Category Archives: myLesley

Grade Center Improvements

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myLesley’s recent update to Blackboard’s latest version (Q2 2018) included several enhancements to the Grade Center making it easier to navigate while grading your students’ work.

Full Titles of Grade Center Columns

You can now view the full title of your Grade Center column making it easier to distinguish between similarly-titled grade items.

Before
Grade Center Column Titles Before

Now
Grade Center Column Titles After

 

View More Grade Columns

The width of the Grade Center is no longer fixed. You can now view as many columns as the size of their window will allow. If you are on a small screen, you may only see a few grade columns and need to scroll. If you are on a larger screen, you will see more columns. The grade center will adapt to the size of your browser window.

 

Full-Screen Mode

Need even more space to view the Grade Center? Instructors now have the ability to view the Grade Center in Full Screen mode. Full Screen mode collapses the side navigation and the top banner, allowing you to see more of the Grade Center on your screen.

 

More updates are coming to myLesley throughout the summer. Keep an eye out for all the new features.

New Features in myLesley

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On June 8, 2018, myLesley was updated to the most recent version of Blackboard (Q2 2018). The update included a few new features and options. There will be more features released [enter tag link] for this version over the summer so keep an eye out.

Customize Your Course Menu Colors

When Lesley University transitioned to SaaS in January, we also updated to the latest theme design Blackboard offers. The advantage of the new theme is that myLesley will adapt to the device you are currently using whether it’s a cell phone, tablet, small screen laptop or large screen monitor. The disadvantage is that custom menu colors weren’t supported, but that’s in the past. Custom menu colors are back!

Customize CourseTo customize your menu colors, go to Control Panel, select Customization and then select Teaching Style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select Menu StyleNext, scroll down to Select Menu Style.

Select the Background Color and Text Color you wish to have.

Keep accessibility in mind when choosing menu colors. You want colors that have a high level of contrast to ensure readability.

Sadly the Buttons option is not currently compatible with our version of Blackboard.

Be sure to click Apply after selecting your new colors or it will not take effect. Click Submit when you are done to apply your choices to your course menu.

View Blackboard’s Course Style Options information to learn more about customizing your course.

Upcoming System Maintenance

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Both myLesley and VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance this weekend. Please plan accordingly.

myLesley

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 Maintenance

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.

 

Rescheduled SafeAssign Maintenance in myLesley

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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.

 

Updates to Inline Grading in myLesley (New Box View)

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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.
New Box View feature roadmap

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.