Center for Teaching and Learning
News Archives
Here are the news archives from previous semesters. These collections represent snapshots of the key developments and events that occurred during those academic periods. As each semester concludes, new archives will be added to this section, ensuring a continually updated and comprehensive record of institutional news and achievements. This ongoing archive serves as a valuable resource for understanding our history and tracking our progress over time.
May 11, 2026 marks the last day of the spring 2026 semester.
Final Grades are due by May 18, 2026.
Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2026 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 20, 2026.
Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
December 7, 2025 marks the last day of the fall 2025 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 14, 2025.
We are excited to announce a significant enhancement to your learning experience in our 26SP courses. Starting this semester, Blackboard Ally will be enabled in all 26SP courses, providing improved content accessibility and a wider range of alternative formats for your course materials.
What is Blackboard Ally?
Blackboard Ally is a powerful tool integrated into our Blackboard system and designed to make course content more accessible to everyone. It automatically checks your course materials for accessibility issues and offers various alternative formats that can be customized to your individual needs.
How will this benefit you?
• Improved Accessibility: Ally helps ensure that course content is accessible to students with diverse learning needs and preferences.
• Alternative Formats: For many course documents (like PDFs and Word documents), Ally can generate alternative formats such as:
o HTML: For easy viewing and navigation with screen readers.
o Electronic Braille: For users who rely on Braille displays.
o Audio: To listen to your course content.
o ePub: For e-readers and mobile devices.
o Tagged PDF: An improved version of the original PDF with better structure for assistive technologies.
- Customizable Experience: Depending on the format, you may be able to adjust the text size, color, and spacing to create a more comfortable reading experience.
How to Access Alternative Formats: When you encounter a course document in your 26SP Blackboard course, you will see an “Accessibility Options” icon (often a circle with an “A” or a down arrow) next to the file name. Clicking on this icon will reveal the available alternative format options for that particular document. Simply select the format that best suits your needs. We encourage you to explore the alternative formats available through Ally and use them as needed. If you encounter any issues or have questions about Blackboard Ally, please do not hesitate to reach out to Blackboard Support.
Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2025 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 25, 2025. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
August 17, 2025 marks the last day of the Summer 2025 semester.
Final Grades are due by August 24, 2025.
Please be aware that this will be our final year of support for Respondus 4.0. The software will be officially discontinued in July 2026. After this date, the Respondus 4.0 desktop application will no longer be supported, updated, or guaranteed to function correctly with Blackboard Learn. Any quizzes or exams created and managed solely within Respondus 4.0 will need to be migrated or rebuilt using alternative methods.
Please Note: This discontinuation applies ONLY to the Respondus 4.0 authoring tool. The Respondus 4.0 authoring tool is primarily used by instructors to create and publish quizzes directly to the LMS.
This DOES NOT affect Respondus LockDown Browser or Respondus Monitor. Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor, our secure testing environment and proctoring solution, will continue to be fully supported and available for use in your courses. You can continue to create and deploy quizzes that require LockDown Browser and Monitor directly within your LMS.
We understand that Respondus 4.0 has been a valuable tool for many of you in importing large sets of questions. We want to assure you that a highly effective and fully supported alternative is available: the Upload Question method directly within Blackboard Learn.
This built-in Blackboard feature allows you to prepare your questions in a plain text file (formatted correctly) and then easily upload them into your Blackboard courses, achieving the same outcome as Respondus 4.0. Please see the tutorial for both Learn Original and Learn Ultra for more information.
If you have any questions, require personalized assistance, or encounter any issues during this transition, please do not hesitate to contact Center for Teaching and Learning.
The Bb Annotate document engine will be updated on August 4, 2025, starting at 1:30 a.m. CDT. No downtime expected.
The Bb Annotate database will be updated to Postgres 16 on July 31, 2025, starting at 1:30 a.m. CDT, during which 1h of downtime can be expected.
The infrastructure for Bb Annotate will be updated to improve performance on July 30, 2025, starting at 1:30 a.m. CDT, during which 1h of downtime can be expected.
We regret to inform you that the Center for Teaching and Learning will no longer support VoiceThread after the Spring 2025 semester. We encourage users to transition their VoiceThread work by/before June 2025, as VoiceThread will no longer be available starting Summer 2025.
Panopto is a secure media streaming server, similar to YouTube, that is integrated with Blackboard. Panopto is an all-in-one platform for lecture capture, video recording, editing, and management. It also contains analytic tools to assist with managing student engagement. Panopto is more secure than YouTube, and allows for a more controlled and ad-free viewing experience for our campus community. Videos within Panopto can be set not only to publicly-viewable, but can also be viewable only by specific GSU faculty/staff users or by students only within Blackboard shells. Other features within Panopto allow for quiz creation that can integrate within the Blackboard gradebook, interactive components such as links and embedded YouTube videos within the Panopto player, and students can now submit video and audio to discussions and other assignment prompts within Blackboard.
Please see email communications and the Blackboard Institution page for further details
Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2025 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 19, 2025. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
May 12, 2025 marks the last day of the Spring 2025 semester.
Final Grades are due by May 19, 2025.
Students will be enrolled in their respective Blackboard courses on May 5, 2025, which is two weeks prior to the start of the semester. Please note that while students will be able to see their enrollments, they will not be able to access the course materials until the first day of the term, which is May 19, 2025.
We would like to inform you that on Saturday, April 12, 2025, Panopto will undergo scheduled maintenance to perform important updates to the Panopto Database. The service will become unavailable starting at 9 a.m. CDT and is expected to be inaccessible for approximately 3 hours. This maintenance is essential to enhance the overall stability and capacity of the Panopto infrastructure, ensuring a better experience for all users.
We appreciate your understanding and patience during this downtime.
To improve security at Governors State University, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) will be enabled for anyone who uses/accesses GovState systems when off-campus starting April 7, 2025.
When MFA is enabled, you will be prompted for a second form of authentication when signing in. You must set up MFA for your GovState account as part of this process. Please complete this task before April 7, 2025. Microsoft Authenticator Instructions are provided here and in the GovState portal ITS Tutorial Library listed under the Microsoft accordion.
Action required:
- Set up MFA for your GovState account by April 7, 2025. Microsoft Authenticator Instructions
- Starting April 7, you will receive a Multi-Factor Authentication push notification using the Microsoft Authenticator app when accessing GovState systems off-campus. You will be given a 2-digit number on your device (computer/laptop). To complete the approval, type that number into the app (on your cellphone).
Any questions, please contact ITS Help Desk at 708-534-4357, on campus x4357, or email to: Help@govst.edu.
Summer 2025 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until May 5, 2025, but will not have access to Spring 2025 courses until 05/19/2025.
Starting April 1, 2025, Webex will no longer be available as a video conferencing option at GovState. Moving forward, Information Technology Services (ITS) will exclusively support the Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform. This transition will enhance communication capabilities, as Teams integrates seamlessly with Outlook desktop, Outlook.com, and Blackboard.
Please note that the Webex link will be removed from Blackboard courses by March 14, 2025. Instructors will have the option to add Microsoft Teams to their course menu in the Original view and enable it in the Details & Actions menu in the Ultra view. We encourage Instructors to review the tutorial available to assist with this process.
For those interested in learning more about Microsoft Teams and its features, we encourage you to visit the myGSU Microsoft Teams portal page.
Thank you for your attention to this transition. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the ITS Help Desk at help@govst.edu or 708-534-HELP (4357).
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 end of March, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2025 semester.
Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2025 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 21, 2025. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
In previous terms, the Blackboard Student Orientation course displayed the “Original” view within Blackboard Learn. However, with the transition to the “Ultra” view, the Blackboard interface will be completely different. Beginning Spring 2025, students may experience two separate interfaces as faculty begin teaching in the new Ultra interface. Therefore, both Original view and Ultra tutorials are included within the Ultra Blackboard Student Orientation course shell.
Another change will be the certificate students used to receive when completing the course. Ultra will issue a digital badge upon completion, instead of certificates. The Orientation course offers how students can save their badge, so they may provide to any instructors who may request it.
Over the holiday break, the Information Technology Services (ITS) team replaced the STUDENT email address ending with @student.govst.edu with a new STUDENT email address ending with @govst.edu. With the new change, students and employees will have the same email extension, @govst.edu. For more information, please visit the Student Email Changes page.
Example
- Jax Jaguar’s current student email address: jjaguar@student.govst.edu.
- Jax Jaguar’s NEW student email address will be: jjaguar@govst.edu.
As you can see the word “student” has been removed which makes the new email address shorter.
Note: Jax’s username did NOT change, it remains jjaguar.
December 8, 2024 marks the last day of the Fall 2024 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 15, 2024.
Webex is sending this notification to site administrator contacts at https://govst.webex.com
We are writing to inform you about an upcoming scheduled maintenance for Webex LTI and Webex LTI Legacy. The maintenance will begin on Sunday, November 10, 2024, at 11 p.m. CST, and will last for 8 hours. During the maintenance period, Webex LTI and Webex LTI Legacy will be unavailable inside of your LMS.
Action required:
Once the maintenance is complete, instructors will need to log back in with Webex inside of Webex LTI or Webex LTI Legacy in the LMS and accept the requested permissions. This step is necessary to use certain features that require Webex access, such as scheduling new meetings, and will ensure seamless functionality moving forward.
Blackboard only: Instructors using Webex LTI Legacy in Blackboard will also need to reauthorize with the LMS from the Setup tab.
Next steps:
For future updates about scheduled maintenance, we encourage you to subscribe to our status page at https://lti-status.webex.com .
Webex appreciates your understanding and cooperation as they work to improve their services.
Spring 2025 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until January 6, 2025, but will not have access to Spring 2025 courses until January 1, 2025
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 end of October, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Spring 2025 semester.
SafeAssign will be undergoing scheduled maintenance on November 19, 2024, from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. CDT. During this time, the service will be completely unavailable, and any submissions will need to be resubmitted after the maintenance.
This upgrade is critical for improving system performance and ensuring more efficient plagiarism detection for both Blackboard and API clients. We appreciate your understanding and encourage users to plan ahead to minimize disruptions.
Estimated duration: 2 hours
Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2024 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 26, 2024. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
August 11, 2024 marks the last day of the Summer 2024 semester.
Final Grades are due by August 19, 2024.
SafeAssign will undergo a maintenance update on July 31, 2024, during low peak hours. For Learn clients, all submissions during this time will be queued and will be processed at the end of the maintenance period. For API clients, it will be necessary to resubmit all submissions made during the downtime period.
This downtime is essential for a backend infrastructure update, as we are transitioning to a new infrastructure. This transition impacts all SafeAssign clients.
The start time of this maintenance is July 31, 2024 3 a.m. EDT and should take approximately two hours.
Fall 2024 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until August 12, 2024, but will not have access to Fall 2024 courses until August 26, 2024.
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 Fall 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 mid June, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Fall 2024 semester.
Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2024 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 13, 2024. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
May 6, 2024 marks the last day of the Spring 2024 semester.
Final Grades are due by May 12, 2024.
Summer 2024 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until April 24, 2024, but will not have access to Summer 2024 courses until May 13, 2024.
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 Summer 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 mid March, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2024 semester.
Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2024 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 16, 2024. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
Whether posing questions in Q&A forums, contributing to lively discussions, or collaborating on group projects, students can easily connect with instructors and peers. The platform's communication features, including direct messaging, ensure seamless engagement, keeping learners connected and actively involved in their academic community. These integrated functionalities are designed to enhance the overall learning experience by promoting collaboration and open communication.
December 10, 2023 marks the last day of the Fall 2023 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 17, 2023.
Spring 2024 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until January 2, 2024, but will not have access to Spring 2024 courses until January 16, 2024
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 mid October, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Spring 2024 semester.
Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2023 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 28, 2023. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
August 13, 2023 marks the last day of the Summer 2023 semester.
Final Grades are due by August, 2023.
Fall 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 August 7, 2023, but will not have access to Fall 2023 courses until August 28, 2023
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 Fall 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 mid June, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Fall 2023 semester.
Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2023 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 15, 2023. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
May 8, 2023 marks the last day of the Spring 2023 semester.
Final Grades are due by May 15, 2023.
Our vendor believes the DNS issue has been resolved. You may access Blackboard as needed. This issue will continue to be monitored by Blackboard Tech Support.
Message sent 11:08 a.m. CDT
Blackboard Learn (https://newlearn.govst.edu) is currently unavailable. We have opened a support case with our vendor and their team is currently investigating the issue. We will provide another update as soon as the issue is resolved.
Message sent 8:33 a.m. CDT
Summer 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 May 1, 2023, but will not have access to Summer 2023 courses until May 15, 2023.
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 mid March, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.
Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2023 semester.
Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2023 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 17, 2023. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
On Saturday, December 31, VoiceThread will be performing hardware and software updates to their databases. VoiceThread will be unavailable for up to 6 hours.
Date: December 31, 2022
Time: 4 a.m. - 10 a.m. CST
Impact: VoiceThread offline
December 11, 2022 marks the last day of the Fall 2022 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 18, 2022.
The work typically requires eight hours of downtime and is usually on Saturdays, from 12 a.m. - 8 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.
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 January 3, 2023, but will not have access to Spring 2023 courses until January 17, 2023
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 October 25, 2022 at 12:50PM CDT.
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 Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Spring 2023 semester.
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.
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 beginning September 30, 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.
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 a.m. CDT.
Blackboard is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.16.
Downtime will be on Thursday, September 8, 2022 from 1 a.m. CDT to Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 5 a.m. 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.
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: September 7, 2022 at 12:23 p.m. CDT to 9/7/2022 at 12:41 a.m. CDT
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.
At approximately 12 p.m. CDT on August 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.
August 14, 2022 marks the last day of the Summer 2022 semester.
Final Grades are due by August 21, 2022.
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 a.m. and 4 a.m. 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.
On Monday August 8, 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 beginning September 30, 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.
Blackboard Inc. will be changing the way some third-party vendor tools are integrated within the Blackboard Learn Original system. Currently, several publisher tools, such as Pearson, McGraw-Hill and WileyPLUS are accessible through the Instructor's “Control Panel”. Other vendors, such as VoiceThread, are available in the “Tools section” within any content area of a course. Over the next year, Instructors will need to transition their vendor links, displayed in Blackboard, to the new integration. Please note that your current setup will not be affected. You will have until August 21, 2022 to make the transition. The software mentioned above is now accessible under the Build Content section of any Content Area within a Blackboard course. If you have any questions regarding the new process, you may reach out to the publisher for more details. We also provided links to tutorials (below) in this email.
Some users are experiencing issues when editing or creating test multiple-choice questions or questions using Math Editor.
Our vendor, Blackboard, is currently working to resolve the issue.
On certain courses and tests only, some users are getting an access denied message when trying to create new questions or edit questions.
Our vendor, Blackboard, is currently working to resolve the issue. As a workaround, please use Mozilla Firefox internet browser.
Our MyLab® and Mastering® courses are getting upgraded with better usability, accessibility, navigation and course management. Part of the upgrade includes retiring some of the least-used features in our courses, including Threaded Discussions. That feature will no longer be available in your course copied after July 1, 2022 . If you use this feature, please read this entire message for important information about what you need to do for this change.
To help you transition, please do the following:
If you’d like to keep your existing discussions, you can do one of the below:
1. Print and save them as Adobe PDF files.
2. Copy/paste each thread into a Word document to preserve this text data.
If you would like to use the Discussion Board during your summer classes — please make sure you make your summer course copies prior to July 1, 2022. If you don’t copy your summer courses before this time, your new course copies will not include Threaded Discussions.
Even if you use Threaded Discussions in your summer courses, please do make sure you make alternate plans for your Fall 2022 term (like using a Discussion Tool via your campus Learning Management or Student Information System to collaborate with students).
If you have any questions, please contact Pearson Support.
Starting on July 1, VoiceThread will be implementing a data clean-up policy that might result in some inactive accounts being deleted. The following policies will apply to users under our license:
-Account has never been accessed: Will be deleted 1 year after it was created.
-Account has been accessed but no content has been created: Will be deleted after 1 year of inactivity.
-Account owner has created content: Will be deleted after 2 years of inactivity. The owner of the account will be notified by email 30 days in advance so they can take action if they would like. If someone wants to ensure their account is not deleted automatically, all they need to do is sign in at least once per year.
Fall 2022 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until August 8, 2022, but will not have access to Fall 2022 courses until 8/29/22.
The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2022 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is June 15, 2022. Course shells will be available June 22, 2022.
In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.
**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 Fall 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 June 15, 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 Fall 2022 semester.
Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2022 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 16, 2022. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
May 9, 2022 marks the last day of the Spring 2022 semester.
Final Grades are due by May 16, 2022.
VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. (Central Time). You may notice some slowness during these windows, but no planned service outages.
If a full outage is required, you'll receive a separate message from us at least 14 days in advance, as you already do.
All upcoming maintenance windows can be found on the VoiceThread Status Page. You can also subscribe to email notifications there if you would like to receive reminders about these scheduled windows.
VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. (Central Time). You may notice some slowness during these windows, but no planned service outages.
If a full outage is required, you'll receive a separate message from us at least 14 days in advance, as you already do.
All upcoming maintenance windows can be found on the VoiceThread Status Page. You can also subscribe to email notifications there if you would like to receive reminders about these scheduled windows.
Summer 2022 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until May 2, 2022.
The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2021 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is March 21, 2022. Course shells will be available March 25, 2022.
In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.
**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 Fall 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 March 21, 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 Summer 2022 semester.
VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. (Central Time). You may notice some slowness during these windows, but no planned service outages.
If a full outage is required, you'll receive a separate message from us at least 14 days in advance, as you already do.
All upcoming maintenance windows can be found on the VoiceThread Status Page. You can also subscribe to email notifications there if you would like to receive reminders about these scheduled windows.
Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.02 on Thursday, February 10, 2022. More information about this release will be available on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
US (AWS Virginia: us-east-1): Thursday, February 10, 2022 from 1:00 AM CST (Central Standard Time) to Thursday, February 10, 2022 5 a.m. CST (Central Standard Time)
Collaborate Ultra will try to minimize downtime and does not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however they will use the entire maintenance window if necessary. Collaborate clients will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window.
Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.02 on Thursday, February 10, 2022. More information about this release will be available on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
US (AWS Virginia: us-east-1): Thursday, February 10, 2022 from 1 a.m. CST (Central Standard Time) to Thursday, February 10, 2022 5 a.m. CST (Central Standard Time)
Collaborate Ultra will try to minimize downtime and does not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however they will use the entire maintenance window if necessary. Collaborate clients will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window.
Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2022 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 18, 2022. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
Update:
Blackboard Learn 3900.30.0 (January 10, 2022) update of Learn SaaS for Production environments.
Release Notes for Learn SaaS
On December 29, 2021 at 5 a.m. EST (UTC -5), we will be performing a database upgrade and maintenance. VoiceThread will be offline for 8 hours. Users who attempt to access during this window will see a message that VoiceThread is down for maintenance. This information is also available on our status page.
Date: December 29, 2021
Time: 5 a.m. - 1 p.m. EST (UTC -5)
Impact: VoiceThread offline
On December 27, 2021 at 9 a.m. EST (UTC -5), we will be increasing the security of user-uploaded media. There should not be a noticeable change with this update, but it is possible that there may be increased media load times temporarily.
Date: December 27, 2021
Time: 9 a.m. EST (UTC -5)
Impact: Possible slow media load times
Blackboard will be brought offline on December 21, 2021 at 9 a.m. (the day after Fall semester grades are due) and will become available on January 7, 2022. Blackboard will not be accessible during this time. If “Incomplete” grades are given to students, please be advised this outage will affect their access to Blackboard.
Around 8:45 a.m. CST this morning, there were reports of users having sporadic service to many of the GSU applications (Colleague, Outlook Email, Kronos, Blackboard, and Web services (Help Desk and other cloud based applications)). ITS is still experiencing issues with Colleague UI. All other GSU systems are returning to operational status (as of 12:06 p.m. CST). ITS will continue to monitor the systems.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Service Desk by dialing on campus HELP (4357), off campus 708-534-4357, or help@govst.edu.
Timestamp: 12:06PM CST
Summary:
Internet services have been restored. There may be intermittent connectivity issues throughout the day. ITS is continuing to monitor the network.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Service Desk by dialing on campus HELP (4357), off campus 708-534-4357, or help@govst.edu.
Timestamp: 11:04 a.m. CST
Summary:
There have been reports of users not being able to access outside internet services. Internal or on campus network services are able to be accessed. ITS is working on a resolution to the problem.
December 14, 2021
Affected Services:
External services
-Web services (Help Desk, Webex, Zoom, and other cloud based applications)
-Email (Off campus)
-VPN
-Internet Access while on campus
-Blackboard NewLearn (while off campus)
Not Affected Services:
Internal Services
-Colleague
-Intranet (MyGSU Portal)
-Email (while on campus)
-Blackboard NewLearn (while on campus)
Timestamp: 9:29 a.m. CST
Summary:
There have been reports of users not being able to access outside internet services. Internal or on campus network services are able to be accessed. ITS is working on a resolution to the problem.
December 14, 2021
Affected Services:
External services
-Web services (Help Desk, Webex, Zoom, and other cloud based applications)
-Email (Off campus)
-VPN
-Internet Access while on campus
-Blackboard NewLearn (while off campus)
Not Affected Services:
Internal Services
-Colleague
-Intranet (MyGSU Portal)
-Email (while on campus)
-Blackboard NewLearn (while on campus)
Timestamp: 9:29 a.m. CST
December 12, 2021 marks the last day of the Fall 2021 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 19, 2021.
We are pleased to report that the previous issues Respondus, WileyPLUS and McGraw-Hill were experiencing, due to the Amazon Web Service (AWS) outage, has been resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced as a result. If you need any technical assistance please reach out to the third-party's Technical Support team.
Respondus: https://support.respondus.com/support/index.php?/Default/Tickets/Submit/RenderForm/2
WileyPLUS: https://wpsupport.wiley.com/s/
McGraw-Hill: https://mhedu.force.com/CXG/s/ContactUs
Incident status: Identified:
WileyPLUS continues to experience technical issues and is unavailable to customers. We are working to resolve the issue. Thank you for your patience. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please check back for updates.
Time posted:
Dec 7, 2021 12:43 p.m. EST
Update:
The AWS outage is affecting Respondus Monitor and the LockDown Browser Dashboard. LockDown Browser exams delivered on Chromebook and iPad devices are affected by the outage (Windows and macOS are fine). StudyMate Campus is also affected.
Investigating:
There is a widespread AWS outage that is currently affecting Respondus Monitor.
Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2021 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 31, 2021. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
The GSU Blackboard “archive” server (learn.govst.edu or bb9.govst.edu), was used to host Blackboard courses prior to Fall 2019 (courses offered during 2011-2019 academic years). When we transitioned to “NewLearn” in August 2019, we advised that the archive server would be available to faculty for up to one year. This date was extended and the archive server will be available until Summer 2021, due to recent changes and COVID-19.
We encourage faculty to retrieve and store any files (to their cloud based storage) from prior courses off of the archive server as soon as possible.
August 15, 2021 marks the last day of the Summer 2021 semester.
Final Grades are due by August 22, 2021.
The MyQM website and Canvas access through the MyQM interface are both running extremely slow. MyQM is scheduled for maintenance on Friday, August 13. MyQM and the Course Review Management System will be unavailable from approximately 4 p.m. (CDT) to 9 p.m. CDT.
You can continue to access your course/workshop by using a direct login (https://qualitymatters.instructure.com/login/canvas) to Canvas. You will need to select the “Forgot Password?” link to reset the password using the email address associated with your MyQM profile if you have not used the direct link before.
Thank you for your patience. For technical support during the outage, please contact QM Help Desk.
This release will be the roll out of the new whiteboard and 21.12 will include gallery view dynamic adjustment. More information regarding new features can be found on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
GSU Blackboard Learn is now available.
Time: 12 p.m. CDT
GSU Blackboard Learn is currently unavailable.
Time: 11:34 p.m. CDT
This release will expand Gallery view to participants. More information regarding new features can be found on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
This release will allow moderators to share both front and back cameras on a mobile device as content. More information regarding new features can be found on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
We 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 Ultra customers will experience intermittent availability during these maintenance windows.
Maintenance Window: 1 a.m. CDT to 5 a.m. CDT
Fall 2021 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until August 16, 2021.
The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2021 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is May 25, 2021. Course shells will be available June 1, 2021.
In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.
**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 Fall 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 May 25, 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 Fall 2021 semester.
Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2021 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 17, 2021. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
May 3, 2021 marks the last day of the Spring 2021 semester. Final Grades are due by May 10, 2021.
Summer 2021 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until May 3, 2021.
The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Summer 2021 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is March 26, 2021. Course shells will be available March 29, 2021.
In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Summer semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.
**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 Summer 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 March 26, 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 Summer 2021 semester.
Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 21.04 on March 11, 2021. This release will switch to CloudFlare CDN for Collaborate recording streaming.
More information regarding the 21.04 release, can be accessed on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 21.02 on February 25, 2021. This release will provide improved privacy status of recordings to add clarity for non public recordings.
More information regarding the 21.02 release, can be accessed on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
Approx. Time: 8:35AM CST
Blackboard was temporarily unavailable, but our ITS Department has resolved the issue. The system is now available for use.
Approx. Time: 5 a.m. CST
Blackboard is currently unavailable. Our ITS Department is currently investigating the issue to resolve as soon as possible. Another email will be sent when the system becomes available.
Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2021 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 19, 2021. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.
Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.24 on January 14, 2021. This release will contain a more visible recording privacy status and support chatbot within sessions.
More information regarding the 20.24 release, can be accessed on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.
Please note that the Aqua assessment system will undergo scheduled maintenance, requiring some downtime on January 10, 2021 from 5 a.m. CST to 11 a.m. CST.
These maintenance windows will include upgrade work and are to ensure the system operates as efficiently as possible. This maintenance is being performed by the vendor and they have provided this advanced notice to help their client institutions make necessary plans.
Contact Us
- Center for Teaching and Learning
- Governors State University - C Building
- 708-534-4115
- blackboard@govst.edu