Re: [BB] Problems Fixed

Bb Users,

 

Blackboard has cleared space for us on the server that was causing the problems, and we should no longer see the issues we were seeing over the last two days. If you do see any, please let me know right away.

 

Thank you again,
Jennifer

 

___________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

---

From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Clister, Jennifer R
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 9:00 AM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Problems Emailing Attachments in Blackboard (AND UPLOADING GRADES)

 

Bb Users,

 

We have just discovered another problem associated with our App2 server when you try to upload grades from Excel into the Grade Center, you may see this error.

Error

No space left on device For reference, the Error ID is 4cac8b10-3729-447c-8428-a90e7c3f79be. Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:42:04 AM EST

 

If you get this error, please access Blackboard via this link: https://64.125.201.81

 

If you experience any other weird problems (particularly problems you have never seen before), please let me know right away. The more information I am able to give Blackboard regarding what is not working, the faster they will produce a solution (hopefully).

 

Thank you for your patience and help with this issue,

Jennifer

 

___________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

---

From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Clister, Jennifer R
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 11:34 AM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Problems Emailing Attachments in Blackboard

 

Bb Users,

 

A few people have reported problems emailing attachments with Blackboard today. We have two servers that host our Blackboard system. Every time you access Blackboard, you are seamlessly assigned to one of them. This problem is only happening on one of the servers, so if you experience the problem, then I ask that you access Blackboard via this URL and try again.

 

Blackboard Link: https://64.125.201.81

 

If you do have this email attachment problem (or any other problem that using this URL solves), please let me know.

 

I will send out a message when I either know more or have a solution.

 

Thank you (as always) for your patience,

Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

Re: [BB] Problems Emailing Attachments in Blackboard (AND UPLOADING GRADES)

Bb Users,

 

We have just discovered another problem associated with our App2 server when you try to upload grades from Excel into the Grade Center, you may see this error.

Error

No space left on device For reference, the Error ID is 4cac8b10-3729-447c-8428-a90e7c3f79be. Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:42:04 AM EST

 

If you get this error, please access Blackboard via this link: https://64.125.201.81

 

If you experience any other weird problems (particularly problems you have never seen before), please let me know right away. The more information I am able to give Blackboard regarding what is not working, the faster they will produce a solution (hopefully).

 

Thank you for your patience and help with this issue,

Jennifer

 

___________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

---

From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Clister, Jennifer R
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 11:34 AM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Problems Emailing Attachments in Blackboard

 

Bb Users,

 

A few people have reported problems emailing attachments with Blackboard today. We have two servers that host our Blackboard system. Every time you access Blackboard, you are seamlessly assigned to one of them. This problem is only happening on one of the servers, so if you experience the problem, then I ask that you access Blackboard via this URL and try again.

 

Blackboard Link: https://64.125.201.81

 

If you do have this email attachment problem (or any other problem that using this URL solves), please let me know.

 

I will send out a message when I either know more or have a solution.

 

Thank you (as always) for your patience,

Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Blackboard training

Blackboard Users,

 

We are excited to announce we are now offering a Blackboard training intermediate class in addition to our introduction to Blackboard and Grade Center Training. We encourage everyone to give it a try and attend one of our sessions specially now the semester is almost over and grades will have to be entered.

 

It will be particularly helpful if you have never used blackboard before but if you already have experience with it, a refresher could be a good idea and you will have the opportunity to ask some questions afterward.

 

To see a complete list of training sessions we are offering, go to our event page at http://www.iacmiami.org/events

 

Thank you for your interest in Blackboard, if you need assistance please call the blackboard help desk at 305-284-3949.

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Blackboard Training

Blackboard Users, We are excited to announce we are now offering a Blackboard training intermediate class in addition to our introduction to Blackboard and Grade Center Training. We encourage everyone to give it a try and attend one of our sessions specially now the semester is almost over and grades will have to be entered. It will be particularly helpful if you have never used blackboard before but if you already have experience with it, a refresher could be a good idea and you will have the opportunity to ask questions afterward. To see a complete list of training sessions we are offering, go to our event page at http://www.iacmiami.org/events Thank you for your interest in Blackboard, if you need assistance please call the blackboard Help Desk at 305-284-3949. Rick Ramos Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor 305-284-3949

[BB] Problems Emailing Attachments in Blackboard

Bb Users,

 

A few people have reported problems emailing attachments with Blackboard today. We have two servers that host our Blackboard system. Every time you access Blackboard, you are seamlessly assigned to one of them. This problem is only happening on one of the servers, so if you experience the problem, then I ask that you access Blackboard via this URL and try again.

 

Blackboard Link: https://64.125.201.81

 

If you do have this email attachment problem (or any other problem that using this URL solves), please let me know.

 

I will send out a message when I either know more or have a solution.

 

Thank you (as always) for your patience,

Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Flu-Proofing Your Course Session

Bb Users,

 

On Friday, November 20^th at 10:00am in the Faculty Exploratory (Richter 3^rd Floor) we will have a session to talk about how you can “flu-proof” your courses. We will talk about ways to make it easier for you and your students to stay on top of things if illness prohibits anyone from coming to class.

 

Register here: http://www.iacmiami.org/a/events   

 

Thank you,

Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Archiving & Removing '06-'07 Bb Courses

Bb Users,

 

It is time to start the annual archival/removal of old courses from Blackboard.

 

Every year we archive and remove old courses. This time we will be removing the 2006-2007 (Fall 2006 – Summer 2007) courses from the Blackboard system (ending with -070, -071, -072, -073, -074). Courses from the 2007-2008 school year will be made unavailable to students, but will still be accessible to faculty for another year. You can find your old courses in Blackboard by going to the Courses tab.

 

I will begin disabling these courses so that they can be archived and removed on Tuesday, December 1.

 

I have attached a document that explains how to archive and save your courses to your computer or disk if you would like to maintain your own archive. (We maintain an archive at the Instructional Advancement Center.)

 

QUESTIONS:

1. WHAT IS ARCHIVING?
   Archiving means we take your entire course and save it to a disk. Then we remove it from the Blackboard system. If we ever need to restore the course, we can, but it may take a while for me to dig it out of the archive since we maintain over 100,000 courses.
2. CAN YOU ARCHIVE AND SAVE YOUR OWN COURSE?
   Yes, you can! Attached is a document that explains how to archive your course and how to download a great tool that will make navigating archived courses easier. You can also access these instructions through the Support tab in Blackboard.

 

If you need any more information, please let me know or open a ticket: Blackboard Help Desk.

 

Best wishes for a smooth end-of-the-semester/year,

Jennifer

 

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Restarting Bb Saturdays at 3:00am

Bb Users,

 

From now one, we are going to restart our Blackboard servers every Saturday morning between 3:00am and 3:45am. We are going to do a “rolling restart,” which means that we will restart one server at 3am and then the other at 3:30am so that a service interruption is very unlikely – but it’s still something to keep in mind.

 

This is just a precautionary measure recommended by Blackboard to ensure the health of our system.

 

Thank you,

Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Blackboard URLs

Bb Users,

 

You may (or may not) have noticed that if you ever tried to go to http://courses.miami.edu, you would get a security certificate error. That is because we had only purchased the security certificate for www.courses.miami.edu (you had to type the “www”). We got several suggestions to purchase an additional certificate for “courses.miami.edu” so people would NOT receive a security warning if they left off the “www.”

 

We listened. J

 

Now there are 3 URLS that will get you to Blackboard:

www.miami.edu/blackboard

www.courses.miami.edu

courses.miami.edu

 

You can also go to www.miami.edu and click the “Blackboard” link in the footer of the page.

 

Thanks for the suggestion,

Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] SafeAssign Unavailability This Weekend

Bb Users,

 

I received this message from Blackboard this morning, and due to maintenance, SafeAssign may have some intermittent downtime between Saturday and Sunday morning (10/10-10/11). This maintenance is supposed to improve performance and increase stability.

 

If this is going to cause a real problem for you, please let me know, and we’ll try to find a workaround.

 

I apologize for the late notice.

 

___________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

---

From: Behind the Blackboard [mailto:do.not.reply@blackboard.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:06 AM
To: Clister, Jennifer R
Subject: Support Bulletin: Blackboard SafeAssignTM, Blackboard SyncT (including Blackboard LearnT for Apple® iPhone and Facebook® applications) and Blackboard ScholarT Unavailability

 

ATTENTION: Upcoming SafeAssign, Sync and Scholar Maintenance Window

Please note that Blackboard SafeAssign, Blackboard Sync (including the Blackboard Learn for Facebook and iPhone applications) and Blackboard Scholar will be intermittently unavailable while undergoing maintenance on Saturday, October 10th and Sunday, October 11th. This maintenance window is to update the hardware and network infrastructure of these products. The expected outcomes of this update are:

• Increased capacity for all of these services
• Improved performance of these applications
• Increased stability

The systems are expected to be intermittently unavailable from morning (EST) on October 10th through morning (EST) on October 11th. Please notify your institution of this period of the unavailability for these services. Users will not be able to submit assignments to Blackboard SafeAssign, utilize the notification capabilities as part of Blackboard Learn for iPhone and Facebook applications, or access their Blackboard Scholar bookmarks during this maintenance period. No action is required by users during this period of unavailability.

While we realize that no time is particularly convenient for temporarily removing these capabilities from your implementation, this proactive maintenance will improve the stability, capacity and performance of these applications and services following this downtime. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Technical Support Manager (TSM).

Sincerely,

Lara Oerter
Vice President, Blackboard Product Management and Marketing

[BB] Keeping sick students home

Blackboard users,

One of the reasons that some students with influenza like illnesses
force themselves out of bed and come to some classes, against the
advise of doctors, is because there is no other way for them to get
the information that is provided in those classes.

PowerPoints or lecture notes can be placed on Blackboard, but it is
your voice that is the most valuable part of the lecture or
presentation. If you would like to see how to record your lectures
and post them on Blackboard, I will be demonstrating and documenting
the process on Friday, October 2, 11:15 am - 12:05 pm, in Memorial
Classroom Building, Room 212.

If you will be attending, please register for the "Audio recording
your lectures" session on the http://www.iacmiami.org/ web page. For
those who cannot attend, we will be recording the session and posting
it on-line on the http://www.iacmiami.edu/ "Past Events" page.

Bill Vilberg
bill.vilberg@miami.edu

[BB] Upcoming Blackboard Training

Bb Users,

 

Here’s a preview of some of the upcoming Blackboard training sessions. Check out our “Events” page for a complete listing or to register.

 

Upcoming Events

www.miami.edu/iac  > Events

 

¨      10/1: Keys to Creating More Engaging Bb Courses 1:00-2:00pm

¨      10/2: Intro to Bb 3:30–4:30pm

¨      10/6: Intro to Bb 10:00-11:00am

¨      10/9: Grade Center 2:00-3:00pm

¨      10/16: Intro to Bb 2:00-3:00pm

¨      10/23: Grade Center 2:00-3:00pm

¨      10/30: Intro to Bb 2:00-3:00pm

 

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Blackboard Icon Changes

Blackboard Users,

 

We are currently evaluating some alternatives to the icons we have been using for the last several years.  If you see any changes in the coming weeks, please forgive the sudden change and note that you are not imagining it.

 

Thanks as always for your patience.

 

 

OLD                                                                             NEW               

      

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

Re: [BB] Bb: Email Not Working - OK

It looks like this problem is OK now.

Somehow, the emails got delayed, but since they didn't generate any errors on the Blackboard server, we decided to wait a little longer for them to come through. And I think that they have (because all my test messages have been delivered).

If you have any reason to believe messages that you sent out this afternoon were still not delivered, please let me know, and thank you.

-Jennifer
__________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949
________________________________________
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Clister, Jennifer R [jclister@MIAMI.EDU]
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 5:21 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Bb: Email Not Working

Bb Users,

Something is not working with the Blackboard email, but at this point I still don't know if the emails sent later this afternoon are on a delay and have not been received yet. I am troubleshooting this problem with Blackboard, but if you need to send out an email right away, you will have to copy and paste the emails:

1. Open an email application (like Outlook)
2. Go to the Control Panel and click "List/Modify Users" under "User Management"
3. Click the Search button to display all of your students
4. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag your mouse down the "Username" column to select the student emails
5. Right-click and Copy these emails and then Right-click and paste them into an email
6. If you have more than one page, do this for every page.

I apologize that this is a royal pain. Hopefully this problem will be resolved directly. Very soon.

-Jennifer

_____________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

[cid:image001.jpg@01CA3304.3F018370]

[BB] Bb: Email Not Working

Bb Users,

 

Something is not working with the Blackboard email, but at this point I still don’t know if the emails sent later this afternoon are on a delay and have not been received yet. I am troubleshooting this problem with Blackboard, but if you need to send out an email right away, you will have to copy and paste the emails:

 

1. Open an email application (like Outlook)
2. Go to the Control Panel and click "List/Modify Users" under "User Management"
3. Click the Search button to display all of your students
4. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag your mouse down the "Username" column to select the student emails
5. Right-click and Copy these emails and then Right-click and paste them into an email
6. If you have more than one page, do this for every page.

 

I apologize that this is a royal pain. Hopefully this problem will be resolved directly. Very soon.

 

-Jennifer

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Bb Webinar: Creating a More Engaging Course (10/1)

Bb Users,

 

We are trying a new kind of training activity. We have paid to participate (as a group) in a Webinar with a professional online instructor/designer (whose credentials are below) on how to make your Blackboard course more engaging to students. We will participate as a group from the Faculty Exploratory. If you’re interested, we only ask that you register so that we don’t overcrowd the Exploratory. If interest is high, we may be able to find a bigger room. Register here.

 

Here is all the info:

 

Blackboard Crash Course: Keys to Creating More Engaging College Courses

Thursday, October 1, 2009
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM – Faculty Exploratory

Register here

SUMMARY

Today's students live in an email and Facebook world with their laptops practically attached to their fingertips. They expect to seamlessly transition from class to home, library, wherever, whenever. Blackboard's collaborative teaching and learning tools can help bridge the gap from classroom to anytime, anywhere- but navigating these tools can be confusing. Join us for a 60 minute webinar where you and your colleagues will discover:

• What are Blackboard's collaborative teaching & learning tools?
• How to design & develop a course on Blackboard
• Keys to personalizing your Blackboard course navigation
• Setting up electronic assignment submission & the Grade Center

PROGRAM BENEFITS

This practical 60-minute, webinar will provide you and your colleagues with the basics of designing and developing a course in the Blackboard learning management system.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

• Communicating via Blackboard- Collaborative Teaching & Learning Tools
• Creating effective announcements to convey time-sensitive material
• Chat, discussion board, & virtual classroom- Connecting in real time
• The Digital Drop Box- using Blackboard to send & receive files
• Using Blackboard's Grading & Assessment Tools
• How to Use the Assignment Manager- assign, submit & grade online
• Tips for creating & monitoring online surveys, quizzes, and tests
• The Grade Center- recent changes & improvements you should know
• Blackboard Pre-requisites: What you need to know before getting started
• Blackboard Essentials- How to Create a Course in Blackboard LMS
• Customizing your course: layout & navigation tips & tricks
• Guidelines for creating, storing, and distributing course content
• Question and answer session

SPEAKER

Jason Rhode, Ph.D., is the Assistant Director of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at Northern Illinois University. As an experienced online instructor, instructional designer, course developer, and program director, Jason is responsible for developing and offering training programs and support for faculty and staff on teaching with technology and related topics in addition to providing leadership on technology-related issues.

• Utilizing his nearly 10 years experience in the field of online learning, Jason has spent the past 5 years working closely with various units at NIU on addressing faculty needs related to online teaching. He has designed and taught dozens of online courses in numerous learning management systems, including: Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn, and Moodle and he shares his expertise with others interested in teaching online.
• Jason currently designs and teaches online and blended courses in educational technology and instructional design and is a sought after conference speaker, instructor, and online learning consultant.
• He is member of the Midwest Blackboard User's Group (SLATE), Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), Illinois Association for Educational Communications and Technology (IAECT), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA).

Register here

 

_____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER Blackboard System Manager University of Miami IAC 305-284-3949