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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>To All Engineering Faculty & Staff,<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>It’s here! The latest version of Blackboard – <b><i>Blackboard Learn 9.1</i></b> – is here and ready for Summer 2012!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>As you may know, the university has hosted the WebCT course management system for a number of years. During this same time, the Cullen College of Engineering has hosted Blackboard Academic Suite. In February 2006, Blackboard, Inc. purchased WebCT and changed the name of the current version – “WebCT Vista” - to “Blackboard Vista”. Blackboard’s plan has been to combine the two platforms into a single, integrated system which is <b>Blackboard Learn</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Cullen College of Engineering will migrate all Engineering coursesites to the new university-supported system by the end of summer.</span></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> The university will migrate all Blackboard Vista coursesites to Blackboard Learn over the next few semesters. This Spring, four Engineering faculty - Reagan Herman, Suresh Khator, Stan Kleis, and Chad Wilson – are participating in the Blackboard Learn pilot, and the pilot is going well.<br><br></span><span style='font-size:5.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>WHO</span></u></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> does this affect? All Engineering students, faculty, and staff who use Engineering <br> Blackboard (Bb-E).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>WHAT</span></u></b><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>can you expect? Blackboard Learn 9.1 offers a number of new tools and enhancements, <br> AND the great news is that the “look and feel” of Blackboard Learn 9.1 is very similar to <br> our current version of Blackboard 8.0<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>WHEN</span></u></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> will this happen? Beginning Summer 2012 all Engineering academic coursesites will be <br> hosted on Blackboard Learn (BbL). We will work with all other coursesite “owners” <br> (departmental, research, production, special programs, test, and student organizations)<br> to move their coursesites to Blackboard Learn over the summer. The goal is to have <br> all Engineering Blackboard coursesites moved to Blackboard Learn before the Fall 2012 <br> semester begins.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>WHY</span></u></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> do this now? There are a number of reasons… <br></span><span style='font-size:5.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br></span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> 1. When Blackboard announced the plan to integrate the two systems, Engineering made <br> the decision to converge with the university when a common system became available.<br></span><span style='font-size:5.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br></span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> 2. The current version, Blackboard 8.0, used by Engineering will not be supported <br> after Fall 2012, so we would be required to upgrade to Blackboard Learn at that time.<br></span><span style='font-size:5.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br></span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> 3. Engineering’s current license for Blackboard 8.0 expires this summer; moving to the <br> university-supported system will save the college the cost of the yearly license fee.<br></span><span style='font-size:5.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br></span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> 4. Blackboard 8.0 runs Small Scale Oracle 10g on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 which has <br> reached end-of-life.<br><br><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Faculty, if you would like to use <b>Blackboard Learn</b> for your Summer and/or Fall 2012 course(s), please submit your request through the EERC website </span><a href="http://eerc.egr.uh.edu/" title="http://eerc.egr.uh.edu/"><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>http://eerc.egr.uh.edu</span></b></a><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>. Click on the <b><u><span style='color:red'>Summer/Fall 2012 Blackboard Learn Course Request Form</span></u></b> link in the center of the page.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Please complete the form and click the Submit button when you’re finished. A receipt page will appear with a link to request an additional coursesite, if needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><u><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Special Note to Faculty</span></u><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>: In the next several days, you will receive an email from </span><a href="mailto:blackboard@uh.edu"><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>blackboard@uh.edu</span></a><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> – the “Blackboard Team” - about how to request a <b><i>Blackboard</i></b> <b><i><u>Vista</u></i></b> coursesite. Please be aware that <b>Blackboard Vista</b> is a completely separate system (and very different) from the <b>Blackboard Learn </b>system that Engineering will be using. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>If you have questions about either system, do not hesitate to contact me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Debbie<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Debbie Boyer<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Blackboard Administrator<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Education Production Specialist<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Engineering Education Resource Center<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>dboyer@uh.edu 713-743-1347<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><span style='font-size:8.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><img border=0 width=200 height=34 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.png@01CD0B67.FFDCA640" alt="cid:image001.gif@01CACBF6.2B001720"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>