Welcome to Blackboard 7

Go Live Plans

· November 1 – available to college networks

· November 5 – available universally to Faculty and Staff

· December 20 – switchover for learn.vccs.edu

It’s here!

Blackboard 7.3 is the latest version of the Blackboard Academic Suite. Faculty and Staff should now be able to access our new Blackboard from their campus networks. It is available at http://bb7.vccs.edu/ , the temporary URL until the December 20 switchover when it will become learn.vccs.edu.

What to do first…

Check the Courses that were migrated

Spring 2007 and Summer 2007 courses were brought over from Blackboard 6. They should all be unavailable. There are no student enrollments in these courses. There are no grades or work. Please review imported courses for any issues. There are some known problems with migrated Wimba content. Links you had to the Content System will not work.

What’s Left to Do?

• The TNCC tab has a bare set of minimal modules placed on them. David and I are working to configure the modules, as blackboard administrators did not have advanced access to bb7.vccs.edu you will see changes in the tabs as we move forward.


• Organizations will not be brought over until Go Live (December 20, 2007).


• Create SU08 course shells


• Re-create sandboxes


• Load students into course shells


• Import data from the Bb 6 content system

The Future

• Building blocks – The system office (AS & R ) is working on piloting and testing building blocks for Blackboard 7 including: Learning Objects, Classtop and SafeAssign. These will not be available at Go Live, but we intend to deploy after testing in the first quarter of 2008.


• TNCC tab has a bare set of minimal modules placed on them. David and I are working to configure the modules, as blackboard administrators did not have advanced access to bb7.vccs.edu


• Organizations will not be brought over until Go Live (December 20, 2007).

FAQs

• When can I request Spring 2008 course shells?
  I am currently working on uploading Distance and Hybrid course shells first. If you are teaching DL or Hybrid you will not need to use the request form. For Distributed shells (supplement to F2F) please wait until I email you that I am ready to create these shells. I need to clear out the request database. If you request too soon you will have to do it again.
  
  


• Where is my Sandbox?
  Everyone will need a new sandbox. If you had a sandbox in explore.vccs.edu (the training Bb 7 instance) you will see a new blank sandbox in bb7.vccs.edu shortly. I will be re-creating them after I do DL and Hybrid shells. If you did not have a sandbox in explore.vccs.edu you will need to request one when I open up the request form for Distributed shells.
  
  


• Do you move the data in my sandbox in learn.vccs.edu (Bb 6) and explore.vccs.edu (Bb 7 training)?
  No, if you want any of the data in either of those sandboxes you will need to export and import the data you wish to retain.
  
  


• What’s up with the Content System?
  The data in the content system will be the last thing the system office will move. If you are a content system user, all of your links will appear to be broken in bb7.vccs.edu. This should correct itself when the URL changes from bb7.vccs.edu to learn.vccs.edu on December 20, 2007. There may be issues with permission but if so we will address this issue in a separate mailing. If you are not currently using the content system, I recommend you WAIT and not start using it until Jan does the content system training or after Dec. 20, 2007. If you can not wait until Dec. 20, 2007 to use the content system be sure to make folders with names you did not use in Bb 6 or when the system office migrates the content system to Bb 7 your data may be over-written.
  
  


• When can I install a course cartridge
  If it is a .zip package you can use it now. If it a code – wait until December 20, 2007 when the URL changes from bb7.vccs.edu back to learn.vccs.edu.
  
  


• How do I report problems?
  Email me. The subject line should begin with Bb7: followed by the problem. I have an outlook rule, flagging Bb7: so I can respond as quickly as possible.
  
  


• How do I get help with Bb 7?

• Searchable online documentation available at:
  http://library.blackboard.com/ref/a157ea6f-5acf-46fb-92c4-0bf85f24f1ac/index.htm


• The PDF version (1.54 mb) of the manual is attached.


• Tutorials viewlets are also available from Atomic Learning:
  http://movies.atomiclearning.com/highed/highedLogin: TNCC
  Password: learn
  


• Jan will be doing the Bb 7 training in workshops throughout November and December. She is also available for consultations by appointments.

• I have students still making up work from Spring and/or Summer 2007; what do I need to do?
  They will continue to work in Bb 6 (learn.vccs.edu) until the end of the FA07 term, but you will have to archive your own course for record keeping. If for some reason they are not finished by Dec. 20, 2007 follow the procedures for make-ups for the FA07 term.
  
  


• What happens if I have make-ups for the FA07 term after December 20, 2007?
  I will be sending special instructions closer to the end of the term for makes-up that pass the Dec. 20, 2007 date. I am still unclear about that procedure and need to get more clarification from the system office. But, try very hard to encourage your students to complete by Dec. 20, 2007 if at all possible!
  
  


• When will my students be loaded into my Spring 2008 courses?
  At the go live date: December 20 – when we the switchover from bb7.vccs.edu to learn.vccs.edu occurs. From the student’s perspective they will never know the juggling you had to do to prepare for the Spring term.
  
  


• When will students have access to my Spring 2008 courses?
  December 20, 2007 – provided you switch your course to “available”.
  
  


• What happened to my students grades and submitted work from SP07 and SU07?
  If you “forgot” to create your own archive – David Morales grabbed the files prior to the export/import to Bb7 (bb7.vccs.edu). These are the normal “emergency” back-ups. I STRONGLY recommend you archive each of your current courses in Bb6 (learn.vccs.edu) and keep the archived zip file in a safe place in case we need to restore. Only an administrator can do a restore but David’s “grab” is a blind backup and is 99.9% reliable. I also recommend you export any modules you may want to reuse. Jan will be doing workshops in November on archive, export and import.
  
  


• What happens to "stuff" I created in explore.vccs.edu?
  Since Bb7 (explore.vccs.edu) was a training environment. You will have to export/import anything you want to bring over to bb7.vccs.edu. Again, Jan will be doing workshops in November on archive, export and import.
  
  


• Should I continue to use explore.vccs.edu?
  Only to test things (play around). See the above bullet.
  
  


• I am getting confused; which URL should I be working in?
  http://learn.vccs.edu/ is the current Bb 6 production environment
  http://explore.vccs.edu/ is the current Bb 7 training environmenthttp://bb7.vccs.edu/ is the temporary Bb 7 environment where you will be preparing your Spring 2008 courses

On December 20, 2008 http://bb7.vccs.edu/ will disappear and “magically” become http://learn.vccs.edu/ !

• What happens to Bb6 (the current learn.vccs.edu) after December 20, 2007?
  You will no longer have any access to that environment. Be sure you’ve backup (Archive and Exported) what you think you may need, as “insurance”.