°ÅÀÖÊÓÆµLearn Winter upgrade

As part of the University of Alaska's commitment to providing users with more reliable services, this year's °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµLearn Winter upgrade cycle will include a transition to Blackboard Learns Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployment over the holiday break.


What does this mean?

This means that °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµLearn will be migrating to cloud storage solutions managed by Blackboard Learn, rather than local infrastructure.

How will this affect me?

By leveraging the reliability of cloud storage solutions, we aim to improve both the performance and responsiveness of the °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµLearn platform for all our users, as well as improve on site reliability and uptime.

What will be changing during the 2020 Winter Upgrade?

This upgrade cycle and transition is largely a technical transition. The "face" of °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµBlackboard Learn will not be changing. Users can expect to have the same visual experience with °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµLearn moving forward - just with better performance.

Further, while on the SaaS deployment, °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµLearn will always have access to recent Blackboard updates and bug fixes with no downtime.

Can I test it?

Of course! As always, users are invited to test any new Blackboard features we will be rolling out. The test instance for SaaS testing can currently be found  - all users can log in using their normal °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµcredentials.

When will it be happening?

The migration window for the SaaS deployment involves 5 days of scheduled downtime, currently slated to take place between December 19 - 31, 2020. Once a specific date range has been selected, we'll let everyone know!

 As always, if you have any questions or comments related to the upgrade, please feel free to reach out to the °ÅÀÖÊÓÆµBlackboard Learn Team!