The Nine One Chronicles
Blackboard successfully upgraded our system to 9.1 over the weekend. And we broke the LEC (Learning Environment Connector), leaving the Bb Learn and Vista systems independent. We could not, of course, leave them unattached.
Because all our courses are still in Bb Vista (WebCT), Blackboard Consulting also set us up with a Vista Courses with SSO module to re-connect the systems. Once configured, this worked great: an editable Course List including Vista’s Tool News (what’s new) notifications. I’m already hearing positive comments from faculty about this feature.
On the Bb Learn side, we’ve cleaned up the color palette a bit and made some of the tabs personalizable. Folks should like that. I’m also getting our six 9.1 pilot faculty set up on the 9.1 production server so they can do their prep for start of classes on August 23.
This afternoon, the last piece of our upgrade and post-LEC setup should be in place. Blackboard’s SIS Conversion Tool will let us load users, courses, and enrollments xml files (from Banner extracts) into the Bb Learn database, just as we do in the Vista database. Having the systems in sync is kinda important, so I’m told.
Up and running. So far, so good.