Blackboard Open Forums will be held throughout the month of November at each of the five ACCD Campuses. These open forums are another way that our Vista Communication Strategy and Delivery Team is closing the communication gap between project teams and general faculty/staff. During the open forums, updates on the implementation of Blackboard Vista will be delivered with time allotted for faculty and staff to voice concerns and receive feedback.

November 13th 2007

In an effort to clarify a few pending issues, Dr. Guzman, Chair of the Vista Executvie Steering Committee, issued an announcement on Friday, November 9th, to describe the current direction of the Blackboard Vista Project Implementation in addition to the newly confirmed initiatives created by the Chancellors Executive Committee. Please see the file below for more details.

Dr. Guzman - Vista Announcement

November 7th 2007

We would like to welcome Dr. Ana "Cha" Guzman, President of Palo Alto College, as the newly appointed Chair for the Blackboard Vista Executive Steering Committee. Dr. Guzman was appointed by Dr. Leslie, Chancellor of the Alamo Community Colleges to provide oversight for distance education across the district. She held her first meeting as chair on November 6th, 2007 (See Minutes for details).

November 7th 2007

The Project Administration Team met on October 26th to discuss various issues that have yet to be resolved. With the Spring semester just around the corner, the team wanted to make sure that all corners of the project implementation were covered for the first pilot. Items that were not resolved would be taken to the Vista Executive Steering Committee for additional consideration.

October 26th 2007

During Faculty Convocation Week, we set out to inform all the faculty of ACCD of our newest eLearning Management Solution, Blackboard Enterprise Vista. Through many presentations and demos at each of the colleges, our teams gained vital feedback and positive compliments from our faculty regarding our project rollout. Although it was a team effort, the success of these presentations could not have been made without the outstanding work of our faculty team members like Dr. Carol Keller, Dr. Pamela Hill, Bess Porter, Emily Staats, and Julie Bajusz. They gave presentations that truly captured our faculty's attention and highly motivated the faculty to jump onboard the Vista Wagon. Great Job Everbody!!!

August 27th 2007

Considering that Vista is a new system with so many differences from it's older counterpart, WebCT, we have all decided that a database was needed for documenting any and all problems associated with Blackboard Vista. This will assist us with our testing and piloting, so that we can address and prepare for any issues that may come in the future. You can access the Issue Log by following the link below:

http://luminusdev.accd.edu/issuelog/

August 27th 2007

The Development Server is now available. After much anticipated wait, Amita was able to bring up the Development Server and test a number of items related to the backend of the system. All faculty who were a part of the Vista Essentials courses will have access to two course shells. One shell will be a migrated course from WebCT. The other will be a blank course to be created from scratch. As for the members of the Instructional Innovation / Technology Centers, two courses have been created for each campus center. To access the Development Server, simply follow the link below.

http://vistadev.accd.edu

August 5th 2007

Members from the training and support team came together to discuss our current elearning faculty training strategies. Team members shared innovative ideas and best practices from each of their colleges. Team discussed opening access, learning strategies and a common goal to improve quality. The objective was to come up with a single, institution wide online learning certification program for the elearning faculty who are interested in teaching online courses.

July 30 2007

Several members from the ACCD Colleges and District IT participated at the Blackboard World Conference, Boston, MA. This was the firts combined annual conference of Blackboard and WebCT users. More than 2000 participants from 850 universities and colleges participated at this event. The conference was a grand success. They had several interesting sessions covering technical details, product innovation and best practices. ACCD Team came back with some innovative thoughts and ideas to help with our Blackboard Vista implementation.In this section, all visitors will be able to see the latest news and updates regarding the implementation of BlackBoard Vista Enterprise.

July 12 2007