Dear Colleagues:
We have endeavored over the past several weeks to keep the University
community informed of the status of the Blackboard 8.0 outages and now that the
end of the semester is approaching, we thought it would be timely to provide an
end-of-semester update on Blackboard 8.0 and CIS's plans going forward. We
know that this has been a frustrating and challenging spring semester as we
transitioned to Blackboard 8.0. The availability and operation of the
Blackboard system is a top priority and we are devoting resources to identify
the root cause(s) of the CUNY/Blackboard 8.0 problems, working with Blackboard,
Inc to support the system while it runs at its hosted environment, and
developing plans to ensure continuity of service.
Last weekend CIS moved the Blackboard 8.0 system from CUNY to
Blackboard Inc's hosted environment in Virginia. The Blackboard Inc. data
center provides 24x7x365 enhanced support mechanisms, redundant hardware and
network environments, and maintains DR plans to counter virtually every
imaginable problem. Approximately half of Blackboard Inc.'s clients use this
hosted environment. So far, the move seems to have been successful—CUNY's
Blackbooard 8.0 users are able to access courses and complete assignments, and
we are optimistic that Blackboard Inc. will be able to provide a stable
operating environment.
CIS is also
working on a long-term disaster recovery (DR) plan that will ensure that
critical applications, such as Blackboard 8.0, will continue to run in the event
of hardware or software failures, power failures or other emergency situations.
This DR site will be outside New York City, operating on an independent power
grid.
As you know from my previous
emails, the Blackboard 8.0 problems were not caused at the campus level, however
these outages do emphasize the need for comprehensive business continuity plans.
A newly formed Business Continuity Committee will help begin the planning for
potential outages in the future and support the campuses as they create
documents that will allow the work of faculty, students and administrative staff
to continue without interruption.
At
this time, the University remains committed to using the Blackboard software,
which is currently one of the leading on-line course management systems. Having
one, centralized platform benefits our students so they can use the same system
across courses. Additionally, switching to another software system makes little
sense as Blackboard contains features unavailable in comparable systems and a
switch-over to another system would take significant time. That said, our
University-wide Committee for Academic Technology will continue to review
on-line learning systems to determine the validity of CUNY's sustained
Blackboard investment.
We continue to
welcome your feedback and thoughts on the Blackboard software or other course
management systems. We appreciate your patience, support and perseverance over
this past semester. We are applying the knowledge we have gained from this past
semester to improving services and providing the best learning environment
possible at CUNY.
Brian
Cohen
Associate Vice Chancellor and University CIO
City University of New
York