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Contact Information
Phone: 865.974.9670

Innovative Technology Center
400 Dunford Hall
915 Volunteer Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37996

Send us suggestions for changes and new services:
bbsuggestions@itc.utk.edu


SUPPORT > Bb 8 Upgrade

Online@UT (Blackboard) Upgrade

Mark Your Calendar!

We will be upgrading the Blackboard software in May during mini-term. Online@UT will be unavailable May 14-21.

Special arrangements have been made to host mini-term courses during the projected outage. Summer course sites will be unavailable to faculty during the upgrade outage.

If you are using Online@UT for mini-term course delivery, you will receive additional information and instructions upon course activation.

Important Dates:

Event Date
Mini-Term/Summer Course Activation Now open
Mini-Term Begins 5/7/08
Spring 2008 Grades Due 5/13/08 at noon
Online@UT Unavailable 5/14/08-5/21/08 *

* Mini-term courses will be available on our testing server during this period, but Online@UT production servers will be unavailable.

Features

Release 8 of Blackboard's software includes a completely rewritten Gradebook tool, which is now called the "Grade Center". Some of the new features include:
  • Inline editing, allowing direct entry of grades.
  • New gradebook layout, which eliminates the multiple page views necessary in previous versions of the Gradebook. Instructors can also create custom views based on multiple criteria.
  • Editable columns, which gives users the ability to create and edit columns, make certain columns "sticky", drag columns to easily re-order items.
  • Early Warning System, which allows instructors to track student progress, success, and access using varied settings, including date and grade ranges.
Another major change in release 8 takes place in the Discussion Board tool. Blackboard has made it possible to switch the view between "List View" (which was introduced in version 7) and "Tree View" (which was available previous to version 7). It will also be possible to subscribe to discussion board threads.

Documentation

To learn more about Blackboard 8.0: * If you have trouble opening any of the linked media files, click the icon next to the link to download the free player.