Technical complications have forced Blackboard “offline” several times this school year, but officials hope the problem is fixed.
Blackboard, the online grading system for students and professors, required immediate repair after failing within the first week of the school year.
When a problem arises in Blackboard, it trickles down, affecting other aspects of the program and making it difficult to repair, said Sean O’Malley, IT communications manager.
“The highest demand for the program is at the beginning of the semester and around finals time,” O’Malley said. “That’s always when our system takes on its biggest load because students are on it more at those times than any other.”
The Office of Information Technology identified the “technical issue” when the program short-circuited, but officials plan to put in place a procedure to catch them before they cause problems.
O’Malley said he believes the problem is completely taken care of.
“In spite of any changes made to Blackboard in my years as a Bobcat, I’ve always found the system to be clunky and unnecessarily overcomplicated. At the same time, Blackboard offers a variety of features that make teaching and learning simpler, from discussion boards to quick and efficient emailing to everyone involved in the course,” said Gabe Mitchell, graduate student teaching English.
But some professors have abandoned the program in favor over a different program, such as Robert Stewart, director of E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
“I use Top Hat because it includes interactive features not available in Blackboard, more or less incorporating ‘Clicker’ technology and Blackboard into one platform,” Stewart said.
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