IT Services will be completing their emergency upgrades to the University network on Monday 22 March between 5.30 pm and 9 pm. This will affect access to some of the services that the Digital Education Office manages, including Blackboard and Re/Play. Further information can be found in the IT Services status item about this work.
Author: Hanrahan Highland
Interruptions to key University online services, evenings Fri 19 & Sat 20 March
IT Services will be making emergency upgrades to the University network on Friday 19 March between 6 pm and 9 pm and on Saturday 20 March between 6 pm and 9 pm. This will affect access to some of the services that the Digital Education Office manages, including Blackboard and Re/Play. Further information can be found in the IT Services news item about this work.
Resolved: Blackboard app partial service disruption
The partial service disruption that was affecting the Blackboard app has been resolved. From around 11.30 am yesterday, you may have experienced an error when attempting to log in to the app.
The root cause of the issue has been identified as an emergency security fix that was applied to one of the University’s authentication servers. We have now reconfigured the app so that it uses a different authentication server. However, the app will have cached your previous login method.
In order to login again via the Blackboard app, you need to uninstall and reinstall the app on your mobile devices.
If you are still unable to log in once you have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.
Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience that this issue has caused you.
Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information. You can also check the Blackboard status page.
Blackboard service disruption resolved
The partial service disruption that was affecting Blackboard earlier is resolved. Between 9.45 and 10.10 this morning, you may have experienced an error when attempting to log in to Blackboard, or found it responding slowly when you were logged in. Blackboard is investigating the cause of this issue.
We apologise for the disruption caused.
Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information. You can also check the Blackboard status page.
Blackboard partial service disruption
Blackboard is currently experiencing an unexpected partial service disruption. During this time, you may experience an error when attempting to log in to Blackboard, or find it responds slowly when you are logged in; you may be able to log in on a later attempt. Blackboard is investigating.
We apologise for the disruption and will provide an update when we hear anything further.
Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information. You can also check the Blackboard status page.
Media files in Blackboard and Re/Play
As a consequence of the move to blended learning, a vastly increased number of media (video/audio) files are being made available to students (recordings of seminars and tutorials, demonstrations, etc). These files should all be made available in Re/Play, rather than Blackboard, following the steps laid out in our web guide (which includes instructions for embedding the Re/Play video in Blackboard). This is for a number of reasons, including:
- Re/Play is a dedicated media storage and streaming service; Blackboard is not intended for storing or distributing files of this type
- Files added to Re/Play are automatically compressed to an appropriate size for the viewer (many students are experiencing difficulty in accessing large files)
- Video recordings in Re/Play can have automated captions added to them
- You can get detailed information about how students have been engaging with videos in Re/Play.
Media files in Re/Play can now be made available for students to download, as well as watch directly, giving students two ways to access recordings in Re/Play.
The DEO will be working with course leads to move media content into Re/Play over the coming weeks. If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.
Blackboard fix in progress
Blackboard are currently applying a fix which they believe will deal with the issue affecting adding materials to our Blackboard. We will update you when we have further information.
Blackboard partial service disruption
Blackboard is currently experiencing an unexpected partial service disruption. During this time, you may experience an error when attempting to upload materials to Blackboard. Blackboard is investigating.
We apologise for the disruption and will provide an update when we hear anything further.
Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information. You can also check the Blackboard status page.
Collaborate partial service disruption – connection error
Collaborate is currently experiencing an unexpected partial service disruption. During this time, you may experience an error when joining a Collaborate session. Blackboard Collaborate is investigating.
We apologise for the disruption and will provide an update when we hear anything further.
Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information. You can also check the Blackboard status page.
Collaborate service issue resolved
The issue affecting Collaborate has been resolved. The service was affected between 7.30 am and 9.30 am. During this time, some users may have experienced an error when joining a Collaborate session.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.