Essential Blackboard update 1-2 May 2020

Blackboard will be unavailable from 5pm on Friday 1 May 2020 due to an essential security update. The University constantly monitors and acts on advice/updates from suppliers to ensure the security and performance of all SHU systems and this is part of that work. This is a preventative update and there has been no security…

Blackboard update 7-9 February 2020

Blackboard will be unavailable from 5pm on Friday 7 February 2020 due to an essential security update. The University constantly monitors and acts on advice/updates from suppliers to ensure the security and performance of all SHU systems and this is part of that work. This is a preventative update and there has been no security…

New in Blackboard: Collaborate session attendance reporting

This article is part of a series explaining changes and new features introduced in Blackboard for the 2019/20 academic year. If you use Collaborate from a Blackboard site, you can choose to have Collaborate send student attendance about that session to your site’s Attendance page. Attendance session reporting is off by default. You must turn attendance reporting…

Summer 2019 Blackboard upgrade: 2-4 August and 30 August-1 September

This summer’s Blackboard upgrade will be undertaken in two phases. The first phase (2-4 August) is to enable an essential database update to the Blackboard servers. The second phase (30 August-1 September) is the actual Blackboard software update to provide us with additional features, bug fixes and security improvements. For the first phase of the upgrade, Blackboard…

Blackboard update 21-23 June 2019

Blackboard will be unavailable from 5pm on Friday 21 June 2019 due to a critical security update. The University constantly monitors and acts on advice/updates from suppliers to ensure the security and performance of all SHU systems and this is part of that work. Unfortunately this particular security update will require a greater period of downtime…

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…