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Working Together: The Blackboard Academic Suite at CSU Eastbay

Working Together: The Blackboard Academic Suite at CSU Eastbay. Or How we learned to stop worrying and love the omb. During this session we will:. describe our installation of BB. describe how we work together to resolve, support and improve our BB installation

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Working Together: The Blackboard Academic Suite at CSU Eastbay

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  1. Working Together: The Blackboard Academic Suite at CSU Eastbay Or How we learned to stop worrying and love the omb

  2. During this session we will: • describe our installation of BB. • describe how we work together to resolve, support and improve our BB installation • describe each individual’s specific responsibilities • showcase a successful and integrated campus wide BB installation

  3. CSUEB’s LMS History • Support from beginning by Administration • Deans • Provost • President • 1990’s • Web Course in a Box • Added eCollege – 1998 • Moved to BB at the time of Web Course in a Box purchase. • 2000 BB Implemented • Winter 2000: BB Level II with Portal • September 2000: Level III including automatic generation of courses and users. Integrated with SIS.

  4. CSUEB’s approach to BB • Support from the upper management • BB is viewed as a communication tool for the students first and a LMS second • Success is dependent on cooperation and support from all departments on campus • All aspects of campus life can benefit from the tools available through BB.

  5. CSUEB’s Hardware Environment • Running on Sun Solaris 9 • Separate Application and Database Servers • Most data storage on SAN • Nightly backups to tape • Test environment is clone of production

  6. BB Site Information • Academic Suite Enterprise • Version 6.3.1.505 • Content System • Version 2.3.1.417

  7. Administrative Policies • Updates always performed on test platform first • All major changes take place during quarter breaks • Monitoring and notification system for service outages • Nightly downtime for point in time backups • Work closely with Network Operation Center (NOC) on any network issues

  8. Database Support • Upgrade DB to newer version (currently 9.2.0.6) • Apply Oracle Critical Patch Updates • Work closely with support group and perform DB record update if needed • Enable/disable courses or enrollments • Update courses/enrollments Data Source Key • Update user information when manual account consolidation is needed • Work closely with TSM on database related issues: • DB tuning based on guideline from TSM • DB insert/update/delete actions when needed

  9. Other Duties/Admin Tasks • Work with Enrollment Services to troubleshoot student information on BB side  Troubleshoot course/assignment/enrollment snapshot. • Work with Identity Management Group to troubleshoot student information on BB side  Troubleshoot User snapshot. • Quarterly admin tasks: • Running batch course archiving script quarterly. • Running course deletion for courses which are older than 8 quarter. • Maintain only last 6 months of data in Activity Accumulator table.

  10. Building Blocks at CSUEB • Home grown building blocks • E-Grades: Faculty can submit official grades online. • Early Alert: Faculty can submit progress report online and send email to inform students of their progress in class early in the term. • 3rd party building blocks • Turnitin 2.0.3: Plagiarism prevention • Gartner Business and IT Research • Seneca Webmail • MERLOT RSS

  11. Enrollment Services • Technical Staff – 2 programmers • Admissions • Records • Financial Aid

  12. Enrollment Services – Student Information System (SIS) • IBM Mainframe • DB2 backend database • FOCUS reporting software • Automated FTP process • Student Population • 12 – 14K bodies

  13. Enrollment Services • Student Information System (SIS) • Snapshot generation • Courses (2,500) • Fall 2006 – 2500 course sections • Enrollments of 42-45K • Faculty Assignments (2,500) • Organizations (47K)

  14. Enrollment Services – Snapshot Development Challenges • Defining Course eligibility • Defining student eligibility • Defining student organization groups • Coordination between Identity Management System (IMS) and SIS • Open University/Continuing Education • Snapshot key creation process • Frequency of updates • Ongoing Problem resolution • Daily validation reports • Incorrect student records

  15. Office of Faculty Development • Brings faculty concerns to the decision making process • Communicates to Faculty • Provides Training/Workshops • User Support/Troubleshooting • Collaboration w/Media/Technology Services, Instructional Computing Services • User Support • Functionality

  16. User Support/Training • Helpdesk • Virtual – Referral Only • Faculty • In conjunction with Faculty Development & Online Programs • Workshops, One-on-One, Boot Camp • Students • No direct training – presentations on request

  17. Problem Resolution • Connectivity • Identity - Login • Course Availability • Course Tool Availability • Test Reset • Data Transfer • Course assignment to instructor • Course enrollment for students

  18. Hopefully we have demonstrated • the importance of communication between the different groups • the importance of working across group boundaries to support the application • the need for awareness beyond individual support responsibilities • the variety of skills needed to successfully support the application

  19. Thank You!

  20. Questions…making the pieces fit.

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