Release Notes for Blackboard Instructor

Name: Blackboard Instructor 2.4.1

Date Updated: March 4, 2019

Improvements in this release

iOS only

Resolves issue where characters in non-English languages didn’t render appropriately in announcements and discussions.

Name: Blackboard Instructor 2.4

Date Updated: February 27, 2019

Improvements in this release

iOS and Android

Improved support for rich text and media in the announcement and discussion board tools for Original courses.

iOS only

With app switching in iOS, a static Blackboard Instructor splash page is now shown in the collection of recently used apps. The splash page replaces the former behavior of showing a screenshot of the current state of the app. This improvement ensures information security.

Requirements

Markets and verticals

Blackboard Instructor is available in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and parts of the Asia pacific region. The app is available to NAHE, ProEd, and K-12 clients for iOS and Android.

Description

Blackboard Instructor is a mobile app that enables instructors to view course content, grade assignments, connect with students in discussions, and interact with their classes in Blackboard Collaborate. Users see all their current courses where they're enrolled as an instructor, TA, course builder, or other custom role.

Note from Product Management

In 2018, we are thinking about and developing our teaching and learning products toward the greater good of a holistic, next generation digital learning environment through the lens of three critical, unifying product themes: academic effectiveness, learner engagement, and education insight. By focusing on these themes, we will unify the development of our products to empower excellence in teaching and learning, inspire genuine interest, attention, and interaction in the learning process, and enable continuous improvement through accurate and deep understanding of the teaching and learning process.

In this release we focused our development and design update on academic effectiveness.

Features

See the Blackboard Instructor feature guide for a list of tools and capabilities in the app.

Additional notes for administrators:

• Supports Apple Files on iOS devices. Learn more about cloud storage services and the app.
• Grade assignments in the app. Learn more about the availability of grading.
• Attach files to discussion posts and schedule announcements and send email copies of announcements. Check the minimum system requirements for discussion attachments and new announcement features.
• The app is available on iOS and Android devices.
• Windows version of the app moved to maintenance mode in January 2018 and no longer adds new features. Critical issues and technical updates to support integrations and OS requirements will continue. Collaborate isn't supported on the Windows version of the app.
• In-app prompt for user reviews shows on the Courses list and Organizations list when users have interacted with the app for a minimum time period. After users leave a review or dismiss the prompt, it doesn't show again.
• Users can download and view course files offline. Check the minimum B2 requirements for the offline content feature.
• The app supports courses, organizations, and custom roles. the Mobile Web Services Building Block version 94.9.8+ is required for organizations and custom roles.
• Users must accept the Blackboard Terms of Use on first access.
• Schools can provide a link to their institution's terms of use in the app.
• You can use custom labels for login fields, to make it clear what credential to use.
• Collaborate Ultra sessions are listed within courses in the app. Collaborate sessions support up to 500 participants. Android and iOS moderators can record sessions.
• See Supported Files in Mobile Apps for a list of supported file types by platform.
• Blackboard Instructor contains data caching for portions of the application. Here are the Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) cache expiration times:
  • 30-second expiration on the course list and course overview. This expiration is user specific.
  • 120 minutes on basic course information such as course id, name, and description. This expiration is system wide.
  • 120 minutes on school search with MLCS. This expiration is system wide.

Language support

The language of the app comes from the device's operating system, not the Blackboard Learn language preference. Language settings affect the app interface, but not course content.

• Arabic
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Hebrew
• Italian
• Irish
• Japanese
• Korean
• Malay
• Maori
• Norwegian
• Nynorsk
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Thai
• Traditional Chinese
• Turkish
• UK English
• US English
• Vietnamese
• Welsh

Dependencies

• Blackboard recommends using version 94.9.5+ of the Mobile Web Services building block to ensure the best experience with Blackboard Instructor. The Mobile Web Services building block must be activated and registered with the Mobile Central Service to use Blackboard Instructor. To learn more, see Release Notes for Mobile Web Services (available in English only).

• Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS).

App installation

Instructors can follow these steps to download and install the Blackboard Instructor app.

1. From your device, access the appropriate online store.
   • App Store® on your Apple® device
   • Google Play™ on your Android® device
2. Search for Blackboard Instructor.
3. Install the app on your mobile device.
4. Open Blackboard Instructor and search for the full name of your institution.

   If you’re unable to find your institution, try modifying your search. If your school is part of a larger institution or district, try searching for that name instead.

5. Log in with your Blackboard Learn username and password. These are the same credentials you use to access your Blackboard courses on a computer.

Learn more

If you have questions, please reach out to our Client Support team on Behind the Blackboard (available in English only).

Statements about future development

*Statements regarding our product development initiatives, including new products and future product upgrades, updates or enhancements represent our current intentions, but may be modified, delayed or abandoned without prior notice and there is no assurance that such offering, upgrades, updates or functionality will become available unless and until they have been made generally available to our customers.

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