Overview
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Blackboard Learn is moving to cloud hosting for the Fall 2021 term. The cloud infrastructure (Blackboard Learn SaaS) boosts overall system performance, scalability, and allows for zero-downtime updates and fixes. We'll always be on the most up-to-date version of Blackboard 9.1 and any technical bugs can be addressed without disruption to teaching and learning.
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Users should generally notice faster performance, such as page load times, file transfer, and task processing within the Blackboard tools.
Highlights
Improved Content Editor. The content editor has been simplified while expanding several options. Users will see a new icon set, more accessibility options, an enhanced spellcheck tool, new special characters searchable library, among other changes. View Blackboard's documentation for more details: Content Editor Quick Guide and Content Editor Comparison Guide
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All previously taught Blackboard courses as far back as Fall 2018 will be restored to the Blackboard cloud environment. Everything else is archived in accordance with our retention policy.
Spring 2021 and Summer 2021 course archives will be moved over and be available in the cloud once the respective terms have concluded and grading has finished.
Courses moved to the Blackboard Cloud should appear as they do in the current environment. The same tools and functionality are installed in the new Blackboard cloud instance. Additionally, some externally-integrated tools (VoiceThread, WileyPLUS) will be taking advantage of the upgraded version of Blackboard and have newer versions replace what is in the current system.
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