Blackboard Term Duration & Course Availability Update

• June 24th, 2022
• in Announcements

We are working on some behind-the-scenes changes to Blackboard’s course settings in an effort to provide a better user experience. Moving forward, courses will not have default course availability dates associated with their term. This means that courses will not become available/unavailable on a preset date unless manually set by the instructor or department.

If you need courses to become available/unavailable on a certain date, view the Course Properties section of this article in our knowledge base:  How do I set course availability in Blackboard?

Blackboard Learn Service Interruption

• June 10th, 2022
• in Announcements

Some users may have experienced a Blackboard service outage from approximately 9:30 PM Central on June 9 to 12:30 AM Central on June 10.  Service was restored around 12:30 AM. When the incident investigation is complete, we will share its results. Contact cit@ua.edu with questions or concerns.

Respondus Lockdown Browser on managed Windows 7/8 Computers

• March 30th, 2022
• in Announcements

A forthcoming security update for LockDown Browser will affect managed computers running Windows 7 or 8. Officially, these older versions of Windows aren’t supported by LockDown Browser, but Respondus does their best to accommodate these users.

Students

Students using Windows 7/8 with the “student edition” of LockDown Browser on their personal computers will be fine because Respondus will push the required update to them (currently scheduled for April 4, 2022).

Lab Edition

Institutions will encounter problems if they are running Windows 7/8 on managed devices that have the “Lab Edition” of LockDown Browser installed. LockDown Browser updates don’t get pushed to the Lab Edition, and older versions will fail after the security update is implemented in early April.

If running Windows 7/8 on managed devices, the easiest solution is to update to LockDown Browser version 2.0.8.05 or later. If this change isn’t possible, please open a ticket with the Respondus Support team (support.respondus.com) and we can suggest another option. Other questions about this issue can also be directed to the Respondus Support team.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outage

• December 7th, 2021
• in Known Issues

Update 12/8 2:05 PM: Panopto issues are resolved.

Update 12/8 8:03 AM: Amazon implemented a mitigation that returned services to an operational status at approximately 6:35pm. Previously reported issues with the Respondus Lockdown Browser dashboard should be resolved.

Panopto continues to experience errors this morning. Visit the Panopto status page for updates.

Update, 12/7 4:04 PM: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has issued a fix. They are continuing to closely monitor the situation and expect to continue to make progress towards full recovery. We do not have an ETA for full recovery at this time.

CIT is aware of an issue with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that is affecting multiple features and tools in Blackboard, including the Respondus Lockdown Browser dashboard and Panopto. This issue may begin to affect other features/tools.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Course List Issue in Blackboard

• November 24th, 2021
• in Known Issues

As of November 23, 2021, some users may see courses from the fall 2018 term in their Blackboard Learn course list. These may include dropped courses and may temporarily produce notifications to users, which can be ignored. Students’ Fall 2018 courses will be removed from the course list in the coming weeks.

Email Address in Blackboard

• November 3rd, 2021
• in Known Issues

Students who are also employees have both @ua and @crimson email addresses. Users can now define which of their official UA email addresses (must be @ua.edu or @crimson.ua.edu) are used for Blackboard Learn communications.

To determine which email is being used within Blackboard Learn, you can check your profile in Blackboard. After logging in, click on your name on the left side. This is the Profile tab. This area shows your user information, including the email address that is associated with your Blackboard account.

If you need to change the email address associated with your Blackboard account:

1. Log in to myBama with your myBama username and password.
2. Select the Employee link from the Pages list.
3. In the Self Service box, click on the Personal Information folder.
4. Choose View/Update Personal Information.
5. In the Email section, click on Add New.
6. Choose Blackboard Learn Email from the Email Type drop down menu.
7. Enter the UA or Crimson email address you want to show in Blackboard.
8. Click the Add button.

Note: Users must add an email address that ends in either @ua.edu or @crimson.ua.edu.

A new Blackboard Learn email address should show in the Email section of your Personal Information. Please confirm that your email address has changed in your Blackboard profile.

Edited for the new myBama January 26, 2022.