What's new in Blackboard Learn - Summer 2016

Over Tuesday the 12th and Wednesday and 13th of July, the University of York's E-Learning Development Team and Enterprise Services Group will be upgrading Blackboard Learn to the next version. Please note that the VLE will be unavailable to all users during this time.

This release is largely a consolidation of the work Blackboard has been doing to upgrade the core technology of the Learn product which will bring further stability and reliability improvements.

There are a small set of minor feature improvements with no new major features or functionality planned for this release.

Blackboard's content editor now supports embedding of HTML 5 audio and video clips which will be played back using the native capabilities of modern HTML 5 compliant web browsers.

This provides the highest level of compatibility with devices and web browsers and means that users are no longer required to manage the installation and upgrading of audio and video playback plugins.

This enhancement will provide a much simpler and less troublesome experience for creators and especially consumers of audio and video content within the VLE.

A feature has been added to discussion boards that allows users to navigate easily between threads.

This feature provides faster and easier thread navigation, previously users would have to exit the current thread and return to the main discussions page to navigate into another thread.

Further information can be found here.

Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating system introduced a new, leaner, browser named Microsoft Edge which replaces Internet Explorer as the default browser for users of Windows 10 and beyond.

The version of Blackboard Learn to which we are upgrading is the first version to fully support Windows 10 and the Edge browser.

A change has been made to the default duration setting when creating new announcements.

Previously the default setting for the duration of a new announcement was for it to be date restricted. As by far the most common duration option chosen was for new annoucements to not be date restricted this is now the default.

The Video Anywhere feature of Blackboard has now been deprecated and replaced with the Browse My YouTube Videos feature.

This feature allows users to browse for and add a video they have previously uploaded to their YouTube channels.

More help of this feature can be found here.

The version of Blackboard Learn to which we are upgrading is the first to fully support the Google ChromeOS used by Chromebooks.

As Chromebooks are becoming a popular choice of device for new users and those looking for a lower cost of ownership than a traditional laptops this is a welcome addition to the platforms supported by Blackboard.

Further information on the officially supported browsers and operating systems can be found here.

As part of the software update there are also a small number of accessibility improvements in the latest release of Blackboard Learn:

Discussion Boards: Forum descriptions are read on the Create Thread page, this improves accessibility for users who use screen reader technologies.

Assessments: When creating hot spot questions Alternate text is now available such that it can be read by screen readers.

Content Editor: All embedded text heading styles have had their font size increased such that they can be easily read in both the view and edit states of the Content Editor.