The blackboard performance monitor: a mystery online

Abstract

In late September 2005, the University of New Hampshire's Blackboard Learning and Community System began to slow down, disrupting the learning experience of UNH's entire academic community. We assembled an interdepartmental team to ascertain the cause of and ultimately solve this problem of stagnation. This cause itself was elusive, hidden within scores of possibilities, suggestions, and conjecture. Were online assessments overtaxing the servers? Are more servers needed? Was there a cascading effect in the internal processes, one impeding another, impeding another, etc? As questions, needs, and theories mounted, it became clear to us that comprehensive, objective, and quantifiable information would be essential to lift this fog of ignorance. Such necessity was the mother of the Blackboard Performance Monitor (BBPM), our custom designed, in-house system which collects data from the many facets of Blackboard and transforms that data into useful, web-based, graphical information. Initially, the BBPM provided us with many interesting and unfortunately unexpected answers, merely bringing yet more questions to light. But as the BBPM evolved with the needs of the team, it brought us closer and closer to our goal, until we eventually found the connection we sought, or in truth, the lack thereof.