Tag: IMS


  • One of the challenges of having 42 institutions is managing the administrators. (Actually we created some 12 spare institutions but why is another  post.) So my challenge was how to not drive myself insane trying to enroll the 6 same admin users to each institution. The best way in my opinion is to create the…

  • This is the second time I have worked on making Vista integration work with Banner. The first was 2005 in Vista 3.0.3 at Valdosta State. The production here at GeorgiaVIEW was set up by Harold, Jill, and Amy years ago and integrated into the install scripts or part of the cloned databases. So now I…

  • I should know better than to trust documentation over my own intuition. Or to change based on what others tell me. I followed: Log in to Vista Enterprise as a Server Administrator or Institution Administrator. NOTE: To set glcid, you must log in as a Server Administrator. From the Administration tab, click the Utilities tab.…

  • This is what I got when a node was down while I attempted to do an IMS import in Blackboard CE/Vista. Failed to upload files, exiting. Cause could include invalid permission on file/directory, invalid file/directory or repository related problems The keywords permission, file, and directory in this would have sent me anywhere but to the…

  • A student wants Blackboard Vista to not reveal his or her last name. The student has already gone to the Registrar and gotten a confidentiality flag placed on the record. As I understand it, this flag in Banner is a FERPA protection to prevent the record from being provided to parties external to the university.…

  • One of the reasons my photos sets are more full of flowers than buildings is people don’t call the FBI over pictures of flowers. While it is perfectly legal to take pictures of buildings from public spaces, it makes “victims” nervous. No one cares about flowers. I can take all the pictures I want without…

  • Marbles in the Mouth

    Dava Sobel on John Harrison in Longitute: Harrison, according to those who admired him most, never could express himself clearly in writing. He wrote with the scrivener’s equivalent of marbles in his mouth…. The first sentence [of his last published work] runs on, virtually punctuated, for twenty-five pages. I propose we call long winded typing…

  • UPDATE: Have another source who disagrees with Badge who made the claim below. ——— Hopefully this is true. I’d hate to be spreading a false rumor. Anyone willing to confirm? 😀 According to J. L. Badge, Blackboard 9 will be the “NextGen” product we are… *cough* eagerly… *ahem* waiting to see. John Fontaine was in…

  • My grandmother has recently started telling everyone she owns a house in Japan (gaijin cannot own land?). In the 1950s, my grandfather was stationed in Japan. He went over by himself, acquired a house, and sent for his wife and six kids to come. The most common story my grandmother tells is this trip over…