Posts Tagged Blackboard
Blackboard/ANGEL Update
As you know, Blackboard (Bb) has announced it is acquiring ANGEL. Twenty-nine of our system colleges have either moved to ANGEL or have plans to do so in the coming months (see below).
I spoke with ANGEL’s CEO on Wednesday and will speak with ANGEL and Bb’s CEOs next week. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask Michael Chasen (Bb CEO), please send them to me. For example, I am going to suggest he make ANGEL the main software and supplement it with the best of Blackboard’s features… and adopt ANGEL’s customer service models.
What happens now? Nothing changes in the short-term. WashingtonOnline will turn off its Blackboard software license on June 30, 2009 and will complete its transition to ANGEL. We will proceed with existing ANGEL deployment plans, full integration with SMS, and faculty professional development activities. The WAOL technology fee remains the same low $4 / user / quarter (unlimited use).
We will closely watch (at least) six things over the next 1-2 years
- Does ANGEL technical (hosting and premium admin) support remain solid?
- When Bb bought WebCT, WebCT support waned. We will be monitoring this very closely.
- Are there continued investments in the ANGEL platform re: functionality?
- … as evidenced in multiple substantive “dot” releases
- Does Bb give our system representation on their highest advisory and product development councils?
- I have already requested a seat on Bb’s Client Advisory Council.
- Will Bb commit to keeping our contract pricing stable after our 3-year contract expires?
- I will be pushing to drive our prices lower due to our systems’ online growth and increased use.
- What does Bb signal about their short, mid and long term plans for ANGEL LMS and ePortfolio products?
- re: maintaining the product lines, end-of-life, and/or transition planning to Bb NG.
- If Bb does merge ANGEL and Bb products, what are the ANGEL-to-new tool migration tools and paths?
Blackboard’s words will mean little – we shall watch their actions and hold them accountable to the service terms in our contracts.
If Blackboard behaves well and meets our expectations, we’ll have a system conversation about renewing our contract. If they do not, there is nothing to stop us from running an RFP at the end of our contract (expires June 30, 2011). No one wants to migrate again / ever, but that is the power we have to demand excellent service and continued low pricing from Blackboard… and I shall remind them of it.
Regardless of what Blackboard does or does not do, we will be successful in brining innovative online, hybrid and web-enhanced learning spaces to our students and faculty.
Warm regards,
Cable Green, PhD
eLearning Director
SBCTC
Add comment May 19, 2009
Regarding Weekend Blackboard Trouble
We received this from Blackboard regarding the connectivity trouble over this past weekend:
Subject: Blackboard ASP -General_Announcement
General Announcement: Dear Valued Customer,
Yesterday and today, we received a number of calls from clients concerning connectivity issues to their Managed Hosting environments. Many of these have been narrowed down to routing via your Comcast Internet Service Provider.
We have made adjustments to bypass the preferred provider we believe is the bottleneck in routing the packets to and from the end users. We have received feedback that clients have seen improvement in doing this.
Earlier, we made attempts to assist all clients affected by reaching out and working with Comcast directly. Comcast requested that each client call and submit a ticket with their specific client information to assist in the troubleshooting process.
At this time, we believe our modifications have corrected the situation. If your ISP is Comcast, and you continue to experience issues with sporadic connectivity, you can log an issue with Comcast directly or submit a ticket to us and we will troubleshoot accordingly.
Thank you,
Blackboard Client Support
Add comment September 30, 2008
