Rescheduled SafeAssign Maintenance in myLesley

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Kris McElroy

SafeAssign, the anti-plagiarism service in Blackboard, will not be available Monday, April 2nd, 3:00AM – 10:00AM ET. Blackboard will be performing maintenance to move the service to new servers.

What does this mean for you?

Assignments submitted by students during this time will not be processed by SafeAssign, nor will they be queued for processing once the service is back online. Instructors can Direct Submit any submitted assignments once the service resumes.

Please note that the Assignment tool itself will not be affected. The maintenance will only affect the SafeAssign feature within the Assignment tool.

Why Can’t My Students Record a Comment on my Embedded VoiceThread?

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Danielle Powell

Here’s the scenario. You created a VoiceThread and embedded it in your myLesley course. In the past, students have been able to click on the Add Comment button and add their VoiceThread comment without ever leaving myLesley. Unfortunately, some of your students are now receiving a message saying that the website doesn’t allow access to the camera/microphone. What happened?

In short, Chrome updated its security restrictions. Chrome has now eliminated microphone and webcam permissions for iFrame embeds (the same type of code used to embed VoiceThread content). The good news is that clicking on Open in a new tab will open the VoiceThread up in a new tab where students can record their audio and video comments.

Please note that students are currently unable to embed content (such as VoiceThreads) in myLesley. This is a known issue with Blackboard. In the meantime, students will need to share a link to their content. Instructions may be found here: Sharing a VoiceThread in Your myLesley Course.

If you have any questions or run in to any issues, please email elis@lesley.edu.

Updates to Inline Grading in myLesley (New Box View)

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Danielle Powell

In January 2018, New Box View became the new inline grading tool for grading Assignments in Blackboard. Since its launch Blackboard has been working with Box to continue to add features and improve performance.

Point and Highlight Annotations
To view point-based annotations and highlight-based annotations you only need to hover your mouse over the indicator. Previously, to view comments on point-based annotations you hovered the mouse over the annotation, whereas to view highlight-based annotations you clicked on the highlight. This was causing confusion since the annotations were accessed differently. This new update streamlines the process and eliminates the confusion.

Sticky Annotation Mode
In order to make it easier to add multiple annotations of the same type, New Box View now features a “sticky” mode, which will allow you to quickly and easily add multiple annotations without having to select the annotation type each time.

Coming Soon: Drawing Annotations
New Box View will soon allow you to add freehand drawings and annotations to submitted documents.

Edit 3/28/18: Drawing annotations are now available.

Coming Soon: Downloading Documents with Annotations
Currently, faculty and students are unable to download annotated documents. Blackboard recognizes the significance and importance of this functionality and are working to incorporate this feature. They are hoping to implement this feature in early June when they release version Q2 2018.

Feature Roadmap
Below is the New Box View Feature Roadmap, which details completed updates, updates in development, and updates being designed.

More Information
For more information on these improved features, please see Inline Grading and New Box View Update: February 2018.

Edit 3/28/18: See the latest information at Inline Grading and New Box View Update: March 2018.

For more information on grading in myLesley, including step-by-step instructions, please see Grading myLesley Assignments.

Apply to the 2018 Summer Academic Technology Institute

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Heather Tillberg-Webb

Join your Lesley faculty colleagues for an exciting, immersive professional development opportunity!

The Summer Academic Technology Institute is an opportunity for faculty to participate in a learning community across disciplines and schools engaged in an exploration of the effective uses of technology in teaching, learning, collaboration, and scholarship. This event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, and organized by eLearning and Instructional Support.

All faculty — core or adjunct — are welcome to apply. Faculty who consider themselves basic technology users or who do not currently use technology in their teaching are especially encouraged to apply. Faculty selected through the application process receive a $500 stipend for participation in the institute. Applications are prioritized to select faculty who have not participated in past institutes, depending on demand.

The program features a 4-day institute in June, held at University Hall. Faculty engage in a rich mix of dialogue, hands-on practice, project-based learning, reflection, and application to explore innovative ways technology can be integrated into their teaching.

Examples of workshops from past Summer Tech Institutes include:

Putting Technology in Its Place
Designing Lessons for Engagement
OneDrive: Collaboration Made Easy
The Student Experience in Online Learning (panel)
Designing and Facilitating Online Discussions
Introducing Media Into Your Blackboard Course

Expectations for Summer Academic Technology Institute Participants

Faculty are expected to:

Participate in all four days (~9am to 4 pm) of the institute: June 4-7, 2018
Develop a technology-enhanced learning activity for a 2018-2019 course
Attend or participate in at least one professional development outreach activity during the 2017-18 school year

Important Dates

March 30, 2018	Applications Due
April 20, 2018	Participants Announced
June 4-7, 2018	Summer Institute

Application

Coming Soon

Upcoming SafeAssign Maintenance in myLesley

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Kris McElroy

UPDATE: The maintenance was canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

SafeAssign, the anti-plagiarism service in Blackboard, will not be available this Thursday, March 8th, 3:00AM – 9:00AM ET. Blackboard will be performing maintenance to move the service to new servers.