Author Archives: Martin Nutbeem

Xerte Upgrade Thursday 10th March

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Following advice from the Xerte Development Team, IT Services will be upgrading Xerte to version 3.10.5 between 7pm and 9pm on Thursday 10th March. During this time Xerte and resources hosted on the service will be unavailable, e.g. some learning resources will not be accessible on Blackboard.

This upgrade contains important and essential security updates. We apologise for the late notice and timing; however, the upgrade is essential to ensure Xerte remains a safe and secure tool for staff and students.

Scheduled Maintenance – Blackboard Collaborate Ultra January 13th 2022

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Blackboard have advised us that there will be scheduled Blackboard Collaborate maintenance taking place on Thursday, January 13th, between midnight and 4 am. During this time, users will experience intermittent availability. The purpose of the maintenance is to update Collaborate to version 21.24. You can read about improvements to functionality and features on the Collaborate Release Notes page.

During the maintenance, you can check Blackboard’s service status page.

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

Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information.

Scheduled Maintenance – Blackboard Collaborate Ultra October 14, 2021

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Blackboard have advised us that there will be scheduled Blackboard Collaborate maintenance taking place on Thursday, October 14th, between midnight and 4 am. During this time, users will experience intermittent availability. The purpose of the maintenance is to update Collaborate to version v21.18. You can read about improvements to functionality and features on the Collaborate Release Notes page.

During the maintenance, you can check Blackboard’s service status page.

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

Please check the IT service status page to see how the University’s systems and services are working and for planned maintenance information.

H5P is now available to staff – create quizzes and learning materials

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H5P is now available to all staff through Blackboard. H5P uses attractive templates to create quizzes, interactive learning resources and presentations. H5P content can be embedded into Blackboard or added as a standalone link to pass marks into the Grade Centre.

H5P provides examples and tutorials for its various templates, you can read more in our guide to creating and embedding H5P resources.

Take a look at our H5P page for an overview of the tool. If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Xerte Upgrade 1st September

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IT Services will be upgrading Xerte to version 3.10 between 8am and 1pm on Wednesday 1st September. During this time, Xerte resources will be unavailable to staff and students. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.
This upgrade brings security updates and improved functionality, including:
  • accessibility improvements
  • enhancements to 12 existing page types
  • new page types, including Interactive 360° Images, Hotspot Questions, Interactive Video and Interactive Timeline
We will update the blog when Xerte is available again. If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Blackboard deep link generators – old links may need updating

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Our Deep Link Generator and External User Deep Link Generator allow you to create direct links to Blackboard Course and Organisation pages, which will send people to the correct page even if they are not already logged in to Blackboard. These are primarily used for emailing links to specific pages in Blackboard to students and staff. 

We have had to update these tools, following a recent change to the authentication method used by the University.  Please note that you may need to refresh your browser cache to see the updated version of the tool. 

Any links created prior to the August 3rd using these tools will need to be updated. You can do this by recreating the links using the updated tools: Deep Link Generator, External User Deep Link Generator 

If you are not sure whether a link needs updating, you can test it by clicking on the link (broken links will always result in an error). If you don’t have the original link, you can find it by following the simple steps in this video:  

Text Version of Guide

If you have a large number of links that need updating, or have any questions, please contact us via digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.