Yesterday from 5:51pm to 6:06pm (all times eastern) the LMS was not responsive to users. The system began to show increased response times at 5:47pm. The response times increased rapidly from under 100mS to 649mS. At 5:48pm we recorded response times above 4,000 mS. At 5:51pm the system was shut down. We rebooted two of the many systems that support the overall LMS and at 6:06pm response times returned and have been maintained at just under 100 mS. Read on for some insights into how we know about and keep track of the system. (more…)
Internet outage for some, and for a while, on Monday, 11/6/2017
Internet outages were reported across the US on Monday, 11/06/17. Reports began coming into sites like downdetector.com starting at roughly 1pm EDT and continuing until a bit after 4pm EDT. 
Reports after 4pm EDT indicated the outage issues were identified and corrected. Our LMS sites were at all times running smoothly, if you could access. Two users sitting next to each other may have had different experiences with access to this and many major sites across the internet, based on the kind of outage that occurred. This outage affected one of the major internet communication backbones.
Here are some articles that covered the incident: Click on one/each to read details of the outage and resolution.
Director, Bill Ball shared a very enlightening article yesterday with staff from vox.com. It’s an interesting look at the construction and history of the internet. It also explains much of what some of yesterday’s activities and investigations realized when looking for answers to why the internet was acting up.
We know how important these services are and will continue as always to monitor and communicate regarding site access.
Maintenance and Upgrade of the LMS Completed
The Blended Learning Management System went through, and completed, 
a large phase of maintenance and updates this weekend, as you may have seen by the notification that had been posted on the login pages for the last month-plus.
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Numerical Input Question Tolerance Addition Update – June ’17
As of Thursday, June 1st, 2017, the tolerance of + or – 2.5 % has been applied to the numerical input questions in all levels of the Code Calculations courses. Read on for the list of courses that include tolerance for numerical input questions and the date that it was applied.
Test Generator Server Maintenance
The Test Generator server will be undergoing routine maintenance starting Friday, April 7th, 2017 at 11:00 pm (EDT). The maintenance should be completed before 11:00 pm (EDT) on Saturday, April 8th, 2017. Please generate any tests needed for the entire weekend prior to 5:00 pm (EDT) on Friday, April 7th, 2017.
LMS course titles that included “with text” revised
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Fun LMS stats
The following stats are gathered partly by the comprehensive monitoring installed at the enterprise level facility where our system is located, and others are corralled by dedicated Alliance staff. Since not all Training Directors and instructors are present when these numbers have been included in presentations, some are posted here.
Metadata regarding all aspects of the LMS is gathered. Among other things, it helps to verify the hardware is applied and rated correctly, performing as it is required. It also (more…)
Disruption of LMS Service
The Blended Learning LMS experienced technical difficulties between 7:51am and 11:31am EST Sunday, December 18th.
A team of engineers, developers and Alliance staff worked to resolve the problem. After a deep investigation, it is felt we have identified the root cause and resolved the issue. During the disruption of service some users would not have experienced issues, but for others a host of connection errors were seen. A notification message to help in alerting users appeared on the login pages for both the LMS and the Enrollment Application.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. All teams who work on the system are acutely aware of how important the system is for maintaining it’s fluid operation.
Blended Learning Blog Updated Look, Feel, and Function
Welcome to the newly updated Blended Learning Instructor Portal Blog.
Offering Training Directors, administration staff, and instructors updated information on the LMS and Blended Learning continues to be a top priority and with that in mind, an updated area was constructed. 
This updated area maintains not only a place for the immediate LMS/Blended Learning update, but also acts as a repository of the past articles, info and tools.
The new updates include:
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Annual Survey Notice
For any programs that may have been missed by the recent newsletter, the Annual Survey was placed on the LMS and made available on December 1st and submissions are requested to be completed by December 30th. All Training Directors were enrolled and will find the survey located at the top of the My Courses page of the LMS. The following announcement was made to inform each Training Director of the Survey and how to access. (more…)