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)
