Spring 2023 begins Monday, February 6
Blackboard courses will open for Preview week on Monday, January 30. If you have not done so already, you can request your Blackboard courses in SPIRE. Don’t forget that each semester you will need to request Blackboard for the courses you are teaching.
For detailed instructions, see:
The Winter session is also wrapping up. Remember that the last day of Winter classes is Friday, February 3, and grades are due Thursday, February 9 at midnight. You can upload your grades in SPIRE directly from Blackboard.
Blackboard Tip of the Month: Create Journals for Your Students
Did you know that you can use Blackboard to create journals for your students? Journaling spaces private so that only the instructor and TAs can read students’ posts, or can be open to the entire class. Journals can be owned by an individual student or can belong to a group of students. If a journal belongs to a group, each student in that group is able to post in the journal and view all of the journal entries.
Planned downtimes
There are no planned downtimes for Blackboard in January 2022.
You can check the status of Blackboard, Zoom, and other supported teaching technologies on the IT Services Status for Remote Teaching and Learning page.
Blackboard help and resources for instructors
To learn more about Blackboard or to get help, you can:
- Review our Blackboard Support Articles.
- Contact the Instructional Media Lab (instruct@umass.edu) with a question, or to set up a time for a one-on-one consultation.
- Join our Instructor Support Zoom room Monday-Friday between 10am and 3pm to meet with a staff member. Please note that wait times depend on the volume of requests.
- Contact the 24/7 Blackboard Helpdesk. The helpdesk can also assist students directly.