| Outage
of online course system impacts thousands of USU students,
faculty
November 26, 2007 | LOGAN -- For thousands of Utah
State University students it wasn't the dog that ate
the homework but corrupt data in a database called Blackboard
Vista, an online course system used by university and
college students statewide and hosted by UEN, the Utah
Education Network.
As a result, any data submitted by students or faculty
between Nov. 13, at 12:30 p.m., and early morning Friday,
Nov. 16, was lost, according to Mike Petersen, UEN executive
director.
"The staff at UEN sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience
this outage caused USU students and faculty," Petersen
said. "We are doing everything we can to make sure that
it doesn't happen again."
Beyond the "thousands" estimate, it is difficult to
pinpoint how many USU students and courses were affected.
That is because it is an individual choice by faculty
whether they use the Blackboard system or not. There
is no central register, said Raymond T. Coward, USU
executive vice president and provost.
Because some students may not even be aware that this
outage occurred and that some of their assignments may
need to be re-submitted, every effort is being made
by university administrators to alert students and faculty,
Coward said.
The university has taken multiple approaches in communicating
to students through notices to all deans, department
heads and network managers as well as a paid advertisement
in the student newspaper, said Michelle B. Larson, assistant
provost.
Students who are using the Blackboard system are encouraged
to contact their instructors to make arrangements for
re-submitting work, if necessary. At this time, it is
not expected that anything lost in the outage will be
recovered, Coward said.
The provost asked that deans and department heads
be helpful and understanding with students and to act
in a manner "that is fair for the students and appropriate
for the particular situation of each course."
He said USU is proud to provide students educational
opportunities that use the latest technology, but acknowledged
that the use of advanced technology comes with some
inherent risks of data loss.
"Please accept our apology for the inconvenience this
has caused to all those who use this system," he said
in the newspaper advertisement.
UEN is taking the necessary steps to have a mirrored
backup site in place before spring semester to give
them the ability to immediately switch to a backup site
if a similar problem were to occur in the future, Petersen
said.
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