Stay informed with the latest CAES news about GSU Blackboard, Collaborate Ultra, VoiceThread, Respondus, Via and other online teaching and learning software.
Pearson Scheduled Maintenance
The work typically requires eight hours of downtime and is usually on Saturdays, from 12:00 (midnight) - 8:00 a.m. CT. You’ll get a separate email about which products are impacted 30 days in advance so you can adjust assignments and alert students.
Fall 2022 Term - Ends
December 11, 2022 marks the last day of the Fall 2022 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 18, 2022.
Pearson Scheduled Maintenance
The work typically requires eight hours of downtime and is usually on Saturdays, from 12:00 (midnight) - 8:00 a.m. CT. You’ll get a separate email about which products are impacted 30 days in advance so you can adjust assignments and alert students.
Course Creation and Instructor Enrollment
Spring 2023 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 01/03/2023, but will not have access to Spring 2023 courses until 01/17/2023.
Blackboard Learn SaaS Cloudflare 530 Errors
We have received several notifications that some Blackboard courses, when attempting to access certain content areas, are returning a Blackboard Learn SaaS screen. This issue affecting multiple institutions. Our vendor, Blackboard Inc., is currently investigating to bring a quick resolution.
This issue was resolved as of 10/25/22 at 12:50PM CDT.
Blackboard Cross-listing Deadline
If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.
If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Spring semester.
Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.
If changes occur after October 21st, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Active Engagement and Scholarship! We look forward to working with you for a successful Spring 2023 semester.
Pearson Scheduled Maintenance
The work typically requires eight hours of downtime and is usually on Saturdays, from 12:00 (midnight) - 8:00 a.m. CT. You’ll get a separate email about which products are impacted 30 days in advance so you can adjust assignments and alert students.
New Blackboard App for Instructors
On Monday 8th August 2022, the updated Blackboard App for Instructors and Students was released to the Apple and Android App stores. Instructors, assistants, and graders should download the Blackboard App from the app store and remove the former Blackboard Instructor app from their devices.
Please Note: The Blackboard Instructor app will no longer be supported from Friday 30th September 2022, and will be removed from the Apple App and Android App stores. The app will continue to work on your device, but updates, enhancements and support will cease after this time. Users are advised to remove the app from their devices.
Bb Annotate Roll-out Deployment
Blackboard will do a phased roll-out deployment for the summary list of annotations for Bb Annotate. Now a side panel will summarize all comments in a list. Selecting a comment will navigate the instructor or student to the location of that comment in the document. This change makes it easier to find all comments and feedback in a student’s submission.
The roll-out will be on Thursday, September 8, 2022 beginning at 2:00AM CDT.
URGENT: Blackboard Now Available
Blackboard is now available. According to our vendor, Blackboard Inc., multiple sites were down in the US_EAST 1 region, which is the region Governors State University is registered. Blackboard Inc.’s Webtech and Devops teams are investigating the root cause. However, Blackboard Learn Original should now be accessible for all GSU users.
Downtime: 9/7/2022 at 12:23PM CDT to 9/7/2022 at 12:41PM CDT
Collaborate Version 22.16 Release
Blackboard is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.16.
Downtime will be on Thursday, September 8, 2022 from 1:00AM CDT to Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 5:00AM CDT.
Blackboard will try to minimize downtime and do not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however we will use these entire maintenance windows if necessary. Collaborate clients will experience intermittent availability during these maintenance windows.
Fall 2022 Term - Begins
Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2022 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 29, 2022. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
Course Copy Delay
At approximately 12:00PM CDT on 8/25/2022, we noticed a delay in the Course Copy process on the Blackboard NewLearn server. However, after approximately 25 minutes, the issue has been resolved. If you notice any delay in the Course Copy process, please contact Blackboard Support (blackboard@govst.edu) for further assistance.
Summer 2022 Term - Ends
August 14, 2022 marks the last day of the Summer 2022 semester.
Final Grades are due by August 21, 2022.
Bb Annotate undo/redo functionality: Roll out deployment
Blackboard will do a phased roll-out deployment for the new undo/redo functionality of Bb Annotate. This new capability will allow instructors to easily edit their annotations. Please note that the deployment will include some downtime, and they will avoid high traffic hours in each specific regions. The estimated times will be between the hours of 12:00AM and 4:00AM CST. The downtime will only be for Bb Annotate not the entire Learn environment. It is expected to be around 1 hour long. During this time users will see a maintenance message inside the Bb Annotate framework.
New Blackboard App for Instructors
On Monday 8th August 2022, the updated Blackboard App for Instructors and Students was released to the Apple and Android App stores. Instructors, assistants, and graders should download the Blackboard App from the app store and remove the former Blackboard Instructor app from their devices.
Please Note: The Blackboard Instructor app will no longer be supported from Friday 30th September 2022, and will be removed from the Apple App and Android App stores. The app will continue to work on your device, but updates, enhancements and support will cease after this time. Users are advised to remove the app from their devices.