Blackboard News

One of our two blackboard servers experienced some internal issues on Thursday evening, Feb 4, from about 4pm until 5:15pm. Users connected to that server experienced longer than normal delays before blackboard responded to mouse clicks or page refreshes, and in a few cases may even have gotten timeout messages from their browsers. Our second server was not affected. We understand the cause of the problem, which is a very rare issue triggered when a professor edits the text of a previously posted blackboard entry that contains erroneous HTML code. The problem is fixed in the next service pack release of blackboard.

Large portions of campus will be without power on Monday, Jan 18 (MLK Day) for electrical load testing, from 10 am until noon. We expect the blackboard system to be available throughout this period, but network access to it may be interrupted at any time.

If you’ve had problems logging in to blackboard or seeing newly added courses, here’s an important bit of info:

Although we normally synchronize information between Banner and Blackboard twice a day, this term we are currently doing that once a day, at about 6am. That means that if you make a change in your registration or create a new Duck ID, Blackboard doesn’t have that information until the next morning. Password changes happen immediately, though!

We temporarily eliminated our usual afternoon synchronization due to database performance problems that in turn cropped up as part of a software bug fix we installed over winter break. As soon as the problems are resolved we’ll go back to twice-a-day synchronization.

Coursesites for fall term have now been removed from student My Courses lists. Instructors still have access to them, though they are marked unavailable. Students who need access, e.g. to finish an incomplete, should contact the professor.

Note that if you don’t see a winter term course that you’re registered for, the problem is most likely that the professor is not yet using Blackboard. See our FAQ entry “I don’t see my course in My Courses“.

If you’re having difficulty logging in to blackboard, here are a few suggestions:

1/ Make sure that you are trying to log in using your duck ID (e.g. “jdoe”), not your 95x student id number or some other ID.

2/ When you first create your duck ID, it takes blackboard about a day to learn about it. So if you just got your duck ID and UO email account today, you’ll need to wait until tomorrow morning and then try to log in to blackboard. (Note that some of our documentation states that we synchronize twice a day. Due to database performance issues, this term we are currently synchronizing once a day, before 8am.)

3/ check out our login help file at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/scis/blackboard/help/login-help.html

Blackboard was down on Monday, Jan 4, from about 9:05am to 9:45am due to a campus-wide power failure.

As of 10:30am on Jan 4, much of campus is running on backup generator power. Facilities Services will need to shut down power on campus again, probably late today, to switch back to normal power. BLACKBOARD WILL BE DOWN BRIEFLY AT 2:30 PM, JAN 4. The power shutdown is likely to be short. Although it will disrupt network connections and computer labs, the Blackboard servers will likely continue to run using UPS power.

Update Tuesday, Jan 5: Blackboard did not go down at 2:30 PM after all, and was up all day Tuesday. However, numerous buildings on campus experienced additional power problems on Tuesday, and power problems may continue for several days.

The maintenance and upgrade process is complete and Blackboard is now available again.

During this time we upgraded the network connection for Blackboard, installed OS updates on the application servers and updated Blackboard 9.0.505.15. There were no user-visible changes but there were some important bug fixes including:

• Several system performance improvements
• A security fix
• A fix for the VTBE where the “Edit” box would sometimes cover a test question
• A fix to allow users to hide course names in “My Courses” if there are more that 25 courses
• A fix where setting course duration dates prevented an instructor from making the course available

It’s a new term, and instructors using blackboard must make their new sites available to students. To make your site available:

1. Go to the blue Control Panel menu at the lower left of any page in your site.
2. Click “Customization”, which generates an expanded menu.
3. In the expanded menu click “Properties”, which opens a new “Properties” page.
4. Scroll down to the Set Availability section of the page.
5. For “Make Course Available,” click “Yes” and then “Submit.” You’re done.

Sites from previous terms will automatically become unavailable to students during the second week of the new term.

We will be doing maintenance on Blackboard on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 from 8:00am until 4:00pm. During this time Network Services will be upgrading the network link for Blackboard and systems will be installing some operating system patches on the application servers. I will also be installing the latest Blackboard patches and there will also be some maintenance and optimization done on the database.

No user-visible changes will be made to Blackboard at this time.

There will be a power outage for much of the campus including Knight Library on Saturday, Dec 19 2009 from 7:00am-9:00am. Blackboard will be unavailable during this time.

The notification message for the power outage follows:

* *
*CAMPUS-WIDE ELECTRICAL SHUTDOWN*
*Saturday, December 19^th 7:00am -9:30am*

TO:            The Campus Community

FROM:      Debbie Cadigan, Campus Relations Manager,  Facilities Services

SUBJECT: Campus-Wide Electrical Shutdown

Campus Operations is planning a campus-wide electrical shutdown on _Saturday, December 19, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m._  This is related to the electrical infrastructure upgrade at the Central Power Station and to comply with the National Fire and Protection Association article 110 that requires us to perform annual maintenance to the campus high-voltage electrical distribution system.__

All campus facilities, except those few that receive their power directly from EWEB, will be affected.

_PLEASE NOTE*:*_ Make sure all sensitive electronics, including computers and printers, are turned off or disconnected prior to this shutdown.  Be sure everyone in your department is aware of this.

Some buildings are partially served by campus standby power or local generators.  The circuits on these systems will have a short outage of less than 10 seconds at the start of the shutdown and a quick bump at the end of the shutdown.  This bump may occur up to 20 minutes after power is restored.  Buildings served entirely by the campus standby power system will experience only one 10-second outage at the beginning of the shutdown.

After the shutdown has been completed, Campus Operations personnel will be making sure HVAC systems and elevators, as well as other equipment, are reset. _At this time only a weather or other related emergency would cause this shutdown to be delayed. If this were the case, a notification will be sent by noon, Friday, December 18^th . _

If you have specific questions about this shutdown, please contact Del McGee, ext. 6-5387 or _mcgee@uoregon.edu;_ Ernie Svensson at 6-2302 or _ecs@uoregon.edu;_ or Greg Haider at 6-2302 or greghaid@uoregon.edu.  I realize some of you will receive this notice more than once as you are on more than one building user distribution list. My apologies for that.

*_BUILDINGS NOT AFFECTED BY THE POWER OUTAGE_*

AAA Woodshop                                       HEP Offices/Classrooms             Rainier Building
Alder Hall                                                   Howe Field                                   Riley Hall
Agate Hall/Agate House                            Innovation Center                          Riverfront Research Park
Autzen Complex                                       LERC/Military Science                  Specialized Training 582,603
Baker Center                                            Millrace Studios 1,2,3                    Trailers 054, 055, 057, 058
Barnhart Hall                                             Moss Street Childcare                  U of O Annex
EC-Cares                                                 MNCH 107, 115, 116                     Vet. Services Quonset 108
Fine Arts (No.SiteArts 125)                      MNCH (1724 Moss)                       Facilities Quonsets 128, 132
Greenhouses 109, 110, 111                    Neuromuscular Educ.                   134, 135