Future of Lotus Notes in question at NU

By Ronnel Daniels
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

After much consideration and research, Norwich University is deciding whether to upgrade to a newer version of Lotus Notes or move to a completely new program. The decision at the moment is on hold due to the problems upgrading can cause for Norwich's network system.

The problem with the new version is that the courses for the old version of Lotus can't migrate to the new version without the program deforming an error. Lotus tries to get universities to upgrade by offering support staffs that will help them upgrade through the problems that they face.

"This new Lotus version isn't the best fit for the network at Norwich; we have a better chance staying with the same version and working out the problem than moving to a new one," said Dr. Steven Stahl, Senior Instructional Technologist, Coordinate Classroom Plus Program.

Like Norwich, many universities are unsure whether they want to make the upgrade to the new version. The question of whether to upgrade Norwich systems will be answered in a couple of weeks by computer services.

"The new version is better than the older one, but it has many defaults and with the problems that our network is experiencing it would not be a good fit for the University," Stahl said.

As long as Norwich University has had LearningSpace, there have been problems in the system. The glitches in the Norwich network have caused problems for many students. Students involved with the Mobile Computing Program at Norwich use LearningSpace to submit their homework and have group discussions with their professors.

"A lot of my work was missing in space and my teachers never received the work that I sent to them," said John Cappelano, 19, a freshman business management major from Durham, NC.

Learning Space has brought a lot of confusion between students and teachers of online courses.

"The Network at Norwich is one of the worst I have experienced," said Sean Twomey, 20, a sophomore criminal justice major from Melrose, Mass.

"When I used LearningSpace last year, it seemed to be a good program at the time, even though it had some problems. This year, the problems have increased drastically," said Christopher Eckerson, 21, a sophomore international studies major from Newport News, Va.

LearningSpace 2.5 is a client-based system and is not compatible with Lotus Notes 5.0. Lotus Notes 5.0 is what Norwich is using for an email system. LearningSpace is compatible with Lotus Notes 4.6.

If NU does upgrade to Lotus Notes 4.6, students, professors, and online students will not be able to use the web-based email system, so that will create a huge problem for everyone.

Another problem being faced is that Lotus Notes is not supported. If there is any problem with any of the software, the universities that upgrade to the new version will be in the dark trying to figure out the problems by themselves.

With all this information Norwich computer services will not make a decision until they are 100 percent sure that the program is perfect for the network and the email system at Norwich.

"The university isn't really sure what the final decision will be on LearningSpace, whether they will upgrade or stay with what we already have," Stahl said.

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