Seems like no matter how you type it in the site won’t come up!! It’s disheartening how often blackboard is crashing this semester. The problem has always been eminent even in previous semesters, but for some reason I and many others have noticed that this semester it has proved to be particularly bad.
Just last night I was chatting with a friend who was supposed to take an online quiz via blackboard that was due at midnight. She couldn’t log on because the site was down and the time continued to tick. Some teachers are generous and understanding enough to extend deadlines for assignments when they know that blackboard is having trouble but others are not so cordial. I know some teachers who suggest that they give plenty of time to complete an assignment and the site cant possibly have been down for two days straight right? I mean…right? You would think that sounds like a reasonably true statement but honestly, it’s down so often that I would venture to suggest that sometimes they might as well just shut it down for good.
Now all joking aside, ASU’s website is very useful and I actually think it is quite cutting edge as far as the services it offers each student with the click of the mouse. If you came to this blog post looking for ASU’s site through Google then I wont disappoint. You can access blackboard by clicking on the link and the address for ASU’s official website is www.asu.edu. However, if the site is down, don’t hesitate to click “back” and finish reading the article cause you’re probably in for a good two hour wait while they figure things out there anyway. 
As a part time webdesigner I know how easy it is for a site to crash and how often it can happen despite one’s best efforts to prevent it. However, I do think there are a few basic things that can be done in order to keep the online class information and updates flowing and the online quizzes quizzing!
1. Make Use of the Off-season
There is always a great deal of updating and site maintainence that is required especially for a website that fosters the amount of data and programming that asu.edu and blackboard offers. But, for major design changes and additional widgets, forms, or anything that involves a great deal of programming, I think it’s a good idea to do those in between the Fall and Spring Semesters as it tends to require a good deal of tweaking and optimizing after they’ve been up in order to get them working perfectly.
2. Stop Tripping!
Oddly enough, one of the main reasons a site crashes is that someone who shouldn’t be in a server room trips on a cable or spills a drink on the equipment. Seriously though, that’s ridiculous. Let’s get some compitent (coordinated) people working in those server rooms. I’d say they should be respnsible for doing all the assignments that were due that students couldn’t get to because of their clumsiness but on second thought….
moving on!
3. Get More Band Members to Take Up a WIDER Stage!
Yeah I know, not a clever heading at all. Honestly though, whoever is running asu.edu or my.asu.edu has to know that ASU has the largest student body in the world basically. Hence, there is going to be tons of users logging on multiple times a day which is going to require a HUGE amoung of monthly bandwidth. I know it might fluctuate from month to month but figure out what the maximum usage has been and get a kagillion kbs more than that.
and finally…
4. No More Arizona Hurricanes!
I found a blog post stating the “top ten” reasons why websites crash and the number 10 reason was “Blame it on the weather – The next big hurricane hits the US East Coast.” Well I don’t know if our servers for blackboard are based on the East Coast but if they are let’s get em out of there and down here to the desert where the only cyclones we have to worry about is the occasional dust devil.
Well I hope you don’t think less of me after reading this somewhat ridiculous article. I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject by any means and that is evident from what you see here. I just wanted to vent a little to get it out of my system. It’s frustrating when the site is down as you are well aware. I know there’s no easy fix but there’s gotta be something we can do. Keep your fingers crossed though with the budget cuts and all we might be out of luck on any upgrades even for something as important as this.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Josh Nichols // Feb 25, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I’m not an ASU student but I still lol’d at this article. Great writing!
If you want to see a real online learning system check out University of Phoenix’s setup. Just don’t expect to actually learn anything while attending.
2 jkieth // Feb 25, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Haha thanks Josh. I do what I can to bash the school I love, but don’t take it personal ASU…you know I love you. I wouldn’t have the blog if I didn’t. Also, are there really people that attend the University of Phoenix? I swear I only know of people that “work” there. I here it’s crazy expensive to go and it’s really good for business majors but I honestly have never known anyone that actually goes to school there without working there. No wonder it’s so expensive…they gotta make up for the funding they give to everyone that works for them…..aka half the return missionaries in the valley. haha
3 Josh Nichols // Feb 26, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Well my wife works there and got her Masters for free. I’m going there now with an 80% off spouse discount, which brings it down a lot but it is still kind of pricey.
4 DR. Big Toe // Mar 19, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I’ve visited many campuses and ASU is one of the best and it a little pricey but well worth it.
5 What Students are Saying About ASU’s Blackboard | ASUnited (Arizona State University Weblog) // Sep 3, 2010 at 11:57 am
[...] written a number of these on a previous post where I go on some rants about it. You can read that here. I turn it into more of a joke than anything [...]
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