Present: I. Frieze, T. Silvestre, K. Kelly (co-chair), D. Crossman, A. Ali Ashraf, N. Majumdar, D. Davis, N. Laudato, S. Sereika, A. Blair, J. Rajgopal, and J. Erlen (co-chair)

Topic Discussion/Action

Call to order The meeting was called to order at 12:05 p.m. by J. Erlen.

Minutes of January 22, 2008 Minutes were approved as circulated.

Blackboard upgrade J. Erlen introduced N. Laudato and D. Davis from CIDDE who were invited to attend the meeting and provide information regarding the Blackboard upgrade and the issues/questions of faculty, as well as to discuss possible ways to have a smooth transition when a subsequent upgrade occurs.

N. Laudato began by saying that the transition may not have been as smooth as it could have been. There were two components with the upgrade: addition of content system and the upgrade of Blackboard 7.0 which was released in August 2005. When moving from Blackboard 6.0 to Blackboard 7.0, it was not possible to import material directly as this would retain corruptions and courses did not convert directly. If faculty had created a course using Blackboard 6.3, CIDDE could help with moving a course to 7.0. This permission was received in September 2007. A small feasibility study was done to assess the conversion process.

In Sept. 2007 CIDDE announced that there would be an upgrade to Blackboard 7.0. In October 2007 there was e-mail notification regarding the need to re-create courses if had a course using an earlier version that could not be converted. Also, there was an announcement in the October 2007 Teaching Times. An announcement was also placed on the CIDDE portal page. Suggestions were to also put such announcements in the University Times and on the Pitt homepage.

N. Laudato continued by saying that Blackboard 8.0 has been released but that there are no plans to upgrade to this version at present because of the need for CSSD to test the server. Also, the number of Blackboard courses has increased exponentially. A new feature of Blackboard is SafeAssign; however, it may not catch everything; Turn It In may be superior. CIDDE is evaluating these two systems.

All courses that were imported are not using the content system. The e-portfolio (student documentation system) functionality is not up and running; it is still being tested. Blackboard 7.0 has a wiki and blog tool.

N. Laudato understands the situation as he had to re-create courses and had to address students who have "G" grades. The plan is to maintain 6.3 for at least one year on the course development server. CSSD needs a server to test approximately 5000 courses. The suggestion to address the "G" grade issue was to accommodate "G" grades off-line or to give access to the current version of the course in Blackboard.

Discussion regarding future upgrades included the use of a webinar, traditional approaches, CIDDE making presentations to faculty in the schools and departments, meeting with faculty individually, having faculty stop in at the lab and become introduced to Blackboard, asking University Times to write articles, and waiting until summer term for any future upgrades if at all possible. A question was raised as to whether CIDDE liaisons throughout the various schools in the University are being used effectively to disseminate this information.

Of interest is the fact that there are 80,000 accounts on the Blackboard server with a 30% new adoption rate annually.

Next meeting The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 in Room 826 Cathedral of Learning beginning at 12 noon.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 1 p.m.

Submitted by,

Judith A. Erlen,

Co-chair and recorder