[BB] Bb - SafeAssignment Problem

Blackboard Users,

 

Below is an email that we received from SafeAssignment regarding the performance of their component within Blackboard. I am passing this along to let you know the status of the situation.  Please let us know if you experience any difficulty or if you have any questions.

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa

 

 

 

 

Dear Technology Administrator,

 

We regret to inform you that SafeAssignment performance issues are still not resolved completely.  A new system update implemented this morning resulted in further performance improvements in all areas, and most importantly significantly reduced the percentage of time when SafeAssignment is "slow".

Now SafeAssignment provides close to normal response times (1-5 seconds) most of the day with slower response only during peak load hours.

 

We still do not have an exact ETA for the ultimate fix, but we have already identified a number of possible optimizations that should bring SafeAssignment performance to a normal level even before the fix is implemented.  We will continue working on fixing the main bug and implementing performance optimizations simultaneously.  Tomorrow we will install one more update, which can reduce the "slow" periods to just few minutes a day or completely eliminate them.  This issue will remain our top priority until we can ensure response times of less than 2 seconds on 99% of requests.

 

We are very sorry for these inconveniences and appreciate your patience and understanding.

 

 

Best regards

 

MyDropBox Developers Team

 

 

 

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Bb - SafeAssignment Problems

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

This morning the new release of building block 2.0.7 was applied to SafeAssignment within Blackboard.  I went ahead and checked the functionality in a few courses and the system still appeared to be a bit slow.  I contacted their technicians and they stated that many clients are currently applying this new format so the system load is high.  It should improve by later today according to Safe Assignment.

 

Please let us know if you encounter any problems or issues regarding SafeAssignment. Thank you for your patience and again, we apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst and Blackboard Manager

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Bb - SafeAssignment Problems

Blackboard Users,

 

In relation to the previous email sent this afternoon concerning the SafeAssignment issue; the company has informed us that the new release will be available sometime tomorrow morning. We will let you know once this update has been made.

 

Again, we apologize for this inconvenience.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Bb - SafeAssignment Problems

Blackboard users,

 

The Safe Assignment component of Blackboard is having problems.  The company, MyDropBox, states that their database currently has a bug resulting in slow processing times; pages that take 2-3 minutes to appear.  An error page is generated, when the user clicks twice on the “MyDropBox Suite/SafeAssignment” link within the Control Panel of the course. If you experience the slow processing when clicking on “My Dropbox Suite/SafeAssignment” from the control panel once, it’s best not to click the link twice because the error page will come up.  Safe Assignment should load but it may take a couple of minutes.

 

The company is working on the problem and they state that a new release will be available today for resolving this issue. 

  

As always, we apologize.  If you need help assistance, remember to click on the "Help" icon at the top of any page in Blackboard, and then click on "Contact Us" to open a ticket.  That is the best way to receive assistance from our team promptly.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa

 

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst and Blackboard Manager

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] SafeAssignment Issues

Update on the SafeAssignment issue...

Bill Vilberg
Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement
305-284-3944

-----Original Message-----
From: SafeAssignment/MyDropBox Suite Team
[mailto:developers@safeassignment.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:50 PM
To: sa-admins@safeassignment.com
Subject: SafeAssignment Issues

Dear Technology Administrator,

Today SafeAssignment/MyDropBox Suite products episodically experienced
the same issues that were described yesterday. The issues had a
different cause but had similar influence on user experience. We
identified the cause of the issues and implemented a temporary solution
that fixes everything except periodical slowness of some requests, which
should not be as bad as it was during the last day and a half.
Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that the problems will not return
until we implement a permanent solution. The permanent solution is
being developed now and is expected to be implemented by Monday. We
will do everything possible to minimize any possible inconveniences
until complete resolution of all current issues.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience
and support.

--
Best regards,
SafeAssignment Development Team

[BB] SafeAssignmentl problems at UM

Blackboard users,

 

The SafeAssignment problem was reportedly resolved at 10:00 AM this morning, but has just returned.  The problems seem to be sporadic and effect only some interactions with the servers some of the time.  So waiting 30 seconds of so and trying again, will often overcome error messages.  The best solution for a blank screen is to wait up to 2 minutes for the page to appear.  If it doesn't. try again.  In both cases, use the "Back" button in your browser and then try whatever you were doing.  Just reloading the page will probably not work. 

 

Bill Vilberg

Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement

305-284-3944

 

---

From: Max Lytvyn [mailto:max.lytvyn@sciworth.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 2:48 PM
To: Vilberg, William R.
Subject: RE: Still problems at UM

Hi Bill,

 

The problems were resolved by about 10:00 today, but just came back.  We are experiencing the same situation as yesterday now, but for a different reason which is yet unknown.  We will send more information out as soon as we at least know what happened.  I am very sorry for this.

 

 

Best regards

 

Max Lytvyn, MBA
====================================
Director of Marketing and Business Development
MyDropBox Family of Products
Sciworth Inc.
Phone: 888-412-0973 ext. 8

International Line: 1-416-907-0703
Fax: 888-479-5874

From: Vilberg, William R. [mailto:bill.vilberg@miami.edu]
Sent: September 7, 2006 2:41 PM
To: Max Lytvyn
Subject: Still problems at UM
Importance: High

 

Max,

 

The last notice I got was yesterday, saying that EVERYTHING would be resolved by 8:30 AM today.  We just got a call from a faculty member.  When he went to check a set of Safe Assignment papers, he got the error message about a problem connecting to the backend server.  When we tried the same thing, we got an empty page.

 

What is the status on the problem that you were working on yesterday?

 

Bill Vilberg

Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement

305-284-3944

 

[BB] Safe Assignment problems

Blackboard users,

 

The Safe Assignment component of Blackboard is having problems.  The company, MyDropBox, performed some "critical performance and stability updates" between 8:30 and 9:30 this morning, resulting in a series of short service outages.  Since then there have been some additional issues that have created problems.  The symptom is an incredibly long page of Oracle errors, with instructions that you should contact me and send me the complete error report.

 

The company is working on the problem and says that all delays will be completely resolved by 8:30 AM tomorrow, Thursday. 

 

Meanwhile, if you experience the problem, use the "Back" button on your browser to return to the previous page, and resubmit the request.  The outages are short enough that you should get through again fairly quickly.  At least that is what they said.

 

As always, we apologize for the problem.  If you need help with this or anything else, remember that you can click on the "Help" icon at the top of any page in Blackboard, and then click on "Contact Us" to open a ticket.  That is the best way to receive assistance from our team.

 

Bill Vilberg

[BB] Blackboard use during storm

Blackboard Users,

 

Blackboard will be up and running during closure of the university.  The Blackboard server is hosted in Washington, DC and is accessible at all times.  Take advantage of the email capabilities incase you would like to contact your students via Blackboard and also the announcements area if you need to post messages for them as well.

 

This video shows how to use the email function within your course site: http://www6.miami.edu/bb/demos/fac/emailall.html

 

We have also placed a link on the login page of Blackboard to the university’s storm advisory page under Special Notice for up-to-date information.

 

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding Blackboard.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Janet De La Rosa

 

Bb Help Desk

http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com/

 

 

[BB] Enrollments

Your class rolls on Blackboard may not agree with your official MyUM class rolls.  The enrollment process on Blackboard had a major problem that we have identified and are correcting.  We will be updating the system with corrected data later today.  We will let you know when everything is corrected.

 

 

Bb Help Desk

 

 

[BB] First year students added

First year students were added to their course sites on Blackboard as of 5:00 AM today (Wednesday).  Have a great semester!

 

Bill Vilberg

[BB] Spring 2006 Courses

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

The spring 2006 courses have been moved from the “My Current Courses” listing. They are currently listed under the “All Courses Tab” when you log into Blackboard. 

 

Please let us know if you have any questions or need assistance. Visit us at http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com and click on the “Contact Customer Service” link for any requests you may have.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa and the Bb Help Desk

305.284.3949

 

 

[BB] Blackboard setup help

Blackboard users,

 

The clock is ticketing and the campus is about to burst into life again.  If you are setting up your course sites for the fall, here are some reminders.

 

1. Remember that new UM students are not enrolled in Blackboard until courses begin.  Students new to UM should appear in your course web site sometime Wednesday morning. (To see who is in your course web site, go to Control Panel > List / Modify Users > Submit button.)

 

2. If you need multiple sites combined into one site (what we refer to as a Course Merge) fill out the "Course Merge" form at http://snipurl.com/bbforms

 

3. If you want to copy an old site into your new site, you can do it yourself.  The video "How do I copy an old site into a new site?", which can be found at http://snipurl.com/bbinstructors, shows you how to do it. (Be sure to enter the course number when searching for the destination site.)

 

4. You can copy individual folders or items from one course site to another.  If you have seen the Modify and Remove buttons for items, note that there is a Copy item there, as well.  It allows you to copy the item either within the course or to another course.

 

5. If you use the Digital Dropbox, please contact us.  This feature is being phased out in favor of the Assignment feature.  We recommend that you switch, since Assignments is much more powerful and easier to use.  Dropbox will continue to be available until we upgrade to Blackboard version 7, and we will certainly not do that during this semester.

 

6. We are using a new ticketing system.  If you need help you can create a ticket by clicking on the Help button on Blackboard or going to http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com and click on the "Contact customer service" link.  We will handle messages sent to blackboard@miami.edu by manually entering them into the ticketing system.

 

Bill Vilberg

Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement

 

[BB] Fall Term Courses Released

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

The fall term courses should now show up in the “My Current Courses” area of Blackboard.  These courses are received from the registration system.  Please let us know if a course that you are registered for is not showing.

 

If you need course merging assistance, please refer to this form:  Course Merge: http://www6.miami.edu/bb/forms/combine_courses.htm

 

Here are some helpful videos regarding course copying and preparation of content areas:

http://www6.miami.edu/bb/demos/instructors.html

 

Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions or need assistance.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa & the Bb Help Desk Team (blackboard@miami.edu)

 

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Fall 2000 - Spring 2003 Course Status

Blackboard Users,

 

Course sites from Fall 2000 through Spring 2003 have been rolled off of the blackboard system as part of our system maintenance. Restoration of any individual sites can be requested through blackboard@miami.edu if necessary.  Please let us know if you have any questions or need any assistance.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa & the Bb Help Desk

[BB] Removal and Uploading of Course Documents Resolved

Blackboard Users,

The problem dealing with removal and uploading of course content has been resolved. Please let us know if you experience any difficulty with your courses. Remember when adding an item to your course site, always make sure it worked by clicking on the link and view the document.

Please let us know if we can be of any of assistance. Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,

Janet De La Rosa and the Bb Help Desk

[BB] Removal and Uploading of Course Documents

Blackboard Users,

 

We have identified the cause of problem mentioned last Tuesday 5/18/06 dealing with removal and uploading of course content.  Instructors and administrators are not able to upload documents or remove them. In addition, broken links are generated within course document items and assignments that are copied from one course to another such as Word documents, Powerpoint files, and PDF’s.  If you add an item to your course site, always remember after you upload to make sure it worked by clicking on the link and view the document.

 

We will keep you updated. If you have any questions please let us (blackboard@miami.edu) know.

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa & the Blackboard Help Desk

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Removal and Uploading of Course Documents

Blackboard Users,

This afternoon our help desk started noticing some problematic course content areas within a couple of course sites. The problem deals with the menu items such as Course Documents, Assignments, and Syllabus areas. Instructors and administrators are not able to upload documents or remove them. However, items are created and an error ID is generated when a file upload is attempted. This may not be the case for all course sites. If you experience any difficulties or the symptoms mentioned above with your course site(s) please let us (blackboard@miami.edu) know. The problem was escalated to our Blackboard technicians this afternoon and they are researching what exactly is going on.

We will keep you updated as to when this problem will be resolved. If you have any questions please let us know.


Sincerely,

Janet De La Rosa & the Blackboard Help Desk

[BB] Enrollments of Fall 2006 Students in Course Sites

 

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

The process for uploading enrolled students into their course sites for Fall 2006 has been completed. 

 

If you need assistance in merging courses for the Fall 2006 term, please fill out our form so that we can assist you with this request: http://www.miami.edu/bb/forms/combine_courses.htm

 

Other videos on assisting instructors with various tools on Bb are also available here: http://www.miami.edu/bb/demos/instructors.html

 

Please let us (blackboard@miami.edu / x.3949) know if we can be of further assistance or if you run into any difficulty while setting up your courses.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa and the Blackboard Help Desk

 

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Bb Server Downtime over this past weekend

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

The Blackboard server experienced downtime on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 due to loading errors at times 5:17 p.m. and then at 7:28 p.m. The downtime was brief and no longer than 3 minutes. The system has been restored and should be running normally now. We apologize for this inconvenience especially now during the finalization of grades. Please let us know if you experience any difficulties with Bb from this point on.  (Blackboard@miami.edu, x.3949)

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa and the Bb Help Desk

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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

 

[BB] Enrollments of Fall 2006 students in course sites

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

On Monday, May 8^th, 2006, at approximately 9:00 am, we will begin to upload students into their fall 2006 courses. All students except freshman will be uploaded.  These courses will not show up under the “My Current Courses” under the home tab, but they are available under the “All Courses” tab.

If you are currently uploading content or working with content within your courses, you may want to make the course unavailable. To make a course unavailable, go to the control panel of that course, go to settings under course options, click the second link “Course Availability”, and then click No.  

 

Please let us (blackboard@miami.edu x. 3949) know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the enrolling of the students into your course sites for Fall 2006.

 

Also, let us know if we can be of assistance with anything else.

 

Sincerely,

 

Janet De La Rosa and the Blackboard Help Desk

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

Janet De La Rosa (janet.delarosa@miami.edu)

Systems Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, FL

www.miami.edu

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