Colour grades now switched off in the Blackboard App

Blackboard has switched off the colour-coding of the grade pills in the live Blackboard App. Users will need the latest version of the App to see it. Marks showing in a black pill link to further information about that assessment. Marks showing in a grey pill indicate an assessment item type that is not supported…

New in Blackboard: Audio and video feedback

You can now embed audio and video recordings (of up to five minutes in length) along with text-based feedback on any  gradable item in Blackboard (such as assignments, grade columns, wikis, blogs, discussions, tests). It’s a relatively easy process to create recordings. All you need is a built-in or external microphone or headset for audio-only recordings and…

Technology Jargon Buster Launched

As part of our Digital Essentials online course to support SHU staff in developing their digital capability, we’ve developed a ‘Jargon Buster’/glossary resource that helps explain some common, and not-so-common, technology terms that you might hear. The resource is designed to work on both mobile devices and desktop/laptop computers and you can browse through the list or search…

Blackboard temporarily unavailable – 1 February 6-7pm

Blackboard will be temporarily unavailable for about an hour, starting at 6pm on Friday, 1 February. This is due to a need to apply security patches to systems Blackboard relies on, and unfortunately this could not be done at the same time as the recent upgrade.  Please do not schedule any online learning and teaching activities…

Reminder: Blackboard upgrade 18-20 January

This is a reminder that an upgrade to Blackboard is scheduled to take place during the weekend of 18-20 January 2019. The upgrade will begin at 5 pm on Friday 18 January and continue throughout the weekend. We anticipate that Blackboard will be available again during the afternoon of Saturday 19 January but it is…

Updated student organisation enrolment tool

The tool for enrolling students on or removing students from an organisation site will be updated during the Blackboard upgrade scheduled for 18-20 January 2019. This updated tool will now instantly enrol students on or instantly remove students from an organisation site. There will no longer be a delay while the system updates site enrolments.…

New in Blackboard: Site availability toggle

This article is part of a series explaining the enhancements that will be introduced as part of the Blackboard upgrade scheduled for 18-20 January 2019. There is now an alternative way of making Blackboard sites available (and also a useful indicator to see the availability status of a site). The site availability toggle can be…

New in Blackboard: Visual improvements for Grade Centre (and more tools optimised for mobile devices)

This article is part of a series explaining the enhancements that will be introduced as part of the Blackboard upgrade scheduled for 18-20 January 2019. Blackboard have introduced visual improvements for Grade Centre, as well as continuing to develop tools that they are visually ‘responsive’ and better optimised for use on mobile devices. Visual improvements…