Have you seen the red box with a number at the upper right of shuspace and wondered what it is?

Well shuspace now has a feature to help you keep track of activity across your Blackboard sites. In the top right of the screen you will see your name: the number after it will tell you how many updates you have (similar to how notifications work on social networks like Facebook).

Notifications toolbar showing two updates

Clicking on your name and then on the alarm clock icon  will open your Updates page. From here you can jump straight to the updated materials and activities. Clicking the cog icon  at the upper right of the Updates page  will allow you to configure your notification options, letting you switch off notifications for particular types of activity.

We think this feature will be particularly valuable for students and staff, as it allows them to keep on top of new content being added, as well as new activity on discussions, blogs and wikis.