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Upgrade to disable Blackboard Thursday morning
Apr 28th, 2021

An upgrade to Blackboard Learn will take the learning management system offline Thursday, April 29, from 6 a.m. to approximately noon.

Features in this upgrade include:

  • A refreshed text editor, with new features such as an accessibility checker, improved copy-and-paste performance from platforms such as Word, and automatic embedding of videos from platforms such as YouTube. The Centre for Teaching and Learning has published a Tech Talk video outlining the changes.
  • A plug-in for accessing YuJa, the University of Windsor’s enterprise video platform, will be enabled in Blackboard as part of the upgrade, which will allow users to upload videos to YuJa directly from Blackboard.
  • McGrawHill Connect, which allows instructors to link to assignments and transfer marks from the McGrawHill platform, will also be enabled as part of the upgrade.

More information about the new features coming as part of the upgrade can be found on the New Features page.

For updates on the planned maintenance or Blackboard outages, visit ITS HotNews or the announcements feature on the Blackboard login page for further details.

Blackboard content editor refreshed
Apr 27th, 2021
tech talk logo

Blackboard has introduced an updated content editor.

Watch Centre for Teaching and Learning’s student online learning assistant Eric Mcfarlane as he walks through the visual changes as well as new features of Blackboard’s content editor interface in this 108-second Tech Talk video.

While all Blackboard users have access to the refreshed content editor, it is anticipated faculty will use it the most. For more information about Blackboard, click on the link in the Comments section below the video.

Tech Talk is a presentation of Information Technology Services. More Tech Talks are available at www.uwindsor.ca/its/tech-talk.

Summer/Intersession 2020 Microsoft Groups/Class Teams will expire in April 2021
Mar 26th, 2021

Message to all Summer/Intersession 2020 Instructors

Last year, a Microsoft group/team was automatically created for your course and students were added as members, based on your Blackboard roster.

The group that was created for your course is about to be expired.  This group may have been used to manage access to videos in Stream and is also the basis for a Microsoft Team, if it was activated. 

What will happen?

The name of the group (and team) will be changed to include a prefix of EXP0421.

The team will be deactivated, so students will no longer be able to access resources in the team.

Students will still be members of the group, so if you use the group to limit access to Stream videos, students will still be able to view the video.

What can you do?

If your students still need access to the resources in the team, you can activate the team, just like you did at the start of the semester, by pressing the Activate button in the banner when you enter the team.

How can you change access yourself?

If you want your group-protected Stream videos to be not viewable by your students, you will need to modify the permissions on the video or the channel and remove the class group from the list. More information: Article - Publishing and sharing videos in Microsoft Stream

If you activated a team, you could delete the team if it is no longer required by accessing the three dots menu on the team icon (see image below).   This will remove the group as well. After 30 days, the Teams data will be permanently deleted. Stream videos will remain with corresponding group access removed.

You can hide the expired team from your list of teams by selecting Hide from the three-dots menu on the team tile. This will keep the team and group name preserved.

Video provides tips to make your website mobile-friendly
Mar 19th, 2021
Tech Talk logo

More than 35 per cent of traffic on University of Windsor websites is coming from mobile devices. Building and maintaining a mobile-friendly website helps ensure a better experience for all users.

Watch Information Technology Services team member Gam Macasaet as he walks through tools to check the mobile-friendliness of your Drupal 7 website and tips for improving this feature in this 120-second Tech Talk video.

If you want more information about Drupal, click on the link in the Comments section below the video.

Tech Talk is a presentation of IT Services. More Tech Talks are available at www.uwindsor.ca/its/tech-talk.

Refreshers available on how to access tax info
Mar 16th, 2021
Tech Talk

With the April 30 deadline for filing 2020 tax returns approaching, UWindsor faculty, staff, and student employees are reminded they can access their T4 and T4A slips in myUWinfo.uwindsor.ca.

If it has been awhile since you needed to access your tax forms in myUWinfo or you are new to the process, there are two Tech Talks to help:

Additional Tech Talk videos about myUWinfo can be found here. If you want more information about myUWinfo, click on the link in the Comments section below any of the videos.  

Tech Talk is a presentation of IT Services. More Tech Talks are available at www.uwindsor.ca/its/tech-talk.