Important changes to Blackboard - Summer/Autumn 2024

Updated integration with MS Teams including support for recorded assessments

The Blackboard integration with Microsoft Teams has been updated to support both recorded assessments and migration of Teams meeting recordings to Panopto. This additional functionality is in Pilot and replaces the Collaborate Assessment tool. There are now two types of meeting in the Blackboard Teams integration:

Open/group meetings are automatically available to anyone on the module. All staff and students on the module will see the join link on the meetings page (as long as you have added a link to this in your course menu) and if you opted to add a notification in the Teams class channel, it will be seen there too. You can also use the copy meeting URL option if you want to display this elsewhere (via Edit > copy join URL).

Private/assessment meetings are intended for one to one or assessment meetings which you would only invite specific individuals to.

Whether or not the meeting recording is automatically migrated to Panopto is set when creating the meeting.

Please note that the function to ‘add all students’ to a meeting has been removed as this function is no longer appropriate.

For further details please see our UWE Blackboard Teams integration and Online Private Assessment Meetings & Open Group Meetings guidance.

Blackboard Annotate Anonymous comments

The Blackboard Grade Centre Annotate tool now provides the ability to provide anonymous comments. In some marking scenarios, academic staff prefer their students not to identify the individuals offering feedback on their submissions.

For further details please see the Blackboard Help Website.

Panopto

The Panopto integration with Blackboard has been updated to support new functionality and Blackboard Ultra courses. The menu links for adding Panopto content to Blackboard have changed name and location. Please check your Panopto course content to ensure existing links and embedded content are working as expected.

For further details please see the guidance for Linking to Panopto content.

Reading Lists

The Talis Reading List Integration with Blackboard has been updated to support new functionality and Blackboard Ultra courses. Please check your Blackboard reading list links are working as expected. Please see the Library guidance for adding Reading Lists to Blackboard on the UWE Intranet.

Coming soon

Blackboard Ultra and Test courses

UWE Bristol are adopting the new Blackboard Ultra Courses which provides a more modern and learner-centred experience. Blackboard Ultra is used by many Higher Education institutions and is a now strategic priority for UWE Bristol. The new UWE online degree programmes were the first to use Blackboard Ultra Courses in September. For further details on the Ultra course view, please see the Blackboard Help Website.

The Digital Learning Service will be working to support transitioning some programmes from each College to Ultra for January 25 as 'early adopters'. This will help develop a better understanding of the support and training required for academics and students, with a view to a wider adoption for September 25.

The Blackboard Test Course tool will be adapted so that academic staff can also create an Ultra test course to see the new modern learner-centred experience.

Marking Enhancements

Following feedback from academic staff, several enhancements to the UWE allocation tool are being developed to improve anonymous marking and second marking. Enhancements are also being made to the Send marks to ISIS function. Further details will be provided soon.

An updated version of the Spreadsheet marking tool is also planned to be released later this year.

External Examiners tool

The External Examiner tool is being updated to support Blackboard Ultra courses. The functionality will be much the same allowing academics to upload files and samples for the External Examiner to see but with an updated look and feel.

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