We are pleased to announce that the Eesysoft/Impact course reports have now been updated and are available to use.
You can access course reports for a Blackboard course by going to the ‘Course Tools’ menu within the course and selecting ‘Impact course reports 1.3’.
Further details on course reports can be found in our guide to ‘Checking and improving student engagement‘.
On Monday 27 November there will be an update coming to the way that we access ‘EesySoft course reports’. This is due to changes made by the supplier that have temporarily caused loss of the function.
Once the update occurs, you will be able to access course reports for a Blackboard course by going to the ‘Course Tools’ menu within the course and selecting ‘Impact course reports 1.3’.
Further details on course reports can be found in our guide to ‘Checking and improving student engagement‘.
We apologise for any inconvenience that you are currently experiencing.
We are pleased to announce that SafeAssign, Blackboard’s originality checking tool, is now available for use in all courses using Blackboard Assignments.
The Digital Education Office has provided guidance on enabling this tool within Blackboard Assignments, which can be accessed as part of our supplementary resources for staff.
If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.
Changes to the way you access McGraw Hill content.
Due to McGraw Hill upgrading the integration between Blackboard and their content we will be upgrading to LTI Advantage in the week commmencing 6th Nov. There will be a slight change to the way you have to set up and access the McGraw Hill content within your course.
Currently there are a couple of ways to add/enable content from McGraw Hill, but this will be changing to a single link which will be visible via the Build Content menu.
McGraw Hill LTIA link example
With the upgrading of the integration come the following:
Current users will be aided in pairing McGraw Hill content by representatives from McGraw Hill, who will provide documentation for students accessing Connect from Blackboard.
As Preparation for the new academic year your unit Teams for 2022 will be archived on 31st August. This means that although the unit Teams and their SharPoint folders will still exist and be accessible, they will be set to be ‘read-only’. If you wish your unit Team to remain editable you can easily unarchive it if you are a Team owner. Please see instructions on how to do this here
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.
Qwickly have informed us that they they will be undertaking maintenance on Saturday August 12. During the maintenance period, features of Qwickly Attendance and Qwickly Course Tools may be unavailable for use.
Updates on the maintenance, including when it begins and when it’s complete, will appear on: https://www.goqwickly.com/support/.
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.
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.
The DEO has a new case study to share, available here on our case studies page. 
Creative Assessment Submission – Video, Audio and Zines
Dr Rosie Nelson from SPAIS shares their work with Martin Nutbeem and the rest of the DEO to develop a digitally supported, decolonized approach to teaching and assessment on their Queering Sexuality and Gender unit in the School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies (SPAIS). The assessment involved students creating and submitting media in the form of video, audio or a ‘Zine.
Thanks to Dr Nelson for writing this case study. If you are looking for inspiration for developing your own assessments, this case study or one of the others on our site provides a great starting point. If you’d like support in developing digitally supported assessments, please contact the Digital Education Office.