I’ve had access to my new Managed Hosting Blackboard environment for almost two weeks now; it’s a bit amazing how many niggling details needed to be dealt with, before the system is ready to unleash.

Among these issues:

• Decide on the internal appearance of the system, consistent with the college brand. (Let me tell you, silver and red aren’t as easy to work with as some might expect.)
• Install the extensive components (building blocks) on the old system.
• Configure these building blocks; this is extra tricky as many blocks actually connect to external data stores, such as publisher tools.
• Set up the listing of… everything. Modules, tool listings, default course menu entries, user privileges… if I get these right BEFORE launch, things will go far better than retroactive changes.
• Establish data integration frameworks; to my surprise this ended up being nearly the most straightforward piece of the puzzle.

Not everything is done already (for example, I’m still waiting to hear back about some of the building block issues relating to switching systems), but by and large the environment is ready for launch. Of course THAT process will require some finesse all of its own.

More on the launch process later. So far, so good.