Release Notes for Learn SaaS - 2016
Grades Journey
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 2 December 2016
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Flexible Deployment Q4 2016
This update improves handling for managing grade columns in or reading grade data from merged sections. Institutions using flat file or REST in addition to LIS integration types can now retrieve just the external grade column. And new column filtering and column mapping capabilities make it easier to integrate with various student information systems.
Content Collection search improvement
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016, Updated Features
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
The Basic or Advanced Search feature in the Content Collection now requires a starting search directory for better performance. Admins can grant users a permission to still search across all directories. A new privilege has been added so administrators can permit or restrict users from searching top-level directories in Basic and Advanced Search.
Course activity reports
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016, Updated Features
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
The Course Activity Overview report has been updated to improve the experience for larger enrollment courses. Instructors can filter the report and break down the calculations of student activity by course groups.
Enterprise Surveys improvements
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience
Changes to defaults and recipient count behavior help prevent admins from accidentally sending a survey to an overly-large recipient list.
New icon set
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
In this release, there is a new icon set for use in courses and organizations, and cancel/submit buttons will always pin to the bottom of the page regardless of device.
Quality improvements
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016, Updated Features
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016 includes multiple new and enhanced features, improved workflows, and technology updates. Enhancements for this release generally fall into the following five categories:
- Technology infrastructure improvement to improve performance and security
- Improved experience for mobile users and updating the look-and-feel of the environment
- Improvements to save time and effort including file drag-and-drop in key workflows
- Assessment enhancements in the core teaching and learning tools
- Reporting improvements
REST APIs
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2016
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
REST APIs are no longer restricted to technical preview. Administrators and developers can create integrations using REST APIs and secured with OAuth. Please note that we strongly encourage anyone making use of these APIs to thoroughly test their functionality. Please see the following articles on the Community site for further details:
Technical updates
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3100.0.0 | Release to Production 18 November 2016
Original Experience
BIRT Engine update to v4.5.0
Reports on student activity - Assignments
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.10.0 | Release to Production 18 September 2016
With this release, we've augmented student activity reports in Original and Ultra courses. Now activity reports are available for assignments in addition to tests, which were supported beginning with the v3000.4.0 release.
The student activity report displays the details of when each student accessed, began, and made a submission to an assignment.
This is a dual-panel feature, which looks and functions the same in both Original or Ultra courses. However, the school's Learn instance must have the Ultra experience enabled in order to use Student Activity Reports.
- See when students opened, began, and submitted their assignments.
- View the data visually using Chart View or in a text layout using Grid View.
- Easily access the data at the course level, using the same method for both assignment and test activity.
- In Original courses: Select the Content tab, then navigate to an assignment and select the arrow to the right of its name. Choose Student Activity.
- In Ultra courses: Access Student Activity data from the Course Content page. Hover over a test and select the bar chart icon labeled Student Activity.
Cengage Building Block
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.7.0 | Release to Production 15 July 2016
An updated version of the Cengage Learning MindLinks™ Building Block, v1.101.201602307, is preinstalled for all clients on SaaS Standard deployments. It is turned off by default.
Cengage Building Block
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.4.0 | Release to Production 24 June 2016
The Building Block, v1.101.201602307, is preinstalled and available to all clients on SaaS Standard deployments. It is turned off by default.
Learn 2016 Theme for improved mobile experience
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.4.0 | Release to Production 24 June 2016
This release includes a new theme for the Original experience that provides a more modern look and feel. Most importantly, the Learn 2016 theme significantly increases the responsiveness of the interface for small devices.
The theme also incorporates elements from the new Blackboard design language including color, fonts, and spacing, for greater consistency between Blackboard Learn, Collaborate Ultra, and the Bb Student app. Finally, the theme improves the responsiveness of Original courses in the Ultra experience.
The Learn 2016 theme replaces the Learn 2015 theme in the theme manager. We do not recommend using the 2015 theme with the Original experience, regardless of deployment type. The new Learn 2016 theme is intended for use with the Original experience.
Important notes:
- Institutions retain the option to customize the login page in the Original experience.
- The course menu navigation collapses automatically on small devices (less than 768 pixels wide). Users open the navigation menu to make a new selection; then the menu collapses again, in order to maximize screen space for content and tools.
- Modules on tabs or a course module page will shrink to size on larger devices; on smaller devices, columns will collapse to a single column and the modules will stack.
- Instructors cannot use course themes with the Learn 2016 theme, because they are not responsive.
- The theme cannot present content responsively if the content itself isn't responsive. Content authored with the Content Editor must be authored responsively in order for it to conform to a mobile device. For example:
- Images should be added and displayed at 100%, rather than as fixed pixel sizes.
- Tables used to organize or present content should be avoided, since they typically have specified cell and table sizes that won't work with mobile devices.
McGraw-Hill Building Block
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.4.0 | Release to Production 24 June 2016
The Building Block, v2.3.2016020053, is preinstalled and turned on by default for all clients on SaaS Standard deployments.
Pearson MyLab & Mastering Building Block
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.4.0 | Release to Production 24 June 2016
The Building Block, v3.201.201602007, is preinstalled and available to all clients on SaaS Standard deployments.
Grade Extract
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery K-12 customers
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Building Blocks
Maintenance note to K-12 clients utilizing the Gradebook Extract Building Block.
Due to a conflict between solutions included in the SaaS deployment, Gradebook Extract was updated to utilize a new data model. Unfortunately, this update will result in the disruption of previously scheduled extracts. All configuration pertaining to structure, columns, and files are maintained. Only the scheduler configuration will be lost.
To resume the scheduled extracts, the administrator must navigate to System Admin > Building Blocks > Installed Tools > Gradebook Extract > Settings > Schedule and Notification Configuration and resubmit the page after reviewing its contents. Any questions or concerns regarding this operation can be escalated to ICM through a Behind the Blackboard ticket.
Learn, Analytics for Learn, and Building Block compatibility
Building Blocks, Original Experience, Ultra Experience
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3000.1.0 | Release to Production 3 May 2016
Users upgrading their Learn environment to Learn version Q2-2016 and above must use the new Analytics for Learn + Building Block combination to support integration: Analytics for Learn version 4.3 + and Building Block version 4.0 +. This requires an upgrade to the A4L warehouse, and must be scoped and scheduled in advance of the Learn upgrade to avoid interruption of service. Please contact your account representative if you have any questions about whether your A4L warehouse will be impacted by your Learn upgrade.
