Tag Archives: upgrade

Coming November 5th: New myLesley Text/Content Editor

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On the evening of November 5th, Blackboard will release their new text/content editor! The new editor has been streamlined to make adding content into your course easier and the new design will work better on both mobile devices and larger screens. Blackboard has also improved their accessibility tools and introduced a few brand new features.

View the New Content Editor video for a sneak peak of the new content editor.

Better for All Devices

The editor is better suited for all devices—small screen or big—and editor tools will no longer open in new pop-up windows for a better mobile experience.

The toolbar will show as many tools as it can for the size of your screen before wrapping to the next line. Show and collapse the additional tools with the ellipsis icon.
ellipsis tool to show or hide more tools

Adding Content: The Power of Plus

Blackboard content editor with callout to Add Content buttonThere is now one easy menu for adding content from your computer or integrated tool. Click the Add Content button to upload content such as files or images or built-in tools such as Kaltura or Hoonuit (formerly found under Mashups).

Uploading multiple files? Instead of uploading them one at a time you can now upload multiple files at once.

Improved Accessibility

New Blackboard Accessibility Checker

The editor itself is more accessible to all users, and the new Accessibility Checker helps you make content more accessible as you’re adding it to your course. Combined with Blackboard Ally, you can ensure that your content is more accessible to all users.

Text Formatting, Bullets, List

Blackboard content editor with callout to formatting options

Options for formatting text, bullets, and lists are now presented in recognizable ways rather than just as text, more closely matching other editors, such as Google and Microsoft. For example, font choices will appear as those fonts and bullet options will display visually as those bullet types.

New Table Options

Blackboard content editor with callout to Table button and options

Creating a table has been simplified with a grid selector instead of a pop-up. When adding tables, column widths default to use percentages rather than fixed widths in order to ensure that they display nicely on different screen sizes.

Better Copy and Paste

Paste formatting options: choose to keep or remove formatting in the pasted content

Tired of wonky formatting when you copy and paste from Word, Google, etc.? Blackboard will now allow you to remove the extra HTML that gets in your way and still retain basic formatting.

Spellchecker Updates

New improved spellchecker suggests replacements for misspelled words

The Spellcheck tool has been improved for language and an updated and expanded dictionary. Click the tool to run spellcheck.

Simple Embed

Image of simple embed using the content editor

When pasting links to websites such as YouTube and Vimeo, the videos are automatically embedded for inline playback. Other sites including The New York Times, WordPress, SlideShare and Facebook will embed summary previews. However, you will still need to use HTML in order to embed VoiceThread content.

Easier HTML Editing

sample source code using HTML Editor

When authoring or editing HTML, it’ll be easier to find what you’re looking for with line numbers and tag colors.

Display Computer Code

Blackboard content editor with callout to Insert Code button

Authors can now share formatted computer code snippets. This is very useful for computer science classes.

 

 

 

 

Take Attendance in myLesley

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Blackboard has rolled out a new Attendance tool, allowing instructors to easily and quickly track attendance. Using the Attendance tool will create an Attendance column in the Grade Center, which will provide an overall attendance score.

Instructors can now find the new Attendance tool by going to the Control Panel > Course Tools > Attendance.

access the attendance tool

 

For more information see Attendance or view the tutorial video below:

Grade Center Improvements

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myLesley’s recent update to Blackboard’s latest version (Q2 2018) included several enhancements to the Grade Center making it easier to navigate while grading your students’ work.

Full Titles of Grade Center Columns

You can now view the full title of your Grade Center column making it easier to distinguish between similarly-titled grade items.

Before
Grade Center Column Titles Before

Now
Grade Center Column Titles After

 

View More Grade Columns

The width of the Grade Center is no longer fixed. You can now view as many columns as the size of their window will allow. If you are on a small screen, you may only see a few grade columns and need to scroll. If you are on a larger screen, you will see more columns. The grade center will adapt to the size of your browser window.

 

Full-Screen Mode

Need even more space to view the Grade Center? Instructors now have the ability to view the Grade Center in Full Screen mode. Full Screen mode collapses the side navigation and the top banner, allowing you to see more of the Grade Center on your screen.

 

More updates are coming to myLesley throughout the summer. Keep an eye out for all the new features.

New Features in myLesley

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On June 8, 2018, myLesley was updated to the most recent version of Blackboard (Q2 2018). The update included a few new features and options. There will be more features released [enter tag link] for this version over the summer so keep an eye out.

Customize Your Course Menu Colors

When Lesley University transitioned to SaaS in January, we also updated to the latest theme design Blackboard offers. The advantage of the new theme is that myLesley will adapt to the device you are currently using whether it’s a cell phone, tablet, small screen laptop or large screen monitor. The disadvantage is that custom menu colors weren’t supported, but that’s in the past. Custom menu colors are back!

Customize CourseTo customize your menu colors, go to Control Panel, select Customization and then select Teaching Style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select Menu StyleNext, scroll down to Select Menu Style.

Select the Background Color and Text Color you wish to have.

Keep accessibility in mind when choosing menu colors. You want colors that have a high level of contrast to ensure readability.

Sadly the Buttons option is not currently compatible with our version of Blackboard.

Be sure to click Apply after selecting your new colors or it will not take effect. Click Submit when you are done to apply your choices to your course menu.

View Blackboard’s Course Style Options information to learn more about customizing your course.

myLesley is available!

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myLesley is now on the latest version of Blackboard (Q4 2017). Most of the changes are behind the scenes to improve performance.

However, there are a few changes you should be aware of:

  • A new look using a more responsive theme that will allow you to better access myLesley regardless of your device (computer, tablet, phone).
  • Blackboard is updating its inline grading tool for grading student submitted assignments directly in myLesley to the New Box View.
  • Blackboard IM (BB IM) has been retired from myLesley. We recommend switching to Skype for Business and Collaborate Ultra.
  • Collaborate Original has been retired from myLesley and replaced with the newer and easier to use web-based Collaborate Ultra. Collaborate Original recordings will still be available through this academic year, but you will not be able to create new Original sessions.

If you have questions or concerns, please email eLIS@lesley.edu.