MELA Meeting Minutes 2003 - 2017

believes that Blackboard can improve the relationship. He apologized on behalf of the company for the problems experienced in Blackboard 6.0. Mr. McCully stated that in years past BB technicians’ performance has been graded on the closure of “ticketed” problems. Blackboard is now grading the performance based on the quality of the response rather than the quantity of tickets addressed.  Mr. McCully stated the following: 1. The association should anticipate a contractual price increase every two years. 2. Blackboard will be moving to .net which will replace Java. 3. Blackboard 6.1 has been fully regression tested. 4. Blackboard will begin upgrading its software with “Release packages” rather than full upgrades that require down-time of the Blackboard server. 5. Clients will receive “road maps” of what each package includes. 6. Blackboard looks to release packages 3-4 times per year. 7. Blackboard anticipates the first Release at the end of February or beginning of March. 8. The Release packages will allow the client to choose what and when to deploy upgrades.  Mr. McCully offered to host a one day Blackboard conference for MSVCC.  The association asked Mr. McCully to address the following issues: 1. The use and purchase of a Portal System. 2. Hard numbers to include in budgeting for MSVCC. 3. An explanation of the roles of the Blackboard personnel. Included in this explanation should be the contact information for BB personnel. 4. Consistency in technical support throughout the state. 5. Can the MSVCC secure third party hosting. **The immediate response was “No” but Mr. McCully will further investigate this option. Mr. Smith (MGCCC) reminded the association that the SACS response is due April 19, 2004.  Mr. Smith shared that MGCCC is now requiring that each course site have a link to Faculty Information which contains a contact phone number and email address. This change should meet the requirements for recommendations 12 and 13.  MGCCC is creating a handbook for faculty that includes the procedures for: Drops, Excessive Absences, Withdrawals and Archiving. Curtis Kynerd (Hinds) and Richard Blackburn (Hinds) shared the logistics of offering a portal page on the Blackboard course site.  The portal page: 1. requires that a user go through the portal page before logging into Blackboard 2. gives one place for information to be distributed 3. assigns roles to users; these roles distinguish the information to be displayed 4. can customize the page to an individual campus  Jason Pugh plans to request a 2 month trial portal license.

B.

SACS Response- Mark Smith 

C.

Blackboard Portal for MSVCC-Curtis Kynerd and Richard Blackburn 

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