The main part of the 2013 summer upgrade to Blackboard version SP11 has been completed successfully.  We hope you find the new look an improvement.

Part of the upgrade has been to provide copies of SITS unit courses.  This means that you may see 2012-13 courses as well as 2013 versions of these unit courses in the “My Courses” box on your Blackboard home page.   Historic and current versions are clearly identified by a year suffix in the course name, and you can organise these so 2012-13 and 2013 SITS units show separately by using “Terms”. Instructions on how to do this are at: https://blackboard.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/?p=1276

The temporary replacement service used during the upgrade is no longer available to users. If you need to access data from this please contact tel-help@bristol.ac.uk

Further information about the upgrade is on the TEL website: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/esu/e-learning/projects/bbupgrade2013/

If you have any questions or would like to book a Blackboard roadshow please email tel-help@bristol.ac.uk

The summer 2013 upgrade is currently still running. We are just making final changes to the new courses for the coming academic year. Our current plan is to have the full version of Blackboard online by 2pm.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may be causing you. If you have any questions please email TEL-help@bristol.ac.uk

As part of this summer’s upgrade, Blackboard will have a new feature called the “Retention Centre”. This allows Instructors to monitor activity and participation in courses, including marks, missed deadlines, course access, and other criteria which staff can set themselves.  It can be accessed within each course Control Panel and also from the new “Global Navigation Menu“.

A 4  minute video tutorial on the Retention Centre is available.

To find out more about this or any of the other Blackboard enhancements this summer:

• come along to a dropin session
• book a Blackboard roadshow for your team, Department, School or Faculty – contact tel-help@bristol.ac.uk
• visit our upgrade webpage

This summer’s upgrade will take place between Tuesday 30th July (starting at 9am ) and Monday 5th August (midday). A temporary replacement service will be available during this time.

After this summer’s upgrade, Blackboard will have a new “Global Navigation Menu”, accessible at all times in the top right corner of the screen. This allows quicker access to courses and “My Blackboard”, an aggregated view of data across courses. For example you can see events or deadlines from different courses via the new Calendar.

A 4  minute video tutorial on the Global Navigation Menu and My Blackboard is available.

To find out more about this or any of the other Blackboard enhancements this summer:

• come along to a dropin session
• book a Blackboard roadshow for your team, Department, School or Faculty – contact tel-help@bristol.ac.uk
• visit our upgrade webpage

This summer’s upgrade will take place between Tuesday 30th July (starting at 9am ) and Monday 5th August (midday). A temporary replacement service will be available during this time.

As part of this summer’s upgrade, Blackboard will have a more modern-looking and usable discussion board. All posts in a thread will now load on one page, discussion forum roles are highlighted, e.g showing posts by an instructor, and when writing a reply, the original post remains visible on the same screen.

A 1 minute video on some of the discussion board improvements is available.

To find out more about this or any of the other Blackboard enhancements this summer:

• come along to a dropin session
• book a Blackboard roadshow for your team, Department, School or Faculty – contact tel-help@bristol.ac.uk
• visit our upgrade webpage

This summer’s upgrade will take place between Tuesday 30th July (starting at 9am ) and Monday 5th August (midday). A temporary replacement service will be available during this time.

As part of this summer’s upgrade, Blackboard will have a new content editor. The content editor allows you to add and format text, insert equations,  video, web links and  tables, and attach different types of files. The editor appears throughout the system, and the new version includes:

• Better ability to paste from Word and retain formatting
• Edit box which can be expanded to full screen, and has Preview function
• Simple & advanced modes for editing. Simple mode just shows basic icons
• New MathML equation editor

A 2 minute  Blackboard video on the new Content editor is available on YouTube.

To find out more about this or any of the other Blackboard enhancements this summer:

• come along to a dropin session
• book a Blackboard roadshow for your team, Department, School or Faculty – contact tel-help@bristol.ac.uk
• visit our upgrade webpage

This summer’s upgrade will take place between Tuesday 30th July (starting at 9am ) and Monday 5th August (midday). A temporary replacement service will be available during this time.

The 2013 Blackboard upgrade will take place between Tuesday 30th July (starting at 9am) and Monday 5th August (completed by midday). A temporary replacement service will be available during this time.

The familiar interface remains in the new version, but the upgrade will bring some notable improvements, for example a new Content Editor (allowing easier editing and pasting from Word), a more modern-looking and usable discussion board, and “My Blackboard” which gives an aggregated view of data from across Blackboard courses. There will also be hardware improvements, and once again automatic archiving and roll-over of SITS courses.

Short videos on some of the new features and enhancements can be found on the Blackboard upgrade website. Further information will be added in due course.

The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team are once again offering roadshows and drop-in sessions to update colleagues on the changes and enhancements in the new version of Blackboard. The sessions last approximately one hour and will include demonstrations and the chance for staff to ask questions.

If you would like to request a roadshow, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact tel-help@bristol.ac.uk.

Dear All

We are pleased to announce that eReserves are now available to all Faculties within the University.  More details can be found on the library pages http://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/resources/eresources/ereserves.html

To request an eReserve you need to log into Blackboard and click on the eReserves tab at the top of the page.

Academics in the Faculties that have just been added will receive an email outlining the service from the library.