UPDATED 7 AM WEDNESDAY - Official DCCFA Response to eCampus Outages

Since last week, faculty at all seven of the DCCCD colleges have reported numerous service and system interruptions and outages in the Blackboard/eCampus system.

In response to faculty concerns, DCCFA President Bill Hammerschlag and DCCFA Vice-President Matt Hinckley, on behalf of the DCCFA faculty council, met with DCCCD Chancellor Joe May and Executive Vice Chancellor Justin Lonon at noon Monday.

Chancellor May and EVC Lonon said they were equally frustrated by the repeated service and system interruptions and outages. Both said they have been in communication with Blackboard senior leadership, expressing that, as one of Blackboard’s top-five largest clients, DCCCD has a right to expect priority service, particularly given that the District subscribes to “premium” level support from Blackboard.

In a separate communication sent to college presidents and authorized for distribution to all stakeholders, DCCCD Chief Innovation Officer Tim Marshall said, “Please let everyone know that we are on the same version of Blackboard as other institutions. Bandwidth is not the issue. The main issue is with their ability to handle the number of transactions that our size of the district presents."

In addition, it may be that the District’s use of Blackboard – both for online courses and for face-to-face courses – has grown with a rapidity and to a scale that Blackboard did not know to anticipate.

Both Dr. May and EVC Lonon also reassured us that, in the short term, District IT and LeCroy Center personnel are working with Blackboard to help speed the fix of whatever issues arise.

As for a longer-term strategy, CIO Marshall also said that “Presidents, AVPs, and Faculty Senate (Council)” will inform discussions on the future of the LMS for the DCCCD, to ensure we have a system that meets our complex needs and performs satisfactorily throughout the year.

Similarly, both Dr. May and EVC Lonon said they want and expect faculty to play a significant role in identifying the capabilities our next LMS should have, so that students will have seamless technology support, regardless of the modality of the courses in which they enroll.

The Faculty Council welcomes the opportunity to participate in these ongoing conversations, as a means to ensure that faculty interests are represented at all stages of the process.


UPDATE AS OF 7 A.M. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6:

The Faculty Council requested, and the District has granted, a one-day extension for the filing of Fall 2017 semester grades. Here is the statement released by Anna Mays, Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational Policy:

Due to recent issues with Blackboard outages which delayed student submission of assignments and access to exams on eCampus, the deadline for posting grades is being extended (from 12/11 to 12/12 by 11:59 p.m.) to allow additional time for faculty grading and posting of grades.  

If possible, faculty are encouraged to submit grades by the previously established deadline of 12/11, because delays in posting grades prevent students from accessing grades on eConnect, registering for the appropriate courses for the next semester, and submitting updated transcripts to transfer universities. The deadline is 12/12, 11:59 p.m.; any further delay  in posting grades may be detrimental to students, especially those on financial aid, because Satisfactory Academic Progress and continued financial aid will be calculated later that week based on final grades.