Getting Started Track
Getting Started with Building Blocks Part I & II
Murali Nagalukonda, Blackboard
Mark O'Neil, Dartmouth College
New to Blackboard Building Blocks? This first of two sessions will cover the material available in the "Getting Started with Building Blocks Guide." We will walk attendees through setting up a development environment and begin a first "Hello World" project.
The second of two sessions will continue with the "Hello World" project developed in Part I. The presenters will expand the functionality of the "Hello World" project by exploring more Blackboard Learning System APIs.
Attached is a .zip file containing the presentation slides and sample code.
PPT and Sample Code
| Apreso Recording
Project Management for Developers
Mary Sue Dahill, Blackboard
Have a great idea that you want to put into production next semester? Like it or not, you will be using project management skills to ensure that your vision becomes a reality. This session will discuss project management techniques applicable to small teams that will help you produce a quality product on time.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Java APIs in Depth: Blackboard Learning System and Blackboard Community System
David Ashman, Blackboard
Explore the Java APIs for Blackboard Learning System and Blackboard Community System! In this session we will walk through the Java APIs at a detailed level using sample Building Blocks to illustrate key APIs.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Security and Authentication with Building Blocks
David Ashman, Blackboard
Attend this session for an overview of the security in the Blackboard Learning System. Learn how Blackboard Building Blocks interact with this framework including Authentication, Authorization and Java permissions.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Access Granted: Providing Students with a Customized List of Required Textbooks
Joyce Harris, University of Texas
This session will describe the development of a Building Block module that provides students with a customized list of their textbooks for each semester on the "My Institution" tab.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Intermediate Topics Track
Back to the Feature: An Agile, User-centric Software Development Lifecycle
Martha Cooley, Blackboard
Cindy Barry, Blackboard
Users are at the heart of any new software product or feature. Yet, most software development lifecycles ignore the user in favor of more rigid requirements and an engineering-based process. This presentation will explore the agile software development lifecycle adopted by Blackboard and provide tips on how you can adapt this development process to create more user-centric Building Blocks.
PPT | Apreso Link
Customized Course Copy Procedure
Wim Machiels, K.U. Leuven
Join us for an overview of the course copy procedure at K.U. Leuven. Learn how to use the Archive Restore command line tool and take advantage of Blackboard Building Block APIs and Administrative APIs to perform pre-and post-processing course copy tasks.
PPT | Apreso Link
Clickers on Campus: Delivering a Time-saving Integration
Kevin Borgeson, University of Nebraska- Lincoln
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln started planning a limited implementation of the PRS system in the summer of 2005. To facilitate faculty use of this technology, we developed a PRS integration for our Blackboard installation. This session will describe how we accomplished our goals.
PPT | Apreso Link
Enhancing the Blackboard Calendar with Microsoft Excel Batch Import and Export
Peter Jacobs, K.U. Leuven (Toledo)
This presentation shows how to parse a Microsoft Excel file with calendar events using open source libraries and how to import the events into a Blackboard course calendar. We'll also discuss how to export the course calendar to Microsoft Excel. The possibilities of the iCalendar format are also explored.
PPT | Apreso Link
Advanced Topics Track
Consuming Blackboard Content into Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 Using WSRP
Nick Schiavi, Blackboard
The Blackboard Community System has the capability to produce JSR-168-compliant portlet content via a snap-in Building Block and a standard implementation of the Oasis WSRP specification. Four Blackboard Community System modules are offered up for consumption: MyCourses, MyGrades, MyOrganizations, and MyPortfolios.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Developing Ajax-based Building Blocks
James Black, University of South Florida
What is Ajax? How is it useful in Blackboard Building Blocks? How do you use Ajaz within JSP pages? How are tag libraries used and how is the Blackboard look and feel maintained? What about browser-dependence issues? Discuss these questions and more in this session about a new arena in web applications.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Sizing and Benchmarking
Steve Feldman, Blackboard
Can you predict how much space or capacity your Blackboard installation will need? In this session we will explore Blackboard's benchmarking methodology and metrics across Windows, Linux and Unix platforms. We will also discuss how to take advantage of Blackboard's Sizing Guide to help size your system for growth.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Blackboard Backpack: SOAP-based Mobilization for an Efficient Personal Learning Environment
Nick Schiavi, Blackboard
Learn why Blackboard Backpack was awarded the 2006 CODiE award for Best Education Technology Solution for Productivity/Creativity. Blackboard Backpack creates a personal learning environment for users by centralizing a user's Blackboard content to one manageable location.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Delivering New Data Types With Plone: A Building Block for Versatile Content Management
Patricia Goldweic, Northwestern University
Brian Nielsen, Northwestern University
Northwestern University has developed a Blackboard Building Block that offers users a versatile open source content management system called Plone. Plone provides workflow capabilities and extensible content types to allow unique functionalities for Blackboard users. Using Plone as the image repository, an image zooming and annotation tool will be demonstrated.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Security During Development
Bob Alcorn, Senior Architect, Blackboard
The ubiquity of web-based applications across virtually all disciplines and industries leads to greater convenience and utility for the end user. For the developer and administrator, however, it means increased scrutiny of the applications and headaches in the form of security vulnerabilities and breaches. Attend this session to get an overview of how to address security concerns as early as possible in the development cycle and approach application security objectively and methodically.
PPT | Apreso Recording
System Administrators Track
Personnel Contingency Planning
Wade Weichel, Blackboard
Hardware redundancy is only part of your contingency planning. Has your institution considered how heavily you rely on key personnel? This session will assist with identifying your personnel skill sets with the goal of cross-training. Additionally, tips will be provided for reducing reliance on individuals and planning for staff losses.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Improving Behind the Blackboard
Jason Minkoff, Blackboard
Blackboard's client extranet, Behind the Blackboard, is being redesigned to improve the online client and developer experience. With initial deployment on the way, we'll review new features, improvements of current functionality, and its new look and feel for faster user navigation. This session will also preview a series of scheduled improvements including a client profile and a new Wiki Knowledge Base.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Tuning Oracle for Blackboard
Volker Kleinschmidt, Blackboard
How can you ensure that your Oracle database performs at the level you expect for Blackboard? We'll cover serveral topics including: Cost-based optimizer initialization parameters, the importance of database statistics, troubleshooting bad performance, the performance report tool and additional tuning tips.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Load Balancing and Clustering
Steve Feldman, Director, Blackboard
Join us for a review on how to load balance and cluster a Blackboard installation while learning the practical advantages associated with implementing these types of configurations.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Disaster Recovery Planning
Harry Choi, Blackboard
Jonas Hirschfield, Blackboard
Is your institution prepared? Join Blackboard ASP team members as we share our experience planning for disaster recovery.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Keeping Your Eyes Open: Monitoring Blackboard
Volker Kleinschmidt, Blackboard
As your Blackboard system becomes more and more mission critical, the need to monitor its availability and performance increases. Collecting such data over time allows easier troubleshooting and problem isolation. This session presents several approaches for monitoring whether and how well key areas of Blackboard are performing.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Change Management for the Blackboard system administrator
Volker Kleinschmidt, Blackboard
Every Blackboard installation has some customizations or configurations that you need to preserve during updates or wish to apply quickly to a second server. Often it is important to know just where all those changes were made, when they were made, and what the changes were - be it for troubleshooting a problem or to ensure quick and problem-free upgrades. We will look at techniques for facilitating this process.
PPT | Apreso Recording
Special Topics Track
Introduction to the WebCT Vista PowerLinks Kit
Scott Stanley, Blackboard
The WebCT Vista PowerLinks Kit allows institutions to customize and extend their e-Learning environment. Institutions can fully integrate their own custom applications, third party solutions, or open-source tools into the online environment, creating a seamless experience for faculty and students. Come learn more about the elements of the PowerLinks Kit and the collaboration opportunities available through the WebCT Vista Developers Network.
PPT
WebCT & Blackboard: Challenges of Integration
Bob Alcorn, Blackboard
The merger of Blackboard and WebCT holds great promise of innovation in the e-Learning industry. However, the road is rife with challenges in bringing together disparate technologies and capabilities. Attend this session and get an overview of the initial technology steps in bringing the Blackboard Academic Suite together with WebCT Vista and WebCT Campus Edition.
PPT
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