Author: admin

Thank you so very much for your patience this last week. Last week i>clicker notified us of the recent potential security vulnerability of SSL v3. As promised, they now have an update to the i>clicker software, v6.4.2, that utilizes a different security protocol to replace SSLv3.

Since this update is happening mid-term, you can find the compressed i>clicker / Bb Integrate files on our site which you will be extracting and placing in the Resources folder after you have updated your software via the WebUpdate application in your i>clicker folder.

It was brought to our attention that iGrader’s synchronization with Blackboard via the integrate module is not working due to potential security vulnerability of SSL v3.  We are awaiting a response from iClicker on a patch that should be available any day now. In the meantime please continue to poll in class and inform your students that iClicker grades will be posted by the end of the week the absolute latest.  I hope this does not cause any inconvenience.

LAST WEEK’S I>CLICKER ANNOUNCEMENT:

You have likely heard of the recent potential security vulnerability of SSL v3. As an appreciated and valued customer, we wanted to let you know as soon as possible that we are aware of this issue and let you know that your faculty users could experience issues using i>clicker as a result of this vulnerability.

Technical Explanation: i>clicker software versions 6.4.1 and earlier utilize the SSL v3 communication protocol. As a result, clients using i>clicker 6.4.1 and earlier versions of i>clicker may experience issues with LMS integrations, which includes roster sync and grade upload. So far, we have reports of issues with Canvas, Sakai, and Blackboard due to these companies disabling this communication protocol to mitigate any potential risk for secure http (https) connections.

Steps we are taking:  We are diligently working on an update, v6.4.2, which will utilize a different security protocol to replace SSLv3. All i>clicker 6.x (and earlier) users will need to update to this version to avoid disruptions with LMS integrations. This update should be available sometime next week. In the interim, instructors can continue to use i>clicker 6.4.1 with manual LMS integration rather than i>clicker integrate if it is necessary for them to sync a roster or upload grades. We plan to communicate with faculty tomorrow afternoon to alert them of this issue as well.

There remain some potential issues that relate to this same issue:

• i>clicker GO communicates with the GO servers using SSL v3. We are going to be updating the GO communication protocol and anticipate no issues with the usage of GO in class.
• The i>clicker registration database also uses SSL v3 to communicate with i>grader for Sync and other functionality. Again, we anticipate no issues with registration data communications.

We are monitoring the situation very closely and will update you immediately if necessary. As soon as the software update is available, we will communicate directly with you.

http://support.iclicker.com/customer/portal/articles/1730905-what-is-the-ssl-v3-security-vulnerability-and-how-do-i-know-if-it-affects-me-?b_id=3390

IS will be installing some critical database patches on October 28 during the 5am-7am maintenance period. There will be downtime from 5:30am until 6:30am.

On Tuesday October 14th from 4am until 7am PDT IS will be upgrading the load balancers that are used by the campus web services including Blackboard. No downtime is expected but there may be short periods of slowness.

If you experience any problems during this time, please wait a minute or so and try again.

Welcome back for Fall!  

We have new options; one is to make multiple courses available in one fell swoop and the other is the full student preview feature.

Qwickly has a number of demo videos that demonstrate how to make announcements which show up in multiple courses!  http://www.goqwickly.com/  ;    http://www.goqwickly.com/demos/

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Student preview lets you view the course exactly as a student would and record activity while testing certain features!

https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/130_Student_Performance/Student_Preview

These instructional workshops will help you excel at online course setup.

Sign-up now!

Check this list of presentations out:

• Introduction to Blackboard (September 22nd @ 1:00-2:00pm in 117 Knight Library)
• Blackboard Refresher (September 23rd @ 11:00am-12:00pm in 117 Knight Library)
• Blackboard Refresher (October 6th @ 2:00-3:00pm in 117 Knight Library)
• Advanced Blackboard Tools (October 7th @ 2:00-3:00pm in 117 Knight Library)

Update: the maintenance is complete. There was no down time.

Blackboard will be undergoing maintenance on Friday September 19, 2014 from 8am until noon PDT. There will be no downtime.

During this time a patch will be installed to prevent intermittent 508 http errors along with updates to the Software Updates, SafeAssign, Partner Cloud,  Assessment and Content Editor building blocks.

Information Services will be doing some maintenance on the virtual machines and storage infrastructure on Thursday, August 28 from 5am PDT until 7am PDT. No downtime is expected at this time.

The maintenance is now complete. We are now running the April 2014 release of Blackboard.

For a list of new and updated features please see this blog post.

SafeAssign will be unavailable during maintenance from 11pm PDT August 26 until 3am PDT August 27. The rest of Blackboard will be unaffected by this maintenance and will remain available.

The bulletin from Blackboard follows: