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.

Panopto Scheduled Maintenance and Mandatory Client Upgrade

• April 29th, 2022
• in Announcements

Update 6/22/2022 9:15 a.m.:

On Saturday, June 25th 2022, the Panopto Cloud will be updated with the latest features and improvements. These updates will require downtime. We expect up to 3 hours of downtime, with a target start time of 9:00pm EDT.

During the downtime, you will not be able to access videos on your Panopto site and any attempts to upload from recording clients will result in a “Server unable to connect” message.

From Panopto:

Panopto Cloud Downtime

On Saturday, June 25th 2022, Panopto will upgrade all Panopto Cloud sites to our latest release. This upgrade will require downtime. We will announce the exact time and expected duration of the downtime on Tuesday, June 7th, along with information on what’s new in the June update. Please see the cloud upgrade FAQ article for more information.

Mandatory Client Upgrade

On Thursday, July 21st, we will require Panopto for Windows & Remote Recorders to be upgraded to version 12.0.0 or above and Panopto for Mac to version 11.1.0 or above. The upgrade will be applied to your Panopto site at 8:00pm EDT/5pm PDT.

For any questions, please contact Panopto Support online by logging into support.panopto.com or by emailing support@panopto.com.

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

Blackboard Collaborate Scheduled Maintenance – May 12

• April 29th, 2022
• in Announcements

From Blackboard:

Apr 28, 17:08 EDT

Scheduled – Blackboard will be deploying our Collaborate v22.08 release to the US region (https://us.bbcollab.com), hosted in AWS (US – Virginia): us-east-1.

Start Time:

Thursday, May 12, 2022 2:00 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) UTC/GMT -4 hours

End Time:

Thursday, May 12, 2022 6:00 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) UTC/GMT -4 hours

Collaborate customers will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window. For more information, please refer to: Collaborate Version 22.08 Release

Date Published: Apr 28, 2022

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

Blackboard cleanup May 17

• April 29th, 2022
• in Announcements

On May 17, 2022, CIT will disable access to selected courses in Blackboard Learn. Courses that begin with the following semester codes are subject to removal in accordance with UA’s LMS Course Retention Policy:

• 201740 – Fall 2017
• 201810 – Spring 2018
• 201830 – Summer 2018
• 201840 – Fall 2018
• 201910 – Spring 2019
• 201930 – Summer 2019

UA’s LMS Course Retention Policy states that courses are subject to removal from the system two years following the end of the semester in which they are taught. Students and instructors should save any materials they wish to keep.  More information on the policy and instructions for backing up Blackboard content are available in the LMS Course Retention Policy FAQ.

Blackboard Collaborate Scheduled Maintenance – April 19

• April 1st, 2022
• in Announcements

From Blackboard:

Mar 31, 16:09 EDT

Scheduled – Blackboard will be deploying our Collaborate v22.06 release to the US region (https://us.bbcollab.com), hosted in AWS (US – Virginia): us-east-1.

Start Time:

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 2:00 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) UTC/GMT -4 hours

End Time:

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 6:00 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) UTC/GMT -4 hours

Collaborate customers will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window. For more information, please refer to: Collaborate Version 22.06 Release

Date Published: Mar 31, 2022

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

Blackboard Learn Service Outage

• March 31st, 2022
• in Announcements

On Wednesday, March 30 from approximately 6:00 to 6:30 PM Central, Blackboard Learn experienced a service outage. Service was restored around 6:30 PM. When the incident investigation is complete, we will share its results. Contact cit@ua.edu with questions or concerns.