Nearly four years since its last major upgrade, the Blackboard academic Web site is ready for another facelift, operators say – an upgrade that could cost the University as much as $500,000.
In the fall of 2003 the ever-expanding system received its most recent major hardware upgrade to replace some of its several servers located in the Knight Library and the University’s Computing Center behind Lillis. The system has increased in popularity nearly every year since its first test trials in 1999. About 85 percent of University students are enrolled in at least one course actively using Blackboard this term, according to data compiled by the Center for Educational Technologies. The larger server change could take place within a year.
“Some of it’s been replaced, but the database server component is getting near the end of its useful life,” said CET Director J.Q. Johnson. “Computers tend to become obsolete after four years.”
Susan Hilton, director of Administration Services and Computer Facilities at the University, said several options are being explored to decide what to do with the system, which could vary the final cost of the upgrade. Because the entire database of the system is currently stored on one server, the service has outgrown its confines as popularity grew.
“Now that we’ve seen the Blackboard system pick up so much use, we need to treat it like a critical service,” Hilton said. “It’s a mainstay with courses at the University. It doesn’t make sense to have it all on one four-year-old server with one base.”
To keep pace with the growing system, the University will consider either replacing the old server with new hardware in multiple locations to better back up the data, or simply build on existing systems.
Either way, steps will be taken to minimize the impact of such an upgrade, Johnson said. He said major upgrades are typically done during break periods when students and faculty are not on campus, and the system might see a day or two of downtime.
The entire application, which costs about $150,000 annually to maintain, resides in two main locations, Johnson said. The cost comes out of student-paid technology fees allocated by the Education Technology Committee. In addition to the database server in the Computing Center, the rest of the system is stored on application servers in the library.
The system, though somewhat costly, has a large base of support from users. The vast majority of teachers and students approached for this article said they used Blackboard frequently. Much of the support comes from the variety of features available, Johnson said.
“There is, with any technology, a range of opinion about how useful it is,” he said. “Different people have different needs, so they see different uses in the software.”
Business professor Alan Meyer, who said he has used the application since it has been available, said Blackboard allows him to give his doctoral students more control over the course through the site.
“It completely changes the course from something that’s instructor-designed to something that’s more collaborative,” Meyer said. “All I have to do is go behind the circuit board and turn all of my students into instructors. It’s really amazing.”
The simplicity of the system also helps its effectiveness, he added.
“There was a tipping point, and that tipping point was when you could count on all your students to know how to use it,” he said.
University senior Becca Shepherd said she prefers that most of her professors typically take advantage of Blackboard’s capability, which she said they do.
Shepherd said she mainly liked the system’s simplicity, and that students who miss class can more easily catch up. But there are some drawbacks for students, she said.
“It’s good because you save paper with online readings, but it sucks because I hate to read off of a screen,” she said.
Others have been slower to join the trend, such as history professor Jack Maddex, who is teaching his 41st year at the University.
“My tendency is usually to take up any new technology about the time my colleagues discard it as obsolete,” said Maddex, who admitted to using an old-fashioned overhead projector in his classes. “Usually I keep doing about what I’m doing with minor instrumental changes.”
Maddex said he felt there is still a formidable portion of the University faculty who either don’t use Blackboard in favor of their own course Web sites, or simply don’t teach online at all.
The popularity of the system places an added need to take care of the system as upgrades are considered, Johnson said.
“We’re now at the point where Blackboard is a critical service, where many faculty would claim that they can’t teach if Blackboard went down for an extended period,” Johnson said. “Given that, I have a very strong obligation to make sure that Blackboard doesn’t go down.”
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