Personal Pronouns in Blackboard Learn

• July 29th, 2022
• in Announcements

UA students and instructors can now display personal pronouns in Blackboard Learn. A recent Blackboard Learn update introduced the ability for users to specify their personal pronouns in myBama and have them appear to other users in various locations in Blackboard Learn.

To display pronouns in Blackboard Learn:

1. Log in to myBama with your myBama username and password.
2. Students: Search for and select View/Update Personal Information (or select Update Personal Information from the Student tab). Employees: Search for and select Employee Profile then select More Personal Information.
3. Choose Edit to edit the Personal Details section.
4. Choose your pronoun from the Personal Pronoun drop down menu.
5. Select Update.

If you have already specified a pronoun in myBama, you may need to make and save a change to your Personal Information in myBama in order to now display the pronoun in Blackboard Learn. To “push” the change to Blackboard Learn, you may change your pronoun to Not Applicable, update to apply the change, then make your actual pronoun selection and update again.

Your pronouns will appear to other users. In your courses, they will display in various locations of interactive tools, group activities, and name lists. If you do not want others to see your pronouns, select Not Applicable from the Personal Pronoun drop down menu, then select Update.

Additional information about pronoun presentation in Blackboard Learn:

• How do I display my personal pronoun in Blackboard? – CIT Knowledge Base
• Profile (Ultra Course View) – Lists locations where users can see other users’ pronouns in Ultra Base Navigation and in courses using Ultra Course View. The Profile is where UA users should go to quickly determine if they are sharing a pronoun in Blackboard Learn.
• Original Course View: If a user has pronoun or pronunciation information, it is displayed on a profile card. Selecting any avatar icon in Original Course View displays the profile card. All avatars are selectable in user lists, course tools, and grading workflows.

Turnitin Scheduled Maintenance – July 8

• July 6th, 2022
• in Announcements

Turnitin will have a scheduled system maintenance July 8, 2022 from 6:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. (July 9) CDT. Due to the maintenance, Turnitin will be unavailable between those times.

Real-time information about Turnitin status, as well as updates about scheduled maintenance and past incidents, is available on the Turnitin status page.

Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View Update – Fall 2022 live course pilot

• July 6th, 2022
• in Announcements

UA instructors now have the opportunity to explore Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View. Ultra Course View offers a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a simpler, more streamlined experience for instructors and students. Learn more about Ultra Course View and apply to participate in UA’s Ultra Course View pilot: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Pilot

CIT began piloting practice or developmental Ultra Course View courses in Spring 2022 and invites instructors to begin exploring by requesting an Ultra Course View practice course: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Request

During the Fall 2022 semester, we hope to pilot 20 live course sections using Ultra Course View. Instructors interested in teaching with Ultra Course View this Fall should submit a request via the CIT portal: Blackboard Learn Ultra LIVE Course Pilot Request. CIT will help you determine whether your course meets participation requirements. Any course offered though UA Online (part of a fully online program offered through the College of Continuing Studies) is not eligible for the live course pilot.

Following the pilot period, instructors will be able to choose whether to use Original Course View or Ultra Course View for live courses. Pilot feedback will inform the timeline, along with feature and third-party tool availability.

Flipgrid is now Flip!

• July 6th, 2022
• in Announcements

Flipgrid is now Flip! Flip is the same product but with a new name and a new look. CIT resources will be updated with the new name. More from Flip: Learn about Flip

Anthology Completes Merger with Blackboard, No Changes for UA Users

• July 6th, 2022
• in Announcements

Blackboard’s parent company has merged with another edtech company, Anthology. The newly merged organization will be called Anthology with the Blackboard name continuing as part of its portfolio. There are no anticipated changes for UA users. More from Anthology: Anthology Completes Merger with Blackboard, Launches Next Chapter in EdTech

Updates from the Gradescope Team

• July 6th, 2022
• in Announcements

An update from our vendor partners at Gradescope:

August Workshop Series

The workshop series is back! The Gradescope Team is hosting a series of back-to-school workshops during the first two weeks of August. All faculty are welcome, so please share this invitation (which includes the link to the registration page) before the series begins on August 2nd. We will send a reminder email about this series in July.

Product Updates

Check out some new and exciting Gradescope product updates, such as:

• The Gradescope Student Mobile App is now live for U.S. iPhone and Android app stores. It will be available in Canada in July. The mobile app streamlines the process for students to upload handwritten work by cutting out third party apps and protects student privacy by keeping all work in Gradescope.
• Online Assignment Randomization helps instructors protect the integrity of online assignments by randomizing the order of questions and/or answer choices.
• Rubrics Before Submission helps instructors get a head start on grading by creating rubrics before students submit their assignments. This feature also creates a standardized grading rubric for classes with multiple graders.
• Gradescope Knowledge Bot (Coming Soon) will allow you to search our Help Center and easily access resources within the Gradescope interface! Soon, all instructors using Gradescope will see an icon in the bottom right of their screen. Clicking this icon will show (1) a list of curated help resources and (2) an easy way to search our Help Center.

User Community Spotlight

We want to highlight some amazing Gradescope resources created by our partner institutions!

• Check out UNC Chapel Hill’s comprehensive resource page with FAQ and user feedback
• Learn about the transition to Gradescope bubble sheets at UT Austin with this step by step guide
• Watch the User Summit recordings to hear fellow Gradescope users share their innovative teaching methods and approach to building better assessments

“I started using Gradescope a couple of years ago in my smaller classes to grade short answer/essay questions on paper exams. Now I use it in all classes, small and large, for almost all assignments. It’s easy for the students to submit to and makes grading easy & fast. My IAs have been able to grade 60 papers in a fraction of the time that it used to take on [LMS] and they’re really happy with it. It also makes just-in-time teaching far more reasonable in my small classes that have all open-ended assignments.” – Instructor at UNC Chapel Hill

Community Spotlight @ EDUCAUSE 2022

Do you love talking about Gradescope and sharing all the benefits with fellow instructors? If so we are looking for interested users to do just this at the 2022 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. These will be “relaxed” sessions held throughout the week at our exhibit space so you must be planning on attending in person in Denver.

Panopto: June 2022 Update Brings New Features and Improvements

• June 26th, 2022
• in Announcements

UA’s instance of the Panopto Cloud was updated Saturday, June 25th 2022; full release notes are available on the Panopto Community site: 13 Cancun | Release Notes | June 2022

Here are some of the latest features and improvements (some features may not be immediately available in UA’s Panopto instance).

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.

Panopto Bug Alert: Copied Folder Permissions Issue

• May 9th, 2022
• in Announcements

CIT has learned of an issue where a small number of folders on our Panopto site had the incorrect users/groups added to the share page as part of a copy process. This bug that caused this issue was fixed in March, and Panopto is removing the incorrectly added permissions on Tuesday, May 17.

From Panopto:

We discovered an issue where a small number of folders on your site had the incorrect users/groups added to the share page as part of a copy process.

What is the bug?

When a subfolder that was inheriting access from its parent was copied and subsequently moved, users who had access to the copied folder, via inheritance, retained that access after the folder was moved. The users would have been visible on the share page of each folder but creators and admins may not have noticed the additional users after moving the folder. See the below diagram to help explain:

How long was this bug active?

This bug was discovered on February 24th and was active from the release of v12.0 (January 7th – 8th) and was fixed in v12.5 (March 24th and 25th).

When will this bug be fixed?

This bug was fixed on March 24th and 25th. We apologize for the delayed notification of this email. Due to the complex nature of this bug, it took a large amount of effort to track down the folders that might be impacted.

What do I need to do?

Nothing. We will remove the incorrectly added permissions for the users/groups. These changes will be made on Tuesday, May 17th.

How will Panopto prevent future recurrence of this bug?

We’ve added automated tests to ensure that permissions are not copied when folders that inherit access are copied.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Our Engineering leaders are standing by to meet with your team if you would like to discuss this further.

Real-time information about Panopto status, as well as updates about scheduled maintenance and past incidents, is available on the Panopto status page.