Blackboard have informed us that the earlier disruption to Collaborate Ultra has now been fixed. We will continue to monitor the service.
If you experience any further issues, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk
Thank you for your patience.
We reported an issue with Collaborate Ultra to Blackboard this morning. Blackboard are actively investigating the problem.
We apologise for any inconvenience and will update you in due course.
We are aware of an issue with Collaborate Ultra this morning and are working with Blackboard to resolve it.
We apologise for any inconvenience and will update you in due course.
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:
If you have a large number of links that need updating, or have any questions, please contact us via digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.
Blackboard Collaborate has advised us that there will be scheduled maintenance taking place on Thursday, August 12tth, between midnight and 4 am. During this time, users will experience intermittent availability. The purpose of the maintenance is to update Collaborate to version 21.14. You can read about improvements to functionality 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.
Blackboard Collaborate has advised us that there will be scheduled maintenance taking place on Thursday, July 8th, between midnight and 4 am. During this time, users will experience intermittent availability. The purpose of the maintenance is to update Collaborate to version 21.12.
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.
Blackboard Collaborate has advised us that there will be scheduled maintenance taking place on Thursday, June 10th, between midnight and 4 am. During this time, users will experience intermittent availability. The purpose of the maintenance is to bring improvements to mobile use of Collaborate.
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.
Further to yesterday’s post about connectivity issues to My Re/Play via Blackboard, we have added a temporary link for staff to access their Re/Play materials onto the My Re/Play tab.
When you click on the My Re/Play tab, you will now see a link which should give access to Mediasite (the software for Re/Play).
If prompted to, click on the grey ‘Authenticate’ button. You will be taken to the University’s Single Sign On page where you can log on using your normal UoB credentials. Once you have located the presentation you wish to share, click the ‘title’, then ‘share presentation’ and then the green ‘copy’ button next to ‘quick link’. You can then share this via email or as a direct link in Blackboard.
We are working with Blackboard and Mediasite to fix this issue and will provide updates via this blog.
We are pleased to announce the Xerte upgrade has been successful and Xerte is now available to staff and students.
Collaborate 
Ultra has recently been updated to provide a richer video gallery. Three new views are available:
In addition to the visual improvements, Moderators can select an individual attendee’s video or avatar window, to change their role or send them a message.
The new gallery is currently only active for Moderators and Presenters but will be rolled out to students soon.
You can read advice and guidance on using the new video gallery and views here: https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Moderator/Moderate_Sessions/Video