{"id":7874,"date":"2021-10-28T08:42:36","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T08:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/?p=7874"},"modified":"2021-11-11T09:17:40","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T09:17:40","slug":"blackboard-upgrade-november-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2021\/10\/28\/blackboard-upgrade-november-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackboard Upgrade – November 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Sorry. The upgraded version of Blackboard scheduled to be available from the 5th of November has been delayed, and will now be available on the 12th of November.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

November sees some great new features arriving in Ultra courses, including the much requested feature to add a bit of colour to courses via a course banner. Already available is another often requested feature, which is the ability to create Collaborate breakout groups from your course groups in NILE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available Now!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

NILE course groups sync with Collaborate breakout groups<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When setting up breakout groups in Collaborate sessions, quite a few people have said how useful it would be if they could set up their breakout groups to match the groups they have already set up in their NILE courses. Well, now this is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When setting up your breakout groups, you will now see an option called ‘Course group set’. This will allocate the students in your Collaborate breakout groups according to groups that you have already set up in your NILE course. And if you have multiple groups set up in your NILE course, you can choose which NILE course groups you want to sync with your Collaborate breakout groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Available from Friday 5th November<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 New UI (User Interface), including the ability to add a course banner<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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You can see immediately that the UI (User Interface) has changed a little in the new Ultra courses, with staff now being listed in the area immediately above the ‘Details & Actions’ menu. But probably of most interest here is the ability to add a course banner. From the 5th of November the ‘Details & Actions’ menu will include a ‘Course Image’ option, which means that you will be able to add a banner image to your course. Images must be at least 1200 x 240 pixels, but please do not add images which include text, as these are not accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the biggest challenge will be finding a great image to use for your course banner. A terrific source of free, high quality images can be found on the websites of the ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA. The links below will take you directly to their image galleries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n