Release Notes 2021

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021

Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.51+174af62) to client Production servers on Thursday, July 15, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Experience, when making a copy of a course, if there were quotes used in custom alt-text descriptions for images, the Ultra assignments and assessments in the course appeared blank. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, some instructors and administrators couldn't save their HTML in the new Content Editor despite having the privilege to do so. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, some SCORM attempts remained "In Progress" in the Grade Centre, even after a successful completion of the corresponding SCORM quiz. Rustici identified the potential problem causing the issue. We've made their recommended fixes to mitigate future problems.
• In the Original Experience, some Learn SafeAssign reports could not be rendered. Submissions could remain in a "report in progress" status for days. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience and Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.43+eee598e) to some client Production servers on Friday, July 2, 2021. Only GovCloud clients in the US Eastern timezone and other GovCloud clients who could not be updated yesterday will receive the update during evening hours.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Delay for release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.17.0 release to GovCloud client Production servers in the US East timezone, previously scheduled for Thursday, July 1, 2021.

Also, an issue identified during today's rollout and already corrected, will cause some clients to receive a new, updated release today.

We’ll provide more updates as soon as we’ve identified a new target date.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience

We're applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 to client Production servers on Thursday, July 1, 2021. Due to an issue identified during today’s rollout, clients will receive different build numbers depending on the time their update was performed.

Updates with full release number 3900.17.0-rel.37+505c78f include only:

• In the Original Experience, the installer was leaving the SCORM B2 in a corrupted state after an upgrade failure. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, the Rustici Engine required a provider update to fix a library defect and installation snags. We've fixed the issue.

Updates with full release number 3900.17.0-rel.42+b2e6934 include the above fixes as well as:

• In the Original Experience, we've implemented an enhancement to reduce the need for heavy load and to avoid system slow down for the loadAllAchievements process.
• In the Original Experience, a table lock issue prevented upgrades, leading to some outages. We've fixed the issue.

The next full rollout will include all fixes for everyone.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.31+ea0ceef) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, when updating time on conditional availability on assessments, if an instructor selected 'Show On' date too close to the current due time, the date picker reverted the selected date back to the current date, ignoring the instructor's selection. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, for a course running the report All User Activity inside Content Areas, no data was presented on a period where it should be data. Running a different report (e.g. Course activity Overview) for the same course during the same period of time, this last report did present the missing data. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, the Self and Peer Assessment process was presenting a performance issue, due to a data file processing that required improvement. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original and Ultra Course Views, alerts for New Discussion Posts didn't appear in the What's New module for courses, based on term availability. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.15.0 and 3900.17.0: Update on releases to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re updating the information available regarding the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021:

• A maintenance update to client Production environments will take place on Thursday, June 24, to apply high priority fixes.
• The efforts to resolve the SCORM upgrade issues are still ongoing. Clients still running on 3900.13.0 will not be updated on June 24.

We aim to update all Production sites to 3900.17.0 on Thursday, July 1. This will include those clients who are currently on 3900.15.0 as well as those who are still on 3900.13.0.

We’ll provide new updates as soon as we have more information.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.15.0 and 3900.17.0: Update on release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re updating the information available regarding the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021:

• A maintenance update for 3900.15.0 to client Production environments is planned to take place on Thursday, June 24, after an update from Rustici was received. We are in the process of integrating and testing the updates.
• Inclusion of clients still on 3900.13.0 in the release on Thursday is tentative at this point, as it depends on the resolution of all SCORM related issues.

The 3900.17.0 upgrade to all stage/test sites that began on Friday is still in progress. We are expecting to complete it later today, Monday June 21.

We’ll provide new updates as soon as we have more information.

Chatbot enhancements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 and v3900.17.0 | Release to Test/Stage and Production 17 June 2021
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View and Base Navigation

On June 17, Blackboard Student Success updated Blackboard Chatbot. Chatbot is included in Blackboard Learn at no additional cost, so the Learn experience is also improved:

• Search Blackboard Learn Help documentation for Instructors as well as Students.
• In addition to asking the chatbot questions, users can now also navigate a category hierarchy to discover common topics.
• Resulting help information is now previewed directly in the chat interaction. Users can click to open the full documentation from the Help site.
  • The default Help articles reference the Ultra Course View to better support users transitioning to our latest interface and may need more assistance. However, users can easily switch to the Original Course View versions of Help articles as needed.
• Institutions can upgrade to the premium version of Blackboard Chatbot that now supports adding institutional-specific help resources and defining a unique, branded chatbot persona.

Blackboard Chatbot currently supports English language North American SaaS environments using Base Navigation. The June 17 update applies to all production and test/stage environments.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience and Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.24+35b8869) to client Test/Stage servers on Friday, June 18, 2021

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, some building blocks didn’t launch correctly after a libraries' update. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, student preview users couldn’t access journals. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn’t access assessments with system-generated access codes, as they contained leading zeros or unnecessary commas within. Now the codes are properly generated. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.15.0 and 3900.17.0: Update on release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re updating the information available regarding the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021:

• The release remains on hold for clients in the US-East-1 region while continuing to work with Rustici on the SCORM issue. We do not have a target release date yet.
• For institutions that have already received Learn SaaS 3900.15: there will be no further  production upgrades until the SCORM issue has been resolved.
• For institutions that are still using Learn SaaS 3900.13: production upgrade to 3900.15 will not be performed until the SCORM issue has been resolved.

Two issues were identified during the 3900.17.0 release to test/stage on Tuesday. For the benefit of our clients, we're working on a test/stage update, scheduled for Friday, June 18.

We’ll provide new updates as soon as we have more information.

API updates - 3900.17.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

Ability to manage Tool-to-node associations: We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including:

• Institutional Hierarchy is used by large Blackboard Learn Clients to enable increased administrator management distribution for campus courses and tool availability. Now APIs users have the ability to manage Tool- to-node associations.

For more information about our Rest Public APIs, please refer to: https://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApi

Highlight on bug fixes

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

• In the Ultra Course View, manual grade columns were lacking a Post All grades button on the Submissions page. A Post All button is now present there for instructors to use. We've fixed the issue.

• In the Ultra Experience, Ultra Courses, Organizations, and Grades pages went blank on Safari, when the zoom was below 100%. Now, the pages display the courses the user is enrolled in. We've fixed the issue.

• In the Original Experience, the Content Editor wasn't loading randomly. Now, the Content Editor loads in all use cases. We've fixed the issue.

You can view all maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3900.17.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Course Role Mapping to LTI Context Roles

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View, Original Experience and Original Course View

Some third-party integrated tools function better when users’ course roles are more specific to the responsibilities they have in their courses. Before, all privileged course users were sent to LTI tools with the context role instructor. Administrators can now edit course roles and choose from a list of LTI Context Roles that may be more appropriate for each.

Default and custom course roles, Original and Ultra courses, and older LTI 1.1 and newer LTI Advantage/1.3 tools are all supported.

To prevent possible disruption for current users, the old default role behavior wasn't changed. Administrators may wish to review all course role configurations after this release, and choose LTI context roles. Any given LTI context role mapping is specific to a course role and will apply to all LTI tools.

Overall grade prompt custom removal

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience

In Grading, there is a prompt composed of an image and text that ask users if they want to add an overall grade. This prompt appears always, whether instructors intend to use it or not. This new feature allows users to dismiss the prompt permanently for a course, if they never intend to use an overall grade for it.

Additionally, if instructors dismiss the prompt, they'll still be able to setup the overall grade from the gradebook settings. If the overall grade is already set up, they'll be able to access the overall settings from the gradebook settings.

Percentage option for overall grade

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience

This enhancement allows instructors to show the overall grade in a way that best aligns to the method in which they currently teach the class. Instructors can select now between Letter (grade schema) and Percentage. The selection will apply to instructors and students in the overall grade.

Gradebook column grading on/off for attendance

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience

With this new feature, instructors can control the visibility of the Attendance columns for students and instructors in the gradebook view, grid and list. They can choose whether they want to use attendance as a grade or not.

While some instructors want or need to track attendance, they don't always need it represented in the gradebook. They can remove attendance columns from the gradebook without affecting the attendance itself.

If instructors want to remove attendance, now they can do so from the attendance settings. Before this enhancement, the option was only available in the gradebook grid.

Group assignment page improvement

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience

In the Ultra experience, we've redesigned the group set configuration page to improve UI performance and allow large courses to be more stable.

• A new functionality allows instructors to paginate through students who aren't currently assigned to a group.
• The avatar is hidden, to help people with vision impairment to navigate through cards more efficiently.
• A search bar now makes easy a specific student lookup or helps filter the display of unassigned students by search criteria. The bar shows predicted results and only unassigned students will be displayed.
• Another new functionality allows users to move to the top of the page when there are enough students shown on the screen.

Performance tuning: 1M stack size increment for all SaaS sites

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

SH/MH customers may improve Learn thread’s capabilities, memory wise, by updating the bbconfig.max.stacksize.tomcat property value, within the bb-config.properties file to “1M”. This change will take effect when the instance is restarted and in case threads need the extra piece of memory that is being provided, they will have access to it.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.15.0 and 3900.17.0: Update on release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re updating the information available regarding the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021:

• The outstanding SCORM upgrade issue is still unresolved. We are working hard alongside Rustici in order to fix it as quickly as possible, and we don't have a target date for resolution yet.
• For institutions that have already received Learn SaaS 3900.15: there will be no further  production upgrades until the SCORM issue has been resolved.
• For institutions that are still using Learn SaaS 3900.13: production upgrade to 3900.15 will not be performed until the SCORM issue has been resolved.

We will also move forward with the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.17.0 release to client Test/Stage servers, previously scheduled for Tuesday, June 8, 2021, to Tuesday, June 15, 2021. This new release date aligns with our usual pattern, minimizing its delay as much as possible. Based on institutional feedback we also aim to provide institutions with sufficient time for testing.

The release schedule has been updated to reflect this latter change.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Delay for release to client Testing environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 8 June 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.17.0 release to client Testing servers, previously scheduled for Tuesday, June 8, 2021.

We’ll provide more updates as soon as we’ve identified a new target date.