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November 17, 2009

Bb Maintenance to Fix Email Announcements: 11/20, 10 p.m. to 11/21, 1 a.m.

To address a recent issue with Blackboard announcements not being automatically sent by email when an instructor or manager selects that option, UMBC's Blackboard system will be down from 10 p.m., Friday, November 20, to 1 a.m., Saturday, November 21.

Reminder: Why Blackboard needs scheduled maintenance.

Posted by fritz at 4:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 12, 2009

Reminder: LDAP master downtime 11/14/09 10am-4pm

Just a reminder of the scheduled downtime this weekend...

On Saturday 11/14/09 LDAP master will be down 10am-4pm to move to new server hardware.

The following services will be unavailable during this time:

- Calendar (for the first hour only)

- Password changes via Webadmin

- Email forward changes (Webadmin)

- Changing of campus information (Webadmin)

Posted by laura at 6:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 11, 2009

Panasonic HVX200 P2 HD Camera Workshop

On December 9 the New Media Studio will host a presentation on the HVX200 camera by Panasonic rep Jim Jensen. Jim will go over in depth the extensive customizable features on the camera and answer any questions we may have. We will meet at 2pm in ECS 023. We are planning on taping the presentation for future reference. Please pass this on to others (including students) who may be interested.

To reserve a seat in the workshop please visit http://www.umbc.edu/brownbag

Posted by shewbrid at 2:39 PM | TrackBack

Digital Storytelling Workshop for Faculty Jan. 20-22 2010

A three-day digital storytelling workshop for faculty will be held at UMBC on January 20, 21 and 22, 2010. Staff from the UMBC’s New Media Studio will conduct the workshop, during which participants will learn about the digital storytelling process while creating their own personal story.

Bringing together writing, photography and audio, the digital storytelling process facilitates the telling of personal and reflective stories in the form of digital movies. Through the process of producing their own digital stories over a three-day period, workshop participants gain insight into potential application of this approach in their own teaching. Here are samples from last summer’s workshop.

There are a limited number of seats available for faculty from other area institutions. The fee for non-UMBC faculty will be $500. If you are interested in reserving a seat please contact Bill Shewbridge at shewbrid@umbc.edu . Preference will be given to those who have not taken one of our workshops before, however alumni are welcome to join us if space is available.

Posted by shewbrid at 2:06 PM | TrackBack

November 6, 2009

GL Linux Servers downtime Monday 11/9/09 6:30am-7am

Critical security patches have been released for our GL Linux systems. The patches have been tested internally with no issues. We will be pushing those out to the GL Lab workstations this morning (Friday 11/6). In order to minimize service impact, we will be taking a small downtime window on Monday 11/9, from 6:30am - 7am to apply the same patches to our GL Login servers.

Posted by laura at 7:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 4, 2009

Bb Will Be Down 11/6, 10 p.m. to 11/7, 6 a.m.

To address issues with web browser compatibility and back up the system before applying latest patches and hot fixes, DoIT will be taking the main Blackboard system down from 10 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, to 6 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Reminder: More info about why DoIT needs scheduled downtime.

Posted by fritz at 7:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

24/7 Blackboard Support Starts Wed, Nov. 11

As indicated in the August 24 "Challenges and Changes to Blackboard Support" announcement, UMBC's Division of Information Technology (DoIT) will begin working with Presidium Learning to provide basic Blackboard support starting Wednesday, Nov. 11. The DoIT Help Desk and Instructional Technology staff will still provide walk-in and by-appointment Bb support, but all students, faculty and staff will be able to get 24/7 Blackboard support via phone, IM chat or online knowledge base. Based in Lexington, Kentucky, Presidium specializes in answering technical support questions for faculty, staff, and students at more than 700 educational institutions, and provides a 95 percent first call resolution rate.

UMBC Blackboard Support Portal (sample)

The partnership with Presidium is a one-year pilot to determine if and how external support can improve use of Blackboard, as well as free up DoIT staff for more advanced issues and opportunities, including refinement of Blackboard course creation and enrollment integration with the new Student Administration (SA) system, trend analysis of our most frequent user support demands, and assessment to help identify and promote effective uses of Blackboard.

For the Nov. 11 implementation, students, faculty and staff can do the following to get Blackboard help:

1. Access the online knowledge base at http://bbsupport.umbc.edu (will be active on 11/11).
2. Ask a question via live Instant Messenger (IM) Chat
3. Call the existing DoIT Help Desk phone number of 410.455.3838

Note: A short, brief phone tree will be implemented so as to route all other IT-related calls to the DoIT Help Desk, while still allowing Presidium to handle Blackboard-related calls. In addition, UMBC users will have to create a separate account and password the first time they submit a help request ticket. This may change in the future to use the UMBC userid & password, but is not available at this time.

Initially, Presidium will be responsible for the following:

All Blackboard-related application questions or issues, including how to get started, add content, manage discussion, create electronic assignments, quizzes and surveys and use the new grade center.
Refer all UMBC-specific uses of Blackboard back to the DoIT Help Desk. These include all account management and password resets as well as integration with SA to auto-create and enroll courses.
Provide a monthly report to DoIT showing all Bb-related support requests or knowledge base accesses, identify trend and root-cause analyses, and help benchmark UMBC usage against similar institutions using Blackboard.

"As we go forward in this pilot, it is important to note we are augmenting not outsourcing Blackboard service," says John Fritz, Asst. VP for Instructional Technology & New Media. "By supporting one part of the overall structure with a partner who has a wealth of experience in higher education technical support, we hope to provide a higher level of service for UMBC students, faculty and staff."

Posted by fritz at 2:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack