Both myLesley and VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance this weekend. Please plan accordingly.
myLesley (Blackboard) will be performing maintenance on Friday, May 18th from 2:00 AM – 5 AM EDT (UTC -4). Downtime is not expected, but performance and system speed may be impacted.
VoiceThread will be unavailable on Saturday, May 19th from 5:00 AM – 5:40 AM EDT (UTC -4) while Amazon Web Services performs system updates.
An accessible document is one that allows individuals with various accessibility issues, such as those who are blind or hearing impaired, the ability to access the document and receive the same information as someone who does not have accessibility issues.
Having an accessible syllabus ensures that each of your students is able to access the content, regardless of accessibility issues. Often, the changes benefit all of your students, not just those with impairments.
Hoonuit has a new online training series for creating an accessible syllabus. This tutorial will guide you through how to format, check, and convert your document in order to make your document accessible. While the training is for creating an accessible syllabus, you may transfer these skills to any type of document.
To find out more, view the training here: Creating an Accessible Syllabus Using Acrobat Pro DC & Word 2016. You will need to log in with your myLesley username and password in order to access the training.
The latest version of Microsoft Word (Microsoft Word 2016) will allow you to create a fully accessible document. You should be able to print your document to PDF and the resulting PDF should be fully accessible. If you are using an older version of Microsoft Office, you can still create an accessible document, but the resulting PDF may not be fully accessible. In this case, you will want to upload the Word document.
SafeAssign, the anti-plagiarism service in Blackboard, will not be available Wednesday, April 3rd, 11:30 AM – 5:00 PM ET. Blackboard performed maintenance to move the service to new servers on April 2nd, however unforeseen performance concerns have arisen that require additional maintenance to resolve.
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.
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.
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.