Migration of all VCU Blackboard Courses to Blackboard Managed Hosting Facility – Jan 2, 2014
Blackboard will be down for maintenance on Thursday January 2 starting at 12:01AM, until 12:01AM on Friday, January 3. This downtime is required to migrate all VCU Blackboard data to a Managed Hosting Environment at Blackboard Inc.
It is estimated the entire time will be needed to complete the migration. If unforeseen circumstances cause the Bb system to be down longer, or if work is completed sooner than expected, updates will be posted on the VCU Learning Systems blog (http://wp.vcu.edu/learning-systems), and the Technology Services Alerts site (http://www.ts.vcu.edu).
The decision was made in order to provide the campus with the most cost-effective, reliable learning environment system. This environment allows for more timely system upgrades, fixes and hardware scalability, and also allows VCU staff to focus on support of existing tools, as well as development and research of newer learning technologies. The Learning Systems Team in Technology Services has been working with Blackboard engineers and developers for the past few months to prepare for the migration to a Blackboard Managed Hosting environment. Every attempt has been made to ensure that all course and user data is migrated successfully, and all tools, enrollment and other processes continue to function properly.
Please note, that Blackboard will NOT be upgraded to a newer version at this time. Although we would prefer to upgrade Blackboard to the latest version as soon as possible, it was recommended by Blackboard engineers not to migrate and upgrade at the same time. Each of these projects involve a high level of complexity and preparation, and therefore not a feasible option for VCU. The Blackboard version upgrade is planned for May 2014, so watch for communications about that throughout the Spring semester.
Critical things to remember:
1. The Blackboard system will be unavailable from Thursday January 2 starting at 12:01AM, until 12:01AM on Friday, January 3 (24 hours).
2. After this downtime, your Blackboard courses will continue, as usual, but you will be automatically redirected to the Blackboard-hosted servers. You and your students will still access Blackboard from the same places you do now, but you will notice a url change in the address bar of your browser, once you have been routed to the new servers. (vcu.blackboard.com). Everything else will look exactly the same and all courses, enrollments and data will remain intact.
If you have any concerns about this planned maintenance, please contact:
* Technology Services HelpIT Center
Phone: 828-2227
Email: blackboard@vcu.edu
Help ticket: [http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/]Bb Knowledge Base: www.ts.vcu.edu/kb/blackboard.html
* For Blackboard Training/Instructional Assistance, contact:
[http://training.vcu.edu] (enter Keyword: Blackboard)
Center for Teaching Excellence – [http://www.vcu.edu/cte/]
Regards,
The Blackboard Team
Categories Blackboard Downtime, Blackboard Notice, Private