by Sandy Bennett

This summer has been a big one for Blackboard at Baylor. The Online Teaching and Learning Services (OTLS) group in Baylor’s Electronic Library, along with Information Technology Services, has been working to improve our Blackboard system to accommodate its popularity and continued growth. On July 14, Blackboard was moved to a new, top of the line, clustered computer system with built-in redundancy and increased capacity. With this significantly enhanced hardware for Blackboard, we anticipate higher performance, less downtime and room to grow.

We have also been investigating and testing Blackboard’s newest software release, version 9.0. While the new version looks promising, we and other schools discovered that the software is not yet as stable and problem-free as is needed for implementation. At this time, we have determined that it is best to wait before moving to version 9.0.

The OTLS staff is working with Blackboard to improve the new version so that we can continue to provide you with a learning management system that maintains the same reliability to which you’ve been accustomed. The new hardware for Blackboard will provide a robust platform for enhanced performance and room to grow using the current version of the system. We look forward to demonstrating Blackboard version 9.0 during this coming year, as the many exciting new features in this newest version should make your lives easier.