Brightspace Blog
Respondus LockDown Browser now available for Blackboard
Oct. 27, 2015—The Vanderbilt academic community has access to a useful online testing tool for the 2015-2016 academic year. The Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard during online quizzes and tests. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other...
Save the Dates: Fall Drop-in Training/Support
Sep. 3, 2015—We are excited to announce our September/October schedule of drop-in support hours. During drop-in hours, faculty and staff who have Blackboard-related questions can stop by the workshop space of the CFT (even without an appointment) and find a team of specialists ready to assist. We can get you up to speed with Blackboard’s new features,...
Fall Blackboard News: New Features, New Support
Aug. 16, 2015—As the new administrative home for Blackboard, the Center for Teaching (CFT) is excited to announce a number of developments for Vanderbilt’s primary course management system, all part of Vanderbilt’s strategic investment in the use of technology to support student learning. New Features A number of platform upgrades were rolled out this summer providing new...
Profile Photos Now Available in Blackboard
Aug. 15, 2015—We’re happy to announce that Profile Photos (also known as “avatars”) are now available within Blackboard. Instructors and students can upload a photo to their Blackboard account by following the steps outlined in the Profile Photo guide. Photos will be visible in all of your Blackboard interactions across all of your courses. This tool is a...
Drop-In Support Sessions at the CFT
Aug. 14, 2015—The CFT has added a new way to access Blackboard support at Vanderbilt. During our drop-in hours, faculty and staff who have Blackboard-related questions can stop by the library area of the CFT (even without an appointment) and find a team of specialists ready to assist. We can get you up to speed with Blackboard’s...
Blackboard Downtime and Update, June 6-7
May. 29, 2015—On June 6-7, Blackboard will be updated to a more recent version of the system. This update will provide several feature enhancements, but the user interface will be largely unchanged. We are updating from the October 2012 Blackboard release to the April 2014 release. See below for a list of new and enhanced features. Please...
Rubrics Now Available in Blackboard
May. 1, 2015—We’re happy to announce that the Rubrics course tool is now available within Blackboard to instructors. The tool is available by default in new courses. For existing courses, instructors can turn on the tool from the Customization > Tool Availability menu. This tool has been requested by many instructors in recent years. Read on for...
Friday, March 13th Email Outage
Mar. 16, 2015—On Friday, March 13th, Blackboard experienced a problem sending emails. Due to an issue in the data center hosting Vanderbilt’s Blackboard installation, emails sent through Blackboard between 8:20 am and 12:10 pm were, unfortunately, not delivered. That includes emails sent to students during this time. The problem has been resolved and email functionality has been...
Guide to the Kaltura Streaming Media Tool
Feb. 5, 2015—During the recent migration from OAK to Blackboard managed hosting, we very intentionally maintained the version of Blackboard we were using. This summer, we’ll upgrade to a newer version, but over winter break, our goal was improved performance, not new features. However, we did add one new tool to Blackboard during the migration: Kaltura, a...
Scheduled Maintenance – Sunday, February 1, 3-5am
Jan. 30, 2015—Blackboard will be unavailable Sunday, February 1st, between 3am and 5am for scheduled maintenance.
Migration Update – January 30th
Jan. 30, 2015—The migration from OAK to Blackboard managed hosting is now complete. Most courses from Fall 2013 to present are now available in Blackboard, as are all organizations. We have only a few remaining issues to resolve: Very Large Courses: OAK courses over 4GB in size cannot be automatically migrated to Blackboard. If you are an...
Migration Update – January 16th
Jan. 16, 2015—The migration from OAK to Blackboard managed hosting is nearly complete. Most courses from Fall 2013 to present are now available in Blackboard, as are all organizations. Following is a list of outstanding issues resulting from the migration: Large Courses: OAK courses over 1GB in size are currently being migrated to Blackboard. This batch of...
Welcome to Blackboard – January 2nd Update
Jan. 2, 2015—Faculty, students, and staff will notice a few changes when they log in to OAK. Vanderbilt has migrated its course management system, powered by Blackboard but known locally as OAK (Online Access to Knowledge), from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers as part of an effort to improve performance and reliability. Important Changes: We are retiring...
Welcome to Blackboard
Dec. 23, 2014—Starting today, faculty, students, and staff will notice a few changes when they log in to OAK. Vanderbilt has migrated its course management system, powered by Blackboard but known locally as OAK (Online Access to Knowledge), from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers as part of an effort to improve performance and reliability. Important Changes: We...
The Center for Teaching’s New Role with Blackboard
Dec. 17, 2014—by Derek Bruff, Director, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching The Center for Teaching is taking on a significant new role in the educational technology landscape at Vanderbilt. Starting this spring, the CFT will coordinate and provide technical and pedagogical support for Blackboard, Vanderbilt’s course management system, known locally as OAK. Also, in conjunction with Vice Provost...