Upgrading to latest Blackboard Service Pack

Blackboard will be offline for up to fifteen (15) hours starting at 9:00pm Friday, February 20th. We are expecting to be back online no later than 12:00pm Saturday, February 21st. During this time period our Blackboard technicians will install Service Pack 6 (Build: 8.0.475.0).

The upgrade will improve browser support and fix a few Grade Center issues. The highlights of this release include:

Browser Support Improvements: Internet Explorer 8 users are now able to submit timed tests. Firefox 3.5 users are now able to use the File Picker to upload files. Browser support has been improved to include support for Firefox 3.5 (Certified), Internet Explorer 8 (Certified), and Safari 4 (Certified).

Grade Center Fixes:

• Fixed problem with last access data reports
• Assignment feedback is no longer truncated after a double quotation mark.
• Grade distribution statistics are now accurate for weighted columns.
• Dropping the lowest grade from a calculated column now works properly.
• Downloading and uploading Grade Center data now works properly.
• Manually entering a grade for a column where the calculated grade is an average of multiple attempts now works properly.

New Building Blocks to Explore:

• Wimba Pronto Basic: Instant messaging system designed specifically for educators to advance and promote learning. [Free]
• Acxiom Identify-X: Enables identity verification using real-time challenge questions which are based on public information.
• Echo360 Lecture Capture: Lecture capture tool which enables instructors to publish customized content right to their Blackboard course.