Notes on Blackboard Upgrade Conference Call - 11/28/2007

Red - Greater interest to Faculty
Blue - My additional comments

Attended:

Blue Ridge, Central, Dabney, Danville, Germanna, John Tyler, Lord Fairfax, Northern, Piedmont, Rappahannock, Southside, System Office - Kathy,Thomas Nelson, Virginia Western, Wytheville

Question: Getting intermittent ‘Page not displayed’ error. Errors occur in IE, not Firefox.
Answer: Could be caused by the random, luck of the draw, choosing of a malfunctioning App Server. Please report when error occurs and we’ll check each App Server.

Question: Will migrating selected organizations, cause problems during mass migration?
Answer: Please give us a list of organizations previously migrated, and we’ll remove them from the mass migration.

Question: Problem with faculty, courses not going to default page.
Answer: This sounds like it might be specific to a course. Please post a ticket. However, generally speaking default pages are cached and users may need to log out, close their browser and then log in again before seeing changes.


If you have this problem you must email me (Ruth) your course id (TN293.XXX.XXX.XXX.SP08) you can see this code at the top of the page in the Control Panel. Please also include your Bb login in the email.

Question: Scripts not working as they did in Bb6. i.e. Course info. Colleges are particularly interested in tracking course size.
Answer: These are not currently working in Bb7, and the course size is no longer part of the properties screen. You could get an idea of the course size by looking at the archives, once they are turned on. We will investigate generating a report for colleges.

Question: Course ID script also not working in Bb7.
Answer: Right. This could be resolved either with a report or fixing the script. We will investigate both options.

Question: When will we be copying over the content system?
Answer: At Go live. Were we to do it before, then we would risk versions becoming out of sync.


December 20, 2007

Question: Will there be a link to Bb7 on my.vccs?
Answer: This has been discussed, but no decision has been made.

Question: We have a problem with the columns not being the proper width for the college tab.
Answer: Could be caused by content in a particular module, e.g. current weather conditions.

Question: Any update on Issue Trak #90344. When I try to modify items in Bb 7 that I previously created using Wimba in Bb 6, I receive the following error message:
500
We are sorry, but the system is experiencing technical difficulties : 437-1176726126143 does not start with prefix=_cvvs_
I am also unable to create a new podcast. When I try to setup a podcast, I receive the following error:
Please check your URL
/pvcc/pc not found
Answer: We’ll look into this. Update: Podcasting is fixed.

Question: When will we know which building blocks we’ll have access to?
Answer: There will be no more until 2008.

Question: We are having trouble un-enrolling a faculty member. Need to change role to student and then delete.
Answer: This can be accomplished through the course properties button at the system admin panel level.

Question: Will we have access to the Plagiarism tool?
Answer: This has not been evaluated yet.

Question: Will we have access to the Scholar building block?
Answer: This has not been evaluated yet.

Question: When will we begin archiving Bb7 courses?
Answer: Can’t yet say. At least by Dec. 20 go live.


Please Archive/Export things you are working on in Bb 7 (http://bb7.vccs.edu ) on a regular basis until Bb7 goes into production for students and the system office begins archiving again. They are still archiving Bb6 and we are grabbing them on a regular basis.

Question: How long will Bb admins have access to Bb6? This is helpful for comparing between instances.
Answer: We’ll look into this.

Question: Which modules will be placed on college tabs?
Answer: Colleges should not be adding modules to shared tabs.

Question: How will we move modules after go live?
Answer: They will need to be developed in test or another non-prod instance and then be moved.

Question: We are having trouble creating a training course.
Answer: Course creation can take a long time. Need to be patient.

Question: Will the Course tab stay or go away?
Answer: It will probably go away, based on input from DDLC.

Question: When ICA files are created, it grabs both primary and secondary instructors as primary.
Answer: Bb doesn’t recognize instructors as secondary. You need to edit the file before uploading.

Question: While training on Test Manager, notice that the save button opens up a popup window. This can be confusing to students.
Answer: Good catch. This is a training issue.


Jan will be addressing this in training - watch for her sessions on Testing or contact her if you have questions.

Question: Could there be a problem while creating a test and uploading a file from the content system, but the student doesn’t have access to the content system?
Answer: This is an interface problem. We will investigate to see if there is a solution.