As those of you teaching this spring probably remember, our WebCT server situation has been rather tenuous, particularly the first few days of classes when so many faculty and students are working in the system. For the past year or so, DAA has been working with the ITS staff to help resolve these issues. The first step taken was the installation of a new server in January which did relieve some of the pressure as a stop-gap measure quickly implemented by our capable ITS personnel. The long term fix relates to the software itself. The software upgrade is also needed because our current version of WebCT will not be supported long into the future. The purpose of this message is to provide you with an update of the status of this upgrade and ask your assistance as we transition.
The good news: Not only will you see better response times from the server, but when this is all said and done, we will also have increased capabilities. While there are certainly some differences from WebCT to Blackboard, the testing groups and DLF staff are working to ensure that these differences are minimized and/or identified so we can be sure you understand anything new. We are also working on integrating the BB9.1 gradebook with Colleague, so if all goes well you will not have to enter your grades in both BB9.1 and in Colleague or submit G&A sheets as we have had to do in the past. So, we are making the most of this opportunity to address some longstanding issues as well as the response time issues.
Status: Blackboard 9.1 has been installed both on a test server and a live server. We are testing the product as follows:
-DL Liaisons and a few other faculty are testing on the test server throughout the summer. These faculty received some brief training and were able to move some of their courses from WebCT to see how things transitioned over.
-The Alpha test group is working live this summer, testing the product LIVE.
-The intent is for the Beta test group to move their classes to BB9.1 in the fall. This group will include many DL Liaisons, and anyone teaching a course which has NEVER been offered online before.
-Once the Beta testers have a chance to see how things are going, we will set a full transition plan. We hope to complete the transition by Fall 2011.
-As we move forward with the testing, we will continually engage with marketing to ensure that appropriate marketing and training for students is available.
-We won’t surprise you – the plans for transition will include communications like this one, and ample opportunities for training before you are asked to move your course to BB9.1.
What this means right now:
Joel and Ronda are working hard to ensure that any new classes being developed are developed in BB9.1. They are also working on developing and offering training for BB9.1. We will no longer offer training in WebCT, except on an EXTREMELY limited basis. DL Liaisons are pitching in nicely to help us work with the few faculty that might need WebCT for the fall, and we appreciate their assistance.
To the maximum extent possible, new faculty should use already-developed courses for fall. Our master course program was put in place because we have limited development resources, along with high quality standards. We simply do not have the resources to work with faculty to develop alternate versions of courses we have already worked to develop. Please bear with us in this effort. After fall 2011, we can re-consider this issue as appropriate, but we just cannot do it right now.
Finally, please direct questions about this upgrade to me; Joel and Ronda REALLY have their hands full right now. Thanks for your patience, and your assistance. In the end, I am confident we will all be happy with the results
CSM Upgrade to BB9 