Blackboard & Merlot

From: Ralph Lucia [mailto:rlucia@vccs.edu]
Sent: Mon 4/3/2006 4:23 PM
To: John DowneyCc: Neil Matkin; Monty Sullivan; learn@vccs.edu
Subject: Blackboard & Merlot

John,

At the DDLC meeting on Friday, it was my understanding that the group recommended that the Merlot Building Block should be given a high priority. Many Building Blocks (both free and third party commercial varieties) have been suggested for implementation, but a procedure has not yet been established for the DDLC to recommend Blackboard Building Blocks for the VCCS shared Blackboard system. Again, it is my understanding that the deployment of the Merlot Building Block will serve as a starting point, and the DDLC will work to establish criteria and procedures for recommending other Building Blocks for system-wide deployment in the future. I am happy to report that the Merlot Building Block has now been deployed in the training instance of Blackboard. Blackboard Administrators are able to provide access to this instance for those who require it.

http://bbtrain.vccs.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp

ITS requests that colleges assist in the testing of this Building Block. Upon completion of testing, ITS will deploy it as soon as feasible. We do, however, reserve the right to temporarily disable any Building Block as a troubleshooting measure should we experience problems in our production system. As I mentioned in the meeting, our sources at Blackboard inform us that Building Blocks are known to occasionally cause problems with Blackboard.

ITS staff requests that the DDLC also examine the features that will be available with the implementation of Version 6.3 and provide recommendations regarding which (if any) optional features should be made available immediately at the upgrade. Please see the attached for a list of 6.3 features. The training system mentioned above has been upgraded to Version 6.3 for colleges to preview these new features.

Ralph