Monday, April 09, 2007

Instructional Technology Notice: Upgrade to Bb7 Now Scheduled for Spring 2008

Mon 4/9/2007 5:14 PM

To VCCS Vice Presidents and Provosts,

Over the last six months, the VCCS Information Technology Services (ITS)staff has negotiated with Blackboard in an attempt to meet long-term VCCS goals of high reliability and robust, high performing technology at thelowest possible cost. This extensive effort involving IBM, Blackboard, andOracle was concluded in the last week. The goal was to enable the VCCS to incorporate Blackboard services into its new computer architecture ­ aclustered environment running on IBM's AIX operating system. A clustered computing environment allows tremendous flexibility as well as an inexpensive and relatively easy method to add processing power as required. Unfortunately, due to myriad non-technical factors, Blackboard has declined to certify the IBM environment as requested.

The VCCS must acquire additional hardware that is certified by Blackboard inorder to provide essential support for the Blackboard 7.2 environment. As a result, the upgrade to version 7.2 of Blackboard will go live in Spring 2008.

VCCS Academic Services and Research will continue to work with ITS to prepare Blackboard System Administrators for the upgrade, with training scheduled to begin June 25, 2007. Instructional Technologists will continueto train faculty in the use of enhanced Blackboard 7.2 tools, such as the discussion board. Additional information and a schedule for testing andother key milestones will be made available in the next few weeks.

Please share this notice with deans, faculty, instructional technologists, and others as appropriate at your college. Questions should be directed to Dr. Inez Farrell, Director of Instructional Technology (ifarrell@vccs.edu).

Thank you,
Inez Inez Farrell, Ph.D.
Director of Instructional Technology
Virginia's Community Colleges
101 North 14th Street
Richmond, VA 23219

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