News Archives

August 11, 2024 marks the last day of the Summer 2024 semester.

Final Grades are due by August 19, 2024.

SafeAssign will undergo a maintenance update on July 31, 2024, during low peak hours. For Learn clients, all submissions during this time will be queued and will be processed at the end of the maintenance period. For API clients, it will be necessary to resubmit all submissions made during the downtime period.

This downtime is essential for a backend infrastructure update, as we are transitioning to a new infrastructure. This transition impacts all SafeAssign clients.

The start time of this maintenance is Jul 31, 03:00AM EDT and should take approximately two hours.

Fall 2024 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 08/12/2024, but will not have access to Fall 2024 courses until 08/26/2024.

If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Fall semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after mid June, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Fall 2024 semester.

Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2024 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 13, 2024. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

May 6, 2024 marks the last day of the Spring 2024 semester.

Final Grades are due by May 12, 2024.

Summer 2024 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 04/29/2024, but will not have access to Summer 2024 courses until 05/13/2024.

If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Summer semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after mid March, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2024 semester.

Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2024 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 16, 2024. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

December 10, 2023 marks the last day of the Fall 2023 semester.

Final Grades are due by December 17, 2023.

Spring 2024 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 01/02/2024, but will not have access to Spring 2024 courses until 01/16/2023.

If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Spring semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after mid October, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Spring 2024 semester.

Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2023 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 28, 2023. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

August 13, 2023 marks the last day of the Summer 2023 semester.

Final Grades are due by August, 2023.

Fall 2023 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 08/07/2023, but will not have access to Fall 2023 courses until 08/28/2023.

If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Fall semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after mid June, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Fall 2023 semester.

Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2023 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 15, 2023. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

May 8, 2023 marks the last day of the Spring 2023 semester.

Final Grades are due by May 15, 2023.

Our vendor believes the DNS issue has been resolved. You may access Blackboard as needed. This issue will continue to be monitored by Blackboard Tech Support.

Message sent 11:08AM CDT

Blackboard Learn (https://newlearn.govst.edu) is currently unavailable. We have opened a support case with our vendor and their team is currently investigating the issue. We will provide another update as soon as the issue is resolved.

Message sent 8:33AM CDT

Summer 2023 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 05/01/2023, but will not have access to Summer 2023 courses until 05/15/2023.

If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Spring semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after mid March, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2023 semester.

Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2023 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 17, 2023. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

On Saturday, December 31, VoiceThread will be performing hardware and software updates to their databases. VoiceThread will be unavailable for up to 6 hours.

Date: December 31, 2022
Time: 4:00AM - 10:00AM CSTImpact: VoiceThread offline

December 11, 2022 marks the last day of the Fall 2022 semester.

Final Grades are due by December 18, 2022.

The work typically requires eight hours of downtime and is usually on Saturdays, from 12:00 (midnight) - 8:00 a.m. CT. You’ll get a separate email about which products are impacted 30 days in advance so you can adjust assignments and alert students.

Spring 2023 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 01/03/2023, but will not have access to Spring 2023 courses until 01/17/2023.

We have received several notifications that some Blackboard courses, when attempting to access certain content areas, are returning a Blackboard Learn SaaS screen. This issue affecting multiple institutions. Our vendor, Blackboard Inc., is currently investigating to bring a quick resolution.

This issue was resolved as of 10/25/22 at 12:50PM CDT.

If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during the Spring semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after October 21st, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Teaching and Learning! We look forward to working with you for a successful Spring 2023 semester.

The work typically requires eight hours of downtime and is usually on Saturdays, from 12:00 (midnight) - 8:00 a.m. CT. You’ll get a separate email about which products are impacted 30 days in advance so you can adjust assignments and alert students.

On Monday 8th August 2022, the updated Blackboard App for Instructors and Students was released to the Apple and Android App stores. Instructors, assistants, and graders should download the Blackboard App from the app store and remove the former Blackboard Instructor app from their devices.

Please Note: The Blackboard Instructor app will no longer be supported from Friday 30th September 2022, and will be removed from the Apple App and Android App stores. The app will continue to work on your device, but updates, enhancements and support will cease after this time. Users are advised to remove the app from their devices.

Blackboard will do a phased roll-out deployment for the summary list of annotations for Bb Annotate. Now a side panel will summarize all comments in a list. Selecting a comment will navigate the instructor or student to the location of that comment in the document. This change makes it easier to find all comments and feedback in a student’s submission.

The roll-out will be on Thursday, September 8, 2022 beginning at 2:00AM CDT.

Blackboard is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.16.

Downtime will be on Thursday, September 8, 2022 from 1:00AM CDT to Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 5:00AM CDT.

Blackboard will try to minimize downtime and do not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however we will use these entire maintenance windows if necessary. Collaborate clients will experience intermittent availability during these maintenance windows.

Blackboard is now available. According to our vendor, Blackboard Inc., multiple sites were down in the US_EAST 1 region, which is the region Governors State University is registered. Blackboard Inc.’s Webtech and Devops teams are investigating the root cause. However, Blackboard Learn Original should now be accessible for all GSU users.

Downtime: 9/7/2022 at 12:23PM CDT to 9/7/2022 at 12:41PM CDT

Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2022 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 29, 2022. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

At approximately 12:00PM CDT on 8/25/2022, we noticed a delay in the Course Copy process on the Blackboard NewLearn server. However, after approximately 25 minutes, the issue has been resolved. If you notice any delay in the Course Copy process, please contact Blackboard Support (blackboard@govst.edu) for further assistance.

August 14, 2022 marks the last day of the Summer 2022 semester.

Final Grades are due by August 21, 2022.

Blackboard will do a phased roll-out deployment for the new undo/redo functionality of Bb Annotate. This new capability will allow instructors to easily edit their annotations. Please note that the deployment will include some downtime, and they will avoid high traffic hours in each specific regions. The estimated times will be between the hours of 12:00AM and 4:00AM CST. The downtime will only be for Bb Annotate not the entire Learn environment. It is expected to be around 1 hour long. During this time users will see a maintenance message inside the Bb Annotate framework.

On Monday 8th August 2022, the updated Blackboard App for Instructors and Students was released to the Apple and Android App stores. Instructors, assistants, and graders should download the Blackboard App from the app store and remove the former Blackboard Instructor app from their devices.

Please Note: The Blackboard Instructor app will no longer be supported from Friday 30th September 2022, and will be removed from the Apple App and Android App stores. The app will continue to work on your device, but updates, enhancements and support will cease after this time. Users are advised to remove the app from their devices.

Blackboard Inc. will be changing the way some third-party vendor tools are integrated within the Blackboard Learn Original system. Currently, several publisher tools, such as Pearson, McGraw-Hill and WileyPLUS are accessible through the Instructor's “Control Panel”. Other vendors, such as VoiceThread, are available in the “Tools section” within any content area of a course. Over the next year, Instructors will need to transition their vendor links, displayed in Blackboard, to the new integration. Please note that your current setup will not be affected. You will have until 8/21/2023 to make the transition. The software mentioned above is now accessible under the Build Content section of any Content Area within a Blackboard course. If you have any questions regarding the new process, you may reach out to the publisher for more details. We also provided links to tutorials (below) in this email.

Some users are experiencing issues when editing or creating test multiple-choice questions or questions using Math Editor.

Our vendor, Blackboard, is currently working to resolve the issue.

On certain courses and tests only, some users are getting an access denied message when trying to create new questions or edit questions.

Our vendor, Blackboard, is currently working to resolve the issue. As a workaround, please use Mozilla Firefox internet browser.

our MyLab® and Mastering® courses are getting upgraded with better usability, accessibility, navigation and course management. Part of the upgrade includes retiring some of the least-used features in our courses, including Threaded Discussions. That feature will no longer be available in your course copied after July 1, 2022 . If you use this feature, please read this entire message for important information about what you need to do for this change.

To help you transition, please do the following:
If you’d like to keep your existing discussions, you can do one of the below:
1. Print and save them as Adobe PDF files.
2. Copy/paste each thread into a Word document to preserve this text data.

If you would like to use the Discussion Board during your summer classes — please make sure you make your summer course copies prior to Ju‌ly ‌1, 20‌22. If you don’t copy your summer courses before this time, your new course copies will not include Threaded Discussions.

Even if you use Threaded Discussions in your summer courses, please do make sure you make alternate plans for your Fall 2022 term (like using a Discussion Tool via your campus Learning Management or Student Information System to collaborate with students).

If you have any questions, please contact Pearson Support.

Starting on July 1, VoiceThread will be implementing a data clean-up policy that might result in some inactive accounts being deleted. The following policies will apply to users under our license:

-Account has never been accessed: Will be deleted 1 year after it was created.
-Account has been accessed but no content has been created: Will be deleted after 1 year of inactivity.
-Account owner has created content: Will be deleted after 2 years of inactivity. The owner of the account will be notified by email 30 days in advance so they can take action if they would like. If someone wants to ensure their account is not deleted automatically, all they need to do is sign in at least once per year.

Fall 2022 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 8/8/22, but will not have access to Fall 2022 courses until 8/29/22.

The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2022 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is June 15, 2022. Course shells will be available June 22, 2022.

In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.

**If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.**

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during Fall semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after June 15, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Active Engagement and Scholarship! We look forward to working with you for a successful Fall 2022 semester.

Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2022 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 16, 2022. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

May 9, 2022 marks the last day of the Spring 2022 semester.
Final Grades are due by May 16, 2022.

VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance from 4:00am to 8:00am (Central Time). You may notice some slowness during these windows, but no planned service outages.

If a full outage is required, you'll receive a separate message from us at least 14 days in advance, as you already do.

All upcoming maintenance windows can be found on the VoiceThread Status Page. You can also subscribe to email notifications there if you would like to receive reminders about these scheduled windows.

VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance from 4:00am to 8:00am (Central Time). You may notice some slowness during these windows, but no planned service outages.

If a full outage is required, you'll receive a separate message from us at least 14 days in advance, as you already do.

All upcoming maintenance windows can be found on the VoiceThread Status Page. You can also subscribe to email notifications there if you would like to receive reminders about these scheduled windows.

Summer 2022 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 5/2/22.

The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2021 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is March 21, 2022. Course shells will be available March 25, 2022.

In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.

**If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.**

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during Fall semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after March 21, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Active Engagement and Scholarship! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2022 semester.

VoiceThread will be undergoing maintenance from 4:00am to 8:00am (Central Time). You may notice some slowness during these windows, but no planned service outages.

If a full outage is required, you'll receive a separate message from us at least 14 days in advance, as you already do.

All upcoming maintenance windows can be found on the VoiceThread Status Page. You can also subscribe to email notifications there if you would like to receive reminders about these scheduled windows.

Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.02 on Thursday, February 10, 2022. More information about this release will be available on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

US (AWS Virginia: us-east-1): Thursday, February 10, 2022 from 1:00 AM CST (Central Standard Time) to Thursday, February 10, 2022 5:00 AM CST (Central Standard Time)

Collaborate Ultra will try to minimize downtime and does not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however they will use the entire maintenance window if necessary. Collaborate clients will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window.

Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate version 22.02 on Thursday, February 10, 2022. More information about this release will be available on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

US (AWS Virginia: us-east-1): Thursday, February 10, 2022 from 1:00 AM CST (Central Standard Time) to Thursday, February 10, 2022 5:00 AM CST (Central Standard Time)

Collaborate Ultra will try to minimize downtime and does not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however they will use the entire maintenance window if necessary. Collaborate clients will experience intermittent availability during the maintenance window.

Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2022 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 18, 2022. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

Update:
Blackboard Learn 3900.30.0 (January 10, 2022) update of Learn SaaS for Production environments.

Release Notes for Learn SaaS

On December 29, 2021 at 5:00am EST (UTC -5), we will be performing a database upgrade and maintenance. VoiceThread will be offline for 8 hours. Users who attempt to access during this window will see a message that VoiceThread is down for maintenance. This information is also available on our status page.

Date: December 29, 2021
Time: 5:00am - 1:00pm EST (UTC -5)
Impact: VoiceThread offline

On December 27, 2021 at 9:00am EST (UTC -5), we will be increasing the security of user-uploaded media. There should not be a noticeable change with this update, but it is possible that there may be increased media load times temporarily.

Date: December 27, 2021
Time: 9:00am EST (UTC -5)
Impact: Possible slow media load times

Blackboard will be brought offline on December 21, 2021 at 9:00 AM (the day after Fall semester grades are due) and will become available on 1/7/2022. Blackboard will not be accessible during this time. If “Incomplete” grades are given to students, please be advised this outage will affect their access to Blackboard.

Around 8:45AM CST this morning, there were reports of users having sporadic service to many of the GSU applications (Colleague, Outlook Email, Kronos, Blackboard, and Web services (Help Desk and other cloud based applications)). ITS is still experiencing issues with Colleague UI. All other GSU systems are returning to operational status (as of 12:06PM CST). ITS will continue to monitor the systems.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Service Desk by dialing on campus HELP (4357), off campus 708-534-4357, or help@govst.edu.

Timestamp: 12:06PM CST

Summary:
Internet services have been restored. There may be intermittent connectivity issues throughout the day. ITS is continuing to monitor the network.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Service Desk by dialing on campus HELP (4357), off campus 708-534-4357, or help@govst.edu.

Timestamp: 11:04AM CST

Summary:
There have been reports of users not being able to access outside internet services. Internal or on campus network services are able to be accessed. ITS is working on a resolution to the problem.

December 14, 2021
Affected Services:
External services
-Web services (Help Desk, Webex, Zoom, and other cloud based applications)
-Email (Off campus)
-VPN
-Internet Access while on campus
-Blackboard NewLearn (while off campus)

Not Affected Services:
Internal Services
-Colleague
-Intranet (MyGSU Portal)
-Email (while on campus)
-Blackboard NewLearn (while on campus)

Timestamp: 9:29AM CST

December 12, 2021 marks the last day of the Fall 2021 semester.
Final Grades are due by December 19, 2021.

We are pleased to report that the previous issues Respondus, WileyPLUS and McGraw-Hill were experiencing, due to the Amazon Web Service (AWS) outage, has been resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced as a result. If you need any technical assistance please reach out to the third-party's Technical Support team.

Respondus: https://support.respondus.com/support/index.php?/Default/Tickets/Submit/RenderForm/2
WileyPLUS: https://wpsupport.wiley.com/s/
McGraw-Hill: https://mhedu.force.com/CXG/s/ContactUs

Incident status: Identified:
WileyPLUS continues to experience technical issues and is unavailable to customers. We are working to resolve the issue. Thank you for your patience. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please check back for updates.

Time posted:
Dec 7, 12:43 EST

Update:
The AWS outage is affecting Respondus Monitor and the LockDown Browser Dashboard. LockDown Browser exams delivered on Chromebook and iPad devices are affected by the outage (Windows and macOS are fine). StudyMate Campus is also affected.

Investigating:
There is a widespread AWS outage that is currently affecting Respondus Monitor.

Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Students will not be able to access fall 2021 courses in their Blackboard Course List until August 31, 2021. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

The GSU Blackboard “archive” server (learn.govst.edu or bb9.govst.edu), was used to host Blackboard courses prior to Fall 2019 (courses offered during 2011-2019 academic years). When we transitioned to “NewLearn” in August 2019, we advised that the archive server would be available to faculty for up to one year. This date was extended and the archive server will be available until Summer 2021, due to recent changes and COVID-19.

We encourage faculty to retrieve and store any files (to their cloud based storage) from prior courses off of the archive server as soon as possible.

August 15, 2021 marks the last day of the Summer 2021 semester.
Final Grades are due by August 22, 2021.

The MyQM website and Canvas access through the MyQM interface are both running extremely slow. MyQM is scheduled for maintenance on Friday, August 13. MyQM and the Course Review Management System will be unavailable from approximately 4:00pm (CDT) to 9:00pm CDT.

You can continue to access your course/workshop by using a direct login (https://qualitymatters.instructure.com/login/canvas) to Canvas. You will need to select the “Forgot Password?” link to reset the password using the email address associated with your MyQM profile if you have not used the direct link before.

Thank you for your patience. For technical support during the outage, please contact QM Help Desk.

This release will be the roll out of the new whiteboard and 21.12 will include gallery view dynamic adjustment. More information regarding new features can be found on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

GSU Blackboard Learn is now available.
Time: 12:00PM CDT

GSU Blackboard Learn is currently unavailable.
Time: 11:34PM CDT

This release will expand Gallery view to participants. More information regarding new features can be found on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

This release will allow moderators to share both front and back cameras on a mobile device as content. More information regarding new features can be found on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

We will try to minimize downtime and do not plan on using these entire maintenance windows, however we will use these entire maintenance windows if necessary. Collaborate Ultra customers will experience intermittent availability during these maintenance windows.

Maintenance Window: 1:00AM CDT to 5:00AM CDT

Fall 2021 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 8/16/21.

The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2021 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is May 25, 2021. Course shells will be available June 1, 2021.

In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.

**If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.**

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during Fall semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after May 25, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Active Engagement and Scholarship! We look forward to working with you for a successful Fall 2021 semester.

Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Students will not be able to access summer 2021 courses in their Blackboard Course List until May 17, 2021. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

May 3, 2021 marks the last day of the Spring 2021 semester. Final Grades are due by May 10, 2021.

Summer 2021 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 5/3/21.

The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Summer 2021 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is March 26, 2021. Course shells will be available March 29, 2021.

In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Summer semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.

**If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.**

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about what shell either instructors or students should be working in during Summer semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross-listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

If changes occur after March 26, please contact blackboard@govst.edu so that we can make any appropriate adjustments.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated by The Center for Active Engagement and Scholarship! We look forward to working with you for a successful Summer 2021 semester.

Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 21.04 on March 11, 2021. This release will switch to CloudFlare CDN for Collaborate recording streaming.

More information regarding the 21.04 release, can be accessed on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 21.02 on February 25, 2021. This release will provide improved privacy status of recordings to add clarity for non public recordings.

More information regarding the 21.02 release, can be accessed on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

Approx. Time: 8:35AM CST

Blackboard was temporarily unavailable, but our ITS Department has resolved the issue. The system is now available for use.

Approx. Time: 5:00AM CST

Blackboard is currently unavailable. Our ITS Department is currently investigating the issue to resolve as soon as possible. Another email will be sent when the system becomes available.

Today marks the first day of the spring semester. Students will not be able to access spring 2021 courses in their Blackboard Course List until January 19, 2021. Please note, late start courses will be available in Blackboard on the date the late start course begins.

Blackboard Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.24 on January 14, 2021. This release will contain a more visible recording privacy status and support chatbot within sessions.

More information regarding the 20.24 release, can be accessed on the Release Notes for Collaborate Ultra page.

Please note that the Aqua assessment system will undergo scheduled maintenance, requiring some downtime on January 10, 2021 from 5:00AM CST to 11:00AM CST.

These maintenance windows will include upgrade work and are to ensure the system operates as efficiently as possible. This maintenance is being performed by the vendor and they have provided this advanced notice to help their client institutions make necessary plans.

The Blackboard app and Blackboard Instructor app will be unavailable beginning December 26, 2020 at 11:00 PM CST until December 26, 2020 at 3:00 AM CST for a scheduled maintenance update. Please access Blackboard Learn in a web browser during this four-hour window.

Maintenance on the Blackboard server is now completed. We will continue to test the functionality of Blackboard in the coming weeks to address any problems should they arise. If you experience any problems with Blackboard, please contact Blackboard Support and we will respond as soon as possible during hours of operation.

GSU has been updated to Learn 9.1 3900. For more information on this version's new features, please view the Blackboard Learn 9.1 3900 New Features document.

On December 22, 2020 at 8:00AM CST, VoiceThread will be making a low-risk change to their Content Delivery Network configuration. This should not have any impact at all on VoiceThread availability or service speed, but they are simply informing us in the unlikely event that you do experience some slowness of media loading at that time.

During the Winter Break, ITS/CTL will conduct its annual update to the Blackboard NewLearn (production) server. Blackboard will be brought offline on December 21, 2020 at 9:00AM (the day after Fall semester grades are due). Depending on the complexity of the update, the process could take until 12/31/2020.

Please note that Blackboard will be intermittent during this time. If “Incomplete” grades are given to students, please be advised this outage my affect their access to Blackboard.

GSU will be upgrading to Learn 9.1 3900. For more information on this version's new features, please view the Blackboard Learn 9.1 3900 New Features document.

Per the Academic Calendar, the intersession period will run from December 14, 2020 – January 18, 2021. All intersession courses are taught on the Blackboard “Intersession Server” (bb9int.govst.edu). If you are teaching an Intersession course and have questions about Blackboard, please contact blackboard@govst.edu.

December 13, 2020 marks the last day of the Fall 2020 semester. Final Grades are due by December 20, 2020.

GSU Production systems are up and operational. You may experience slowness at times. ITS will be monitoring system performance throughout the day.

GSU is currently experiencing issues with its network and online services. This caused the Blackboard server, email, and other GSU systems to become unavailable. ITS is working to restore them as quickly as possible. Please continue to check systems.

Blackboard is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.20. Between the hours of 1:00AM CDT and 5:00AM CDT, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra will experience intermittent availability. They will try to minimize downtime and will not plan on using this entire maintenance window, however they will use this entire maintenance window if necessary.

This maintenance window will provide critical improvement to Collaborate's stability and performance. Between the hours of 1:00AM CDT and 5:00AM CDT, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra will experience intermittent availability and will try to minimize downtime, however, they will use this entire maintenance window if necessary. Blackboard Inc. strongly recommends to avoid using Collaborate Ultra during this time.

The Spring 2021 Blackboard courses will be created and the Instructors set to teach will be enrolled into the appropriate course sections. Instructors may begin completing Course Copy Request forms, completing course copies on their own, or building from scratch. Make sure to speak with your department to see if MASTER shells have been created for the course section.

VoiceThread will be performing a database upgrade on Saturday, October 10 from 4:00am to 6:00am CDT. VoiceThread will be completely offline during this 2-hour window.

Blackboard is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.18. Between the hours of 1:00AM CDT and 5:00AM CDT, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra will experience intermittent availability. They will try to minimize downtime and will not plan on using this entire maintenance window, however they will use this entire maintenance window if necessary.

Per the vendor (Watermark), the Aqua by Taskstream assessment system will be undergoing scheduled maintenance, requiring some downtime this Sunday September 20, 2020 from 5am-1pm CDT.

This maintenance window will include hardware maintenance and upgrade work needed to ensure the Aqua system operates as efficiently as possible. We hope this advanced notice will help you better plan.

If you are working on any Aqua assessment projects please take note because the Aqua system will be down during this timeframe.

VoiceThread will be performing a database upgrade and regular maintenance on Saturday, September 19 from 4:00am to 5:00am CDT. VoiceThread will not be offline, but tools may load more slowly during this window.

The Blackboard “archive” server (bb9.govst.edu or learn.govst.edu) will undergo maintenance from September 16-23rd. Any user accessing the archive server will experience intermittent outages during this timeframe.

**Please note, this is not the server in which Fall 2020 courses are hosted. This outage will not affect most users**

Currently, Collaborate Ultra recordings have shared links that are always open to public access. Once public access links are shared, anyone with the link could access the recording indefinitely. Starting in Collaborate Ultra version 20.16, Blackboard will introduce a feature to allow session owners to deactivate public access to sharable recording links. Public access to sharable recording links will be deactivated by default for all new recordings created after the release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.16. When public access is off, the recording can only be seen from the LMS by participants enrolled in the course. Public access can be activated by the session owner at any time.

Only recordings made after the 20.13 release have public access turned off by default. All previous recordings have public access on by default. You can change the access for earlier recordings in the recording settings.

Click here for more information regarding the September 10 Collaborate Update

Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Most Blackboard courses will open and be available in student's Blackboard Course Lists today, unless of the alternate day listed in the GSU Course Schedule. If an alternate date is listed on the Course Schedule, the Blackboard course will open on that date.

Collaborate Ultra users experienced issues joining sessions or transmitting audio and video. The issues duration was from approximately 5:36PM CDT until 10:15PM CDT.

More information regarding this issue can be viewed on the Incident Report for Blackboard Inc.

Today marks the first day of the Smart Start for the fall semester. The regular Fall 2020 term will begin 8/31/2020 or the alternate day listed in the GSU Course Schedule. If an alternate date is listed on the Course Schedule, the Blackboard course will open on that date.

Currently, Collaborate Ultra recordings have shared links that are always open to public access. Once public access links are shared, anyone with the link could access the recording indefinitely. Starting in Collaborate Ultra version 20.14, Blackboard will introduce a feature to allow session owners to deactivate public access to sharable recording links. Public access to sharable recording links will be deactivated by default for all new recordings created after the release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.14. When public access is off, the recording can only be seen from the LMS by participants enrolled in the course. Public access can be activated by the session owner at any time.

Only recordings made after the 20.13 release have public access turned off by default. All previous recordings have public access on by default. You can change the access for earlier recordings in the recording settings.

Click here for more information regarding the August 6 Collaborate Update

August 16th, 2020 marks the last day of the Summer 2020 semester. Final Grades are due by August 23, 2020.

This maintenance window will include upgrade work and are to ensure the system operates as efficiently as possible. This maintenance is being performed by the vendor and they have provided this advanced notice to help their client institutions make necessary plans. The approximate downtime of the maintenance will be from 5:00AM to 11:00AM CDT.

Currently, Collaborate Ultra recordings have shared links that are always open to public access. Once public access links are shared, anyone with the link could access the recording indefinitely. Starting in Collaborate Ultra version 20.14, Blackboard will introduce a feature to allow session owners to deactivate public access to sharable recording links. Public access to sharable recording links will be deactivated by default for all new recordings created after the release of Collaborate Ultra version 20.14. When public access is off, the recording can only be seen from the LMS by participants enrolled in the course. Public access can be activated by the session owner at any time.

Only recordings made after the 20.13 release have public access turned off by default. All previous recordings have public access on by default. You can change the access for earlier recordings in the recording settings.

Click here for more information regarding the August 6 Collaborate Update

If you are using Respondus software to upload exams to your Blackboard course, the new password key is available. For the new Respondus key, please email Blackboard@govst.edu.

Blackboard will perform scheduled infrastructure maintenance for Collaborate Ultra from 1:00AM CDT to 5:00AM CDT. Collaborate Ultra users will experience intermittent availability during these maintenance windows.

This maintenance window will include upgrade work and are to ensure the system operates as efficiently as possible. This maintenance is being performed by the vendor and they have provided this advanced notice to help their client institutions make necessary plans. The approximate downtime of the maintenance will be from 5:00AM to 11:00AM CDT.

The maintenance window will fall between the times of 1:00AM CDT to 5:00AM CDT. Users will experience intermittent availability during these maintenance windows.

ITS will be working on its infrastructure; the maintenance will take place on Monday, July 13 from 4AM to 6AM.

Intermittent outages are likely during this time frame. ITS recommends that you remain logged off from the systems listed the Services Affected section of this email.

Services Affected (Any Web facing Servers):
-Blackboard
-GSU Website
-MyGSU
-Campus Internet
-Wireless Access

As cryptographic standards evolve, VoiceThread is phasing out older or more vulnerable protocols and adopting the latest and greatest to keep your content safe. With that goal in mind, VT will be deprecating TLS 1.0 and 1.1 on June 30, 2020.

What this means for you:
Most web browsers have been supporting TLS 1.2 for several versions already. If you keep your computer, web browser, or mobile device up to date, there is nothing more that you need to do.

The following systems will no longer be able to use VoiceThread after this update:
-Internet Explorer 10 or earlier
-Mozilla Firefox 25 or earlier
-Google Chrome 37 or earlier
-Safari 6 or earlier
-Android 5 or earlier
-iOS 4 or earlier

As long as you've updated to anything newer than these versions of your browser or mobile operating system, VoiceThread will continue to work seamlessly.

The maintenance window will fall between the times of 1:00AM CDT to 11:00AM CDT. Users will experience intermittent availability during this maintenance window.

Summer 2020 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 8/10/20.

Summer 2020 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 8/10/20.

The automated process that produces Blackboard shells for Fall 2020 is approaching! This means the Blackboard courses will soon be available so Instructors can begin preparing courses to teach. The cross-listing deadline is June 8, 2020. Course shells will be available June 12, 2020.

In preparation for this automated process, we ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. Reminder: all cross-listings must be approved by the Department chair.

**If cross-listing is not completed by the deadline, the system will create multiple Blackboard shells, which may be confusing to both students and instructors.**

If you cross-list before the deadline, however, there will be only one shell created in Blackboard. This is a better situation for both instructors and students, so that no confusion arises about whatshell either instructors or students should be working in during Fall semester.

Please note: Once the cross-listing courses are entered into Colleague, please refrain from making any changes to the "primary course status" of the courses. Making changes to the cross- listed sections after the courses have been created, will also generate multiple courses in Blackboard. Doing so has major implications for Colleague, the Registrar and Blackboard.

Maintenance will be performed on the H: and U: drive from Friday, May 22 starting at 10 PM until 12 PM (noon) on Saturday, May 23. During this time, all files on the H: and U: drives will not be available.

Please close any open files and logout of Windows before leaving work on May 22. As a reminder, shutting down you PC may result in issues remoting into your GSU computer. For those who work from home be sure to have files saved and Windows logged off by 10 PM May 22.

Once the maintenance is finished, you can login into Windows and access the H: and U: drives again.

Your Action:
-Do not attempt to access the H: or U: drives during the upgrade period.
-Save and close any open files before leaving work on May 22 or before 10 PM May 22.
-Logout of Windows when you leave work on May 22 or before 10 PM on May 22.
-As a reminder, shutting down you PC may result in issues remoting into your GSU computer.


If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Service Desk at 708-534-4357 or help@govst.edu.

Today marks the first day of the summer semester. Most Blackboard courses will open and be available in student's Blackboard Course Lists today, unless of the alternate day listed in the GSU Course Schedule. If an alternate date is listed on the Course Schedule, the Blackboard course will open on that date.

May 11, 2020 marks the last day of the Spring 2020 semester. Final Grades are due by May 18, 2020.

ITS will be updating the windows servers, which will affect Blackboard on Friday May 1, 2020 between 4:00AM and 8:00AM CDT. Blackboard will most likely be intermittent, but with the potential of being unavailable.

Duration: Friday May 1, 2020 at 4:00AM until 8:00AM CDT.

On April 14th, 2020 Blackboard will be making a change to the avatars/profile images. Currently, avatars are stored in a third-party software called myEDU, which will be discontinued. On April 14th, avatars will be stored in the Personal Information section of Blackboard. Unfortunately, we are unable to migrate these avatars from myEDU to Blackboard. We ask that if you currently have an avatar created and available, please save the image to your computer so you may reupload to Blackboard after April 14th.

The process takes only a few moments to complete and the instructions can be found below.

Download Avatar (before 4/14/2020):
Instructions to download are linked here.
Reupload Avatar (on/after 4/14/2020):
Instructions to upload are linked here.

This maintenance will cause interruptions to Collaborate Ultra services from approximately 1:00AM CDT to 5:00AM CDT.

Summer 2020 courses are created and ready for Instructors to build their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.

Students will not be enrolled into Blackboard until 5/4/20.

We ask your cooperation in completing the Colleague cross-listing process for any courses you are planning to cross-list for Fall semester. All cross-listings must be approved by your Department chair.

Blackboard is now available. The approximate time of the outage was 12:40PM CST to 12:50PM CST.

Blackboard is currently unavailable (12:40PM CST). The interruption is preventing users from accessing Blackboard.

Chrome 80 is the most updated version of Google Chrome internet browser and is currently available to all users. This update may change the behavior for handling third-party cookies that could impact the integrated tools in Blackboard, such as VoiceThread, Collaborate Ultra, and publisher content. Please note that this change is not specific to Blackboard Learn, but to other platforms and learning management systems as well.

Users may have to adjust the Chrome cookie settings to allow third-party cookies for a specific site or try using another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox.
-Instructions for Chrome cookie settings to allow third-party cookies for a specific site
-Download the Mozilla Firefox internet browser

Currently this behavior is new for Chrome, but Safari, Firefox, and Edge plan to make a similar change in the future.

If you have any questions, please contact Blackboard Support, blackboard@govst.edu.

Today marks the first day of the fall semester. Most Blackboard courses will open and be available in student's Blackboard Course Lists today, unless of the alternate day listed in the GSU Course Schedule. If an alternate date is listed on the Course Schedule, the Blackboard course will open on that date.

Today, students are enrolled into Spring 2020 Blackboard courses. Instructors will be able to see the students enrolled in the Blackboard courses, but Students will not be able to access the Spring 2020 courses until 1/21/20 or the alternate date listed in the GSU Course Schedule.