The Blackboard Team will upgrade UTHSC’s Blackboard application to the April 2014 release beginning Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 12:00 a.m. extending to 6:00 a.m. During this time, Blackboard, including all courses and content, will be unavailable. The upgrade includes added functionality and slight interface changes. No major application changes or modifications to course content will occur.
The April 2014 release for Blackboard Learn 9.1 delivers exciting innovations as well as deep improvements to core capabilities, resulting in a product that is more intuitive and engaging.
Anonymous and Delegated Grading
Instructors can hide student names from submitted assignments for anonymous grading. Instructors can delegate grading to specific users.
Creating and Editing Assignments
The interface for creating or editing an assignment has undergone a significant update to accommodate new Anonymous and Delegating Grading and to improve the workflow for the creation of all assignments. When creating or editing an assignment, instructors can enable Anonymous Grading and Delegated Grading within the Grading Options section. Enabling Delegated Grading permits an instructor to assign specific teaching assistants or other graders in a course to grade particular groupings of student submissions.
My Grades
The look and feel of My Grades has been updated. Students can now view feedback by clicking View Feedback.
Portfolios
The Portfolio subsystem is intended primarily as a tool for students to reflect on their own learning or as a tool for assessing student learning.
Student Preview
Previously, Blackboard Learn the Edit Mode On/Off control approximated what a student who had access to everything in a course might see. The new Student Preview feature provides the capability for an Instructor to see the course exactly how a student would see it. It accomplishes this by allowing the Instructor to easily transition into and out of a system-managed preview account that is automatically enrolled in the course as a Student.
SafeAssign
The SafeAssignment content type is removed and SafeAssign becomes an optional addition available when creating native Blackboard Learn assignments.
SafeAssign has been modified to recognize that a submission is originating from the same student and the same assignment as a previous submission, and not check the contents of the student’s current attempt against content from previous submissions.
SafeAssign Originality Report Improvements
In addition to improving the design and visual aesthetic of the SafeAssign Originality Report, several new features are introduced to the SafeAssign service (group submissions, multiple attachments, multiple submissions, etc.) as part of integrating the SafeAssign service into the Learn Assignment workflow.
Please contact your Blackboard Administrators at bb@uthsc.edu or 901-448-1927 with any questions or concerns about this or any other Blackboard issue.