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[zuzu_]

Our Bb server, which is hosted by Bb has been f*cked up for nearly a week. There are two primarly problems. 1.) The mailbox is regularly wiped out, which means that most messages to and from students (and most student messages to and from each other) are regularly deleted into the ether. 2.) No one can open any files inside the course. If students attempt to open instructions, a .pdf, or a .ppt, they get a 404 error message. If I attempt to open files that students have submitted for homework, I get a 404 error messages.

I am contantly harassing IT people, who are in turn constantly harassing Bb. It was fixed for a about 48 hours, but now it's F*cked up again, and a whole bunch of mail messages dissappeared.


I am teaching an accelerated Comp 101 course right now, with a tight draft/feedback/revision cycle, and it's a freaking disaster. I can't ever remember being so frustrated with teaching. How do I cope?

[antiphon1]

I hate it when the freakin' CMS has a hissy fit. 

Can you email the students the assignments for now and pick up the other activities when the Bb people get it together?

[larryc]

Create a Google Group right now. Save all your handouts as Google Docs and link them. Email all the students and let them know you are working on it. Try calling BB directly. Think about course triage--what assignments can you ditch?

Oh, and buy some booze.

[antiphon1]

A wiki might work, too. 

And call the Bb folks. (larryc is always right)  I'd invent some medical problem exacerbated by the system failure, but that's me. 

[zuzu_]

Create a Google Group right now. Save all your handouts as Google Docs and link them. Email all the students and let them know you are working on it. Try calling BB directly. Think about course triage--what assignments can you ditch?

Oh, and buy some booze.

I've already emailed all the of documents to the students; about 40% of the students are "summer only" and have no idea how to access their college email. And it's memorial day weekend, so that can't call the college to get log in info.

There are plently a piddly assignments I can ditch or delay indefinitely; I am freaking out about the major essays. There are four. And we have to draft/workshop/revise/final all four of them in an eight week session. It's this back-and-forth nonsense that is totally tanking the class--it's not like I can just delay all of the assignments. I need time in between submissions to give detailed revision feedback. I can't open anything they've submitted.

Oh yeah, and I'm at conference right now, and trying to figure all of this out in between sessions.

[zuzu_]

And call the Bb folks. (larryc is always right)  I'd invent some medical problem exacerbated by the system failure, but that's me. 

The IT contact person is a friend of mine. I know that she has gone ballistic on Blackboard.

[larryc]

And call the Bb folks. (larryc is always right)  I'd invent some medical problem exacerbated by the system failure, but that's me. 

The IT contact person is a friend of mine. I know that she has gone ballistic on Blackboard.

Yeah but she is IT. When you call it elevates it to another level. If your dean or president call, better yet. And could you get the number from your friend and them distribute it to your students? Extra credit for the number of minutes they can spend on the phone with BB.

[zuzu_]

You know, I'm looking around, and I cannot find a phone number to contact Bb. We don't contract with Bb for support; it's all supposed to be in house. Their phone numbers are hidden.

[oldfullprof]

I knew about some of its problems before I started my current summer course, my first on BB, but not my first webcourse.  I disabled the digital drop box, and any web communication to me.  Most of the other kitch I took out too.  They have to use the school e-mail, which they need even to sign up for blackboard.  I left standing announcements, syllabus (I changed this to course instructions), course documents (I changed this to modules), examinations, and comunication (they can still have public discussions - in fact those are 50% of their grade.)  The e-mail class would have been a nice feature, but it needs me to be at school because it needs my MS Outlook to work, which it can't do from here.

[antiphon1]

You know, I'm looking around, and I cannot find a phone number to contact Bb. We don't contract with Bb for support; it's all supposed to be in house. Their phone numbers are hidden.

I'm betting there's a number on the main Bb web page.  Looking.....

Ah, not exactly what I was hoping for, but there is a list a of support numbers by region.

http://www.blackboard.com/support/phonenumbers.aspx

[flutter]

Weird. Used BB for a totally online course this spring and no big probs.

[glowdart]

Is it time for a scathing but polite letter to BB, with visible ccs to your President, Provost, IT director, etc? 

(Are you tenured?)

I thank my lucky stars every day that we don't use that software.

[oldfullprof]

The program is basically a POS.  Lotus Notes used to work pretty well when SUNY used it.

[antiphon1]

I've used Bb, WebCT, Moodle, Angel and some others I've forgotten.  Every one of them occasionally has problems.  Sometimes just a hiccup and sometimes the catastrophic meltdown zuzu is dealing with.   

[oldfullprof]

BB _____ donkey penis.