We're continually striving to improve the Community Engagement solution!
See the latest changes for Blackboard Mobile Communications App, Blackboard Mass Notifications, Teacher Communications, and Blackboard Social Media Manager.
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Mass Notifications
- Added system logic to validate errors for missing "TO" fields in messages
- Updated Opt-out confirmation wording to remove end user confusion
- Fixed a problem where email deliveries were failing if the email address contained Unicode characters
- Fixed an issue where the system was performing excessive retries on unknown SMS statuses
- Implemented system logic to utilize SMS long codes when end-user service providers are unable to receive SMS short codes
Community Engagement 10.3.0
- All Products
- Added the ability to export more than 20k rows at a time for Blackboard reports
- Added ability to trigger messages for late/missing files and small/missing automated messages
- Removed the ability for users to change the role type of another user when that role was originally created by an import
- Added Student ID as an available merge tag when creating messages
- Removed the ability to add, edit, or remove imported Terms from the web interface
- Removed confusing interface language about Connect 5 email and SMS deliveries
- Mobile Communications App (MCA)
- Improved performance to App Building tools
- Fixed issue with Push Notifications including an image
- Teacher Communications
- Added icons to teacher saved messages that show which are system, admin created or user created
- System Created – Can't be edited, copied, or deleted
- Admin Created – Can be copied only
- User Created – Can be edited, copied, and deleted
- Removed the carbon copy (CC) option for teachers, still available for admins
- Updated URL's for help options seen by teachers
- Improved performance to the Teacher Messages report
- Added icons to teacher saved messages that show which are system, admin created or user created
- Blackboard Mass Notifications
- Added Alt-text requirement for all inserted images when creating messages
- Added the ability to see schools inside a boundary when selecting recipients from a map
- Fixed an issue where organizations weren't sorted alphabetically in the advanced group creation
- Added the ability for school administrator accounts to send On Screen Alerts directly from the messaging (COPE) interface
- Added back student specific merge tags when the Send to parents of students option is selected
- Fixed issue where SMS blocked addresses in a Personal File Cabinet were not displaying correctly
- Made user improvements to the Schedule Report tool
- Improved performance when needing to export a large Contact report
- Improved performance to the system Auto Search tool
Mass Notifications
- Added an administrator page that outlines methods for improving email delivery rates. To learn more, see Improve Email Delivery.
- Directions for setting up a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record
- Directions for setting up DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), encrypted signature
- Directions for setting up Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), destination email server policy
- Fixed an issue where bad phone extensions were not being attempted
- Fixed an issue where incomplete caller ID numbers were violating Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations
- Made performance improvements to Text-to-Speech engine
- Improved final phone status accuracy of exportable Comma-Separated Values (CSV) reports
- Fixed a problem with email deliveries to Microsoft® Outlook
- General performance improvements to email deliveries
Scheduled reports
The Scheduled Reports feature has been redesigned to be separated from the scheduled tasks, and moved from the Settings menu to the Reports menu.
Watch a video about the Scheduled Reports page
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Reports.
- Select Schedule Reports from the System area.
- Select the specific School to narrow the list of report schedules available.
- From the Scheduled Reports, you can select any of the following options:
- Name: Select the report name to update the name or the email address of who receives the report.
- Delete: Select the reports to remove and then select Delete to delete the report schedule.
Mass Notifications
- Emergency and Outreach opt-outs from SMS/text messages now appear differently on the Do Not Contact report.
- The ability for recipients to reply to custom messages has been removed.
- Fixed an issue where disabling automated notifications also disabled demographic imports.
- Fixed an issue where custom system attendance messages would not allow attendance excuses.
- Fixed an issue where Vietnamese text message content for daily attendance was appearing in English.
September 1, 2017
- All Products
- Added the ability to see cafeteria balance, library information, bus routes, and custom uploaded data on the Student Account page.
- Administrators can now use Google to login to the Blackboard Communications HQ web interface.
- Teacher Communications
- Added training video to the Teacher Communication Send Interface.
- Blackboard Mass Notifications
- Now, you can setup and use several custom caller IDs for phone messages, and several reply-to-email addresses and sender names for email messages. When your district or school wants certain message replies to be sent to a specific group of staff members, you can setup and use the response phone numbers or email addresses.
- Fixed an issue where abbreviations played differently on test call than on the live call.
- Blackboard Communications App Release
- Added a new SMS (text message) number for emergency messages so users don't opt-out of emergencies when they opt-out of an informational call.
August 8, 2017
- All Products
- Added the ability for all accounts to use SAML to login. Previously, teacher accounts were not supported but they are now.
- Staff can now login to their account on the web interface using their Google account.
- The Reports page has been redesigned.
- Login report is now in the Accounts section.
- Auto-complete recipient selection on the Send Message interface will have images or initials displayed next to accounts.
- Teacher Communications
- The Send Message page and the Teacher Messaging report have been updated in this release.
- The Send Message page has been redesigned for easier use. You can send messages to any of your students, the entire class, all your classes, or just to parents.
- The Teacher Messaging report displays how many teacher messages each student receives, the number of parents contacted, and which delivery method was used.
- With the Teacher Communications program, administrator have a new ability to hide student contact information from teachers.
- Blackboard Mass Notifications
- Fixed an issue where sometimes the wrong status would show in the Message Tracking report.
- Blackboard Communications App Release
- Fixed an issue where sometimes push notifications would not be delivered.
Mass Notifications, April 2017
- Added the ability to record messages using the microphone on your computer.
March 10, 2017
- All Products
- For districts that import user information, you now have the option to update the user login names and passwords through the import. This setting is available in the Authentication page.
- Mobile Communications App
- Fixed an issue where deleted Peachjar fliers still appeared in the Blackboard Mobile Communications App.
Mass Notifications
- Added the ability to upload a list of opt-out phone numbers, SMS/text numbers, and email addresses for the Do Not Contact list. These numbers and addresses aren't sent in any messages.
- Added the ability for administrators to create custom merge tags for messages. Using an uploaded file you can create a voice recorded message with your own merge tags. When you are creating the message in the Send Message interface, you will be able to import a comma delimited file with your information.
February 10, 2017
- All Products
- The Advanced Options feature in the Send Message interface no longer includes the Use all supported automatic translations option.
- The name and logo of the district/school has been removed from the homepage. The name has been added to the top navigation bar.
- To improve the performance of the System Statistics report, the Delivered and Attempted fields have been removed. The Messages field lists all the messages sent by the system.
- Blackboard Mass Notifications
- Added the ability to create a voice recorded message with merge tags. The merge tags will help you to send personalized messages with only one recording.
- Added the ability to listen to audio via a scheduled or exported Excused Absences report. The report will now include a link to the parent's recorded message (internet access is required).
- Fixed an issue where sometimes phone numbers and email addresses were not flagged as bad data when they should have been.
January 27, 2017
- All Products
- Fixed an issue where late file triggers were not working.
- Blackboard Mass Notifications
- An unknown status for a message will now appear as Unknown instead of Not Attempted.
- Blackboard Mobile Communications App
- Fixed an issue where adding Nutrislice domains on the Data Configuration page did not work.
- Fixed an issue where bus routes would sometimes sort out of order.
January 13, 2017
- All Products
- Added the ability to schedule messages to be sent multiple times.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes the Headlines and Announcements in Web Community Manager would appear when they should not be there.
- Blackboard Mass Notifications
- Fixed an issue where on the Message Tracking and Details feature a deactivated text number was appearing as Not attempted. Now it will be listed as SMS number deactivated.
