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Mobile Web Services
The Blackboard Mobile Web Services Building Block enables users to connect to their courses through Blackboard's mobile applications: Blackboard app and Blackboard Instructor. The latest version of the Mobile Web Services Building Block is 94.9.12. Check these links for the best available version for your installation.
Blackboard Open Content available in Content Market
Blackboard Open Content is now available as a content partner in the Content Market for both Original and Ultra experiences in Blackboard Learn.
With this release, instructors using Blackboard Learn can launch directly from the Content Market into Blackboard Open Content to create, share, and discover rich educational content from a global network of instructors and leading OER providers.
Additionally, instructors can launch directly from the Content Market into the partner channel for CK-12 and Curriculum Pathways to discover and add content to their courses.
Cumulative Update 2 for Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q2 2016
Cumulative Update 2 for Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q2 2016 release is now available.
Learn 2016 Theme
This update includes a new theme that provides a more modern look and feel. Most importantly, the Bb 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 Blackboard app.
More on Cumulative Update 1 for Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q2 2016
Accessibility
The screen reader will not announce Quick Links modal when modal is closed, and Grading Journals will now work with a screen reader.
Email handling
Clients who have control over their user's email addresses and aren't susceptible to DMARC-based rejections now have the option to turn off DMARC handling. In the bb-config.properties file, the setting for bbconfig.email.use.dmarc.from.override can be change to False to disable DMARC handling.
Java 8 Update
The Q2 2016 release now uses the latest version of Java from Oracle.
We strongly encourage anyone who has a Building Block to test it against Java 8 before installing the Learn 9.1 Q2 2016 release onto a production environment. Please see the following article for further details:
Preparing Building Blocks for the Learn 9.1 Q2 2016 Release and Java 8 Update - Article #41958
More on how Java 8 impacts your Learn environment
Minimum system requirements to run Java 8: 8GB per Learn application server, 32GB per Oracle server.
Localization
We’ve made updates to the Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean language packs to correct translation issues and grading workflows. Clients who use the Korean language pack can globally replace username with user ID.
MOSAIC and O*NET Standards
For institutions who wish to evaluate student work or align their curriculum against either the Multipurpose Occupational Systems Analysis Inventory - Close-Ended (MOSAIC) or Occupational Information Network (O*NET) competencies, we have made these competencies available now for download on Behind the Blackboard.
Quality improvements
With this release, we are continuing our commitment to delivering strong product quality and providing a stable, reliable experience for educators and learners using Blackboard Learn today. We have continued to address the top customer-reported issues that are affecting the largest number of customers. The bug fixes and enhancements in this release are primarily focused on improvements to accessibility, language packs, assessments, grading, and Enterprise Surveys.
REST APIs
The 9.1 Q2 2016 release supports limited REST APIs in a 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:
SAML 2.0 Authentication
The SAML Building Block provides a way to authenticate, authorize, and use single sign-on (SSO) with the latest SAML 2.0 protocol, which focuses on improved security, improved end user experience, and easier IT administration. This building block provides Just-in-Time provisioning capabilities, a commitment made to the InCommon Net+ community as part of our certification process.
Security
The 9.1 Q2 2016 release resolves a set of security fixes to core features of Learn 9.1. After the issues are released through all supported 9.1 versions through a Cumulative Update or Building Block, a Security Bulletin will be released to provide details on the individual fixes.
VALUE rubrics
As part of the Association of American Colleges & Universities' (AAC&U’s) Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative, the VALUE rubrics contribute to the national dialogue on assessment of college student learning. Educational professionals from over 100 higher education institutions collaboratively developed 16 VALUE rubrics to use the most frequently identified characteristics for measuring success in key learning outcomes.
For Blackboard Learn users who are interested in using these rubrics, we are making them available for download and import. Each rubric has been built and formatted appropriately so it can be imported to your courses and used anywhere you can align and evaluate with rubrics today. The downloadable rubrics are available in US English only because this is how they were authored by AAC&U.
Behind the Blackboard: VALUE Rubrics for Learn 9.1 - Article #42113
