[BB] Possible Bb Service interruptions SATURDAY 8am-11pm

Bb Users,

 

Blackboard is performing emergency maintenance to replace a network switch in response to the outage we experienced on July 13^th. That outage affected all of their hosted clients at their “Northern Virginia Data Center 2” facility.

 

The maintenance will begin at 8:00am and is expected to finish by 11:00pm. Blackboard will remain available, but periodic service interruptions may occur during that time.

 

They will be sending me updates, and if they provide anything beyond “We are still working…things are going well…” I will pass that information along.

 

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and the short notice.  If you would like to read Blackboard’s announcement for more details regarding what they are doing, please see below.

 

_____________________________________

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tue 7/28/2009 5:39 PM

General Announcement:     Dear Valued Customer,

 

Subject: Emergency maintenance notification for Saturday, August 1st 2009 for Northern Virginia datacenter 2 (VA2)

 

Date:                                     Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Start time:                           08:00 US Eastern

Estimated end time:       22:00 US Eastern

 

Services:                              All clients at Northern Virginia Data Center 2 (VA2)

Type of work:                    Network Switch Replacement

Purpose of work:             After action to July 13th network event.

Impact of work:      

 

On Monday, July 13th, 2009, we experienced a data center-wide outage as a result of a failing network switch.  Through a coordinated effort with our vendor, we determined that a full switch replacement is the best course of action to increase reliability and stability at our Northern Virginia Data Center 2 (VA2). As this device is a part of our core network infrastructure, we require an extended emergency maintenance window to perform the hardware replacement.

 

This emergency maintenance is planned for Saturday, August 1st 2009, and the work will start at 08:00 hrs US Eastern and is expected to continue until 22:00 hrs US Eastern.  As a precaution, we advise that you inform your faculty and students to expect intermittent service interruptions during this maintenance window.  We will take every precaution to keep the work seamless and maintain system availability.

 

We understand that this is short notice and unfortunately we must perform this maintenance. 

[BB] Last Week's Bb Outage-explained

Bb Users,

 

For those who are interested in what happened to cause Blackboard to go down unexpectedly last Monday afternoon (7/13), here is a brief description:

 

Blackboard noticed some network slowdown, and while troubleshooting they realized that the core back end switches were not functioning properly. They brought out the vendor and their own team of engineers to stabilize the network – which they did. They are still uncertain what the root cause of the problem was, but as a precaution they are planning on replacing the switches during one of our scheduled maintenance windows (between 1am and 7am on some Saturday mornings).  They are still working on a specific action plan, and if you are interested in hearing the specifics when they send it along, please let me know.

 

There were MANY schools affected by this outage, and probably around another 30 or so (including us) that had to have their databases rebooted even after service was restored before we could access our courses.

 

Thank you again for your patience.

 

_____________________________________

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

 

Re: [BB] Status: UP

Blackboard Users,

Our Blackboard system was restored within the last hour or so, but access to individual courses was just restored. There were approximately 30 schools who were still experiencing database errors when attempting to access individual courses requiring those databases to be restarted one-by-one.

If you are still experiencing problems, please try closing and restarting your browser.

If you continue to experience problems, please contact the help desk.

If you have anything you would really like me to say to the people at Blackboard while I am at the Blackboard World conference this week, please send them to me, and I'll do my best to find someone to listen.

As always, thank you for your patience.

-Jennifer

__________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949
________________________________________
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Vilberg, William R. [bill.vilberg@MIAMI.EDU]
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 4:01 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Status: UP

It appears that Blackboard is up again, after a 2 hour 30 minute
outage for us and 200 other schools. The BbWorld09 annual conference
starts tommorow, so Jennifer should come back with some interesting
stories because of this outage.

Bill Vilberg
[See http://three.sentenc.es]

[BB] Status: UP

It appears that Blackboard is up again, after a 2 hour 30 minute
outage for us and 200 other schools. The BbWorld09 annual conference
starts tommorow, so Jennifer should come back with some interesting
stories because of this outage.

Bill Vilberg
[See http://three.sentenc.es]

[BB] Bb status

When I just checked, our Blackboard system was still down. Other
Blackboard systems are coming up, one-by-one. The problem was,
apparently, caused by a lack of network connectivity at the site that
hosts our equipment. Hopefully we will be back up soon.

Bill Vilberg

[BB] Blackboard is down

Our Blackboard server went down today at approximately 1:30 PM.
We are currently working with Blackboard to restore service as soon as possible.

You will receive an email notification when service is restored.

Please note that this is a high priority issue as this is also affecting other universities' servers.

We apologize for any inconvenience,

Blackboard Help Desk
(305)284-3949<tel:(305)284-3949>

[BB] Blackboard UNAVAILABLE 3-8am Fri. (5/22)

Bb Users,

 

Blackboard is doing some maintenance that will make Blackboard temporarily unavailable at times between 3:00am and 8:00am on Friday, May 22.

 

After that, if you have problems, please create a ticket.

 

Thank you as always, and have a nice, long weekend.

 

-Jennifer

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

 

[BB] Bb Office Hours 11am Thursday

Bb Users,

It's that time of year again. If you need any help cleaning up this semester's grade centers, or getting ready for the summer sessions, please stop by my office hours on Thursday at 11. I'll stick around as long as there are people there who need help.

if you haven't been there, the Faculty Exploratory is a great computer lab to sit and work in. It's located in Richter Library on the 3rd floor. Make a right when you come out of the elevator.

If I don't see you, have a great summer.

-Jennifer

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

[BB] Possible downtime Wed. (5/6) 3:00-5am

Bb Users,

 

Blackboard needs to do some emergency maintenance, and we *may* experience intermittent downtime between 3:00 and 5:00am Wednesday morning (May 6^th).

 

If you have any problems, please create a ticket with our Blackboard Help Desk: http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com/

 

In addition, with the end-of-semester upon us, I will be holding office hours in the Faculty Exploratory in case you need help getting your grade centers finalized – or setting up your summer courses. Please watch the announcements on the Blackboard home page for dates and times.

 

Thank you,

Jennifer

 

___________________________

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

 

[BB] Cnumbers in the Grade Center

Bb Users,

I have gotten some inquiries about the STUDENT_ID column in the grade center and why it doesn't display student Cnumbers -- because that would really be helpful.

Well, I have figured out how to make that happen and will be working on getting that data populated over the next week or two (other issues permitting). So don't be alarmed if you see numbers start to appear there.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Also, if you have hidden that column (or would like to hide/unhide that column) in your grade center, here's how you do it:

[cid:image001.jpg@01C9B44D.E61754E0]

[cid:image002.jpg@01C9B44D.E61754E0]

Thank you again for the suggestion.

___________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard System Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949
[cid:image003.jpg@01C9B44D.820C5EA0]

[BB] Bb Updates (Blogs/Wikis, iPhone, Emailing Announcements)

Bb Users,

 

Here are a few updates:

 

1. If you experienced any issues with Blogs or Wikis (license error), these problems have been fixed. We just renewed our contract, and the current licenses are good until March of 2010, so this won’t be a problem again. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.
   
   
2. Blackboard for the iPhone has just come out, and I am trying to make sure I have everything set up so that it will work. If you have an iPhone and would like to start kicking the tires on Blackboard for the iPhone, I would love the feedback on whether it’s working or not, and what errors or messages you get.

 

3. If you post announcements in Blackboard and email them to your class, the combination of variables below has been causing the email that goes out to have a lot of HTML that doesn’t belong. (You can see if this problem exists by clicking the HTML Source button in the announcement text editor. That button looks like this [<>] and scrolling down to see if the text goes on forever with a bunch of HTML.) 
   I am working with Blackboard on a fix for this. If this is what you do when you post announcements, please call the help desk, and we can show you how to clean up the announcement until they fix the problem.
1. You use Firefox
2. You copy and paste announcements from MS Word
3. You check the box to email the announcement to your class
   
   

Thank you,

Jennifer

 

___________________________

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

 

Re: [BB] Assess Wiki Participation Error: RESOLVED

Bb Users,

 

I applied a patch on Friday that appears to have corrected the problems we were having viewing wiki participation history. If you see any additional problems with this, please let me know right away.

 

Thank you (as always) for your patience,

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: Thursday, February 19, 2009 5:00 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Assess Wiki Participation Error

 

Bb Users,

 

It was brought to my attention that our Wiki and Blog tools needed to be updated in order to allow faculty to set an end date for editing them in the current year (2009).

 

I did that upgrade, but discovered that this causes an error when viewing the individual participation information for that wiki. I am working with Learning Objects (the wiki company) to resolve this issue and will let you know when it is resolved.

 

-Jennifer

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

 

[BB] Assess Wiki Participation Error

Bb Users,

 

It was brought to my attention that our Wiki and Blog tools needed to be updated in order to allow faculty to set an end date for editing them in the current year (2009).

 

I did that upgrade, but discovered that this causes an error when viewing the individual participation information for that wiki. I am working with Learning Objects (the wiki company) to resolve this issue and will let you know when it is resolved.

 

-Jennifer

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

 

Re: [BB] Course access

Neither am I.

 

            Gwen Mack

           Sr.  ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT

Information Technology - 217G Ungar Bldg.

                     Ph (305) 284-5471   Fax (305) 284-2840

                                                            gmack@miami.edu

 

          

 

 

From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Karina Diaz
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:23 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

 

Please remove me from this listserv as I am no longer a student.

 

---

From: "Shane, Robin" <rshane314@MIAMI.EDU>
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:05:18 PM
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me, too!!

Robin Shane

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Harry, Elizabeth G.
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 4:06 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me too!
Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of jeannette diana
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:51 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

I also received this email.


--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

> From: Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [BB] Course access
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 3:32 PM
> Andrew
> I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it
> as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
> Nicholas
> ________________________________
> From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Subject: [BB] Course access
>
> Jennifer,
>
> I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my
> classes during Spring 2005.  I've clicked on the course
> tab, but see no listing for it.  Could you please help me
> with this, as it's rather urgent - I'd like to use it
> with my class tomorrow.  Thanks.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew

 

Re: [BB] Course access

Funnily, I also received the e-mail from the BBQ listserv...

Matt

Matthew Lubeck
University of Miami
Eleonore Graves Tripp Modern Languages Laboratory, Coordinator
matt@miami.edu
305-284-3755
________________________________________
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Shane, Robin [rshane314@MIAMI.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:05 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me, too!!

Robin Shane

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Harry, Elizabeth G.
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 4:06 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me too!
Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of jeannette diana
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:51 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

I also received this email.

--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

> From: Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [BB] Course access
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 3:32 PM
> Andrew
> I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it
> as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
> Nicholas
> ________________________________
> From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Subject: [BB] Course access
>
> Jennifer,
>
> I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my
> classes during Spring 2005. I've clicked on the course
> tab, but see no listing for it. Could you please help me
> with this, as it's rather urgent - I'd like to use it
> with my class tomorrow. Thanks.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

Please remove me from this listserv as I am no longer a student.

---

From: "Shane, Robin" <rshane314@MIAMI.EDU>
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:05:18 PM
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me, too!!

Robin Shane

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Harry, Elizabeth G.
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 4:06 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me too!
Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of jeannette diana
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:51 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

I also received this email.


--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

> From: Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [BB] Course access
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 3:32 PM
> Andrew
> I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it
> as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
> Nicholas
> ________________________________
> From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Subject: [BB] Course access
>
> Jennifer,
>
> I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my
> classes during Spring 2005.  I've clicked on the course
> tab, but see no listing for it.  Could you please help me
> with this, as it's rather urgent - I'd like to use it
> with my class tomorrow.  Thanks.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

Me, too!!

Robin Shane

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Harry, Elizabeth G.
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 4:06 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Me too!
Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of jeannette diana
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:51 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

I also received this email.

--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

> From: Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [BB] Course access
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 3:32 PM
> Andrew
> I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it
> as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
> Nicholas
> ________________________________
> From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Subject: [BB] Course access
>
> Jennifer,
>
> I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my
> classes during Spring 2005. I've clicked on the course
> tab, but see no listing for it. Could you please help me
> with this, as it's rather urgent - I'd like to use it
> with my class tomorrow. Thanks.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

Please ignore the previous email sent out.  I thought I was emailing Jennifer Clister, but accidently sent it out to the BBListerve.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  

Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

Andrew and to all others interested,

You are responding to a listserve address. Please go to the following website http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com/?cmd=addticket&sid= . This is how you submit a trouble ticket to the blackboard system.

Take care,
Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Patricios, Nicholas N.
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:32 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

Andrew
I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
Nicholas
________________________________
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Course access

Jennifer,

I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my classes during Spring 2005. I've clicked on the course tab, but see no listing for it. Could you please help me with this, as it's rather urgent - I'd like to use it with my class tomorrow. Thanks.

All the best,
Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

Me too!
Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of jeannette diana
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:51 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: Re: [BB] Course access

I also received this email.


--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

> From: Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [BB] Course access
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 3:32 PM
> Andrew
> I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it
> as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
> Nicholas
> ________________________________
> From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Subject: [BB] Course access
>
> Jennifer,
>
> I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my
> classes during Spring 2005. I've clicked on the course
> tab, but see no listing for it. Could you please help me
> with this, as it's rather urgent – I'd like to use it
> with my class tomorrow. Thanks.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

I also received this email.

--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

> From: Patricios, Nicholas N. <npatricios@MIAMI.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [BB] Course access
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 3:32 PM
> Andrew
> I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it
> as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
> Nicholas
> ________________________________
> From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
> Subject: [BB] Course access
>
> Jennifer,
>
> I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my
> classes during Spring 2005. I've clicked on the course
> tab, but see no listing for it. Could you please help me
> with this, as it's rather urgent – I'd like to use it
> with my class tomorrow. Thanks.
>
> All the best,
> Andrew

Re: [BB] Course access

Andrew
I do not why I received this e-mail. You ought to know it as perhaps it did not go where you intended.
Nicholas
________________________________
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Andrew Green [a.green@MIAMI.EDU]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:05 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Course access

Jennifer,

I'm trying to access some material I put up on one of my classes during Spring 2005. I've clicked on the course tab, but see no listing for it. Could you please help me with this, as it's rather urgent – I'd like to use it with my class tomorrow. Thanks.

All the best,
Andrew

[BB] Course access

Jennifer,

I’m trying to access some material I put up on one of my classes during Spring 2005.  I’ve clicked on the course tab, but see no listing for it.  Could you please help me with this, as it’s rather urgent – I’d like to use it with my class tomorrow.  Thanks.

All the best,
Andrew

Re: [BB] Blackboard Problems: RESOLVED

Blackboard is back up and running again.

Thank you for your patience,
Jennifer

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

-----Original Message-----
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [mailto:BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] On Behalf Of Clister, Jennifer R
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 8:22 AM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Blackboard Problems

Bb Users,

Blackboard is experiencing problems. I am looking into it right now.

-Jennifer

[BB] Blackboard Problems

Bb Users,

Blackboard is experiencing problems. I am looking into it right now.

-Jennifer

[BB] Blackboard Course Merge?

Bb Users,

 

Do you need a Course Merge this semester? That means we take multiple courses or course sections and collapse them into one Blackboard site.

 

Alternatively, we can also augment your course. This means that you maintain all of the original course sites, and add one additional site that includes all students from all combined sections.

 

Just fill out the Course Merge Form.

***For an augment, please note that in the comments field.***

 

Please pass this message along to anyone you think may benefit from it.

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

******** Join the Blackboard Mailing List  *********

 

[BB] Blackboard Upgrade Reminder 12/30-31

Bb Users,

 

This is just a reminder to let you know that Blackboard will be unavailable due to a minor upgrade and maintenance on Dec. 30^th and 31^st.

 

If you try to access Blackboard on January 1^st and still see an error screen, make sure you close your browser down completely and try again. If you are not sure whether you have closed all of your running browser sessions, just restart the computer.

 

After that, if you have problems, please create a ticket or email me.

 

Thank you as always, and happiest of happy new year.

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

 

[BB] Blackboard UNAVAILABLE 12/30 (Respondus)

Bb Users,

 

Blackboard will be unavailable starting at 1:00am on December 30^th, and will be restored up to 24 hours later. They conservatively scheduled 24 hours of downtime.

 

The changes apply mainly to the Respondus Lockdown Browser users:

1.       Help text is displayed when user attempts protected assessment without Respondus Lockdown

2.       Students must use Respondus Lockdown Browser to review completed protected assessments

3.       Use Respondus Lockdown Browser to review completed protected assessments

For more information on the Respondus Lockdown Browser (A Custom Browser to “Lockdown” Tests in Blackboard), please read below.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A Custom (and Standardized) Browser to “Lockdown” Tests in Blackboard

 

 

The Respondus Lockdown Browser (http://www.respondus.com/products/lockdown.shtml)

 

Now you can deploy tests in Blackboard and specify that you want students to use the Lockdown Browser to take the test. Your students will have to download the browser, but once they do it will lock them out of EVERYTHING on their computers until the test has been submitted. This is a deterrent for cheating, but it also standardizes the browser students use to take the assessments (on Windows and Macintosh platforms). This reduces technical problems and makes those that do arise easier to troubleshoot. If enough people are interested, we will be able purchase a campus-wide license.

You can try it now to see what you think, then bring your questions to the Lunch & Learn.

§         Video about how students would access a test using the lockdown browser: http://www.respondus.com/movies/LDB_Bb_Intro1/LDB_Bb_Intro1.html

§         Quick-start guide for instructors:
http://www.respondus.com/downloads/RLDB%20Quick%20Start%20Guide-Bb-Enterprise-Instructor.pdf

§         Link to download the browser:
http://www.respondus.com/lockdown/information.pl?ID=527636896

 

Here are some additional Lockdown Browser features:

· Assessments are displayed full-screen and cannot be minimized

· Assessments cannot be exited until submitted by users for grading

· Task switching or access to other applications is prevented

· Printing functions are disabled

· Print Screen and capturing functions are disabled

· Copying and pasting anything to and from an assessment is prohibited

· Right-click menu options are disabled

· Browser menu and toolbar options are disabled, except for Back, Forward, Refresh and Stop

 

 

[BB] Blackboard "Lab"

Bb Users,

 

I am trying an end-of-the-semester experiment in the new Faculty Exploratory on the 3^rd floor of Richter Library. I am going to hold “working office hours” so that if you want to come and work on your Blackboard site(s), I will be there to help you when and where you need it. If it’s successful, I’ll keep doing it.

 

Feel free to stop by one or both days.

 

Fri., Dec. 12^th from 10-11am

Wed., Dec. 17^th from 2-3pm

 

 

*Directions:

Take the elevator to the 3^rd floor and make a right. It’s the last door on the left.

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

 

Re: [BB] Safe Assign Problems

Bb Users,

Access to Safe Assign has been restored, but due to overwhelming volume, it is running much slower than usual --- both to submit and to generate reports. Blackboard has increased the number of connections available to Safe Assign and bounced the server to restore and improve service. But it is still slower than what we are used to.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

____________________________________
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, December 02, 2008 1:55 PM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Safe Assign Problems

Bb Users,

Safe Assignment is not working. I am working with Blackboard to resolve this problem as quickly as possible and will send an update as soon as I have one.

If you have papers that are due this afternoon, you might want to have your students email them to you. We can zip them all and run them through Safe Assignment (via Direct Submit) when it is up and running again.

I will keep you posted, and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

-Jennifer

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

[BB] Safe Assign Problems

Bb Users,

Safe Assignment is not working. I am working with Blackboard to resolve this problem as quickly as possible and will send an update as soon as I have one.

If you have papers that are due this afternoon, you might want to have your students email them to you. We can zip them all and run them through Safe Assignment (via Direct Submit) when it is up and running again.

I will keep you posted, and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

-Jennifer

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

[BB] Course Removal, Course Evals, Grade Center

Bb Users,

Three Quick Updates…

1. The 2005-2006 school year courses are in the process of being archived and removed from the Blackboard system.
2. There is currently a “My CoursEvals” link on your Blackboard homepage. This is for anyone taking courses with online evaluations. This link will remain until Dec. 9^th.
3. On Friday, Dec. 5^th at 2:30pm in Memorial 313, I am doing a Bb Grade Center training in case anyone needs extra help or a refresher to prepare end-of-semester grades. Register here: http://www.iacmiami.org/events

-Jennifer

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

[BB] Archiving & Removing '05-'06 Blackboard Courses

Bb Users,

 

It is time to archive and remove old courses from Blackboard.

 

Every year we archive and remove old courses. This time we will be removing the 2005-2006 (Fall 2005 – Summer 2006) courses from the Blackboard system (ending with -060, -061, -062, -063, -064). Courses from the 2006-2007 school year will be made unavailable to students, but will still be accessible to faculty. 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 Monday, 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 do maintain an archive here 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 that archived course easier. Here is a link to a PDF version of the archive instructions attached to this email. You can also access the 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 Manager & Analyst
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

 

[BB] Safe Assign Update!

Bb Users,

 

I have just upgraded our version of Safe Assign. Safe assign can now accept .docx formatted documents (finally!). For those who have been having more problems with Safe Assign this semester than usual, Blackboard has lead me to believe this will help.

 

If you experience any problems, please try clicking the “Synchronize this course” link at the top of the Safe Assign page which you access from your course’s control panel:

 

 

 

Please let me know if you have any problems (or create a ticket).

 

- Jennifer

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

 

[BB] Blackboard VERY slow

Bb Users,

 

Blackboard has been unbearably slow off and on this morning. We are aware of the problem, and I am working with Blackboard to correct the problem as quickly as possible.

 

I apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

 

-Jennifer

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