[BB] Telephone access

If you are trying to reach me and I don't pick up at the work number, try my cell.  The new voice mail system at UM won't take a message on my number.  After 20 seconds of rings, it very politely says "Sorry, that is not a valid extension."  I have opened a ticket to get it looked at.  Until it is resolved, if you need me and I am not at my desk, just call my cell.

 

Bill Vilberg

305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)

 

[BB] Blackboard Upgrade - App Pac 2

We are applying App Pack 2 Service Pack 3 to the Blackboard system tomorrow.  I don't expect it to have any major change in what you see or what you can do.  The actual upgrade will take a few minutes sometime around 3:00 AM, so the upgrade should not affect availability.

 

This upgrade is necessary so that we can (1) turn on security in the form of SSL during July and (2) probably apply App Pack 3 at the end of July.

 

Security will encrypt everything sent between your computer and the Blackboard system, increasing the privacy of the communication.

 

App Pack 3 was officially released today.  It includes a number of new features, but does not effect any of the current features.  That is, you will be able to keep doing things the same way you have been or choose to investigate and use the new features.  I will provide more information on App Pack 3 after we have looked at it on our test server.  The tentative date for installing App Pack 3, should we proceed with it, is July 26, more than four weeks before the start of the fall semester.  It will also only require that the system be off-line for a few minutes during the early morning hours, so availability will not be an issue.

 

Bill Vilberg

305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)

 

Re: [BB] SafeAssignment

OK, I really feel foolish.  All of the papers and the reports on matches found on the Internet were exactly where they were supposed to be.  I forgot where to look.  So there was no problem with SafeAssignment, just a user error on my part. 

 

One of the limitations of the SafeAssignment matching software is that it cannot put information into the gradebook.  That will be possible in Blackboard Release 7 (maybe next summer), but not in Blackboard Release 6.  So I was supposed to go to Control Panel > SafeAssignment, not Control Panel > Gradebook.  My bad.

 

Sorry for the false alarm.

 

Bill Vilberg

305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)

 

---

From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Vilberg, William R.
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 4:50 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] SafeAssignment

I just went to two of my sites that had SafeAssignment submissions and all the links are gone.  I have contacted SafeAssignment.  I will post an update when I get news from them.

 

Bill Vilberg

305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)

 

[BB] SafeAssignment

I just went to two of my sites that had SafeAssignment submissions and all the links are gone.  I have contacted SafeAssignment.  I will post an update when I get news from them.

 

Bill Vilberg

305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)

 

Quiz submissions after time expires

[From a message on the BLKBRD-L mailing list...]

When students take a timed quiz in Bb, they can still answer questions
and submit the quiz after the time limit has expired. This produces a
'!' rather than a mark in the student gradebook and requires manual
attention from the instructor.

Blackboard ASP - Notification 1098980817 - Service_Restored

-----Original Message-----
From: asp.notify@blackboard.com [mailto:asp.notify@blackboard.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 5:54 PM
To: asp.notify@blackboard.com
Subject: Blackboard ASP - Notification 1098980817 - Service_Restored

Dear Valued Customer,

At approximately 4:15 EST ASP Engineers detected a problem on the
private network switch that connects your database server to your
application server. Upon investigation it was determined that a
forwarding loop was compromising accessibility to the internal network
addresses of your servers .

Our ASP Engineers have corrected the routing problem, and have restored
optimal service to your hosted Blackboard system. If you are still
experiencing problems, or require additional information regarding this
incident, please contact our 24/7 ASP Support Team at 1-888-788-5264 and
choosing option 3 or via the web at http://support.blackboard.com.