November 29, 2016 - Ultra Experience Turned On in Our SaaS Test Environment

Yes, I leaped!  I have enabled Ultra in our SaaS test environment.  I did not hear any explosions nor did I smell smoke. 

I am looking forward to building a new course and restoring an "original" course into this.

Login Page

The main page (former institutional tab)

November 28, 2016 - Item Analysis Not Available in the GradeCenter

In my testing of the SaaS production environment using the Original Experience, I noticed Item Analysis was missing in the action menu for a test column in the GradeCenter.
I confirmed it is there in our self-hosted version running October 2014, CU4 but not in SaaS running Q2, 2016.  

I put in a ticket with Support and was told I can access Item Analysis from Course Management >Course Tools>Tests, Surveys, & Pools>Tests, click the down arrow beside a specific test.  While that is an option, the instructor's workflow is going to be doing this from the GradeCenter.

The following was added to my case as a Known Issue:
Knowledge Base Article Number: 000043093
Case Number: 02408564
Case Subject: No Item Analysis Available in Test Column Options
Targeted Version: Future-Reference
Estimated Timeframe: N/A

The case was closed by Support.

November 22, 2016 - Modules

Now that we have access to Communities, I want to build and use some custom modules and set up the institutional and course tabs with specific modules.  
We use 3 columns with the desire display of the following:

Institution tab - "My Bb Saint Mary's"
3 columns and 1 footer 

In left column from top to bottom: 
My Announcements 
My Media 
My Messages 

Center Column 
My Courses 

Right Column 
Video Tutorials 
What's New 
To Do 
Alerts 
Needs Attention 
Footer is Dictionary 

Course Tab - In left column from top to bottom: 
My Announcements 
My Messages 

Center Column 
My Courses 

Right Column 
What's New 
To Do 


Logged in with my username as a system admin, I was seeing the modules in a different order and I was seeing the Tools module.  I shouldn't since I had removed it as an option to view.

Logged in with a generic instructor role, I was seeing the modules in different columns.

I put in a ticket with Support and the technician went in and changed the settings for the tabs.  I responded and said no changes were to be made to our system without my permission.  He went in and changed the setting back but something happened and our branding changed again.  

I reached out to the leadership of Support with my concerns.  The case was reassigned and a note placed on our account that no changes are to be made without consulting us.  

November 21, 2016 - Server Slowness both Production and Test

I am noticing some slowness with both the SaaS Production and Test servers.  Lukas is checking that for me.

November 18, 2016 - Branding Changed - Browser Background Button Gone - Got the Fix!

When we had the servers restarted, I think our branding changed.  I cannot say for sure the restart was the cause but it isn't a problem since I know how to reset the branding the way I want except.... under Content Frame, the background image no longer displays the browser button so there appears to be no way to get from of the "+" sign background.

I put in a ticket with Support and found out in SaaS, it is functioning as designed.  
However, Support shared with me a way around it.

1. Log into the environment as a System Administrator using the Chrome browser
2. Navigate to System Admin tab > Brands and Themes > Customize Default Brand > 
3. Customize Colors
4. Right-click on the image you wish to have removed, and click "Inspect" from the drop-
5. down menu. This should open a new sub-window
1. -- NOTE: Once the Inspect console sub-window is opened, you may need to 
2. perform step 3 again to show the correct code area within the new sub-window.
6. After the image's HTML data, there should be a SPAN tag, expand that tag to see that 
7. it contains reference to the Remove button.
8. Double Click on the STYLE attribute within that SPAN tag
9. Delete the Visibility and Display information within the Double Quotes
10. Press the Enter Key to temporarily alter the page.

-- Expected Result: The button should now be visible and clickable on the screen. You should be able to do this for every image whose Removed button appears to be missing.

November 15, 2016 - CAS, Server Restarts, Collaborate Setup in SaaS, Q42016

In my weekly meeting with Lukas, BbPM, we discussed the following:

1. CAS signal-sign-on will be put on the back burner and we will revisit next summer  (Saint Mary's is the holdup on this)

2. Server Restart causing changes in building blocks is a known issue.  No fix date released yet.

3. Collaborate Ultra on SaaS requires new credentials.  We have those and have set it up.

4. Q4, 2016 was not added to our production environment yet.  Blackboard is working a problem on it in SaaS.  Lukas will keep me updated.

November 9, 2016 - SaaS Server Restart Changed Status of Building Blocks - Known Issue

When we had a rolling restart done to our SaaS production servers, the status of some building blocks changed.  Fortunately, I have my spread sheet of all the building blocks and their status so I could quickly check each.  I put in a ticket with Support and was offered the following article on Behind the Blackboard:

000042606 Some Partner Building Blocks Become Inactive After Service Restart or System Upgrade

Based on my experience, the article needs to be updated and I was told it would be.