Students Loaded into Bb6!

I will begin loading students into FA05 courses on Monday and continue loading daily until the end of the Add period. As always I load but do not "drop". Please monitor you SIS lists!
-Ruth

Posted on Friday, August 05, 2005 - 6:17 pm:

We are pleased to announce that users (staff, faculty, and students) along with their primary and secondary roles have been successfully loaded in Blackboard 6 (learn.vccs.edu). One item to note is that students are active and enabled in learn.vccs.edu. Initially we said that they would be disabled, but we have discovered that as disabled, you would not be able to enroll them into your courses. If this poses a problem/challenge for you or your college, please let us know.

A couple items to note. Updates are passed from directory services to Blackboard twice daily, with the update process finishing at about 3:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Currently, password changes are only being passed to Blackboard according to this update schedule, but by go-live on Aug. 15, password updates will be real-time.

Additionally, if you are wondering why you have role "X" or don’t have role "Y", early next week we will provide detailed documentation as to the processes and algorithms for assigning primary and secondary roles.

David, Sue Ann, and Matt

VCCS Technology Projects Update

August 2, 2005


Greetings,

There are many critical projects that ITS staff members are working on at this time. The intent of this e-mail is to provide the colleges with updates on two of the projects that are nearing implementation.

Blackboard 6 Update

The upgrade of our Blackboard system is proceeding well and everything is on target for the August 15 upgrade to the version 6. With this new version, faculty and staff will have additional functionality, more flexibility and a greater capacity to enhance learning within the VCCS.

Preparations for this upgrade have been underway for the past year. ITS staff has been working with college Blackboard administrators, academic representatives and Blackboard consultants to optimize the configuration of the upgraded Blackboard environment so as to best serve our students, and to ensure a smooth transition.

There are three components to the upgraded Blackboard (version 6.2):

1. The Learning System: This is the core course management system that students and faculty are familiar with, but it comes with new capabilities and new features that make it easier to use and a more flexible tool.
2. The Community System: This is the entry way into Blackboard. With the addition of the Community System colleges now have the capability of branding the Blackboard environment with its own logo and color scheme. Additionally, colleges will now have the capability of personalizing the system display and targeting information to specific groups of users.
3. The Content System: This is a tool to ease simultaneous content use across multiple courses and enable easy file storage and integration into courses. It also provides for document collaboration, and sharing. Additionally, faculty will have dedicated space where they can store documents and other digital files. Content System planning is currently in process. A six-week pilot is scheduled to start this September. Colleges participating in the pilot are GCC, JSRCC, PVCC, NVCC, NRCC, RCC, SVCC, and VWCC. Deployment to all VCCS faculty is scheduled for mid November 2005 for full use in production spring 2006.
   To recap some key dates and what has happened thus far:

To recap some key dates and what has happened thus far:
February, March, & May – Blackboard System Administrator training was provided to every college’s Blackboard System Administrator and back-up
April – Blackboard professional training was provided to faculty at the New Horizons Conference
May – All course content was migrated from Blackboard 5 to the Blackboard 6 environment
June 1 – VCCS faculty were given access so that they could begin working with the new system and developing course content
June – Strategy sessions were conducted with college representatives to prepare for the deployment of the Community System
June – The Community System was demonstrated to colleges remotely
June - July – Workshops were conducted to help colleges prepare their branded sites within the Community System
July – Content System strategy session held with representatives from colleges and the System Office to plan the pilot and initial implementation
August 1 - Final requests for Community System setup due
Here are some critical dates yet to come.
- August 5 - Student accounts loaded into Blackboard 6
(accounts will be unavailable for use until the 15th)
- August 15 - Blackboard 6 available to students
- September 19 – Content System Pilot begins
Following the deployment of the upgraded Blackboard environment ITS will work with Blackboard Administrators and other college representatives to coordinate the deployment of additional features that are now available within the new version of Blackboard. An incremental implementation of the new features is being planned to ease the transition and to allow each college time to provide training and instruction prior to the release of each new feature.

Thanks to everyone at the colleges who has worked with us during the training, strategy, and implementation. College staff and administration have generously given of their time this summer to make this upgrade a success. This has truly been a team effort between the colleges and ITS staff.

VCCS Student Email - Mirapoint

The Student Email sub-committee of the VCCS Technology Council concluded their work in late April 2005 and recommended the purchase of Mirapoint as the replacement product. Based on this recommendation and excellent references received from several Universities where the product is currently deployed, the ITS Office entered into negotiations with Mirapoint in early May 2005. Those discussions concluded with VCCS issuing a purchase order to purchase Mirapoint. Mirapoint is a state-of-the-art e-mail solution providing a web based interface where our students will be able to access their email and related email services from any place where there is access to the Internet.

The Mirapoint project is proceeding on schedule with an expected "Go-Live" date of August 12, 2005. A small group of participants from the colleges and the ITS Office have been actively testing the new system since the week of July 11th with good results to this point. A larger group with representatives from each college will continue testing over the next two weeks to isolate and correct several minor problems encountered during the early testing phase. If any issue should be discovered that may affect the timeline we will notify you immediately. Also, work is progressing on completing end user documentation and training materials. Additional information regarding the release of training materials, the deployment schedule, and a “to do list” for the colleges will be available prior to the “Go Live” date. Please contact Karlin Sink (KSink@vccs.edu) or 804.423.5631 should you have any questions or require additional information.

Please feel free to contact me with questions or concerns,

Neil

H. Neil Matkin
Vice Chancellor, Information Technology Services
Virginia Community College System
101 N. 14th Street
Richmond, VA 23219

nmatkin@vccs.edu
804.819.4991 (Office)
804.918.4769 (Facsimile)

Cartridge Import Errors

Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 10:30 am:

We have had a number of faculty contact us about cartridge import errors, particularly with assessments. The usual error is along the lines of:
" The content item entitled "Multiple Choice Quiz" contained a link to an assessment. This link has been removed. Add the assessment to a content area and select Create an Announcement to create a new announcement with a link to the assessment."

The bottom line on these errors is that the import process for a cartridge does not delete the assessments, but it deletes the links to the assessments. This is standard behavior for a lot of cartridges in Blackboard 6. Faculty will need to use the Add Test option in the content spaces to add the links back.

David Carter-Tod ITS - Client Services Virginia Community College System

Blackborad 5 Incompletes

Students with an incomplete grade from spring and summer 2005 courses will have access to Blackboard 5 through December 31, 2005 to complete their work.

Blackboard 6 (http://learn.vccs.edu) will be available to students on August 15. At the same time, the current Blackboard url (http://bb.vccs.edu) will be redirected to Blackboard 6
(http://learn.vccs.edu). After this date, the only way to get to Blackboard 5 will be by a new url (http://bb5.vccs.edu). On August 16, all courses on Blackboard 5 will be made unavailable to
students.

Instructors have two options for students with an incomplete in a Blackboard course site:
Option 1: Moving Content to Blackboard 6 - http://learn.vccs.edu/ The faculty member can request from their college Blackboard Administrator that the course be exported from Blackboard 5 and imported into Blackboard 6 (all enrolled students from spring and
summer 2005 will have accounts in the new Blackboard 6). The student can then be enrolled in the course site. Student course data (grades, drop box postings, discussion board posts, etc.) will not be brought over to the new system. This is a good option for students that only need access to course content.

Option 2: Completing the course in Blackboard 5 - http://bb5.vccs.edu/ The second option is for the student to complete the course in Blackboard 5. All student accounts will remain in Blackboard 5. The risk with this option is that the Blackboard 5 system is no longer a
supported environment. Blackboard will end support for Blackboard 5 in September 2005, and the VCCS will not have any official support after our August 15 Blackboard 6 Go Live date.
If an instructor would like to use Blackboard 5 for an incomplete, it is the instructor’s responsibility to make the course available to students and to communicate the url for the course location (http://bb5.vccs.edu).To make the course available to students, go to the course ControlPanel, select Course Settings and then set Course Availability to Yes.

Exceptions and Constraints
If a college has a significant number of courses that should be left available after August 16, please submit them on a spreadsheet on an IssueTrak help ticket. The issue type is Blackboard 5. Blackboard 5 may only be used for incompletes and courses that started before August 15. If instructors foresee a reason for students to have access beyond that date, the course will need to be exported and imported into Blackboard 6. Faculty may also log on to Blackboard 5 to retrieve content that they still need from there. Faculty should be aware however that the server, while functional, will not be actively maintained as a production server.

Blackboard 5 will no longer be available after December 31, 2005.

Changes to DSII (tncc.my.vccs.edu)

Posted by Matt Lawson on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 10:22 am:

For learn.vccs.edu, passwords are not yet synchronized real-time with directory. By go-live, (actually sometime before) there will be real-time password synchronization with learn.vccs.edu and directory services.

Currently, there is password synchronization, but it is done as a batch process twice a day at 11 AM and 11 PM. So if a user's password is changed in learn.vccs.edu, at 11AM/PM it will be synchronized back to directory.

If a user changes their password in directory, it wont get updated in learn.vccs.edu until 11AM/11PM.
http://tncc.my.vccs.edu/ (Directory Services II)

Blackboard Performance Testing

Posted by David Carter-Tod on Friday, July 15, 2005 - 4:45 pm:

Over the next three weeks we will be performance testing our Blackboard 6 system with a Blackboard Engineering Consultant.

Each night from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m., the system may be slow or unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

It is, however, critical work as we prepare to ensure a seamless start to the Fall semester.

Thank you Matt, David and Sue Ann

Student Access and Blackboard 5

Students will be given access to this Blackboard 6 system on August 15 at 8 a.m.
At that time, bb.vccs.edu will start to redirect to learn.vccs.edu.
To access the previous Blackboard 5 system, all users will need to go to bb5.vccs.edu.

PeopleSoft Integration with Blackboard

Posted by David Carter-Tod on Friday, July 08, 2005

One of the elements that we have discussed and planned for with Blackboard 6 was the automatic creation of classes based on PeopleSoft data and the resulting automatic enrollment management that would come with that. As we have indicated in our meetings, we have been working towards implementing that for Fall.

However, we are at the point where we need to reconsider that deadlinefor a number of reasons.

Our top priority is system stability and performance. Dedicating resources to the integration work will consume time that we need to spend on these elements.

After reviewing the business processes at all the colleges, we understand that there is a wide variety in practice at the colleges. We need more time to work together as a group to come to a consensus as to how best implement the integration. We have focused on introducing the new functionality, most notably the roles in the Community System. The roles in the Community System have formed the groundwork for our implementation of the Content System which is targeted to be released to all instructors in November. With theContent System in place, it will change how faculty manage and store their content for their courses. One consideration has been that many instructors merge and collapse course sections in order to not edit the same piece of content in multiple locations. We need the additional time this fall to study how faculty usage may change withthe implementation of the Content System and use that data to inform how we do our integrations.

We will convene an integration workgroup this fall to begin working onthe integration. We plan to have the group use the data gathered fromthe Blackboard course creation and enrollment business process interviews to draft a recommendation on how best to proceed with theintegration of Peoplesoft user and course data with Blackboard.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Matt, Sue Ann and David

Bb 6 Internal Server Error Explanation

Explanation for the following frequently encounter Bb6 error message :

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, learn@vccs.edu and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Apache/1.3.33 Server at utbc02b04v02.vccs.edu Port 800

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Posted by David Carter-Tod on Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 8:50 pm:

By way of explanation as to why some people might get the error andothers will not.

When you log on to Blackboard 6, one of the cookies that is set is "BB6ProdBigIP". This identifies which backend application server your session goes against. It has an 8-hour expiration, so once it is set, you will typically continue to go against that application server.

Others (even the person at the next computer) may be going against another server and keep going against that server. If one server is having a problem, it will only show up if your session is tied to that problem server via the cookie.

If you delete the cookie, you might be reassigned back to the same server, but with luck you might be assigned to a working server.

We are working on addressing this issue so that our load balancer ismore intelligent about detecting internal server errors and will re-assign people automatically when they occur.

Thanks

David

Server (URL) clairfication from Sue Ann

Posted by Sue Ann Curran on Thursday, June 16, 2005 - 9:30 am:

Blackboard 5 (http://bb.vccs.edu)
This is our current production environment until August 15. All courses that begin prior to August 15, will be in Blackboard 5. Students with spring and summer 2005 incompletes may continue to have access to this server.

Administrators have the option of moving the courses to Blackboard 6 after August 15 or allowing the course to continue on Blackboard 5. (You must let me smithru@tncc.edu if this appys to your situation.)

This server will be retired on December 31, 2005. Any course work that needs to be completed after the end of December must be moved to Blackboard 6.

Blackboard 6 Production (http://learn.vccs.edu)
This site is where courses for fall 2005 and later are to bedeveloped. It is also used for training on current functionality. All instructors are loaded on this server and it is updated twice daily.
(If you can not log in to this server contact me smithru@tncc.edu )

Blackboard 6 and Pop-up blockers don’t MIX!!!!

A "Pop-up Blocker" is computer software that, once installed on your computer will prevent unwanted windows from appearing on your screen. This means, as you browse the internet, the pop-up blocker prevents new browser windows from opening.

Blackboard 6 works with pop-up windows in many locations. It may be necessary to disable your pop-up blocker or set it to allow the Blackboard 6 site to use pop-up windows.

What to do: http://www.tncc.edu/blackboard/popup.htm

Blackboard 6 and Fall 05 courses

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE FALL SEMESTER BEGINS TO DO THIS.

Contact me if any of the following fail. Detail, as much as possible, for a quick resolution.

1. Check to see if you can login to Blackboard 6. http://learn.vccs.edu
2. Check to see what email Bb6 has for you. Directions: http://tncc.edu/faculty/smith/verify.htm
3. Check to see if your Fall request made it to the new server. (Only 45 courses seem to have made it over-- typically we run 250+ classes)
4. Request a FALL 05 (or RE-REQUEST) container if you don't see a class in your Bb6 space. http://tncc.edu/faculty/smith/bb.htm
   

CALL ME IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS.

DDLC Meeting Minutes

Distance and Distributed Learning Committee Meeting
June 3, 2005
AT Blue Ridge Community College

I. Welcome and Introductions

Dr. John Downey, Committee Chairperson, welcomed the group to the meeting and Dr. Sullivan to the VCCS. John explained to Dr. Sullivan the role of the DDLC in advising him on academic matters as they relate to technology, distance and distributed learning. John indicated that the DDLC was working closely with the Technology Council and the IT side of the VCCS to foster excellent communication and informed decision making.

II. Position Paper

John briefly reviewed the history of the development of a position paper on the status and future of distance and distributed learning relative to the goals of Dateline 2009. Committee members carefully reviewed the second draft of the paper, and made several suggested edits. Leslie Smith made the motion to endorse the revised draft of the DDLC position paper with the changes made during the meeting. Scott Langhorst seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The revised position paper is attached to these minutes.
John indicated that the final draft would be presented to ASAC as an information item on June 6th and 7th, toward the goal of gaining ASAC endorsement at the fall meeting of VPs and Provosts.

II. Process needed to evaluate “Plug-ins” and other software requests from colleges.

The next agenda item concerned the point that there has been no process, nor single group, that addresses requests from colleges for the purchase of state-wide software product procurement. John cited the example of plagiarism detection software that several campuses have purchased on their own. As the demand for such software has grown, individuals have petitioned the VCCS to buy the blackboard plug-in for that software. Other examples cited include plug-ins and software for voice recording that can tie into blackboard, web conferencing software like Breeze, Centra and Elluminate, and any of the 150 plus plug ins that are likely available for use in Blackboard 6.0.

John suggested a process whereby colleges would fill out a brief form documenting the purpose or need the college sought to address with a particular software product. The college would be asked to name any known competitors to the product, the academic reasons for desiring certain features etc. Once the need was documented, a small group of DDLC members, VCCS IT and academic staff and faculty could be charged with evaluating each request and making a recommendation to the DDLC. The DDLC would then make a recommendation to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Services who would work with the Vice Chancellor for ITS to obtain approval in consultation with the technology council. John acknowledged such a process could be lengthy and burdensome and sought other ideas for the evaluation of enterprise software or negotiated priced software with a college “opt-in/opt-out” option. The discussion continued with no clear consensus on developing such a process. Some members pointed out that the role of DDLC members agreed that John would work with David Carter-Tod on the VCCS staff to draft such a written proposal for a process and discuss it next meeting. John and David agreed.

IV. Update on Blackboard 6.0

David Carter Tod and Sue Ann Curran updated the DDLC on the Blackboard upgrade. 9470 courses were migrated successfully. About 1000 courses did not have a faculty member associated with them and the VCCS was working with blackboard administrators to identify those faculty and link them with the courses. The IT staff is also working on continued issues associated with multiple EMPLIDs.
Next steps include deployment of functionality beyond what was available in BB 5.5. Staff is working on creating a small consulting workgroup to address questions associated with features available in 6.0. The major features include a community system, a content system, and integration of BB with other VCCS enterprise products like student e-mail and SIS. Policy issues identified by the small group will be brought back through DDLC for advise, and to ASAC and Tech council for action.

V. Update on VCCS Portal

Scott Langhorst made a comprehensive presentation on the progress TCC was making on the creation of a portal, its benefits, and its challenges. He sought help from the DDLC and specifically requested that any members who served on the DDLC portal committee and anyone else interested join in the discussion and planning for a VCCS portal. Scott asked that any DDLC members who could assist with the VCCS portal project please e-mail him at slanghorst@tcc.edu.

VI. Proposed meeting dates

John distributed a list of proposed meeting dates for the DDLC (Also attached to these minutes). He indicated that the dates take into account ACOP and Technology Council dates but not the ASAC meeting dates which were not yet determined. DDLC members agreed to the dates and will adjust them if they interfere with ASAC dates. DDLC members also agreed on a two-day meeting in September focused on goal setting for the year to be held in Charlottesville. John will work with Mary Clare to get that meeting arranged.

VII. Governance and bylaws.

John indicated that the DDLC is operating as an advisory body to the Vice Chancellor of Academic Services and Research, but has no bylaws or operating governance structure. John suggested that we may want to address this in some future meeting. In the meantime John suggested that an election be held for chair and asked for nominations. John was nominated and elected to serve another year as chair.

VII. Virginia Education Wizard.

Neil Matkin presented on the Chancellor’s interest in pursuing another federal earmark. This earmark would be dedicated to the creation of the “Virginia Education Wizard”. The Wizard is a concept for a search engine type technology dedicated to helping Virginia’s citizens gain easy access to information about careers and educational opportunities available to them. Rather than searching for “a needle in a haystack” the project would create a system where the user could set specific search parameters and the wizard would “reply” with specific information that responds to the users questions. Neil’s PowerPoint presentation on the Wizard, along with the federal earmark proposal, will be sent to DDLC members via e-mail. (If you are interested in getting a copy of this contact Ruth Smith and I will forward you a copy,)

There being no other business, the meeting adjourned.

Hands-On Workshop: Super Users Bb 6

To register: email: smithru@tncc.edu (indicate in email the time you wish to attend)
Workshops with 0 advanced registrations will not be held.

Workshop: Checking and Cleaning Up Migrated Courses

Description: This workshop is for faculty who have had courses migrated from Bb5 server to Bb6 server. NOT new users. We will cover how to fix broken links, how to reset left navigation menus, how to reset course cartridges (if necessary), a quick overview of new features.

Note: This workshop is scheduled for 2 hours - the first 45 minutes is guided instruction, the rest of the time is for you to work on course clean up, with assistance as needed, and/or question and answers about new features in Bb 6. You should try logging into Bb6 to be sure you can prior to the workshop. http://learn.vccs.edu. Contact me ASAP if you have trouble with login and password. Your password should be the same as your current SIS (Peoplesoft PW).

Location: Diggs Hall- Room 120

Dates/Time:

• Monday-- June 13, 2005 -- 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
• Tuesday-- June 14, 2005 -- 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
• Thursday-- June 16, 2005 -- 9:00 am - 11:00 am
• Tuesday-- June 21, 2005 -- 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
• Wednesday-- June 22, 2005 -- 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
• Thursday-- June 23, 2005 -- 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
  
  
  

Migration Errors

The VCCS migrated 9,470 courses to the Blackboard 6 system. The following courses could not be associated with valid instructor accounts from Directory Services. If this is your course please let me know (via email smithru@tncc.edu) so I can attach your Bb 6 login to it.

Directions: Copy and paste the course ID into the email message. You must also include your Bb login.

TNAST2360000FA04 TNBUS100001HSP05 TNBUS2350D01HSU05 TNENG001003HSP05 TNENG102001HSP05 TNENG111019HSP05 TNENG111042HSP05 TNENG112044HSP05 TNHUM201040HSP05 TNIST112091HFA04 TNIST117014HSP05 TNIST123091HSU04n TNIST176040HFA04 TNISTDSY0001SP05 TNITE1150000SP05 TNMTH152040HSP05
TNPHI101041HSP05

Announcement from Sue Ann Curran on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - 4:14 pm:

We are pleased to let you know that the migration and preparation for production availability on June 1 is going well. Blackboard 6 will bereleased by the end of the day tomorrow.

The url will be http://learn.vccs.edu/

As we have mentioned, there will still be work to be done after it is released tomorrow, particularly with tuning and load testing, and the community system configuration options. We will keep you informed of any developments.

Thanks Matt, Sue Ann and David

Confusing - READ carefully

To see what I submitted on April 21, 2005 for Migration (Copied to Bb 6 PRODUCTION server):
http://www.tncc.edu/faculty/smith/migration/migration_list_tncc.txt

• ALL courses that end with 05 will be migrated (even if you asked that it not be migrated). We will clean up unwanted courses after the migration.
• I could not honor requests to add to our list, courses developed at another college (see next bullet).
• If we missed a course - DON'T panic! There is one last thing we can do to preserve a course. I will outline the FINAL procedure prior to the Bb 5 servers' demise (before the VCCS pulls the plug!).

Important Dates:

• May 1-Course migration starts (from the list I submitted). Any changes you make to a Bb 5 course after May 1st will not be reflected in Bb6.
• June 1-BB6 Production server available to faculty. You will check your migrated courses and "tweak" as needed for Fall 05.
• After June 2 - there will be a new way to request NEW courses for Fall 05. These procedures are as yet to be defined and will be forthcoming.
• August 15-Students go live ! Begin teaching with Bb 6.

Note (if it wasn't confusing enough *grin*):
Currently we are running several server environemnts (listed below are the ones that have an impact on faculty):

• Bb6 Train - http://bbtrain.vccs.edu
  This is an environment designed to resemble BB6 production. It is available for faculty course development and training. This will have the same look and feel of the production system, but will not be built to the scale necessary for production. Course material developed by faculty through June 7 will be migrated to production the following week. After the August 15 Go Live for the version 6 production system, the Training environment will be used in an ongoing way to introduce faculty to new features and functionality prior to release in the production environment.
• BB5 Production - http://bb.vccs.edu/
  This is the current production system. On August 15 it will be moved to http://bb5.vccs.edu and will become a “read only” resource for faculty. Student access will be disabled . This environment will be available to faculty until December 31, 2005.
• BB6 Production - http://learn.vccs.edu/
  This will be the future production system. It will be available to faculty on June 1 and will Go Live for students on August 15.

URLs

The new permanent URL for BB6 will be http://learn.vccs.edu/. From June 1 through August 15 this will be the only way to get to the system. After August 15, http://bb.vccs.edu/ (and http://www.bb.vccs.edu/) will be redirected to http://learn.vccs.edu/. This will ensure a seamless transition for students. At the same time, BB5 Production will be moved to http://bb5.vccs.edu/. http://bb.vccs.edu/ will be retired July 1, 2006.

Learn what's new and different in Bb 6.2

What’s New and Different (presentation)
Learn what's new and different in Bb 6.2

Topics Covered:

1. Course Settings
2. Content Area and Tools Features
3. Quizzes and Assessments
4. The Online Grade book
5. The Assignment Manager (Replacement to the Digital Drop Box)
6. The Collaborative Environment

Date: April 27, 2005
Place: Diggs Hall, Room 159
Times:

• 10:00a-10:30a
• 11:00a-11:30a
• 12:00p-12:30p
• 1:00p-1:30p
• 2:00p-2:30p

To register: email: smithru@tncc.edu (indicate in email the time you wish to attend)

Workshops with 0 advanced registrations will not be held.

A first peek at Bb 6

Posted by Matt Lawson on Friday, April 15, 2005 - 5:04 pm:

The ITS Blackboard team is pleased to announce that http://bbtrain.vccs.edu is available.

The accounts that were loaded on the bbtrain are all of the users from Blackboard 5 who met both of the following two conditions:

1. They were an instructor in at least one Blackboard 5 course
2. We were able to tie their Blackboard username to a valid DS2 username

A couple of reminders about the bbtrain environment:

1. This environment will be shut down on June 1. After it is shutdown, all the courses that are on bbtrain will be migrated to production version of Blackboard 6. After June 1, bbtrain will become an environment were we will be able to show faculty new features and not-yet-implemented features of Blackboard 6.
2. We want to minimize use of bbtrain. The bbtrain environment is only for faculty who cannot wait until June 1 to start building their Fall 2005 production courses. (If you need this ability contact me - Ruth Smith... However you will have to be able to work independently from documentation.)
3. If for whatever reason a faculty account does not exist on bbtrain, feel free to create an account for that faculty. Please remember though that in the ultimate production environment, only user names from DS2 will be loaded into Blackboard.
4. Although we do not anticipate dramatic changes to the bbtrain interface, there may be some changes as we customize the Bb6 interfaceand fine-tune its settings.

Impatica

Volume 01-03 - April 15, 2005

• Designing for Performance: Dividing Large Presentations
• PowerPoint Text Alignment
• Replace Missing Fonts in PowerPoint

Volume 01-02 - March 31, 2005 ·

• Impatica Video Settings
• -imp.jar
• OnCue Shortcut Keys
• Custom Install of QuickTime

Volume 01-01 - March 15, 2005

• Designing for Performance
• PowerPoint Slide Master
• LMS Systems · Embedded Sounds
  

Subscribe to Impatica Tips.

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What is Impatica?
Software that converts PowerPoint files to a small, web-friendly format, even if they include narrations and animations. The VCCS has a system-license.

Where do I get Impatica?
Download Impatica from Blackboard.
Login to Blackboard
My Organizations > Faculty Help Site >Impatica