Category Archives: Service announcements

Access to PGR theses and new PGR organisations

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This information is relevant if your school uses Turnitin to run similarity checks on PGR theses (practice, submission and re-submission).   

PGR students who submitted work to a Turnitin submission point in Blackboard before September 2023 will not be able to access their theses in Blackboard after August 2023. This is due to the supplier ending support for the older Turnitin integration with Blackboard. 

As we have communicated to schools directly, the DEO has been working with AQPO and representatives of administrative and academic staff to update the Blackboard Organisations for PGR Turnitin Submissions. 

Please take the following actions by 31 August 2023: 

  • Encourage students who may be affected to download their submissions before 31 August 2023.  
  • If you are one of the School Administrators who have received a form to complete for setting up new organisations, please complete the form by July 28. 
  • PGR student administrators should start using the newly created Turnitin Upload organisations which has been set up with the Turnitin LTI and the Academic Progress Monitoring form page. 

Please also note that, from 1 September 2023, staff who need access to the older theses will need to contact the DEO. 

Xerte upgrade 18th July

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IT Services will be upgrading Xerte to version 3.12 between 8am and 1pm on Tuesday 18th July. During this time, Xerte resources will be unavailable to staff and students. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.

This upgrade brings security updates and improved functionality, including:

  • XOT enhancements and new functionality.
  • Bootstrap template bug fixes and enhancements.
  • Editor enhancements including links to wiki guidance.
  • Accessibility enhancements.

We will update the blog when Xerte is available again. If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Blackboard upgrade completed

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The Blackboard upgrade to the new Ultra Base Navigation has been successfully completed. You will see the new-look Blackboard the next time you log in. Your courses haven’t changed, but the way you navigate around Blackboard should now be easier and more intuitive, whatever device you’re using.

“I really like the ease of navigation of the updated Blackboard.”
– University of Bristol student

You can find more information and guidance in our Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation guide.

If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Mentimeter – do not use ‘Shared Presentations’

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In Mentimeter, a ‘Shared Presentations’ feature has appeared on the left-hand side toolbar as part of a recent update, as well as an option on the menu in each presentation called ‘Move to Shared Presentations’. We are advising you not to use this feature, as it shares both the presentation and results with everyone within the University. We are aware that this is not suitable for University use and are therefore discussing disabling this feature with the software provider. 

If you have already moved your presentation to this new area, it’s very easy to move back:  

  • Go to Share Presentations 
  • Select the three dots on the right-hand side 
  • Select ‘Move to My Presentations’ 

If you would like to share your presentation to collaborate with another member of staff, you can do this in the way you are used to, from the ‘My Presentations’ section:  

  • Select the three dots next to the presentation you want to share
  • Select ‘Invite Collaborators’, and type the email address of the user you wish to share with 
  • Select ‘Invite Users’ 

Or 

  • Select the three dots next to the presentation you want to share 
  • Select ‘Share’ and then ‘Invite Collaborators’ 
  • Type the email address of the user you wish to share with 
  • Select ‘Invite Users’ 

Please note that Groups are only for sharing templates. 

If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.  

Blackboard upgrade, Wednesday July 5, 3.45 pm – 6 pm

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On July 5, we’re updating Blackboard to use the new Ultra Base Navigation. This update will give Blackboard a modern look and feel and provide easier access to important information.

Ultra Base Navigation has a modern, intuitive navigation menu that sits outside of courses and is always available.

Your courses will not change. They will look and operate exactly as they do now.

The benefits of Ultra Base Navigation include:

  • A modern, intuitive user experience.
  • Improved accessibility.
  • It works well on mobile devices. This navigation is designed to work well regardless of what device you’re using.
  • Just one click away. No matter where you are, UBN provides clearer paths to where you want to go, minimizing clicks and saving time.

To enable Ultra Base Navigation, Blackboard will be unavailable for a short time on the afternoon of July 5, between 3.45 pm and 6pm. After this, you will see a redesigned login page for Blackboard and can use the new navigation as soon as you log in.

You can find more information, with screenshots, on the project webpage: Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation. If you have any questions, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

[Open] Turnitin intermittent loading error for staff

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It has been reported that staff may be experiencing intermittent issues with slowness when opening the Feedback Studio in Turnitin, and receiving errors when attempting to grade or add feedback.

Students making submissions are not affected by this issue.

Turnitin UK is aware of the issue and is currently working to bring the service back to optimum health. We will update this blog with any further developments.

If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us by emailing digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Re/Play – caption updates

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Full transcripts of Re/Play presentations are now available for staff to download. These text files can be downloaded by selecting Download to Computer in a presentation when viewing it in My Re/Play. Transcripts can be accessed by either the presentation owner or anyone with editor or moderator rights.  

You may now notice a tag appearing for some presentations, which says ‘edited captions’. A team of Student Caption Editors have been working in the DEO to correct automatic speech recognition errors in some Re/Play presentations.  

If you, or someone else in your school, is editing captions, you can now also add the ‘edited captions’ tag in the Information tab in My Re/Play. These tags will be visible to both students and staff in Re/Play collections, and help students to recognise which captions are likely to be more accurate. Ideally, all captions should be checked for key terminology and usability.