The next phase of the Blackboard upgrade is about to occur. Beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 12, through noon, Monday, Aug. 15, the Office of Technology Services will be performing the migration to the new system and activating the new Blackboard 6 servers.
We need to ask for your cooperation and assistance in completing this transition as quickly as possible with the least amount of disruption to services. We also would like to restate some of the changes that will affect your usage of Blackboard.
Critical Downtime Information:
From 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, through noon, Monday, Aug. 15, all Blackboard services will be inaccessible. This downtime is necessary to migrate all of the current courses and data to the new system, perform final product updates and configuration changes, and to properly test the integrity of the migration.
How You Should Prepare:
As mentioned in the previous Daily Digest message, in preparation for the switchover this weekend, we ask that all faculty members do the following:
1. Download a copy of the grade book for each course site you own. Instructions can be found here: {http://wwwnew.towson.edu/adminfinance/ots/training/documentation/Blackboard/Exporting%20your%20Gradebook%20Faculty.pdf}.
2. Make an archive copy of your course sites. Instructions can be found here: {http://wwwnew.towson.edu/adminfinance/ots/training/documentation/Blackboard/Archiving%20Your%20Course%20Site%20Faculty.pdf}.
3. Verify that each course site has been cleaned out (remove all users from course sites). Instructions can be found here: {http://wwwnew.towson.edu/adminfinance/ots/training/documentation/Blackboard/Recycling%20Your%20Course%20Site%20Faculty.pdf}.
4. Make a list of all of the course sites you own ? be specific with course ID number (i.e., MKTG418G). First log in to Blackboard; click on the ?Courses? tab; print out that page and keep it for your records.
5. Review the ?My Responsibilities? document for using Blackboard found here:
{http://wwwnew.towson.edu/adminfinance/ots/training/documentation/Blackboard/Instructor_Responsibilites_Faculty.pdf}.
Important Account Changes:
The following account-related items will be changed in the new system.
1. All users will have one ? and only one ? account on the new Blackboard system.
2. All student, faculty and staff accounts on Blackboard will be tied to an active Towson University network account.
3. Request for temporary ?guest? accounts (invitations to a non-Towson guest lecturer or industry professional for limited participation in some online activities) will be handled through a form request located on the Facultyonline.towson.edu Web site.
4. All student and faculty accounts on Blackboard will use the assigned Towson University e-mail address. By order of the vice presidents, all academic and business related e-mail among Towson University constituencies should originate from and be sent to only active Towson University e-mail addresses. Other e-mail policy information can be found here:
{http://wwwnew.towson.edu/adminfinance/ots/E-mailPolicy.asp}.
5. Any student who has already ?enrolled? in a course site for the fall 2005 semester may need to re-enroll if their account name changes after the migration.
Username and Password after the Migration:
Beginning Monday, Aug. 15, we ask that you log into the new Blackboard environment and match your printed course list with the list of courses available to you on the new system. Given that we will now be using your TowsonU username and password, any courses you own under an account name that does not match your TowsonU account name will have to be manually changed by our staff after the migration. For example, if user Nick Charles? current username on Blackboard is CHARLES and his TowsonU account name is NCHARLES, then OTS staff will manually set the TowsonU account name as the instructor for each course site previously owned by user CHARLES.
Please read the instructions below under ?What to do if you Identify a Problem? if after the migration you are ?missing? course sites.
What to do if you Identify a Problem:
If you identify problems with your course site or account after you log in to the new Blackboard environment after noon on Monday, Aug. 15, please send specific and detailed information regarding the problem to the following e-mail address: blackboard@towson.edu.
Requests must originate from a Towson University e-mail account (not a Comcast, AOL or other e-mail account). Responses to e-mail support requests will only be sent to Towson University e-mail accounts. Your support requests should minimally contain the following information:
1. Your full name (i.e., Nick Charles)
2. Your TowsonU account name (i.e., NCHARLES)
3. The specific course site in question (i.e., MKGT341C)
4. As much detail as you can provide about the problem
Several OTS employees will be dedicated to problem resolution for the first few days after the transition to facilitate rapid resolution. These requests will be handled by the OTS staff in the order in which they are received.
Thank you again for your assistance and patience as we make these changes to the Blackboard system.
