When we upgrade Blackboard this summer, there will be a number of updates to the user interface. Blackboard has listened to feedback from users who found the user interface too cluttered.
The main theme of the new interface is to only see icons when you need to, rather than seeing them all the time.
Watch this video to find out about the updated interface with a focus on the drag and drop “handles”.
Below follows more detailed explanation and screenshots.
When we upgrade Blackboard this summer, there will be a number of updates to the user interface. Blackboard has listened to feedback from users who found the user interface too cluttered.
The main theme of the new interface is to only see icons when you need to, rather than seeing them all the time.
Watch this video to find out about the updated interface with a focus on the action button.
Below follows more detailed explanation and screenshots.
When we upgrade Blackboard this summer, there will be a number of valuable improvements to the Groups feature. The Groups feature allows instructors to place students into groups and give them a dedicated group area where they may use blog, journal, wiki, calendar, task management, file exchange, and discussion board functionality. Adaptive Release rules can be set so that groups see different content within their Blackboard course based on which group they belong to.
With the upgrade new functionality will be available that improves the administration of groups for Instructors.
Panopto have released a video of the new video player design that will be available after the Semester 2 exam period.
http://demo.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=ed1ca10c-80bc-458a-86c1-51100aeda3b7
(Note that the demo.hosted website does not work correctly in IE8 or below. This will not affect the Southampton version)
When we upgrade Blackboard this summer, one of the benefits will be a new text editor.
The headline features of the new text editor are:
– proper copy and paste from Word without needing to use the “paste from word” mashup.
– new equation editior with MathML support.
– “true HTML” editing – although some aspects will be automatically stripped in order to enforce security best practice.
– more options for aligning graphics around text
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When we upgrade Blackboard this summer, one of the benefits will be a newly designed discussion board. The look and feel of the discussion board has been refreshed and looks much more contemporary. User avatars are shown beside discussion board posts. These avatars will also be shown beside blog posts and in a few other areas.
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Following our article first post https://blog.soton.ac.uk/mle/2013/12/17/blackboard-in-the-new-data-centre-what-does-it-mean-for-me/ looking at the direct impact to users following our migration to the new data centre we thought that our customers may also be interested in the benefits and features of the new data centre itself. We spoke to Mike Powell the Data Centre Manager to find out more.
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We’ve been taking a look at the next version of the Panopto Recorder application here in MLE Towers. You’ll be happy to know that it is familiar as ever, except for a small slider added below the audio monitor.
Previously, if your microphone was too loud or too quiet, you needed to open the Windows volume controls and find the levels to the microphone. We made this a little easier with the Panopto Pre-Launcher (the tick box that appears before the main Panopto application), but you’ll now find it built in.
A slider below the audio levels that turns the microphone volume up or down
We’ve got our hands on a test version of the new Android MySouthampton. Some great strides have been made in making the Android version as functional as the iOS application, so hopefully the 20% of students running Android will be very happy with it.
Panopto have released a new iPad app to compliment the Panopto for iPhone application that was published 12 months ago.
The Panopto application complements the changes made in Panopto 4.4; a new version which we will hopefully upgrade to over the summer months. One of the changes includes new videos being processed specifically for the iPad.
When you look at any Panopto video on a phone or tablet web browser you see the ‘Podcast’ version of the Panopto session. This is normally a video of the screen with the webcam footage (if any) superimposed over the top. When a video has been produced specifically for the iPad you’ll see dual videos and chapter marks, just as if you were viewing on a PC.
The Panopto application running a presentation produced for the iPad
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the notes feature has been removed from the app. Note taking is a feature that hasn’t been heavily publicised, but allows you to take notes during your live lecture (with you in the lecture theatre and the lecturer at the front) that are then time-coded so that they appear in Blackboard in sync with the video. Hopefully we’ll see this return.
There is no planned release date for an Android version of the app.