As part of an effort to improve performance and reliability, Vanderbilt’s OAK course management system, powered by Blackboard, is in the process of migrating from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers. The system will be unavailable Dec. 21-22 as part of this migration, and access to some courses will be limited in December.
Many courses have already been migrated and are no longer available via OAK. Migration for Fall 2014 courses will begin on Dec. 21, and OAK will be completely unavailable Dec. 21-22 to allow for the transition to Blackboard servers. Access to most courses, including Spring 2015 courses, in the Blackboard environment will be restored on Dec. 23, with the remaining courses available on Dec. 29.
Schedule:
- Dec. 21 – Migration begins for Fall 2014 courses, along with other courses not previously migrated.
- Dec. 21-22 – OAK/Blackboard completely unavailable to faculty, staff and students.
- Dec. 23 – Spring 2015 courses available on Blackboard-managed hosting, along with 2013-14 courses and non-courses (organizations).
- Dec. 29 – Fall 2014 courses available on Blackboard-managed hosting.
There are several ways that this migration may affect the work of faculty, staff and students.
Spring 2015 courses: Since migration has started for these courses, they will be unavailable to faculty until Dec. 23, at which point they will be fully accessible on Blackboard.
Fall 2014 courses: These courses will be migrated starting Dec. 21. Any changes to these courses prior to Dec. 21 will be carried over to the new environment. The courses will be available on Blackboard beginning Dec. 29. This will affect those faculty whose grades are due in January, as well as students with incompletes or other students with study needs.
Academic year 2013-14 courses: These courses have already been migrated to Blackboard and will be available starting Dec. 23. A number of these courses were reactivated in OAK by faculty request after they were migrated. Any changes to these courses made after reactivation will NOT be reflected in the Blackboard environment.
Older courses: Any pre-Fall 2013 courses reactivated by faculty request in OAK will be migrated to Blackboard and will be available starting Dec. 23. Courses older than Fall 2013 that were not reactivated in OAK will not be available in Blackboard, but they will be archived by VUIT. Access to these courses will be limited, but courses can be made available upon request.
Organizations: Non-courses (e.g., OAK groups created for faculty search committees and OAK groups created for student organizations) have been migrated and will be available in the Blackboard environment starting Dec. 23. If an organization was reactivated in OAK after it was migrated, any changes to the organization made in OAK will NOT be reflected in the Blackboard environment.
Staff members from Academic Affairs and VUIT are working to minimize possible disruptions and to respond to questions and help requests. For other questions or concerns, please email the OAK team at oak@vanderbilt.edu.