UMBC Blackboard Update
May 2001
UMBC Blackboard Update
is for students, faculty and staff using Blackboard at UMBC. If
you have questions or suggestions, please contact John Fritz at
410.455.6596 or fritz@umbc.edu.
For more
information on using Blackboard at UMBC--including the new UMBC
Blackboard Users Group--visit http://www.umbc.edu/blackboard.
SUMMARY
1. Blackboard
5 Courses
2. Migrating Blackboard Courses
3. Blackboard 5 Test Results Spring 2001
DETAILS
1.
Blackboard 5 Courses
UMBC Blackboard Instructors,
After testing with about
30 courses this semester (see results below), the Office of Information
Technology has decided to upgrade from Courseinfo (http://courseinfo.umbc.edu)
to Blackboard 5 (http://blackboard.umbc.edu).
At this point, our goal
is to have all current and future courses on Blackboard 5 by the
start of the FALL 2001 SEMESTER. This includes moving existing Summer
Session courses to Blackboard 5 by MEMORIAL DAY MONDAY, MAY 28.
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2.
Migrating Blackboard Courses
To do so, we need to
know when your course is offered so we can implement the migration
of Courseinfo (version 4) courses at the most convenient time for
the most number of instructors. Please answer the following questions
and return to fritz@umbc.edu by FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2001.
1. What is the title
and course id of any course you currently use on Blackboard's Courseinfo
(version 4) server at http://courseinfo.umbc.edu?
Course Title:
Course ID:
2. What is the status
of your course (check only one)?
[ ] I'm teaching it for
Summer Session I and/or II.
[ ] My course is important but won't be taught this summer.
[ ] Doesn't need to be migrated. It was simply a test course.
After evaluating responses
to the questions above, our initial plan is to begin the migration
of Summer Session courses on Friday, May 25 (this may include some
server downtime). The process should then be completed by Monday,
May 28. If all goes according plan, all remaining courses will be
migrated during the break between Summer Session I and II (Friday,
July 6 to Monday, July 9). We will also send email confirmation
of these dates/actions as we get closer to them.
Note: Unfortunately,
migrating or exporting a Blackboard course strips away enrolled
user data from the gradebook. The course content, assessments, discussion
boards, etc. all remain intact, but if you need the gradebook--perhaps
to handle incompletes--it can be exported into an Excel file (see
http://www.umbc.edu/blackboard for a "backup helpsheet").
Also, we will have the original version of all courses on the Courseinfo
(version 4) server at http://courseinfo.umbc.edu. So, after the
migration periods mentioned above, check your migrated course on
Blackboard 5 and let us know if there's a problem. If so, we can
restore the version 4 course.
Finally, I'm including
below a summary of our test of Blackboard 5 this spring, as well
as the initial email I sent out at the start of the semester. If
you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. In the meantime,
thank you for answering the questions above and returning them to
fritz@umbc.edu by Friday, May 25.
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3.
Blackboard 5 Test Results Spring 2001
* Except for some early
hiccups involving a few internet service providers randomly blocking
UMBC's WebAuth authentication utility, we have found the platform
to be stable and a nice evolution of the Blackboard product. We
modified the WebAuth code, and the "blocking" problem
seems to have disappeared.
* UMBC's WebAuth authentication
system now allows students to use Blackboard with their current
UMBC userid & password. This allows for a "single sign-on"
that should make it easier for faculty and students with UMBC accounts
to login to Blackboard.
* Currently, the WebAuth
system precludes course-specific use of Blackboard's "guest"
login, but we have provided system-wide use of the "guest"
login on the main screen at
http://blackboard.umbc.edu
This means users can have "guest" access to any course
that specifically grants it--this is an instructor-controlled option--but
the user has to navigate to that course via Blackboard's "Course
Catalog" or "Courses" tab once they've logged into
the Blackboard 5 server.
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