Author: Hanrahan Highland

[CLOSED] Issues accessing other tools via Blackboard

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Update: Normal access to tools accessed through Blackboard has been resumed. There were issues between 07.44 and 11.13 today. 

There is a global issue creating intermittent issues with accessing other tools and services through Blackboard. This is affecting, for example, access to Re/Play, Turnitin and Marks Extract. The Blackboard engineers have identified the issue and are working on fixing it. We will provide an update on this blog as soon as we have one.

If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Resource Lists (Talis Aspire Reading Lists) update

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Detailed instructions about how to create new Resource List links in Blackboard Original courses, using the updated Talis Aspire tool, can now be found on the Library website (support guide 5: “Publishing and sharing your list”), alongside contextual information on creating and managing the lists themselves. If you need support with updating your links, or with Resource Lists in general, please contact lib-resource-lists@bristol.ac.uk, including the unit code and name of your unit in the message.

To create new Resource List links in Blackboard Ultra courses, please follow the DEO guidance.

The old links are still working, allowing you to refer to these while creating your new links, but will stop working by the end of September, so please create the new links as soon as possible. Note that the Resource Lists themselves do not need to be updated – these will still work fine – it’s only the links to the Lists from inside Blackboard that need updating. Any links created by the old method, such as those copied from a previous year’s course, should be deleted once the new links have been created.

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

Talis Aspire Reading Lists changes

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As part of the improvements to the ways other tools are integrated with Blackboard, the Talis Aspire Reading Lists integration has been upgraded, so the links in this coming year’s Blackboard courses to Talis Aspire Reading Lists (or Resource Lists) will need to be updated accordingly. Note that the Talis Lists themselves do not need to be updated – these will still work fine – it’s only the links to the Lists from inside Blackboard that need updating. Unfortunately, there is no way to automatically convert the old links to the new format, so the links will need to be re-added, following our guidance. Any links created by the old method, such as those copied from a previous year’s course, should be deleted.

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Changes to Blackboard Submission Receipts

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Blackboard is deprecating support for the Receipting Building Block, which we use to customise the receipt students receive when submitting work to a Blackboard Assignment, at the end of 2023. This will lead to two changes in the submission receipts that are important to note.

For students

  • Currently, the email receipt includes a link that students can use to download a copy of their submitted document(s).
  • From 2024, this link will not exist, and students will only be able to download a copy of their submitted document(s) if the submission point is available to them.

For administration staff

  • Currently, submission receipts are stored for review within the content system of a given course.
  • From 2024, submission receipts will be stored within the Grade Centre’s “Reports” function.

The default wording from 2024 will be:

Your submission has been received and we have recorded the following details.
[These include Confirmation ID, Course Title, Course ID, Assignment Name, Date and Time of Submission, File name(s) and size(s).]
Please retain this receipt. If you have any queries about your submission, please contact your school.

[Closed] Imported groups missing for Qwickly Attendance

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There has been a problem with importing groups from the timetabling system, Syllabus+, into Blackboard. IT Services has been investigating the problem and hopes to have a solution soon. In the meantime, staff will not be able to take attendance with Qwickly using these imported groups, although manually-created groups will be available for taking attendance as usual. There is also the option to take attendance using the ‘All Students’ option in Qwickly:

Alternatively, you can take a paper record of attendance and use the ‘Past Time’ option in Qwickly to enter the attendance at a later date.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this. If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

2023/24 Blackboard “parent” courses available

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The annual “rollover” of Blackboard courses has been completed, and the 2023/24 Blackboard courses are available to access now, including “parent” courses.

The courses are copies of the previous year’s courses, where those exist, including any template. New units, or units that have had a change of unit code, will be generated as copies of the school’s template, or as a generic template if your school does not have its own template. Copied courses will need to be refreshed for the new academic year.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

2023/24 Blackboard courses now available

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The annual “rollover” of Blackboard courses has been carried out, and the 2023/24 Blackboard courses are available to access. We are now working on building “parent” courses, where these are needed, and they should be ready by the end of the week.

The courses are copies of the previous year’s courses, where those exist, including any template. New units, or units that have had a change of unit code, will be generated as copies of the school’s template, or as a generic template if your school does not have its own template. Copied courses will need to be refreshed for the new academic year.

Students are automatically enrolled onto the courses for the programme and units that they are registered for in SITS. Instructor enrolments are copied from the previous year’s courses; instructors will need to be manually enrolled onto any new courses. Please contact your school office if you need to be added to any new Blackboard courses.

Programme-level courses and organisations are persistent and do not roll over.

The Assessment, Submission and Feedback areas of the new courses will be cleared of assessments, along with the Grade Centres, ready for the coming year’s assessments. Guidance on setting up assessments can be found on BEAM.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Blackboard Deep Link Generator update

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When you would need to create a Deep Link

Staff and students must be logged into Blackboard to open direct links to Blackboard courses or organisations. Our Deep Link Generator adapts these direct links to prompt users to log in prior to accessing a page.

Deep links are intended primarily for short-term use; for example, emailing links to specific areas of Blackboard to students and staff. If you are planning to use them more extensively, please contact the Digital Education Office for advice.

It is not necessary to use deep links within Blackboard (eg linking from a course to an organisation), as the user will already be logged into Blackboard. You can use direct links within Blackboard, or use Course Links. (Please note: direct links will need to be updated each year, as they do not automatically update when the courses are rolled over.)

Changes for 2023/24

Prior to the 23/24 academic year, each page of a Blackboard course or organisation had a unique URL, so it was possible to link directly to a specific page. However, the navigation within Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation will only display the URL for the ‘entry page’ of a course or organisation (usually the Announcements or Welcome section).

If you need to direct users to a specific section of a course or organisation, we recommend creating a deep link to the entry page and then providing guidance on where to find the section within the site.

Any deep links created prior to the upgrade to Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation will still direct the user to the correct page in Blackboard; however, the navigation away from the page will not be visible, and the user will have to go to www.ole.bris.ac.uk to access other areas of Blackboard.

How to use the generator

To create a deep link, copy the URL from the address bar of the page that you want to link to:

Go to the Deep Link Generator page, paste the URL into the box, then click on the ‘Encode’ button:

The updated URL can now be copied and shared as needed.