Attention eClass users,

Please be aware that there will be a brief eClass outage on Thursday September 5th, 2019 from 12:00AM (Midnight) until 12:30AM. The first 2 days of this term have set record peaks for user activity and file downloads. We have requested that our service provider take this outage to increase performance capacity.

eClass and eClassLive will be unavailable throughout the maintenance window.

Thank you very much for your patience during this outage. If you have any questions, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca.

Regards,
IST eClass Support

Welcome back everyone - we have been busy over the summer improving IST’s digital learning services. 

The major changes that will impact instructors and students in Fall 2019 are listed below:

• eClass was been upgraded bringing a number of improvements, the most notable being better options for organizing and creating eClass quizzes using tagging in the question bank. 
• ePoll has replaced iClicker as the campus centrally-supported student response system.
• The ePortfolio service has been upgraded bringing a range of new features.
• Respondus Lockdown browser has been deprecated - instructors can use ExamLock as a quiz integrity option for delivering eClass quizzes.

If you have any questions about any of these changes or new features, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca.

Regards,
IST eClass Support

UPDATE: eClass is now available - the maintenance outage was completed early and the site was released at 1:10PM on August 24th, 2019.

Attention eClass users,

There is a scheduled maintenance outage for eClass on Saturday August 24th 2019 from 12:00AM - 11:59PM. This outage is required to perform infrastructure maintenance prior to Fall term.

Please note that while we have booked a 24 hour maintenance window, eClass will be available as soon as the required infrastructure changes are complete. We will be sending an additional announcement once access to eClass has been restored.

eClass and eClassLive will be unavailable for the duration of this outage. If you have any questions about this outage, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca.

Regards,

IST eClass Support

UPDATE: the ePortfolio upgrade is complete and the service is back on line.

Attention ePortfolio (Mahara) Users,

The ePortfolio (Mahara) service will be unavailable on Friday August 23rd 2019 from 9:00AM to 2:00PM. This outage is required to apply updates to the system infrastructure and complete an upgrade to the application.

The major changes in the new version of the ePortfolio service include:

• Sharing portfolio templates with course groups is much easier: pages and collections can now be automatically copied into all group members portfolios, instructions to students on portfolio creation can be added into page settings (instead of as page content), and blocks in group pages can be locked to avoid accidental deletions.
• The navigation menu has been improved: subheadings in the dropdown menu are now organized under Create, Share, and Engage (in line with the dashboard options); User and Group search have been consolidated.
• A new timeline view has been introduced so that students can save copies of a portfolio over time to reflect on progress.
• The look of the portfolio page header has been simplified with new scrolling edit and action icons buttons added for convenience.
• It is easier to create and edit SmartEvidence templates.
• The tagging system has been overhauled to now provide browsing by tags, creation of pages based on user’s existing tags, and institution tags.

Please note: this outage only affects the Mahara ePortfolio service. eClass and eClassLive will NOT be affected by this outage.

If you have any questions about this outage, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca

Regards,
IST eClass Support

Attention eClass users,

eClass requires regularly scheduled outages to perform necessary updates and maintenance on specific dates designed to minimize the impact on the majority of users.

For the coming year, full 24-hour maintenance windows for eClass and eClassLive are scheduled for the following dates:

• August 24th, 2019
• January 4th, 2020
• May 2nd, 2020 - Major Upgrade
• June 20th, 2020

Each 24-hour outage will run from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM unless otherwise posted. eClass and eClassLive will be unavailable for the duration of each of these maintenance windows, so please plan well in advance and do not schedule any tasks that require eClass to be available during these windows.

An important change to note for the coming year is that our annual major upgrade will take place on May 2nd, 2020. This change will allow us to release the latest updates to eClass earlier in the year and provide a wider window for bug fixes before the onset of Fall term.

Please note that this new schedule only includes planned maintenance windows, and that eClass may still require emergency outages for shorter durations as necessary throughout the year.

If you have any questions about this schedule, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca

Regards,

IST eClass Support