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January 25, 2008
Blackboard "Turnitin" Issues & Scheduled Downtime (1/26, 6-9 a.m.)
Following the planned upgrade to version 7.2 last week, OIT has discovered issues with the Turnitin "Building Block" that instructors may want to understand before using this tool.
In addition, the main Blackboard production server will be down for routine, scheduled maintenance this Saturday, January 26, from 6 to 9 a.m. This is unrelated to the Turnitin issues described in this announcement.
Basically, the Turnitin "Building Block" (or plug-in) for Blackboard we have used for several years has been going down sporadically in Bb versions 7.2 or higher. This was not publicly announced and it seems to be an issue when Blackboard is used in a multiple server configuration such as UMBC uses to guarantee redundancy and performance. We've learned that other schools have experienced similar issues.
The issue has become more complicated since Blackboard released its own plagiarism detection tool, SafeAssign, this summer. While SafeAssign is free (the Faculty Development Center currently pays for Turnitin), the key to any tool like this is the library of past submissions to compare future papers against. Clearly, Turnitn has a larger library at this point, but given its wider availability across all 3,700 colleges and universities using Blackboard, SafeAssign is bound to catch up. Also, there were early reports of "issues" when Safe Assign first shipped, but they appear to be settling down.
While we have worked with Turnitin, there is no guarantee the tool will not go down if you use it inside Blackboard. Accordingly, OIT has made SafeAssign available in all courses and suggests the following options:
1. Use Turnitin Outside of Blackboard
As a campus, we haven't done this in a while, but it is possible to access Turnitin outside of Blackboard; it's just not as easy for faculty and students who may be accustomed to using it inside Blackboard.
Instructions
After the class is created online, students will need to create accounts and submit papers using your class ID. If you have questions, please contact Jack Prostko, Director, Faculty Development Center (ext. 5-1829 or prostko@umbc.edu).
2. Use SafeAssign
While we do not have a lot of experience with this tool yet, OIT has made it available. Also, faculty can upload student papers from past courses to "jump start" the rebuilding of their respective bank of papers SafeAssign can check against. For more information on how to use SafeAssign, visit www.safeassign.com.
3. Use Turnitin Inside Blackboard | More Information
OIT recommends piloting “Safe Assign” for those courses where issues would be most problematic or for faculty who do not wish to worry about Turnitin. We will keep the Turnitin service running for faculty who wish to continue using it and accept that there is some risk.
If you have questions or concerns, please add them as a comment to this announcement, which OIT will monitor, or send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.
Posted by fritz at 1:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 14, 2008
Reminder: Blackboard Down for Upgrades 1/15 to 1/17
As announced November 30, 2007, UMBC's main Blackboard production server (http://blackboard.umbc.edu) will be down for hardware and software upgrades from Tuesday, Jan. 15 through Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008.
Note: The alternate Blackboard server being used in Winter session (http://bbss.umbc.edu) will continue to operate during the production server upgrades.
Posted by fritz at 1:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2008
Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh
Microsoft has announced the release of Microsoft Office 2008 for the Macintosh for January 14th. The bookstore has ordered media and expects to have this in-stock by mid-February.
Microsoft Office 2008 provides two key features that Macintosh users will want to have. The first feature of note in this version provides native support for Intel processors. If you have an Apple running the Intel Processor, this will allow Office to run much faster. The second feature of note is that this version of Office for the Macintosh supports the new document formats found in Office 2007 for Windows. This format, called .docx, is now the default format, but Office will also support all prior versions of Office. With Office 2008, Apple users will be able to easily exchange documents with PC users using Office 2007.
Office 2008 for the Macintosh is available as part of our UMBC Microsoft Enterprise license and is available for all institutionally purchased machines. In addition, faculty and staff can use this as part of our work-at-home agreement. This will also be available in the UMBC Bookstore for Students with our special educational pricing. We don't have final pricing but expect this to be consistent with the existing versions.
In terms of functionality I was a beta-tester for Office 2008. I have found that it worked very well with regards to existing documents. One major benefit for Mac users is that the Macintosh team decided not to make major changes in the user interface as was done in Office 2007. Instead, Microsoft focused on making the application interact more consistently using the Apple user interface. Changes in Office 2008 are described on the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit blog
Some features of note:
OIT will not be upgrading our computer labs with Office 2007 and Office 2008 till the fall 2008 semester. For faculty and staff using Macintosh computers I would suggest upgrading if you have an Intel-based Macintosh. The performance improvement in running Office as a native application is very positive and the learning-curveis not that substantial. For non-Intel Macintosh systems the benefits of Office 2008 are less compelling but the learning curve is not so steep that you should not do this.
For Windows users, the learning curve for moving to Office 2007 is steeper. The menu organization for Windows has been redesigned. Many reviews state that it takes someone that knows Office 2003 a week or so to get up to speed with the new menu structure, especially if you were a power user that had memorized how to do things. OIT is working with UMBC Training Centers to offer some introductory classes on transitioning to Office 2007 this spring and summer. We will post a separate blog entry on that once those classes have been finalized.
Posted by jack at 5:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack