Blackboard will be performing essential maintenance overnight on Monday 9th December. Blackboard will be unavailable for around 3 hours during the maintenance window which will run from 1 – 4am GMT. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions or concerns please contact the Digital Education Office.
Important message for staff marking group assignments using B1 workflow – issue affecting feedback files
This message is for staff marking group assignments using EMA workflow B1 (the marks and feedback batch upload tool in Blackboard).
There is currently an issue affecting feedback files for group assignments only (group assignments are where one student submits on behalf of a group). Students may get an error message when trying to open feedback files which have been batch uploaded using the B1 workflow. This has been reported to Blackboard and they are working on a fix urgently.
We recommend not uploading feedback files for group assignments using workflow B1 until this is fixed. Feedback files can still be added using the standard Blackboard method as described in marking instructions for EMA workflow B2. We will update this blog as soon as we have further information from Blackboard.
If you have any questions please contact the Digital Education Office. However please be aware that the Digital Education Office is operating at extremely limited capacity at present due to industrial action. This is impacting both our response times and ability to respond to certain requests due to lack of specialist knowledge available.
Turnitin issue resolved – Unable to submit assignments 13th November
Turnitin had reported they were experiencing issues with uploading submissions to Turnitin.
This issue was resolved at 6:40pm on the 13th November. Paper processing times may take longer then usual as service gets back to normal.
Turnitin service disruption 13th November 4:30pm
Turnitin have reported that they have been experiencing issues with uploading submissions. Submissions may not upload, or take longer then expected to upload. Their engineers have identified the issue, and are working towards a resolution. You can track Turnitin’s status here: https://turnitin.statuspage.io/
Winter workshops and webinars from the Digital Education Office
Places are available on Digital Education workshops and webinars before and after Christmas, including introductions to Blackboard, creating and managing online tests, and advanced use of the Grade Centre, as well as talks from AbilityNet on digital accessibility. We are also running a series of EMA drop-in clinics around the University.
Introduction to creating and managing tests in Blackboard Webinar, 11th December 14:00-14:45
If you are interested in using Blackboard for online tests come and join our webinar on 11th December 14:00-14:45. We will look at how to create question pools, different types of questions and how to deploy tests in your course. Sign up here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introduction-to-creating-and-managing-tests-in-blackboard-tickets-80828358797
Places available on Blackboard Basics Webinar for staff – 7th November 15:00-15:30
Places are available on the Blackboard Basics Webinar for staff on Thursday 7th November 15:00-15:30.
For more information and booking see Digital Education Office Events
Digital Education Office Blackboard Basics Webinar 24th October, 15:00-15:30
Places are available on the Blackboard Basics Webinar on 24th October, 15:00-15:30.
The aim of this webinar is to provide a concise overview of the tools and features of Blackboard, enable participants to be in a position to create their own courses and share ideas on how Blackboard can be used to support learning and teaching based on examples from the University of Bristol.
For more information and to register, please visit the Blackboard Basics event page.
Introduction to the new Assessment, Submission and Feedback (ASF) area in Blackboard
Re/Play adding and reusing content problems.
Following the changes made to the unit codes as part of the SLSP project we are currently investigating a problem where the search functions will not return results for the new unit code catalogs.
There are two ways we would recommend reusing or adding recordings in to Blackboard –
Add Presentation tool –
- Navigate to the content area in the Blackboard course where you would like to add the recording
- Ensure Edit Mode is ON and then select Build Content
- Select Mediasite – Link to presentation(s)
- Enter the name of the presentation you wish to add and select Search Presentations
- tick the box to the left once located and then Submit
- Click OK
- The recording will now be at the bottom of the page and can be moved as required.
Embedding –
- Open Blackboard and select the My Re/Play Tab
- Scroll down and select Share Presentation
- Select Copy if you want to add a link or select Embed and then Copy if you wish to add a responsive video player
- Navigate to the content area in the Blackboard course where you would like to add the recording
- Ensure Edit Mode is ON and then select Build Content
- Select Item
- Give the Item a Name
- To add a link simply paste in to the editor and add descriptive text so your students know what they are looking at and select Submit
- To Embed Select HTML from the bottom row of icons in the editor. If you can not see this click the arrows in the top right. Paste in your Embed code and Update
- Add anything else you want in to the text editor and select Submit
If you do need to add a recording to the catalog for the 19/20 academic session please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk and we will be able to assist.