Vista Info

• Fall 2006 Note to Students
• Fall 2006: Vista Shell for Every Course
• Vista Update: Spring 2006 Term
• Campus Edition Migration for Summer & Fall 2006
• Spring 2006 Note to Vista Students
• Spring 2006 Note to Vista Faculty
• Old News...

Project Overview

NAU is upgrading from WebCT Campus Edition to Blackboard Vista. The Provost's Academic Computing Advisory Committee, in consultation with many faculty, recommended this upgrade to the Provost in fall 2004. The Provost and Chief Information Technology Officer supported the upgrade recommendation and the President approved the Vista upgrade in February 2005.

Project Components

There are three main components to this project: ongoing support for WebCT Campus Edition, the Vista implementation phase, and a Vista sustainability phase. Throughout this project, the current WebCT Campus Edition will remain completely functional and supported. The Vista implementation phase involves actually installing the new system, converting courses, running a pilot, and providing training for faculty and support staff on the new system. The Vista sustainability phase involves fixing whatever isn't working well and beginning to implement features that had to be postponed during the implementation phase.

Vista Implementation Timeline

An initial, "bare-bones" training system was in place by April 2005. Training and course conversion continued throughout the summer of 2005. In August 2005 a production system was launched and fall 2005 pilot classes began using the new Vista system. In spring 2006, another large batch of courses will be added to Vista and the system should be completely ready by Fall 2006 for any faculty member interested in using the new system. For more information, see project details.