Blackboard Upgrade Announcement

During the Blackboard maintenance window, August 9-16, the Blackboard Learning System will be upgraded to version 9. This version provides enhanced workflows, a more effective user interface and an extended tool set of capabilities that will benefit instructors using Blackboard. It will no longer be necessary for instructors to access a separate control panel to make changes to their course; all options for uploading files, creating assignments and posting links will be available on the new course page. CIRT will post information about training sessions and upgrade documentation later in the summer. For more information, visit our upgrade page at http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/new_features.html.

As a reminder, Blackboard will be unavailable from August 9, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. until August 16, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. in for the maintenance window. During this system downtime, users will be unable to access Blackboard courses and the Blackboard course request system (BbCAR).

Blackboard Maintenance - Summer 2009

Blackboard will be unavailable from August 9, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. until August 16, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. in order to perform application maintenance. During this system downtime, users will be unable to access Blackboard courses and Blackboard Course Requests (BbCAR).

Bb Course Removal During August Maintenance Window

To align Blackboard account practices with UNF policies and employ best practices for data retention and optimal system performance, on August 9, 2009, we will remove courses from Bb Archive which meet the following criteria:

• any term-based course 2 years after the end of the term in which it was used (Summer 2007 and prior)
• any type of course that has been disabled for at least 3 months
• any type of course except term-based in which all users with Instructor role have their enrollment disabled for at least 3 months

Once these course(s) are removed, all course materials and other associated data will be completely deleted from Blackboard.

Instructors will receive emails listing courses in which they are an instructor that are scheduled for removal 3 months, 1 month, and 1 week prior to removal of the courses.

To preserve your course content (without the associated student records), you may Export and download your course. The Export file may be imported into an empty Blackboard course at any time in order to retrieve the course content. Click here for instructions on preserving course content .

To preserve records of student activity in a course, you may use the following tools:

Gradebook
To retain a copy of a Blackboard Gradebook, export a copy of the Gradebook to view in Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet applications. Click here for instructions on exporting a Gradebook .

Discussion Board
To save a copy of course Discussion Board postings, collect and print posts. Click here for instructions on saving Discussion Board Postings .

Blogs
To keep a copy of course blog entries, use the Export Site tool within the blog. Click here for instructions on exporting blogs .

Wikis
To keep a copy of course wikis, use the Export Site tool within the wiki. Click here for instructions on exporting wikis .

Submitted Assignments
To keep a copy of submitted assignments, use Item Download from the Gradebook Item Options. Click here for instructions on downloading assignments .

Digital Dropbox Files
To keep a copy of student files from the Digital Dropbox, download those files. Click here for instructions on downloading Digital Dropbox files .

Questions can be directed to CIRT, cirtlab@unf.edu or x.3927

Fall 2009 Course Requests Now Available

Faculty may now request Fall 2009 Blackboard courses using the BbCAR tab in Blackboard.

UNF Group Courses

Group Courses on Blackboard were unexpectedly unavailable from approximately 1:50 pm - 3:30 pm on April 15, 2009. The courses are once again available.

Blackboard Partial Outage

Blackboard was not functioning for some users this afternoon at approximately 12:45 PM. This was a partial outage and only affected certain users, while others were able to use Bb. Blackboard is functioning properly for everyone as of 1:00 PM.

Blackboard Partial Outage

Blackboard was not functioning for some users this afternoon at approximately 1:20 PM. This was a partial outage and only affected certain users, while others were able to use Bb. Blackboard is functioning properly for everyone as of 1:45 PM.