Blackboard Faculty Announcements

Below are the dates and details I have on changes occurring that I know will result in downtime for Blackboard between now and June 9. Most of these times are during the regularly scheduled downtime, except the May 20 event. If the regularly scheduled maintenance time is not needed that is also noted.

We could use your assistance. We make every effort to test all changes before we put them into production, but there are times that something does not go as planned. We also test the production system after we make the changes. Where we can use your help, is if you notice anything unusual after any of these downtimes, please contact the Technology Services Help Desk by entering a ticket (http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/ ), emailing (help@vcu.edu), or calling (828-2227).

Dates:
• April 28, 4pm to midnight – Bb Regularly Scheduled Maintenance Time – Updates needed for new Banner system that will result in access being limited to Bb

• May 12, 4pm to midnight – Bb Regularly Scheduled Maintenance Time – The Blackboard Team WILL NOT USE this time.

• May 20, 9pm to May 21, 4am – Power being switched at the University Computer Center.

• May 26, 4pm to midnight – Bb Regularly Scheduled Maintenance – will be used if needed.

• June 9, 4pm to midnight – Bb Regularly Scheduled Maintenance Time – Reminder: Bb will be upgraded to a new version (from 6.2 to 6.3)

Details:

April 28, 4pm to midnight – Bb Regularly Scheduled Maintenance Time – Updates needed for new Banner system that will result in access being limited to Bb. Below is the technical information about the maintenance:

Change Management - CISCO 11503 maintenance
https://www.ucc.vcu.edu/intranet/cm/updatecm.aspx?id=267

Create Date: 4/24/2006 2:38:38 PM
Requestor: Sean O'Keefe
Requestor Email: sokeefe@vcu.edu
Change Date: 4/28/2006
Start Time: 6:00pm
End Time: 12:00am
System: Networking, LDAP authentication
Impact to Users: Intermittent outages of LDAP authentication
Technical Description: The CISCO 11503's need to be reconfigured for load balancer fail over. Also need content rules for Banner and Luminis support. These steps will require changes to the configuration that may be intrusive, i.e., LDAP authentication requests could experience brief outages.

May 20, 9pm to May 21, 4am – Power being switched at the University Computer Center

All systems (mainframe, blackboard, banner, web, mail, file servers, etc) will be shut down in an orderly manner by the various technical support staffs starting at 9pm on Saturday, May 20. Two new 200 amp, 42 circuit panels will be connected to the building UPS. This should take about 1/2 hour. Then all systems will be brought back up and checked for proper operation. All systems are expected to be back up by 4am.

June 9, 4pm to midnight – Bb Regularly Scheduled Maintenance Time – Reminder: Bb will be upgraded to a new version (6.3)

This upgrade will happen during the Bb regularly schedule maintenance time. The new version will contain a number of new features. The Learning Systems staff is working on documentation for the new features, which will be out shortly. The Center for Teaching Excellence will be offering workshops this summer on the new version of Bb, to register go to http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp and type in Keyword: Blackboard.

Regards,

Sheila Chandler
Manager, Learning Systems
Technology Services
Virginia Commonwealth University
sdchandl@vcu.edu
(804)828-7728

Technology Services - Help Desk – http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/ or 828-2227
Bb Training - http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp (enter Keyword: Blackboard)
Bb User’s Group - http://www.vcu.edu/ls/Blackboard/BbUsersGroup/User_group.htm
Center for Teaching Excellence - http://www.vcu.edu/cte/

Posted by at 10:51 AM | Permalink

To Blackboard Users:

It appears there was some miscommunication and the Blackboard Team was not notified until 12:48pm Saturday, April 22, that there was a problem with logging into Blackboard. The problem has been corrected as of 3pm, Saturday, April 22.

The change that caused the problem was with an update to the VCU authentication system, which occurred on Friday evening, April 21. This change should not have caused a problem with Bb, but unfortunately it did.

We are truly sorry for any inconvenience.

Posted by at 4:03 PM | Permalink

This issue continued on 4/19 - VCU Networking has traced the problem and is working on a resolution.

Updated Network or System Issue

Date Reported: 4/18/2006 9:51:12 PM
Date of Issue: 4/18/2006
System: Network
Impact to Users: Internet access slow
Technical Description: Experiencing slow response or no response from from VCU network.
Problem cleared.
Start: 9:30pm
End: 10:00pm
Reported By: Wanda Anyalewechi

Posted by at 8:45 AM | Permalink

A change is being made to the system that is used to authenticate (Login) to numerous VCU systems, including Blackboard, on April 21, 2006 from 6pm to 8pm. The ability to login will be interrupted during this time.

Posted by at 6:08 PM | Permalink

Reminder: Blackboard is scheduled every second and fourth Friday of the month for maintenance. The next scheduled maintenance is Friday, April 14, 2006 from 4pm to midnight

Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink

The following information was received from Blackboard in regards to an update to Microsoft Internet Explorer expected on April 11, 2006.

***************************************************************************

Blackboard Announcement: Internet Explorer Update Expected April 11, 2006

On April 11, Microsoft is releasing a critical update in response to patent litigation between Microsoft and Eolas (http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate). The update also includes critical security fixes for Internet Explorer. Most users will receive this update automatically via Windows Update. After the update, users will be required to activate applets, ActiveX controls and other embedded objects and plug-ins before they can interact with them. Activation requires hitting the space bar, pressing the enter key, or using the mouse to click on the item. Users running the Firefox or Safari web browsers will not be affected by this update.

Blackboard has reviewed the Blackboard applications in anticipation of this update, and has learned the following:

General issues affecting all products
Embedded content (including video, audio, Flash) cannot be controlled until activated. Each item is framed with a window that prompts the user to "Press SPACEBAR or ENTER to activate and use this control." After users follow the instructions or click using their mouse; users can use the controls to start, stop or replay embedded content.
An item that contains an equation, or was created from the Equation Editor, will launch a text window that prompts the user to "Press SPACEBAR or ENTER to activate and use this control." The equation will still render on the page.
In general, our testing has uncovered increased instability with the IE browser after this update has been applied. We are escalating this issue with Microsoft.

Blackboard Academic Suiteâ„¢ & Blackboard Community Systemâ„¢ (Versions 6 and 7, including Application Packs)
Each Visual Text Box Editor (commonly known as "WYSIWIG editor") will require activation prior to entering text.
The Virtual Classroom and Lightweight Chat applets will require activation after a student or instructor joins a chat.
The Blackboard Content Player (SCORM) feature fails to function after installation of the Microsoft update.
****************************************************************************

The VCU Bb Team has downloaded the upgrade and has found the following in regards to the Blackboard announcement:

1) When the announcement above states “users will be required to activate applets,� this is requiring an extra click. In our testing, this meant clicking in a text box that previously the cursor would go to automatically.

2) When the announcement above states “The Blackboard Content Player (SCORM) feature fails to function after installation of the Microsoft update,� As far as we are aware, this may effect users that are using LessonBuilder AND loading it as SCORM content and some versions of JRE (Java Run-time Environment.) We did not experience a problem.

If you experience any issues please call the VCU Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227.

Posted by at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)