Update: WebCT availability this weekend

Based on recent changes to campus power outage schedules:

Sunday, June 22nd: WebCT availability should not be affected by the limited power outage.

Sunday, June 29th: WebCT should be up and running with generator power during the campus wide power outage. However, network availability of WebCT, especially for users on campus or in Waterview Park/University Village, may be interrupted. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

WebCT - Upcoming Power Outage

Just received this note from the WebCT folks on campus:

WebCT is on generator backup and expected to remain operational during the upcoming campus power outage this Sunday, June 22, 10am-2pm. However, due to potential network connectivity issues that are outside of our control, we cannot guarantee that WebCT will be accessible for the entirety of the power outage. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Accessing Summer ‘08 Courses

Hi folks. Just a reminder — Summer ‘08 will become available in your WebCT course list by 12am tomorrow (May 23rd), the first day of classes.

Important WebCT Login Information

Currently Internet Explorer users are not able to login directly to WebCT through Galaxy. For direct WebCT login try one of the following solutions:

1. Change your browser to FireFox

2. Go directly to WebCT via http://webct6.utdallas.edu/

 

WebCT Scheduled Downtime

UTD Information Resources has announced hardware upgrades on Sunday, March 2 and Sunday, March 9 that will result in WebCT downtime from 7:00 am to 10:00 am CT.

We urge you to schedule your studies around the outages, as WebCT will not be available during these times.

WebCT Access Hours *Not* Restricted

Good afternoon everyone.

Earlier today, it was brought to our attention that some of you are experiencing the following error when trying to log into WebCT at very late or very early hours of the day:

* WebCT

The Student Information System is now closed. Hours of operation:
Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Monday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Thursday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m. - 11:59 p.m.

Understandably, this is a big problem for many, if not most, of you, since usage is very high at the very hours this says WebCT is not available. So, we immediately checked with our WebCT Administrators and found out the following:

The direct link to WebCT (http://webct6.utdallas.edu) will always work, even if the link to WebCT is not showing in Galaxy and if it is outside normal SIS operating hours.

The information presented in Galaxy should be updated soon; however, until that time, we recommend that you access WebCT by using the direct WebCT url above.

WebCT Issues

We are hearing from faculty and students (and we ourselves have found) that WebCT is experiencing issues this morning. People are trying to load their course lists, but it does not pull up. (We have heard of some other issues that might be related as well — problems uploading files if you are able to get into WebCT, and getting “access has been denied” errors when trying to access a specific course.) We’ve contacted the WebCT admins in Info Resources, and they’re looking into the issue. We’ll post updates here as we get them.

Update (1/7, 3:10pm): IR has opened a ticket with Blackboard/WebCT. They’re working to solve this problem ASAP.

Update (1/7, 6:50pm): The WebCT server was rebooted at around 5:50pm, and things seem to be better. Most of us are now able to log in and access our course lists. If you’re still experiencing problems, however, please be sure and email us.

Update (1/7, 7:08pm): Unfortunately, it seems that we spoke to soon. Server issues still exist. IR is still working with Blackboard/WebCT on this. We’ll post any updates we receive. (FYI — IR also has a page where they post updates on outages.)

Update (1/8, 3:10pm): The IR Outage Updates page is reporting that they have a potential fix. They’re in the process of rebooting the WebCT server in order to implement this fix.

Update (1/8, 6:10pm): Unfortunately, the earlier attempt to fix the WebCT issues we’re seeing did not help. We’ve been assured by IR that they will be working through the night to get this resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience.

Update (1/9, 9:10am): Please visit the IR Outage Updates page for further updates to this situation. Thanks.

Latest Java Plugin Now Supported/Recommended

Hi folks. Over the holiday break, the good people over in our IR department applied a patch to the WebCT servers that addressed several issues in WebCT. One of these issues pertains to the Java plugin. Last year, we posted about how you needed to install an old version of Java and turn off the auto-update because at that time, WebCT did not yet support the latest version.

Well good news folks! Now, WebCT supports the most recent version of Java. (In fact, the IR team is strongly recommending that students go ahead and update their Java, as they suspect some functions might not work properly if you continue using the old version.) So, below are the steps you need to go through in order to update your Java.

1. Uninstall the old version of Java. (To do this, go to Start >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall the old version — or versions — of Java or “J2SE” that you currently have installed.)
2. Visit http://www.java.com and download and install the latest version of Java.

As always, email us if you have any questions. Thanks, and good luck with classes on Monday!

WebCT Upgrade/Outage

The following message was just added to the Announcements in WebCT; however, just in case any of you missed it, we’re re-posting it here:

WebCT Unavailable, 5pm 14 Dec through 16 Dec

The UTD eLearning Team is pleased to announce that an updated version of WebCT is ready to be released to the campus. This will be a minor update, from version CE 6.1.0 to CE 6.2.2, and will not be as disruptive as the change from CE 4.1 to CE 6.0. There are many benefits this will offer to the UTD community, including more than 2000 bug fixes, and several feature enhancements, listed at the link below.

Upgrade Schedule: The update will take place from 5:00 pm Friday, 14 December 2007 through Sunday, 16 December 2007. Please see the eLearning Team website for the list of enhancements and other details.

Reminder: Java Issues in WebCT

Good morning folks! I’ve had a few of you email me regarding random problems you’re experiencing with WebCT. Just wanted to remind you guys about the Java issues that we’ve seen with WebCT that could be the cause of these problems.

First thing you want to do is check to make sure you have only one version of Java running on your computer. To do this, go to Start >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs, and see if there is more than one version of Java and/or J2SE installed on your computer. If so, uninstall all versions, and follow the Java install instructions Qin posted earlier this year. Let us know if you have any questions. And have a great weekend!