Both myLesley and VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance this weekend. Please plan accordingly.
myLesley (Blackboard) will be performing maintenance on Friday, May 18th from 2:00 AM – 5 AM EDT (UTC -4). Downtime is not expected, but performance and system speed may be impacted.
VoiceThread will be unavailable on Saturday, May 19th from 5:00 AM – 5:40 AM EDT (UTC -4) while Amazon Web Services performs system updates.
SafeAssign, the anti-plagiarism service in Blackboard, will not be available Monday, April 2nd, 3:00AM – 10:00AM ET. Blackboard will be performing maintenance to move the service to new servers.
What does this mean for you?
Assignments submitted by students during this time will not be processed by SafeAssign, nor will they be queued for processing once the service is back online. Instructors can Direct Submit any submitted assignments once the service resumes.
Please note that the Assignment tool itself will not be affected. The maintenance will only affect the SafeAssign feature within the Assignment tool.
Join your Lesley faculty colleagues for an exciting, immersive professional development opportunity!
The Summer Academic Technology Institute is an opportunity for faculty to participate in a learning community across disciplines and schools engaged in an exploration of the effective uses of technology in teaching, learning, collaboration, and scholarship. This event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, and organized by eLearning and Instructional Support.
All faculty — core or adjunct — are welcome to apply. Faculty who consider themselves basic technology users or who do not currently use technology in their teaching are especially encouraged to apply. Faculty selected through the application process receive a $500 stipend for participation in the institute. Applications are prioritized to select faculty who have not participated in past institutes, depending on demand.
The program features a 4-day institute in June, held at University Hall. Faculty engage in a rich mix of dialogue, hands-on practice, project-based learning, reflection, and application to explore innovative ways technology can be integrated into their teaching.
Examples of workshops from past Summer Tech Institutes include:
Expectations for Summer Academic Technology Institute Participants
Faculty are expected to:
Important Dates
| March 30, 2018 | Applications Due |
| April 20, 2018 | Participants Announced |
| June 4-7, 2018 | Summer Institute |
Application
Coming Soon
UPDATE: The maintenance was canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.
SafeAssign, the anti-plagiarism service in Blackboard, will not be available this Thursday, March 8th, 3:00AM – 9:00AM ET. Blackboard will be performing maintenance to move the service to new servers.
What does this mean for you?
Assignments submitted by students during this time will not be processed by SafeAssign, nor will they be queued for processing once the service is back online. Instructors can Direct Submit any submitted assignments once the service resumes.
Please note that the Assignment tool itself will not be affected. The maintenance will only affect the SafeAssign feature within the Assignment tool.
The myLesley upgrade brought with it several new and improved features designed to enhance the teaching and learning experience. These features are designed to save you time, improve efficiency and easy of use, provide a much improved mobile experience, improve accessibility of your content and Blackboard functionality, and enhance assessments and grade capabilities.
Discussion Board “Replies to Me”
A new count and filter identifies unread replies to your Discussion Board posts, allowing you to quickly and easily keep up with large Discussion forums.
Drag and Drop Files
Easily drag and drop files from your computer to the hot spot in the Attach Files area to upload them. Students can also drag and drop files to upload their assignments.
Collaborate Ultra Available in Groups
You now have the ability to allow Collaborate Ultra webinar sessions to Groups pages. If allowed, students can meet online, share content and use the whiteboard, as well as record their online meetings. For more information see Group Tools or Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: Getting Started.
Improved Mobile Device Navigation
The new myLesley theme includes navigation improvements for both the system and course menus. When you access myLesley on your mobile device, the navigation appears a hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) for persistent access from screen to screen. Within a course, the menu opens and closes more easily with fixed location action.
More Responsive Blogs and Journals
Blogs and Journals have been better optimized for use on mobile devices. Posts and comments will render on smaller devices and options for filtering posts or navigating groups or users will appear below currently viewed posts.
New Inline Grading Tool
The new inline grading tool, New Box View, is now available in myLesley. This streamlined grading tool accepts more file types. For more information see Grading myLesley Assignments or view the tutorial video below.
More Efficient Grade Center Cleanup
You can now easily clean up your Grade Center, including bulk deleting grade columns. Manual and calculated columns are removed completely, and columns associated with gradable items are cleared of attempt and grade data but remain in the Grade Center.
Before deleting columns, check very carefully that it’s the right column. Deleted grade columns cannot be recovered. For more information see Organize Grade Data.
Submission Receipts
Once you submit an assignment, the Review Submission History page appears with information about your submitted assignment and a success message with a confirmation number. For assignments with multiple attempts, you receive a different number for each submission. You will also receive an email with your confirmation number and details each time you submit coursework.
Improved Grading with Rubrics
When grading with rubrics, the instructor can save feedback and the content will remain saved when changing the rubric view from in-line to full screen. For more information on rubrics see myLesley Rubrics.
Missing Coursework Reminders
You can now send email reminders to your students directly from Grade Center columns to remind them about missing coursework.
