Software Updates
Software Updates is located in the System Admin Panel and provides updates specific to your Blackboard Learn installation. If a newer version of Blackboard Learn is available, an indicator will display the number of versions, and you can select which version to download. This includes Service Packs as well as Major Releases. In addition to Blackboard Learn updates, new releases of installed Building Blocks are displayed in Software Updates on the System Admin Panel. To use Software Updates, Blackboard Learn needs to make a secure HTTP access OUT using port 443 to the following servers:Page Scroll Location Maintained During RefreshIf you are blocking secure HTTP access OUT from your Learn instance, you will need to configure your firewall to enable access to these servers.
- handle.blackboard.com
- softwareupdates.blackboard.com
The page scroll location is maintained on screens that contain scroll bars if a user scrolls before the page finishes loading. For example, if a user deletes the last item in a content folder with numerous items, and scrolls before the page has finished loading, instead of being returned to the top if the page when the page finishes loading, the user maintains the current page scroll location.Select All
To prevent potentially huge numbers of items being selected, when a user chooses Select All for a list that has multi-select capability, all of the current items on the page are selected. An option is provided that allows all of the items in the list to be selected.Student Information System Integration Building Block
The Student Information System (SIS) Integration Building Block was designed to help Administrators create courses and authorize users for the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS). Information provided by the institution is used to create the required entities within the LMS database. The information may come from various sources in varying formats. Once this information is written in an appropriate format, it is loaded into the LMS using the Building Block. This Building Block is intended to provide a simplified alternative to the Blackboard Snapshot tool. Upgrading to Blackboard Learn from another LMS such as WebCT or Vista is now easier than ever. The Application Administrator has the ability to manage user and course data directly from the UI, whereas the Snapshot tool requires System Administrator access to the application server. There are three types of Integration available. Although there are three types of Integration, there is not a limit to the number of Integrations a system may have. It is unusual, though possible, to have a variety of Integration types on a single system.Community Engagement: Institutional HierarchyBlackboard recommends that Integrations begin in the Testing status. Selecting this status will allow you to test the Integration, and fix any issues that may arise before committing to the Integration. Once the testing is complete, the status may be set to Inactive or Active. Setting the status to Inactive will bring the data in, however, it will not be visible to users. Setting the status to Active will bring the data in, and it will be visible to users. The status can be changed at any time. Logging capabilities in an intuitive format are provided as part of the Student Information System Integration Building Block. Logs can be filtered using an advanced search method that includes the type of error, the Integration, and a date range. New log entries are easily visible, with a count attached to the type of log entry. The logs can be refreshed to retrieve the latest count, and details of each type of log. Note: Creating Organization associations to Institution Nodes using the Institutional Hierarchy SIS Data Integration framework is not supported in SP6. Any attempt to do so will be ignored, and an error logged. [Note: SP8 will include more SIS integration functionality.]
- IMS Enterprise 1.1
- IMS Enterprise 1.1 – Vista
- IMS Learning Information Services
Administrators can create and manage a hierarchy that reflects institutional organization in order to share and delegate administrative duties. Multiple organizational units within an institution can be given varying degrees of independence in order to manage their courses, organizations, and users. Institutions can support multiple organizational units on a single instance of Blackboard Learn. Administrators with appropriate privileges can create new Nodes in the hierarchy. Courses, organizations, and users are then associated with the node, and an administrator can be assigned with privileges to manage just those associated objects. Although Administrators can manually create Nodes and associate objects through the user interface, all of the creation and management of Nodes and the association of courses, organizations, and users to Nodes can be managed through data integration with the student information system. Flexible System Roles can be used in combination with the hierarchy to create a robust delegated administration that reflects the real-world organization of any institution. NOTE: The resource bundle properties file multiinst.properties, used for customized language packs, is scheduled to be renamed in Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 8. [Note: SP8 will include more hierarchy functionality.]]]>