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September 24, 2004

Online Course Retention Policy

We would appreciate your feedback on the proposed Online Course Retention Policy: http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/news/retentionpolicy.html

Purpose: To define how long instructors can expect online course materials stored in centrally managed space to be retained.

Key provisions: ITS will retain online course materials as described above for a minimum of two (2) years from the end of the course. Materials may be available after that two-year period, but instructors should not depend on such availability.

Retaining copies of the electronic gradebook and electronic student work is the sole responsibility of the instructor. Instructors should always make copies of the gradebook or download student work prior to removal of material from the course.

Blackboard Status

After twelve days of dramatically improved performance, Blackboard was very slow on Monday, September 20, 2004. ITS added seven more machines and changed the load balancing configuration. The system was restored to normal by 6:30 pm. There are now seventeen servers with thirty-four processors
supporting Blackboard.

Blackboard Usage

Daily usage continues to increase. Since the first day of classes, over 43,000 people have logged into Blackboard. On Monday, September 20th, there were over 3.5 million web hits with an excess of 46,000 logins (not individual users).

WYSIWYG Editor

Blackboard's WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor provides a simple
way to create formatted content in any text area. The editor only works
with Internet Explorer on a PC and can be frustrating to use when it adds
additional blank lines in announcements and other text areas. Based on the
feedback we received from last week's message, we plan to disable the tool
by default. It can then be enabled by those people who prefer to use this
editor. http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/answers/wysiwyg.html

Login Problems

We are receiving fewer reports of login problems. One computer lab identified problems with Internet Explorer and shared cookies. People using Internet Explorer on a PC sometimes have difficulties. When they enter their EID usernames/passwords, the browser clears the fields and then returns back to the login page. People can either click Refresh until they can login or they can use another browser such as Firefox. More information is available at:
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/answers/login.html

--
Carolyn Thomas
MAI 2201:: 512.232.1770
DIIA
University of Texas at Austin
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/

Prior messages are available in our announcement archive:
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/news/announcements.html

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