The patch to allow the multiple file uploads to work with the latest java version has now been installed. There was no downtime or interruptions to Blackboard.
If you have problems with the multiple file upload you many need to clear the java cache on your system. Instructions on how to do this are at:
During Winter quarter 2014, up to forty (40) faculty may be selected from a pool of volunteers to test the vendor products in the competitive range. Faculty will be asked to test a specific set of features across all products and then report their findings. The estimated time required will probably not exceed five hours. Faculty can do this testing during February 2014. In recognition of their time, faculty will receive a $250.00 in their ASA accounts.
To join the pilot and make your voice heard, please let us know what course(s) you would like to teach in these systems by filling out this form by January 31, 2014. You will be contacted by the Task Force by the week of February 10, 2014. Faculty selected to participate in the pilots will be able to begin testing in early/mid February and will need to complete testing by February 28, 2014.
For more information, please see blogs.uoregon.edu/lmsreview/.
Update: SafeAssign is now available again as of 2:30pm.
Unfortunately SafeAssign is down. It is not an issue on our end and is being worked on.
We are not sure when the problem will be resolved. If SafeAssignments are due today please offer an extension.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact Blackboard Client Support if you have any questions.
Recently Oracle released a new version of java that contains some changes to how security works. There are only two areas in Blackboard that are affected by this, the Collaborate tools that include the chat and virtual classroom and the multiple file upload tool. The Collaborate tools have now been updated to work with the latest version of Java and a patch to fix the multiple file upload should be released early next week.
If you have already updated your java to the latest version you can use the single file upload instead of the multiple file upload tool or you can modify your Java Console settings and set the “Security” setting to “Medium” and then clear your browser cache.
The maintenance is complete and Blackboard is now fully available again. We are now running Blackboard 9.1 SP14.
The SafeAssign service will be unavailable due to maintenance starting at 11pm Pacific Time on Thursday December 26 until 11am Pacific Time on Friday December 27. During this time instructors will not be able to create or modify SafeAssignments or view submissions and students will not be able to submit assignments.
The rest of the Blackboard system will not be affected by this maintenance.
The bulletin from Blackboard follows:
The SafeAssign central services will undergo maintenance that requires a service outage on Friday, December 27, 2013 2am – 2pm US Eastern (GMT -5). During this time, SafeAssign functionality will not be available and an error will be displayed to the user.
The SafeAssign services and databases are being moved within the Managed Hosting infrastructure to a new environment and therefore require a full shutdown in order to prevent data corruption. This support bulletin will be updated when the maintenance is complete.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact Blackboard Client Support if you have any questions
On December 19, 2013 Blackboard will be down for maintenance from 8:00am-6:00pm. During this time the software will be updated to version 9.1 SP14. Most of the changes in this version are internal changes not visible to the end user with the following important exceptions:
For students the default view for “My Grades” is changed so the grades are sorted by class. Instructor feedback will also be shown along with your grades. For more information see: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_14_and_SP_15/Student/010_Whats_New/000_SP_14_New_Features/My_Grades_Update
For instructors there are some changes in the Grade Center. Grading schemas can now be set higher than 100%, the points possible on tests can manually overridden, and for tests and quizzes with multiple attempts you can change how the attempts are scored when you deploy the test instead of having to go to the grade center to make the change. For more information see: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_14_and_SP_15/Instructor/010_Whats_New/000_SP_14_New_Features/Grade_Center_Improvements
The maintenance has been completed.
There will be a short maintenance time this Saturday from 8am until 10am. No downtime is expected.
During this time several building blocks will be updated to install various bug fixes, including:
There appears to be a problem with off campus users using Comcast when connecting with Blackboard and other on campus systems. Network Services has been notified of the problem.
On campus users and off campus users with other ISPs are not affected by this problem.