Changes to BOLT and Blackboard Collaborate Coming Tomorrow!

Are you ready for the changes to BOLT and Collaborate coming your way tomorrow, May 19th?

Here is what is changing:

• New navigation menus on BOLT My Home page and Course Home page
• Course Administration widget replaced with ‘Course Admin’ link on Course Home page
• Role Switch widget replaced with option to change role under your name at the top of the page

View our video for information about these changes: http://www.screencast.com/t/OhPogz5GH85Q

• Online Rooms Tool (OLD version of Collaborate) no longer available
• Replaced with Zoom (email us at imdc@bloomu.edu to request a Zoom account) and new version of Collaborate called Ultra

View our video for information about these changes: http://www.screencast.com/t/hcNAMKjh

You may want to know specifically how to make your course active or complete a course copy!

• Use the Course Admin link on the new navigation menu in your course
• Click Course Admin to access the Course Administration panel
• View the video tutorial on how to make your course active: http://www.screencast.com/t/EZrhMwGZ
• View the video tutorial on how to copy your course: http://www.screencast.com/t/Kt1L5h35joq

You can read more in-depth information about this in our PDF guide to BOLT Navigation Changes


Please reach out to imdc@bloomu.edu if you have any questions or if you want to request a Zoom account!

Changes Coming to BOLT on May 19, 2017

There will be two significant changes to BOLT on May 19, 2017. A new navigation scheme will be in place, and online rooms will be phased out.

New Navigation

To prepare for the Daylight Experience, there will be changes to the navigation bars in BOLT. New menus will be on the My Home page and course home page.




BOLT My Home Navigation Update May 19

BOLT Course Home Navigation Update May 19

Please note, this change will not affect your course materials or content! This is a cosmetic change only!

Online Rooms Phased Out

The Online Rooms tool is being phased out. If you want to save recordings from January 2015 through May 2017, you will need to fill out a form and return it to Julie Wolfe by May 5, 2017. Please see the Blackboard Collaborate module in the BOLT Help Course for more information.

What Synchronous Tools Are Available?

We have the new version of Collaborate, Ultra, available for instructors and students to use. You can add Ultra to your course content as an External Learning Tool. In the module you want to add it to, just click Existing Activities, select External Learning Tools, and select Ultra. This will add a link to Ultra. If you click through the link, you will be able to set up Ultra sessions.


We also have Virtual Classroom available in BOLT courses. The link to this tool will be moving from the Learning Tools menu to the Communication menu on May 19.


We have Zoom pro accounts for instructors available as well. If you want to try Zoom with BOLT, please email imdc@bloomu.edu.

Changes to BOLT Coming May 19, 2017

Daylight is coming to BOLT in August.






What is Daylight?






Daylight is a fresh, new look for BOLT. Starting on August 17, 2017, you will notice a new look and feel for Brightspace. Courses will look more polished and modern than ever.




Brightspace Daylight Experience, coming to BOLT August 2017



To get ready to flip the switch to Daylight, you will notice some changes to navigation bars in BOLT starting on May 19, 2017.






The first place you will see a change is in the My Home page navigation bar:


BOLT FUTURE My Home Navigation, update to occur on May 19

The second place you will see a change is in the Course navigation bar:

BOLT FUTURE Course Navigation, update to occur on May 19



For detailed information on each new menu, please follow the cut to read more.

Updates to Discussions, Content, and the HTML Editor

With the update to 10.5.7 on March 18th, several tools will see improvements.

Discussions

Previously, when navigating using the browser's back button from within a discussion thread, previously set filters would not be remembered so you would have to navigate again to find the relevant discussion thread.

Now, when navigating using the browser's back button from within a discussion thread, previously set filters at the topic level are remembered so you don't lose your place.

Content

Status Change Indicator

Previously, when the status of a content topic was changed from draft to published or vice versa, the visual indicator did not update immediately in all cases for the user who was making the changes, even though it updated for the users the content applied to.

Now, when the status of a content topic is changed between draft and published, the visual display updates immediately for the user applying the change.

No Broken Links from Opening PDFs

Previously, when you opened a PDF file in Content, a broken link error was generated. 

Now, when you open a PDF file in Content, a broken link error is not generated.

HTML Editor

Font Display

Previously, when you changed the font or font family of text in the HTML Editor, the fonts were not displayed accurately.

Now, when you change the font or font family of text in the HTML Editor, the fonts are recognized accurately and display properly.

Paste Button

Previously, on the Edit HTML File page, clicking the paste button displayed an error message stating that the browser doesn't support paste.

The paste button has since been removed from the HTML Editor so the error message no longer displays.