UA Blackboard Learn winter 2020 upgrade

November 19, 2020

University Relations

As part of the University of Alaska's commitment to providing users with more performant and reliable services, the UA Learn winter upgrade cycle this year will also include a transition to Blackboard Learns Software-as-a-Service deployment over the holiday break.

What does this mean?

This means that UA Learn will be migrating to cloud storage solutions managed by Blackboard Learn, rather than local infrastructure.

How will this affect me?

By leveraging the reliability of cloud storage solutions, we aim to improve both the performance and responsiveness of the UA Learn platform for all our users, as well as improve on site reliability and uptime.

What will be changing during the 2020 winter upgrade?

This upgrade cycle and transition is largely a technical transition. The "face" of UA Blackboard Learn will not be changing. Users can expect to have the same visual experience with UA Learn moving forward, just with better performance.

Further, while on the SaaS deployment, UA Learn will always have access to recent Blackboard updates and bug fixes with no downtime windows.

Can I test it?

Of course! As always, users are invited to test any new Blackboard features we will be rolling out. The test instance for SaaS testing can currently be found here. All users can log in using their normal UA credentials.

When will it be happening?

The migration window for the SaaS deployment involves 5 days of scheduled downtime, currently slated to take placed between Dec. 19-31. Once a specific date range has been selected, we'll let everyone know!

As always, if you have any questions or comments related to the upgrade, contact OIT at  450-8300, 1-800-478-8226 or helpdesk@alaska.edu.