Blackboard Vista - How did we get here?

Do you have burning questions about our Learning Management System (LMS)? Are you wondering what happened to WebCT? Why we are using Blackboard Vista? Why has our LMS has been in such turmoil the last 2 years and who makes the decisions about our LMS? Continue reading to have these and more questions answered!

Why didn’t we continue using WebCT?

The WebCT Campus Edition product line was being discontinued and the next version available from WebCT was Vista. Due to the major infrastructure differences between WebCT Campus Edition and WebCT Vista, migrating to this new system would take anywhere from 1.5 to 3 years. Therefore the decision was made in late 2004 to begin planning for a migration to WebCT Vista.

Why didn’t we go with an Open Source option instead of WebCT Vista?

At the time that the announcement was made that WebCT Campus Edition would be discontinued, viable Open Source options were just beginning to appear and had not yet matured to the level we see today. Because Open Source was so new, very little had been developed, tested and implemented, therefore making it an invalid option for a comprehensive learning management system.

Why did we change from WebCT Vista to Blackboard Vista?

There was no change in the learning management system—just the owner of the product. In 2005 Blackboard Inc. merged with WebCT and became one company. All products previously developed, owned, and supported by WebCT were branded with the Blackboard name. UNC Charlotte, along with other WebCT clients, were unaware of the merger plans between WebCT and Blackboard until the announcement in the Summer of 2005. It came at a critical time when most WebCT-based universities (including UNC Charlotte) had already begun the migration to WebCT Vista.

How did the merger affect our plans to implement WebCT Vista?

The merger definitely had a negative impact for UNC Charlotte, as well as for other universities nationwide. Blackboard assured us that they would continue development and support for the Vista product; however, many former WebCT employees left the company, resulting in former Blackboard employees providing very limited, unsatisfactory support for a product they knew very little about. It has taken the three years since the merger for them to fully understand the Vista product they inherited and to be in a position to provide more substantial support. A lengthy, complex system migration was exacerbated by the existing flaws in the Vista product and the lack of expertise and support. With very few alternatives, most campuses (UNCC included) continued with their plans to migrate to Blackboard Vista and are currently investigating other LMS alternatives.

Why don't we just refer to the learning management system as Blackboard? Why Blackboard Vista?

After the merger, Blackboard Inc. dropped the name “WebCT” from all products, and the official name for the Vista product became “Blackboard Learning System, Vista Enterprise License”. We shortened it to Blackboard Vista. We chose not to refer to it as simply Blackboard, which is generally known as the “classic” Blackboard product (before the merger with WebCT). We chose not to call it Vista to avoid confusion with the new Microsoft (Windows) Vista product. For a short time we referred to the product as BbVista, but found that this too, caused some confusion.

Why is Blackboard Vista so different and so complicated, compared to the WebCT Campus Edition version we used previously? And why did it take so long to implement?

Blackboard Vista’s multi-tier server architecture allows several institutions to share the cost of hardware, licensing and support by housing all the institutions on one server at one location. Blackboard Vista utilizes java-based technology and a relational database infrastructure. It is designed for maximum scalability, security, and functionality. WebCT Campus Edition was a single server, licensed by and housed at each local institution. WebCT Campus Edition utilized a non-relational database, which was more suited for working with small amounts of data, and was much more limited in regards to data security and scalability. Due to the vast differences in infrastructure, moving data from WebCT Campus Edition to Blackboard Vista was not a simple task. The early tools that were developed by WebCT (and later by Blackboard Inc.) did not function as expected. Therefore, most data had to be migrated manually, one course at a time. With over 1000 courses on our WebCT Campus Edition production server and approximately 1300 on our development server, the migration took many hours of planning and consulting with faculty.

Why was our Blackboard Vista server originally administered by NC State instead of here on our campus?

NC State was the first NC campus to implement Blackboard Vista. Because hardware, licensing, and personnel resources for Blackboard Vista were extremely expensive, the Office of UNC General Administration negotiated a shared licensing agreement with Blackboard and NC State, which allowed several NC campuses to split the cost of hardware, licensing, and support.

Why did/do we have so many problems with Blackboard Vista and what is being done about it?

Several factors contributed to the difficulties we have experienced. The largest factor was the merger between WebCT and Blackboard, which came at a critical time when WebCT was still working through the “bugs” in their first releases of WebCT Vista and still attempting to develop a strong foundation and upgrade path for this “enterprise-level” system. After the merger, many former WebCT employees left the company, which resulted in inexperienced Blackboard employees attempting to support a product they knew very little about. Three years later, they are just now finally in a position to provide more substantial support and fixes for many of the issues. We have had many conversations with them regarding their lack of support, poor communication, and product issues, and although they still have room for improvement, they have made a conscious effort to provide UNC Charlotte (and other clients) with the support and reliability they promised.

An additional factor that contributed to the difficulties we experienced was the shared hosting collaborative with several NC campuses. The first of its kind in NC, this collaborative proved to be far more difficult than anyone anticipated. With NC State providing the server administration, the other campuses had very little input in regards to scheduled outages, upgrades, customizations, etc. Poor communication, constant delays and complications, combined with a faulty product, very little vendor support, and four very different campuses struggling to meet the needs of their institutions led to a very frustrating Spring 2007 semester for all involved, especially our faculty and students. It was then decided that the three other campuses would leave the NC State-hosted consortium and share the costs of being hosted by Blackboard Inc.—a smaller collaborative that has proven to be much more effective. Although coordination of upgrades and other critical tasks is still a challenge, and we are still dealing with the issues of the product itself, we do feel that we are in a much better position to meet the needs of our individual campuses. We have a hosting manager at Blackboard Inc. that is assigned to our three-campus consortium, and he works closely with us to ensure that our needs are met in a timely manner.

Why does it take so long to upgrade to newer versions or implement new functions/tools?

Having three campuses housed on the same server means that we must coordinate all upgrades or changes of any kind. This involves system administrators, support staff, directors, and CIOs at all three campuses, which means many detailed phone calls to coordinate and plan. We also must coordinate with Blackboard’s Technical Support and Services teams and our Project liaison at UNC General Administration. This is a very time consuming but necessary process, in order to minimize disruption of services to all three campuses whose academic schedules and needs differ. Each campus must have adequate time to thoroughly test all changes to ensure that everything functions properly and that no other tools or services are impacted negatively. This attention to detail and planning is critical, so each upgrade takes several months to prepare for.

Who makes the decisions about which LMS our campus will use?

Information Technology Services is responsible for purchasing, implementing, maintaining and supporting the LMS for UNC Charlotte. Determining which LMS best meets the needs of our faculty and students requires input from those who best know what the needs are—faculty and students. Normally, an evaluation committee is formed, made up of representatives from various areas of campus, such as faculty, students, ITS staff, distributed IT (colleges/departments) support staff, library staff, and other pertinent representatives. A great deal of planning goes into the decision – reviewing what LMS products are available; assessing the LMS needs of the faculty and students; determining the costs and resources involved in implementing, maintaining and supporting the product; and deciding whether or not the products are reliable, stable, and scalable for long-term use. Piloting the system in a production environment with a small number of courses is usually the final step in confirming that the product will meet our campus’ needs.

What does "integration with Banner" mean?

Blackboard Vista is configured to send and receive data directly from our Student Information System (Banner). This allows information such as faculty and student accounts, courses, sections, enrollments and faculty course assignments to be relayed to Blackboard Vista as soon as the information is entered into Banner (and sections are flagged for Blackboard Vista use). Another feature of this “real time” integration is that grades can be exported from Blackboard Vista to Banner.

Jana Avery
e-Learning Systems Administrator, CTL