At approximately 5:30pm, DoIT staff became aware of a potential outage with our instance Blackboard Learn. System admins immediately investigated the reports and opened a ticket with Blackboard support.

At 5:40pm, DoIT staff confirmed that multiple Blackboard SaaS clients are experiencing the same outage. Blackboard network engineers are working on the issue. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this outage may cause faculty and students, and look forward to our instance coming back online as soon as possible. 

This post will be updated with additional information as we receive it.

UPDATES

6:50 PM - Our instance is online and users can log in, but you may receive a 502 error. We've reported this to Blackboard.

6:55 PM - Our site appears to be rendering properly for users after logging in, but may be slow to load. Please be patient while the cloud hosting repopulates network connections.

7:10 PM - The Institution page is not appearing, which is consistent with other universities using cloud hosting. UMBC users will land on the Activity Stream when first logging into Blackboard until this issue is resolved.

8:00 PM - The Institution page is restored. All Blackboard systems appear to be functioning normally. Thank you for your patience.

As previously announced, Blackboard courses from AY14-15 and AY15-16 will be retired from our active production site by the end of January 2020. 

The Blackboard system’s overall performance and efficiency will improve by removing older files and database transactions from the content server and database. This course retirement includes the following terms:

• Any courses older than five years

• Fall 2014

• Winter 2015

• Spring 2015

• Summer 2015

• Fall 2015

• Winter 2016

• Spring 2016

• Summer 2016

As of FA2019, we began a new academic year of data retention (AY19-20). Additionally, AY16-17, AY17-18, and AY18-19 will remain on the server. However, any remaining organizations that are 2.5 GB in size or larger will also be retired or content migrated to Google Drive. New communities may be requested.

Is my content gone forever?

No. As previously completed during previous terms, Blackboard archived our complete site during the SU2019. Archived Bb courses capture all course data, files, student submissions, discussions, grades, etc. through SP2019. These archives will reside on a secure drive with the Division of Information Technology.

Can I save a copy of my own courses?

Yes -- and we certainly encourage it. Instructors canexport (course content) and/or archive (course content & student data) their courses. You should alsodownload a copy of your grade book. We recommend saving these files to your Google Drive to ensure long-term access in the event you change computer systems.

How long will you keep the retired courses?

We will keep the retired courses for 2 years after Blackboard archives the courses. Faculty who may need content beyond 2 years should plan to save copies of their exported courses to Google Drive.

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with a member of the instructional technology team

Calculating the grade on an Ultra tests becomes more flexible in the October update when the partial points feature is introduced. When creating a question in an assessment, instructors can enter values with up to two numbers after the decimal in the Points field. 

In the October update to Ultra, a quiz question can be worth 2.5 points or 0.5 points. If an assessment does not have individual questions, the overall point value can include up to two points after the decimal -- for example, an assignment can be worth 75.5 points.

When assignments require students to submit files, it's time-consuming for instructors to download each individual submission to grade it, especially in large courses. After the October update, instructors can download files from the Ultra gradebook or from the submissions list page with the Download all option. Instructors can then choose whether to download all or select specific submissions. Instructors receive an email and a course message when the ZIP file is ready to download to their computers.

Collaborate receives an updated this month as well, increasing the emoji options for non-verbal engagement and supporting video share through a Chrome browser tab. Additional Ultra updates this month include regrading question pools and the ability to remove attendance columns in the gradebook from a copied course. 

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around October 15th and pushed to production around November 7th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

Group management is an invaluable resource in a Blackboard course, especially one with large enrollments. UMBC is closely monitoring the evolution of this important tool in Ultra as we continue on a staged migration path. The September update to Ultra introduces self-enrolled group assignments, providing a useful workflow to support team activities. Faculty will be able to set self-enrollment limits for number of groups and membership size, hide student names for those who've already signed up, and create expiration dates for when students must sign up for their group assignments.

Two additional enhancements are available in September. Ultra courses will have a new Needs Grading filter to help instructors locate submissions and begin grading more quickly. Additionally, instructors can pre-schedule Collaborate sessions in their Ultra courses any time before releasing the course to students. 

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around September 10th and pushed to production around October 3rd. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally