Vanderbilt University

This month there are several big and small updates coming to Brightspace. Below is a breakdown of some of the main changes and updates you can expect. These updates should roll out to Vanderbilt’s Brightspace overnight Thursday, July 9 into Friday, July 10. Additionally, it was just announced that the… Read More

A new tool called FeedbackFruits is now available in Vanderbilt’s Brightspace, giving faculty a new way to facilitate structured, interactive peer review activities directly within their courses. With FeedbackFruits, instructors can create peer review assignments that guide students through giving and receiving meaningful feedback. The tool is designed to support… Read More

Beginning with the Fall 2027 semester, Vanderbilt’s Brightspace site will be updating to feature a new default look and feel for course Content pages. The New Content Experience (formerly called Lessons View) is a more modern and intuitive design for the Content area of Brightspace courses. Since… Read More

As the summer continues on, there are several updates to Brightspace this month including updates to icons, Lumi Pro, and more. Below are some highlights of what to expect when the June update comes out later this week.   Brightspace – Rubric Icon in Assignments, Discussions,… Read More

This month there are several key updates to Brightspace tools. These updates bring new features to existing tools as well as expanding other tools’ capabilities. Assignments – Improved Assignments Submissions layout with accessibility enhancements Grades – Completion Status column removal and overdue comment update Quizzes – Improved Browse Question… Read More

April 2026: D2L Lumi Pro, a suite of Generative AI features integrated into Brightspace, is now available across Vanderbilt University. The Office of Learning Innovation is excited to announce that Lumi Pro, a generative AI feature within Brightspace, is now live at Vanderbilt University! The D2L Lumi Pro… Read More

This month there are several key updates to Brightspace tools. These updates bring new features to existing tools as well as expanding other tools’ capabilities.   Assignments – Group assignments now supported in Advanced Assessment Assignments – Improved error messages when uploading unsupported file types Grades – Improved navigation within… Read More

We’re excited to share an improvement coming to Brightspace at Vanderbilt University! Currently, there are a few select courses in Brightspace that allow users to sign up on their own via a self-registration process. These courses include offerings developed by AdvancED as well as other approved courses from various parts… Read More

As we begin 2026, there are several updates coming to Brightspace. Below are some highlights of what we can expect. Additionally, there’s a link to the full D2L Release Notes at the bottom of this post. Announcements – Images now appear in emailed Announcement notifications Assignments, Quick Eval… Read More

As we come to the end of 2025, there are still updates coming to Brightspace. This month’s update includes a big feature addition to the Creator+ toolset, two long-requested improvements, and other updates. These updates will go into effect with the December update to Brightspace that comes out overnight on… Read More

This month there are several updates to Brightspace that bring both new features and helpful quality of life updates to the platform. Below are highlights of this month’s update. For a link to the full release notes, refer to the References at the bottom of this post. Admin Tools… Read More

If you teach courses that utilize Brightspace Quizzes, you probably have thought about the best way to create a smooth, equitable, and fair testing environment for students. The Respondus LockDown Browser can help ensure that students are focused on their quiz or exam without unnecessary distractions or unapproved extra resources. The LockDown Browser is a downloadable software application that students install on their computer, iPad, or Chromebook that “locks down” their device for the duration of their testing time. This makes sure that students are focused on their assessment and are not distracted by other things on their device. Read More

Each month D2L (the company that makes Brightspace) releases updates to the platform. This month, there are several different updates to various parts of Brightspace. These are the highlights of what updates are coming to Brightspace this Friday.   Assignments Grades Quizzes Assignments — Annotation… Read More

This month, there are several important updates to Brightspace. We are highlighting two of those below: printing quizzes and an update to the Lessons View Content experience. For a list of all updates this month, please refer to the D2L Release Notes linked at the bottom.   Print Quizzes Functionality Added… Read More

This July there are several important updates coming to Brightspace. Below are the highlights of this month’s D2L release notes. For a link to the complete list of updates and releases, refer to the references section at the end of this post.     Assignments – Flexible… Read More

This month there are only a few important updates to Brightspace. Below are the highlights of this month’s updates and improvements. For a full list of updates from D2L, click the link in the References section at the bottom of this page.  Assignments – Retract feedback in bulk on the… Read More

This April, D2L brings several new updates and fixes to Brightspace. Below are some highlights of the updates users will see this month.    Quizzes – New Quiz Evaluation Experience   This month D2L brings a new and updated evaluation experience to quizzes. The new evaluation experience brings the interface of… Read More

Note: As of July 2025, the new quiz evaluation experience is the only option in Brightspace. As such, Instructors cannot switch back to the older interface any longer.   D2L, the company that makes Brightspace, has introduced a new update to the Quiz grading interface. As this update is released… Read More

As the Spring semester is well underway, there have been a few updates that have come out in January and February of this year. Below is a list of highlights of recent changes that are now available in Vanderbilt’s Brightspace. To see the full list of updates from D2L, please… Read More

As the end of 2024 is upon us, D2L has a few important updates to Brightspace to round out the year. These updates will come out on Friday, December 13.  These updates are in addition to the big Creator+ update we launched a few weeks ago. For more information about… Read More

This November there are a couple of small updates that can be expected to arrive this week. In addition to these updates as part of the regular monthly update from D2L (the company that makes Brightspace), there’s also another big update we’ll be announcing next week.  Groups – Restore groups… Read More

During September and October, D2L released several new features for Brightspace. Below are a few highlights of important updates that are now available in Brightspace.  Assignments – Update to assignment annotations toolbar As part of the September update, the unsupported Bookmarks tool is disabled and the Bookmarks option in annotations… Read More

Each fall, many instructors contact the Educational Technology team with various requests for support related to their Brightspace courses. In an effort to bring greater visibility to the types of services the EdTech team provides to Vanderbilt instructors, we want to highlight some of the most common requests we get… Read More

This August D2L is bringing several important updates to Brightspace. Below are a selection of the updates that should be most impactful to Vanderbilt faculty and students.    Assignments – Assessment workflows enhanced Advanced Assessments help instructors and administrators to better manage courses with large class sizes and multiple evaluators,… Read More

The July 2024 update to Brightspace will roll out later this week once it’s released by D2L (the company that makes Brightspace). As part of this update, the following new features and changes will be included. Note that since this update has not been implemented at the time of publishing… Read More

The recent updates to Brightspace that came out in May and June brought several improvements to the platform. Read below to see what updates you should find in Brightspace now.  Assignments – Annotations update The Assignment Annotations tool has been updated by fixing several defects and updating the icons used… Read More

Photo by: Susan Urmy One of the most commonly used tools in Brightspace is the Quizzes tool. Whether they are used for basic formative assessments, unit tests, or midterm/final exams, Quizzes can be a useful assessment tool in Brightspace. As part of our On-Demand Resources, we have… Read More

This month there are a few different updates coming to Brightspace that bring some subtle but important quality of life changes. As always, remember that this is a preview of upcoming releases, but things may change before the update is officially implemented by D2L at the end of this week. … Read More

This month, our Spotlight on Instructional Technology takes a look at some of the various integrated tools you can use with and in Brightspace. Integrated tools are third-party tools that are not part of Brightspace but can either connect into the platform and/or work independently from it. These tools build… Read More

This time of year many instructors are sitting up Assignments in Brightspace for a variety of uses. While many people know the basics of what you can do with Assignments, there are important options that some instructors may not know about. Below are some resources that we think would be… Read More

The Spring 2024 semester is just getting started, and Brightspace is rolling out a few new updates later this week. Here are the highlights of the January update, along with one minor change that has been made after being made available in December.  Awards – Export achievements as digital credentials… Read More

As we wrap up 2023, there are a few new updates coming to Brightspace this month. These updates will be rolling out at the end of this week. If you have questions about any of these updates, please contact our Brightspace and Instructional Technology Support team at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu.  Announcements… Read More

This time of year, many people on campus are counting down the days to the end of the semester. Before we get to that end point, however, there are plenty of things instructors have to do. One of the most popular topics of questions we get this time of year… Read More

Each month D2L releases updates for Brightspace. The November 2023 release will come out later this week, but we want to highlight upcoming changes and improvements to the platform. If you have questions about any of these upcoming changes, or any other questions about Brightspace, feel free to… Read More

Over the last few months, Brightspace has updated and expanded options that impact timing for quizzes. While we have outlined each of these in our regular release notes, we wanted to also have a summary post to show all the changes made to quiz timing settings and how they work. Read More

The September update to Brightspace has a few minor updates to behind the scenes aspects of Brightspace, but there are also a couple of important updates to Quiz Timings.  Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements featuring Synchronous Quizzes This release updates the Quiz Creation experience for instructors and learners by adding… Read More

In April of this year, Turnitin released an update to their product that reviewed submitted papers and presented their determination of how much of a paper was written by AI. As we outlined at that time, many people had important concerns and questions about this new tool,… Read More

Each month there are regular updates to the Brightspace platform. Below are the highlights of the August 2023 release notes.  Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget With this release, instructors can now pin announcements to the top of the Announcement Widget, allowing important information to… Read More

Over the last two months, there have been several important updates to Brightspace. Here is a summary of recent changes.  Assignments – Availability dates are now on by default Recent improvements to the Assignments tool’s availability dates allow Instructors to have greater control over the access… Read More

There have been a few important updates to Brightspace in the last two months, so we wanted to spotlight them here. If you have any questions about these updates, or anything else Brightspace related, be sure to contact the Brightspace and Instructional Technology Support team.  Awards –… Read More

Effective August 16, 2023, Vanderbilt has disabled Turnitin’s AI detection tool. To read more about why this decision was made, refer to this newer blog post.   Beginning on 4/4/2023, faculty who use Turnitin now have access to an additional tool – Artificial Intelligence… Read More

There have been a few new updates to Brightspace over the last couple of months that we would like to share with you. If you have any questions about any of these changes, or anything else concerning Brightspace and Instructional Technology, please feel free to reach out to the… Read More

If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt.  I did a session at TAV this… Read More

As we begin another fall semester, there are several updates coming to Brightspace this month.  Assignments – Access new shortcuts to undo and redo PDF annotations on evaluations Previously, the only way to remove PDF annotations in Assignments was to use the eraser tool or delete the selection. Read More

Summer months are usually when we see the biggest updates from Brightspace and D2L. This summer is shaping up for some good updates across different areas of the platform. Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach Instructors who teach several courses are now… Read More

May Brightspace Updates This time of year there are not many updates to Brightspace, but there are a couple that we want to point out to users. One is going to be a big help to students and instructors alike, and the other is an interesting new option for those… Read More

In a recent article, Inside Higher Ed described the results of a new survey highlighting a few of the biggest challenges instructors have faced during remote and online teaching over the last two years. You can find the article here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/23/survey-views-pandemic-learning-overwhelmingly-negative   According to this survey, labs, group… Read More

Wintertime is not known for big changes to Brightspace, but there have been a few updates over the beginning of this semester that we wanted to update users on.    Updated Brightspace Branding D2L, the parent company of Brightspace, recently updated its logo and company branding. Read More

In 2018, Vanderbilt added a way for Brightspace users to set their personal pronouns in their Brightspace profile. While this was a good option at the time, this was only viewable when users went to someone else’s profile. As of February 2022, Brightspace is rolling out a new… Read More

There are several highlights from the most recent Brightspace updates, and today we want to focus on three things that will be most helpful to Brightspace users. Links to the full release notes are available at the end of this post.  Assignments – New Assignment Creation Experience Universally… Read More

The CFT first published a guide on considering how to work with wireless devices in the classroom in 2010. Given the rapidly changing digital landscape since then, this guide has been updated to better consider and account for the changes in how personal electronic devices are used, and how widespread they have become. It considers how personal electronic… Read More

There are several highlights from the most recent Brightspace update, and today we want to focus on four things that will be most helpful to Brightspace users. A link to the full release notes is available at the end of this post.    Preview Activity in Evaluation mode… Read More

Here are the highlights from recent Brightspace updates. A link to the full release notes is available at the end of this post.    Assignments – Restricting file extensions for submissions It’s now possible for instructors to restrict the types of files they accept for Assignments… Read More

As we near the beginning of a new semester, many of us are thinking about how we can make space in our classrooms to learn about our students’ needs. In higher education, the question of how we can support students coming back to campus after mostly online experiences is a… Read More

If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt.  I did a session at TAV… Read More

There have been several updates to Brightspace over the summer, so we wanted to share with you the highlights of new things you can find in Brightspace starting this month. While these are just the highlights, we will link to the full release notes at the end of… Read More

Written by Jenny Park, August 2021 My name is Jenny Park, and I am a new instructional technologist at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. My colleagues and I recently attended the annual D2L Fusion Conference, which focuses on how to maximize the use and support for… Read More

My name is Jenny, and I am a new instructional technologist at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. My colleagues and I recently attended the annual D2L Fusion Conference, which focuses on how to maximize the use and support for the Brightspace platform. I had the opportunity to attend sessions… Read More

By Michael Coley, Fall 2021 Over the month of July, the Brightspace Support team had the opportunity to attend the 2021 D2L Fusion Conference. While this annual conference usually is held in locations across North America each summer, for the past two summers it has been all… Read More

For many of us at Vanderbilt, August is the busiest month of the year. That is certainly true for us here at Brightspace support at the CFT! And to get ready for our return to campus in August, we have new guides and resources, new faces, and a new expanded… Read More

The Brightspace team normally provides support to the Vanderbilt campus Sunday through Friday, usually from 7am to 11pm. In particular over the last year at Vanderbilt, we have been proud to step up to the challenges of remote and online teaching and offer expanded hours and services.  For the next… Read More

During the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters, the Brightspace Team held drop-in hours each Thursday to allow faculty to meet with our team and discuss any questions they had about using the Brightspace platform. We’ve wrapped up our final drop-in session for the spring, and we’ll be dedicating our… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Updated video and audio player To improve accessibility and create a consistent user experience, a… Read More

Brightspace’s November update included a new feature that many faculty may find useful. When students are allowed more than 1 attempt for a Brightspace quiz, instructors may now choose to have students only retake the questions they answered incorrectly. To enable this option, navigate to your quiz settings and choose… Read More

As instructors give assignments, quizzes and discussions, there are some key grading setup elements to check before opening these activities to students. Start with the Gradebook If you intend to use the Brightspace gradebook, then I would start with this setup. Step 1: How do I set up my… Read More

Have you been wondering about recording your live class meetings? We have several new guides available on our On-Demand Resources page that will walk you through some commonly asked questions. Should I record my live class meeting? New! How can I record and share my… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Additional functionality in the new assignment creation experience Add special access conditions to assignments. Read More

Click tracking refers to the ability that both instructors and students have in Brightspace to see where students have clicked within a course. This tool can be very useful for students trying to track their own progress in a course and for instructors evaluating their own course design and learning… Read More

Join our partners from Turnitin on Wednesday August 12th at 2 PM for a training session catered toward online teaching. In this session, we’ll be reviewing the many ways Turnitin can help facilitate learning and assessment in online spaces. This workshop is open to all Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and teaching… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – New create and edit experience The create and edit Assignments page has an updated… Read More

by Stacey M. Johnson, Assistant Director for Educational Technology If you will be teaching online, how do you plan to convert your course plan into a clean, easy-to-follow Brightspace course? The course plan or syllabus is the blueprint of your course, but now you have to construct the virtual structure… Read More

If you are using the Quizzes tool in Brightspace to conduct some end-of-semester assessment in your course, the CFT is here to help. With input from the support team, our ever-growing On-Demand Resources page also features a troubleshooting guide that you can use to navigate common questions. Check out… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Video Note recordings have expanded time limit In Assignment submission folders, students can now… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Faculty, are you thinking about how to develop online assessments of student learning in a hurry? At Vanderbilt most courses meet face-to-face, but with campus closed through the end of the spring 2020 semester, we are all rethinking assessments. The CFT has resources… Read More

If the speed of video processing is a problem… Video isn’t always necessary or even the best tool for the job. Lots of other technologies are just plain more accessible to everyone but especially to students on unreliable wifi. Read our blog post about low-bandwidth alternatives to video… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Video-based tools (like Zoom and Virtual Classroom, the two video conferencing tools available in Brightspace, or Kaltura Media, the video creation and storage tool) can be very useful for recreating the classroom experience in an online format. However, some faculty and students might… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson With both Zoom and Virtual Classroom available in Brightspace for live video conferencing, many faculty will be moving their face-to-face classes online in a very literal sense, doing similar activities as usual that happen to be conducted video conferencing. However, for some… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Accessibility in an online environment is essential. All students should be included and valued as our campus transitions to remote teaching through the end of the semester. Some Brightspace tools that will help are: If you will be creating recorded lectures or other… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Faculty, are you thinking about how to put some of your course content online in a hurry? Perhaps to deal with unexpected events? At Vanderbilt most of our courses meet face-to-face, however, if you find that you need to make adjustments in… Read More

The Vanderbilt Center for Teaching released a comprehensive guide to Teaching with Blogs. Brightspace users on campus will be interested to know that a blog tool is included in every Brightspace course, and can be used to support student learning inside of the secure course management environment. How can Students… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Streamlined access to inline feedback To streamline access to assignment feedback, learners can… Read More

Do your students need extra help with Brightspace? The CFT has resources available for students as well as instructors! New guides for students are released regularly and can be found here, including our brand new guide on submitting large video files in Brightspace.    Students are also welcome… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – “New” Assignment Submissions Column and Page On the Assignments page, instructors now have a… Read More

The end of the semester is coming up quickly! Is your Brightspace gradebook set up correctly? While you are certainly not required to use the Brightspace Grades tool to track your students’ grades, it can be a big help. Especially if you are using Brightspace to collect assignments or giving… Read More

There are times when Brightspace may give you an error message when attempting to upload a file or accessing content. Here are some general troubleshooting steps that have proven to correct most of these issues: 1) Use Google Chrome as your browser – it has proven to be most compatible… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Letter grading available Grade Schemes can now be used by instructors to evaluate assignments… Read More

by Stacey M. Johnson, Assistant Director If you are interested in making your Brightspace course more accessible to your students with disabilities, we have a few resources that you might find useful.  First, read through the CFT Teaching Guide on Creating Accessible Learning Environments.  This will provide great background… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Grades entered in Assignments and Grade Book are synchronized When an instructor enters a… Read More

Up until now, documents in Brightspace could only be annotated by utilizing the GradeMark function of the TurnItIn tool.  Brightspace has now rolled out a new optional annotation tool that is built directly into the Assignment tool. For an overview of the tool and how it can be utilized, refer… Read More

Harvested Repositories in the Learning Object Repository (LOR) are now available and a corresponding link has now been added to the Brightspace dashboard Navbar.  The LOR contains a number of repositories that can access harvested data from external databases. For information on accessing, searching for, and using material from these… Read More

From June 11th through 14th, Brightspace Support will only be offered at the following times: 6/11 – 7 am to 3 pm 6/12 – 7 am to 3 pm 6/13 – 7 am to 4 pm 6/14 – 7 am to 2 pm If you have any questions, please contact… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Brightspace Support is dedicated to educating the campus on new updates that can improve the learning… Read More

Brightspace Support will not be offered on Monday, May 27th, due to the Memorial Day holiday.  Any received messages will be returned on Tuesday, May 28th.  Thank you!… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Discussions – Save feedback in draft state This feature provides instructors the option to save feedback… Read More

On May 9th and 10th, Brightspace Support will begin at 9 am instead of 7 am.  Regular support hours will resume on May 13th.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

In June 2018, Kaltura released their own video creation tool called Kaltura Capture.  At that time, Kaltura also announced that their previous tool called CaptureSpace Lite would be going away in June 2019.  Therefore as of June 1st, 2019, CaptureSpace Lite will no longer be available in the Brightspace Kaltura… Read More

On May 2nd and 3rd, Brightspace Support will begin at 9 am instead of 7 am.  Regular support hours will resume on May 6th.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

Due to the expected heavy traffic in metro Nashville on April 25th and 26th from NFL Draft festivities, Brightspace Support will be amending its in-office hours for these days.  They are as follows: April 25th: Drop in support will be offered as normal from 10 am to Noon.  No in… Read More

On March 1, 2019, Brightspace e-mail support will begin at 9:00 am (instead of 7:00 am).  If you have any questions, please contact us at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

On February 15th, 18th, 19th, and 20th, Brightspace Support will begin at 9 am instead of 7 am.  Regular support hours will resume on February 21st.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Groups – Create new submission types The new On paper and Observed in person submission types… Read More

Getting to know a course management system can be confusing for students, as well as instructors. We’ve assembled a list of “Four Things Every Student Should Know about Brightspace at Vanderbilt.” This list will help your students as they navigate Brightspace. Instructors can feel free to share this post with… Read More

Brightspace support will be closed for the Holiday break from December 22nd, 2018 through January 1st, 2019. There will be no phone support (e-mail only) on December 21st, 2018. Regular support will resume on January 2nd, 2019. If you have any questions, please contact brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

Brightspace support hours for the Thanksgiving break are as follows: 11/21 – E-mail support only from 11 am to 7 pm. 11/22 – No support 11/23 – No support E-mail support will pick back up on 11/25 at 6 pm. Additionally, there will be no drop-in support hours on 11/21… Read More

Please note that Brightspace will be down for maintenance on Thursday, November 22nd from 8 am to 4 pm (at the latest) Central time.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support. Read More

On Friday, October 26th, the Brightspace support team will only provide live support from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.  Any e-mails or calls submitted outside of this time window will be returned as quickly as possible when support hours begin the following Sunday.  If you have any questions, please contact us… Read More

On Thursday, October 25th, the Brightspace support team will be participating in professional development from 11 am to 2:30 pm.  During this time, we will not be able to answer calls or respond to e-mails.  Any e-mails or calls received during this time period will be returned as soon as… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Anonymized learner names To avoid unconscious bias in the grading and feedback process, instructors… Read More

When it comes to online videos, accessibility is very important.  Many times, self-made videos lack captions that can assist those who are hearing impaired.  To address this, Kaltura has added a new captioning tool that can help make your videos more accessible to others. This tool is already enabled inside… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Content – Print/Download Function added to Syllabus Tab Users can now download and print an uploaded… Read More

According to Vanderbilt’s Course Availability and Deletion Policy,  students maintain access to their courses up to 1 year after the course has ended.  In practice, this policy means that students may find themselves wishing they still had access to a previous course that has been made unavailable.  The best way… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Grades – Reorder grade items Instructors with gradebooks containing 200+ grade items can now manually enter… Read More

When you (or your students) first click on a course from the main landing page in Brightspace, the default first page is a homepage that has the announcements tool and the calendar tool pre-loaded. However, the default is not your only option. In fact, you have quite a bit of control… Read More

Brightspace has updated the  landingpage to help users find their courses easier. Courses that appear in the My Courses widget are now grouped by semester.   Instructors are still able to pin currently important courses to the top of each tab.   You can find more courses to… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – New Text Submission type and workflow Instructors can now create Text Submission assignment types… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignment Grader (iPad app) – Assignment submission can now be annotated without EduDentity credentials Instructors that… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Grades – Locked Name column and header row This Daylight-only feature introduces the locked Name column… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! HTML Editor – Advanced image editing Users can now edit images in place (including flipping,… Read More

Recently, the CFT updated the teaching guide Dealing with the Unexpected: Teaching When You or Your Students Can’t Make it to Class to reflect all of the tools now available to conduct class online. If you are wondering how to teach this week with the unpredictable road conditions, this… Read More

Brightspace is nicely integrated with Turnitin. Turnitin provides a collection of tools that help instructors streamline their grading and feedback, and ensure that student work is original. If you used SafeAssign in the past, it has some similar features. Once Turnitin has been enabled for one of your Brightspace assignments,… Read More

Brightspace support is taking an administrative day today along with the rest of the campus. The support team will be back on for email support 5-11pm on Sunday. You can find our support schedule here: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/brightspace/brightspace-support/ If you plan to work on Brightspace today and need assistance, we… Read More

When you (or your students) first click on a course from the main landing page in Brightspace, the default first page is a homepage that has the announcements tool and the calendar tool pre-loaded. However, the default is not your only option. In fact, you have quite a bit of control… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! New default state of new Assignment Submission Folders Administrators can to set the default state… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Additional attachment types available for assignments Links, Existing Activities, and Google Drive files can now… Read More

In this video, Stacey walks through how to create an announcement or email for students with links that take students directly to different content files or assignments inside of the course. Using the Quicklinks tool, you can send students a direct link to just what they need. Here… Read More

We at Brightspace Support hope you are able to take some time on Monday to observe the historic eclipse. We plan to take advantage of some of the great on-campus activities at Vanderbilt, and we hope you do too! We will be available Monday morning for drop-in sessions and… Read More

If you are trying to get your new Brightspace course up and running in a hurry, check out our new resource! Using this Quick Start Guide for Instructors, you can walk through the five most common steps instructors need to take to get their course set up. As always,… Read More

Fall courses are now available on Brightspace, Vanderbilt’s new course management system. Brightspace can be used to share course resources with students, communicate with students and engage them in discussion, administer quizzes and other assignments, and provide students with feedback on their learning. Faculty are invited to prepare their courses… Read More

Many instructors have asked us where students will go to learn about Brightspace, Vanderbilt’s new course management system. While students are always welcome to reach out for support, we put together a list of four important resources that students will find helpful as they navigate this new course management system. Instructors can… Read More

We love helping the Vanderbilt community use the course management system effectively and efficiently. To that end, members of our Brightspace support team will be spending this week at a conference learning more about how to serve faculty, staff, and students as we transition to Brightspace. Next week we will be… Read More

Starting this summer, Turnitin will replace SafeAssign as Vanderbilt’s plagiarism detection software. This powerful tool can help instructors teach and promote good citation practices as well as provide detailed feedback more efficiently. You can log on to this fully online webinar from any computer at home or on campus,… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here,  but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace!   Quizzes – Shuffle the order of questions Instructors can now shuffle the order of all questions… Read More

Brightspace Support at the Center for Teaching is excited to offer daily workshops and drop-in support hours during the month of August! Our workshops will cover: discussions gradebook quizzes and surveys assignments and grading introduction to Brightspace A one-time, remote training session covering the plagiarism/feedback studio tool Turnitin is also… Read More

Instructor Training for LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor Respondus LockDown Browser™ is a customized browser that increases the security of test delivery in course management systems. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser to access an exam, they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here,  but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace!   Activity Feed The Activity Feed, which is a new course homepage widget, provides a central location… Read More

Have you heard about the Chancellor’s summer flex schedule policy? While most of the CFT will be open as usual on Friday afternoons this summer, the Brightspace support team will be taking advantage of the policy to rearrange our staff hours during the months of June and July. For… Read More

We know many of you have come to rely on Brightspace support’s availability six days a week, and we love hearing from you! However, on Sunday May 28, Monday May 29 (Memorial Day), and Wednesday May 31 (CFT Staff Retreat Day), the Brightspace team will be taking a few days… Read More

The Center for Teaching is excited to announce that Brightspace is now available for instructors planning their summer and fall courses.  Brightspace will replace Blackboard as Vanderbilt’s course management system starting this summer.  The new platform has a modern, responsive design and a number of features that faculty and… Read More

As Vanderbilt transitions to Brightspace, our new course management system, some faculty may wonder what will happen to the video content they have created, stored, and/or shared using Kaltura (“My Media”) on Blackboard. We are happy to report that Kaltura media works well within Brightspace and that plans are underway… Read More

Many instructors have asked us where students will go to learn about Brightspace, Vanderbilt’s new course management system. While students are always welcome to reach out for support, we put together a list of four important resources that students will find helpful as they navigate this new course management system. Read More

by Derek Bruff, Director, Center for Teaching As we announced last month, Brightspace has been selected as Vanderbilt’s next course management system, replacing Blackboard. I’m writing now to update the campus on the planned implementation timeline, based on what we know as of this writing (February 13th). What… Read More

The Center for Teaching is glad to announce that Brightspace will be replacing Blackboard as the campus-wide course management system beginning Summer 2017. This transition will bring change for students, faculty, and staff. As Brightspace’s administrative home, we at the Center for Teaching want to reassure you that we are… Read More

With the fall 2016 semester winding down, the Blackboard support team at the Center for Teaching has already begun working with many instructors around campus to ready spring courses. If you plan to work on your Blackboard courses over the winter holiday, we will be available to help via… Read More

The Grade Center provides useful features to keep track of student grades, customize the Grade Center to your course, and provide students feedback on their work. Recently, Blackboard support has fielded several questions from instructors about how to upload graded documents for students to view feedback within the Grade Center… Read More

You may have heard about SIPX, a tool recently acquired by the Vanderbilt Library to streamline the copyright compliance process for course readings. With the addition of SIPX to the Blackboard tool set, instructors now have the ability to find course readings themselves from the library holdings (or from… Read More

Here at Blackboard support, we often get questions from faculty and teaching assistants about Blackboard’s compliance with the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal law that governs the privacy of student educational records. The good news is that the guidelines that protect student privacy in your physical classroom work… Read More

This summer the Blackboard support team will focus their support efforts from 7am to 4pm Monday through Friday. You can expect a fast and thorough response from our team whether you contact us by email or phone during those hours. We will continue providing support via email 4-11pm Sunday through… Read More

You should have received emails alerting you to Blackboard’s upgrade this weekend, or you may have seen the announcement on the Blackboard log in page. That upgrade period is now underway. We expect Blackboard to be available to users again no later than 8pm on Sunday May 22. Updates about… Read More

The Center for Teaching invites Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and students to a series of product demonstrations by the three vendors under consideration for Vanderbilt’s next course management system (CMS). The demonstrations, along with feedback from those who attend them, will inform Vanderbilt’s decision to renew its contract with Blackboard, set… Read More

The Center for Teaching, as the administrative home for Blackboard, is announcing a new Course Availability and Deletion Policy for Blackboard.  This policy, recommended by Vanderbilt’s Blackboard implementation team and approved by the Blackboard Faculty Advisory Committee, is intended to reduce the amount of storage space Vanderbilt purchases… Read More

Want to know how to back up your Blackboard courses on your own computer or other device? The Blackboard support team at the CFT has resources that can help. There are two primary ways to back up course content. The first way is to back up a course in its entirety, including… Read More

With the integration of the Kaltura media tool within Blackboard, users of the CMS now have the ability to easily implement streaming video into their course or organization.  If users are attempting to create their own educational videos for use in their course, CFT Assistant Director Cynthia… Read More

The CFT, as the administrative home for Blackboard, Vanderbilt’s primary course management system, is conducting an assessment in March to determine the extent to which Blackboard is meeting the needs of campus users. Results of this needs assessment will inform Vanderbilt’s decision to renew its contract with Blackboard, set to… Read More

Did you know that you can create tests or quizzes in Blackboard and have students take them online? The on-demand resources page of our website includes a guide to creating a test. The testing feature allows instructors to set up different types of questions, several of which are automatically graded. While… Read More

Regular Blackboard Maintenance Window: Early Sunday Morning 1:00-5:00 AM Central Time Between 1-5am early Sunday mornings, Blackboard undergoes weekly mmaintenance. Often, Blackboard continues to be available for users during that time, but occasionally a shut-down and restart of the system is required. Users should not plan on scheduling or taking… Read More

Many of you have visited us for Blackboard trainings and drop-in hours here at the CFT. What you may not know is that we have also taken that support model on the road to various schools, centers, and departments across campus. If you work with a group that you think… Read More

Beginning in the spring 2016 semester, Vanderbilt faculty will be able to integrate online textbook materials and grading with Blackboard. If your textbook includes publisher-provided online content, email us at blackboard@vanderbilt.edu or come see us during our drop-in support hours to find out if your textbook is one of the many… Read More

Have you ever run across a tool in Blackboard and wanted a quick explanation of what it does? Or are you a Blackboard power-user, determined to master every feature of our Learning Management System? If you have ever found yourself wondering about one of the more… Read More

Using SafeAssign is easier than ever now that it is integrated directly into the Blackboard assignments feature. SafeAssign is a tool used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help students learn to properly attribute sources. How does SafeAssign work? SafeAssign’s proprietary algorithm… Read More

We are excited to announce our November/December schedule of drop-in support hours. Drop-in support hours will take place on Mondays 1-3pm in the CFT workshop space from November 2nd – December 14th, with the exception of November 23 when we will be observing Thanksgiving break). During drop-in hours, faculty and… Read More

The Vanderbilt academic community has access to a useful online testing tool for the 2015-2016 academic year. The Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard during online quizzes and tests. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go… Read More

We are excited to announce our September/October schedule of drop-in support hours. During drop-in hours, faculty and staff who have Blackboard-related questions can stop by the workshop space of the CFT (even without an appointment) and find a team of specialists ready to assist. We can get you up… Read More

As the new administrative home for Blackboard, the Center for Teaching (CFT) is excited to announce a number of developments for Vanderbilt’s primary course management system, all part of Vanderbilt’s strategic investment in the use of technology to support student learning. New Features A number of platform upgrades were… Read More

We’re happy to announce that Profile Photos (also known as “avatars”) are now available within Blackboard. Instructors and students can upload a photo to their Blackboard account by following the steps outlined in the Profile Photo guide. Photos will be visible in all of your Blackboard interactions across all… Read More

The CFT has added a new way to access Blackboard support at Vanderbilt. During our drop-in hours, faculty and staff who have Blackboard-related questions can stop by the library area of the CFT (even without an appointment) and find a team of specialists ready to assist. We can get… Read More

On June 6-7, Blackboard will be updated to a more recent version of the system. This update will provide several feature enhancements, but the user interface will be largely unchanged. We are updating from the October 2012 Blackboard release to the April 2014 release. See below for a list… Read More

We’re happy to announce that the Rubrics course tool is now available within Blackboard to instructors. The tool is available by default in new courses. For existing courses, instructors can turn on the tool from the Customization > Tool Availability menu. This tool has been requested by many instructors… Read More

On Friday, March 13th, Blackboard experienced a problem sending emails.  Due to an issue in the data center hosting Vanderbilt’s Blackboard installation, emails sent through Blackboard between 8:20 am and 12:10 pm were, unfortunately, not delivered. That includes emails sent to students during this time. The problem has been… Read More

During the recent migration from OAK to Blackboard managed hosting, we very intentionally maintained the version of Blackboard we were using. This summer, we’ll upgrade to a newer version, but over winter break, our goal was improved performance, not new features. However, we did add one new tool to… Read More

Blackboard will be unavailable Sunday, February 1st, between 3am and 5am for scheduled maintenance. Read More

The migration from OAK to Blackboard managed hosting is now complete. Most courses from Fall 2013 to present are now available in Blackboard, as are all organizations. We have only a few remaining issues to resolve: Very Large Courses: OAK courses over 4GB in size cannot be automatically migrated… Read More

The migration from OAK to Blackboard managed hosting is nearly complete. Most courses from Fall 2013 to present are now available in Blackboard, as are all organizations. Following is a list of outstanding issues resulting from the migration: Large Courses: OAK courses over 1GB in size are currently being… Read More

Faculty, students, and staff will notice a few changes when they log in to OAK. Vanderbilt has migrated its course management system, powered by Blackboard but known locally as OAK (Online Access to Knowledge), from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers as part of an effort to improve performance and… Read More

Starting today, faculty, students, and staff will notice a few changes when they log in to OAK. Vanderbilt has migrated its course management system, powered by Blackboard but known locally as OAK (Online Access to Knowledge), from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers as part of an effort to improve… Read More

by Derek Bruff, Director, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching The Center for Teaching is taking on a significant new role in the educational technology landscape at Vanderbilt. Starting this spring, the CFT will coordinate and provide technical and pedagogical support for Blackboard, Vanderbilt’s course management system, known locally as OAK. Read More

As part of an effort to improve performance and reliability, Vanderbilt’s OAK course management system, powered by Blackboard, is in the process of migrating from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers. The system will be unavailable Dec. 21-22 as part of this migration, and access to some courses will be… Read More

Dear faculty colleagues: As we migrate OAK course materials from their current (still-problematic) on-campus existence to the new hosted Blackboard environment, there will be periods of black-out where you will not be able to access your course materials. We have staggered this work to minimize down time. Schedule November… Read More

OAK will be unavailable Sunday, November 9th, between 6am and 11am for scheduled maintenance. (Many Vanderbilt systems will be unavailable during this window because of necessary database updates by VUIT.)… Read More

Over the next two months, Vanderbilt’s OAK course management system, powered by Blackboard, will move from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers.  This transition to what’s called “managed hosting” will improve performance and reliability and make available new tools for instructors.  These tools include Kaltura, a tool for sharing and… Read More

Earlier this year, the OAK Steering Committee approved a decision to transition OAK to what’s called “managed hosting.” OAK is powered by the course management system Blackboard. We have run Blackboard on Vanderbilt web servers since the system was adopted about a decade ago. This winter, OAK will… Read More

Earlier this month, most courses prior to Fall 2013 (over 40,000 courses in all), were made inactive as part of an effort to improve OAK’s performance. Faculty who need access to an old course can email oak@vanderbilt.edu and provide the following details: subject area and course… Read More

by Derek Bruff, Director, Center for Teaching, cross-posted from the CFT blog As Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and students have learned this fall, Vanderbilt’s course management system, OAK (powered by Blackboard), is currently experiencing significant delays. While the OAK team at VUIT continues working to fix these… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, November 17 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance.  We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours.  Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, October 13 between the hours 6AM and 10AM for routine maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Students will… Read More

With the recent OAK upgrade, course instructors can now grade student assignments “inline.” What does that mean? Instead of downloading files, editing them in MS Word and uploading them back in OAK, or printing them out and grading them manually, you can now view and grade the assignments instead… Read More

TurningPoint, the student response system (clickers) used at Vanderbilt, will be upgraded Thursday, May 16 at 6:00 AM. NO OUTAGE IS REQUIRED. However, instructors will need to download the new TurningPoint client (instructions below). The new version, TurningPoint 5.2.0, is compatible with Office 2013. Students may need to verify… Read More

    OAK will be down Sunday and Monday, May 12-13 (available again by 8AM Tuesday, May 14) for routine maintenance and a software upgrade. The upgrade from Blackboard 9.1 Service Pack 8 to Blackboard 9.1 Service Pack 11 will consist of several new features and bug fixes, including copy/paste from Word, a… Read More

04.01.13 OAK will NOT be down Sunday, April 21 for maintenance. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, January 20 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like… Read More

In our ongoing effort to improve the OAK user experience, OAK Support is removing all courses setup prior to May 2012 that have NO CONTENT OF ANY KIND in them and NO ENTRIES in the Grade Center.  This includes courses for Spring 2007 through Spring 2012 that were never used. … Read More

OAK will be down Friday, December 21 12:01 AM – 4:00 AM for maintenance. The change in regularly scheduled Sunday down time in December will allow OAK to remain available during end of semester activities. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, November 18 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like… Read More

OAK will be down intermittently Sunday, October 21 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like… Read More

OAK Support received reports of an issue with one of the widely used features of OAK. In order to fix the issue, OAK needs to be “down” for approximately 45-60 minutes. Because we do not like to take OAK down unnecessarily, yet understand this needs to be addressed, the issue… Read More

OAK (Online Access to Knowledge), Vanderbilt’s course management system, is expanding current functionality to provide additional services and customizations.  Efficiencies in course delivery and management will also be attained. Several years ago, a proposal was prepared to enhance OAK that included a consolidated list of requests from the schools and… Read More

The dates when OAK will be unavailable for regular maintenance have been posted and can be found in the red box located on the lower left hand corner of the main OAK website. The dates are August 19, September 15, October 21, and November 18. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance:… Read More

OAK was upgraded in June to Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 8 in early June.  A list of highlighted resolved issues and new features can be found in the “Training” section of the main OAK Website, or a PDF can be accessed directly here. Read More

OAK support will install a Blackboard service pack, continuing the work for the OAK Enhancement Project.  Beginning at 6:00 AM Saturday, June 2 through Sunday, June 3, OAK will be unavailable.   There is a chance that the down time will not take the entire time. In the event that the… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, May 20 from 6AM to 1PM for maintenance. The allotted time has been extended this month to accommodate a change necessary for the growth OAK has experienced over the years. In the event that the work is completed ahead of schedule, OAK will be made… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, March 18 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We expect the outage to last the entire four hours.  Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have… Read More

OAK will NOT be down Sunday, February 19 for maintenance.  Please visit the main OAK Website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them… Read More

Enrolling students directly in OAK DOES NOT officially enroll them your the course. Course instructors have the ability to enroll students directly in their OAK course. This capability is available so instructors can add guests to their courses. If a student needs to be added to the course, they should… Read More

OAK is currently down due to an issue with MIS support systems. MIS estimates that the service will be available around noon today. This was unrelated to the upgrade.  We apologize for the inconvenience. –OAK Support Staff… Read More

OAK maintenance was completed ahead of schedule and OAK is once again available. Read More

OAK maintenance is ahead of schedule.  As soon as the upgrade is complete, access to OAK will be restored.  Please visit the main OAK website for availability updates. Read More

OAK support will need to take advantage of Winter Break to install Blackboard service packs and begin initial work for the OAK Enhancement Project.  OAK will be available through Tuesday, December 20 so faculty can report grades. Beginning early morning Wednesday, December 21, through Thursday, December 22, OAK will be… Read More

SafeAssign is experiencing regular delays due to load on the system. In one sense, the cause of these delays is quite simple: the rate of papers being submitted exceeding the speed with which SafeAssign can process papers. Submissions go into a queue, and are processed in a first-in, first-out order. Read More

The maintenance to the OAK databases is complete. OAK was unavailable this morning beginning at 6:00 AM and was restored at 10:00 AM as previously announced. Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them down to perform regular maintenance. Please… Read More

In order to avoid being unavailable during finals, OAK will be down Sunday, December 4 from 6AM to 10AM for regular maintenance to the databases. Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them down to perform regular maintenance. Please… Read More

OAK support will need to take advantage of Winter Break to install Blackboard service packs and begin initial work for the OAK Enhancement Project. OAK will be available through Tuesday, December 20 so faculty can report grades. Beginning early morning Wednesday, December 21, through Thursday, December 22, OAK will… Read More

    The “Document Unpackager” tool allows instructors to upload multiple files, even files in folders and nested folders, from your computer and put them, at one time, in OAK. The tool takes a ZIP file from your computer and uploads the entire contents into OAK, preserving the nested folders. Read More

Each semester, instructors must make courses in OAK “available” to students before they can access content. To make a course available, in the course Control Panel area: 1. Click “Customization” to expose the hidden menu 2. Click “Properties” 3. Select “Yes” in section 3, “Set Availability” 4. Read More

Course instructors have the ability to enroll “students” directly in their OAK course. This capability is available so instructors can add guests to their courses. If a student needs to be added to an official Vanderbilt course, they should enroll in that course through YES; if they do not, they… Read More

OAK will NOT be down Sunday, August 21 for maintenance. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them down to… Read More

OAK will NOT be down Sunday, July 17 for maintenance. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them… Read More

The OAK News Blog updated its look to match other Vanderbilt websites. The new look should make viewing the archives easier to use. Read More

OAK, Vanderbilt’s course management system, will be expanding current functionality to provide additional services and customizations, as well as attain efficiencies in course delivery and management. Powered by Blackboard Learn “Course Delivery,” Vanderbilt will add the “Community Engagement” system to OAK to achieve these goals. Several years ago, a… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, May 22 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. The date was changed from Sunday, May 15… Read More

This afternoon, OAK Support noticed that there was a problem with the process that takes the enrollments in YES and updates them in OAK.  The issue causes enrollment changes for Spring 2011 and Summer 2011 to not be processed. In order to correct this, OAK needs to be “down” for… Read More

OAK will NOT be down Sunday, April 17 for maintenance. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them… Read More

Microsoft’s release of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) has many of the downsides of using Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) with OAK, along with one major setback: users cannot access a page that has a text box editor UNLESS “Compatibility Mode” is turned ON. One other item that users should know: the… Read More

OAK will NOT be down Sunday, March 20 for maintenance. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them… Read More

This afternoon access to OAK was unavailable due to a network outage. The outage has been stored, but OAK Support will continue to monitor the situation throughout the evening. Please use caution when using OAK as users may experience some odd behavior moving between tasks during this time. Please let… Read More

The maintenance work was completed at 7:15 AM. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Read More

02.14.11 OAK will be down Sunday, February 20 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though… Read More

OAK will NOT be down Sunday, January 16 for maintenance. Please visit the main OAK website for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Note about Regularly Scheduled Maintenance: Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them… Read More

Course enrollments in OAK are now correct. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we worked diligently to correct the issue.  If you continue to experience enrollment issues, please contact your local support provider. A list of support providers can be found on the main OAK website at… Read More

Greetings: Course enrollment updates will begin to reappear tonight at 8:00 PM and may take an hour to process.  During this time, OAK Support Staff will be monitoring the situation.  Please visit the main OAK website at www.vanderbilt.edu/oak, or Announcements within OAK, for updates. We apologize for… Read More

Course enrollments are beginning to reappear. Any new enrollments may not appear immediately. Please wait until late Friday afternoon to report any issues to your local support provider. A list of support providers can be found on the main OAK website under “Help and Who to Contact” or directly at… Read More

Beginning late this afternoon, OAK enrollments began experiencing issues. Users would experience this issue as Spring 2011 courses disappearing from their course list, though they were clearly there before.  MIS is working diligently with Blackboard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience- OAK… Read More

OAK service has been restored after an extended outage. If you notice anything unusual in the next couple of days, please notify the OAK Manager by emailing oak@vanderbilt.edu as soon as possible with as much detail as possible. OAK Support will be monitoring the system this week for any… Read More

OAK is currently down for maintenance, but it is taking longer than expected. We hope to have service restored by 11:30 AM.  Please visit the main OAK website at www.vanderbilt.edu/oak for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. We apologize for the inconvenience. Note about Regularly Scheduled… Read More

Due to final exams and end of semester activities, the December scheduled maintenance period will change from Sunday 12/19/10 to Tuesday 12/28/10 from 6AM to 10AM. OAK will be down for maintenance, but we do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, November 21 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance. We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours. Please visit the main OAK website at www.vanderbilt.edu/oak for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. Due to final exams and end… Read More

Blackboard Mobile Learn gives you interactive access to your courses and class content on your smart phone and iPhone OS devices.  Instructors and students can view announcements, participate in discussions, view grades, and access several other course areas by using Mobile Learn. Due to contract restrictions, Blackboard Mobile Learn is… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, October 17 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance.  We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours.  Please visit www.vanderbilt.edu/oak for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. We apologize for the inconvenience, OAK Support Team   Note… Read More

OAK will be down Sunday, September 19 from 6AM to 10AM for maintenance.  We do not expect the outage to last the entire four hours.  Please visit www.vanderbilt.edu/oak for maintenance updates, OAK availability, and regularly scheduled maintenance dates. We apologize for the inconvenience, OAK Support Team   Note… Read More

Getting to Know the New OAK. There are some significant changes to OAK and several new features. Instructors are encouraged to download the “Getting to Know Blackboard 9.1” guide with screenshots of the new course menus and control panel. Moving Course Material: Course Export vs. Course Copy. When copying content… Read More

OAK Support completed the upgrade early and is now available to users. However, the Collaboration Tools (chat and white board) are not working properly and OAK Support will address that issue first thing tomorrow morning. If you need urgent help, please contact oak@vanderbilt.edu. To learn more about the upgrade,… Read More

OAK will be down Saturday, July 24 beginning at 2:00 PM through July 26 at 8:00 AM.  Though OAK Support does not anticipate the upgrade taking this long, faculty and students should refrain from accessing OAK until a notice is posted on the OAK website.  Please visit www.vanderbilt.edu/oak for… Read More

What is it?  Blackboard Mobile Learn gives you interactive access to your courses and class content on your smart phone and iPhone OS devices.  Instructors and students can view announcements, participate in discussions, view grades, and access several other course areas by using Mobile Learn. Who can use it? Due… Read More

We will be upgrading to Blackboard Learn 9.1 Course Delivery on July 24, 2010. We anticipate a 2-day outage window beginning at 2PM on Saturday, July 24, with OAK being back up no later than 8:00 AM on July 26.  Though we do not anticipate the upgrade taking this long,… Read More

The implementation of the new student registration system caused a delay in creating Fall 2010 courses in OAK.  MIS has been working to connect the new system to OAK and hopes to have these courses (and instructor assignments) in OAK as quickly as possible, followed soon after by student enrollments. Read More

In order to enhance security and comply with federal audit requirements, Vanderbilt plans to implement a mandatory annual ePassword change process by June 15, 2010. To change your ePassword, please go to www.vanderbilt.edu/passwordchange and follow the instructions. We encourage you to change your password right away and not wait… Read More

We will be upgrading to Blackboard Learn 9 Course Delivery in June 2010. In the coming months, there will be video and face-to-face tutorials to provide training, as well as a published timeline of activities. Please expect an extended outage for this event. More information will be posted on the… Read More

Though we like to have our servers up 24/7, there are times when we need to take them down to add service patches. Please note that we need reserve the third Sunday morning of each month to perform these tasks. This time slot was chosen based on low usage of… Read More

All undergraduate courses have duplicate courses in OAK that begin with “SYLLABUS.” These duplicate courses serve as a location for sample course syllabi that undergraduate students can review during the registration period. Students have been informed that the available syllabi are to be used as a guide only and can… Read More

Instructors can add media to their courses with iTunes U while reducing the strain on OAK servers. “Restricted” course areas restrict access to their iTunes U course area to those enrolled in that course, while “Public” courses are open to anyone who accesses Vanderbilt iTunes U store. To learn how… Read More

As the number of browser/OS versions increases, and issues arise that are difficult to pinpoint, a browser checker is now available for our community. This tool checks those browsers that Blackboard has tested and “certified” as well as recommended settings. Click to test your browser now. Read More

OAK will be undergoing an upgrade in the summer of 2010; this upgrade will no longer have the “Digital Dropbox” tool. The Digital Dropbox has had many issues since Vanderbilt adopted Blackboard and Blackboard’s response was to create a new tool with additional features. Vanderbilt’s current version of Blackboard has… Read More