Course Requests Open in SPIRE
Fall and Winter 2023 course requests are currently available in SPIRE for Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas.
If you have not done so already, you can still request your Blackboard courses in SPIRE as well. Don’t forget that each semester you will need to request Blackboard for the courses you are teaching.
For detailed instructions, see:
As part of a multi-year process the campus will be moving to a single LMS – Canvas. You can request a Canvas course instead of a Blackboard course in SPIRE. Some useful information for making this decision:
The IDEAS Team is running series of webinars to introduce Canvas and give you hands-on experience and practice.
All instructors have access to a Canvas Sandbox course and Canvas Training and Resources Course.
Updates to Turnitin in Blackboard
Our administrator’s have noted submission issues with Turnitin’s Direct Tool, including receiving a Submission Failed error message. This tool is being replaced by Turnitin’s Feedback Studio.
The current recommend course of action is to delete the old Turnitin Direct assignment and recreate it as a Turnitin Feedback Studio assignment.
Creating a Turnitin Assignment in Feedback Studio:
- Navigate to where you want to create the assignment in Blackboard
- At the top of the page, click on the Build Content dropdown
- Select Turnitin Feedback Studio
- Configure your assignment by adding in due dates, points, etc. and then click Submit
These steps will create a new Turnitin assignment for your students to submit their work. You can delete the broken Turnitin Direct link from your course.If you need further assistance, please contact instruct@umass.edu.
Planned downtimes
There are no planned downtimes for Blackboard this month.
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.