldn't be so bad, unless you take into account that there aren't any real negative comments, you have to bullshit about the student who gets 10% and never showed up.

ontario's "trillium" program isn't that much better