On this page are details of the winter and summer upgrades to VITAL since July 2011. These are kept here for reference and to maintain links to new features
and bug fixes that were implemented with each upgrade. Please contact the eLearning Unit for further details on any of these.
VITAL Summer Upgrade 2013
This upgrade took place on w/b Monday 29th July 2013.
This summer's upgrade will see major improvements to key facilities in VITAL, particularly the Test Tool which has some very useful new administrative settings
such as giving specified students extra time in tests. The Discussion Board is revitalised and the Text Editor is all-new so there are stability, consistency and
accuracy improvements here. Summaries and links to more information on the main enhancements are below, including: New Text Editor; New Calendar; New 'Retention Centre'; updated Discussion Board;
Test Tool improvements; 'My Blackboard' information centre; iPad app for GradeMark.
New Text Editor
A completely new editor means an end to sporadic problems with formatting text for content items. Watch the film below for a quick look.
New Content Editor - link for above film if not working in browser The new editor is also more fully-featured so that more sophisticated formatting of
text and table layouts can be created. A 'Full Screen' option lets you work with the text editor fully expanded on screen. There is maths formula editing functionality
built-in through the WIRIS maths editor (with some support for direct LaTeX notation). HTML and CSS editing options are also available.
New Calendar
The calendar tool is rebuilt and includes the following improvements:
choose from daily, weekly, monthly views of the calendar
select individual, module and institutional views of the calendar
colour-code your calendar events
VITAL calendar data can be exported as an iCal feed, to your Outlook calendar for instance
assignment due dates are automatically added to the calendar
New 'Retention Centre'
This feature replaces the Early Warning System and is a useful way of monitoring for potential problems with students
not enaging with modules, not submitting assignments, missing test due dates etc. Watch the film below for a quick overview.
New Retention Centre - link for above film if not working in browser
There is no set-up to do to start using this tool straightaway but you can also make your own 'rules' to trigger alerts for conditions that you set.
As well as checking key data about students who are highlighted by the system you can keep an eye on activity levels
in Blackboard blogs, wikis and journals that you set up in the module. Find the Retention Centre in a module in the Control Panel, under the Evaluation submenu or on the new 'My Blackboard' window.
New-look Discussion Board
A visual re-design makes the Discussion Board much more intuitive to navigate through the threads of discussions. All posts are now found on one page, instructor posts are highlighted,
replies are created directly in position and a new optional 'Post First' feature requires students to post to a forum before they can see the other students' posts. Below is an image of the redesigned layout.
Test tool Enhancements
Time extensions for specific students (as well as date availability, force completion, auto-submit and number of attempts settings)
Offer feedback at a) test completion and new b) a specified date after the test completion. Fine-tune what kinds of feedback is seen at which point.
Close tests at a timer limit or allow tests continue. Allow tests to be taken after due dates
Creating tests - workflow imnprovements - insert a new question anywhere, 'submit and create a new question' feature
New algorithm for negative marking - specify deductions for specific MCQ answers for example
Fill-in-the-blank question type - now allows 'pattern matching' and 'contains' for answers
Automated regrading for problem questions (update all grades when a problem question is identified and discounted from a test)
Item analysis of test result data, at the overall and individual question level (generate reports on discrimintaion, difficulty, graded attempts, average score, stabdard deviation and standard error)
Directly edit a test from the Grade Centre
'My Blackboard' - new navigation and information facility
A new top-level information panel for staff and students to get a cross-modular view of Grades, Calendars, Discussion Board Posts, Notifications and your most recent activity in modules.
GradeMark iPad app for offline grading
Available this summer, an iPad app for grading and commenting on Turnitin papers on the iPad. There is an offline functionality built into this which will allow you to download and mark offline, re-uploading the marked papers when you are back online.
For the latest information on the upgrade date please see the VITAL Self Service News channel and Twitter streams or check with the CSD Helpdesk (contact details can be found on the left-hand menu link).
Upgrade Winter 2012 - Bug fixes
This upgrade took place on Monday 17h December 2012 and consisted of software patches to fix bugs and issues as well as some work on the VITAL servers to improve further the service.
Upgrade Summer 2012 - Service Pack 8
The summer upgrade to VITAL took place on w/b Monday 30th July 2012. Service Pack 8 was applied, containing a number of new features and a new design for VITAL.
The main change to VITAL was to the design of the environment and much improved facilities to apply themes and structures to individual modules.
Here are two videos created by Blackboard about the new-look VITAL. The first shows in details the main changes to the design of the module in edit mode and the second gives a very top-level summary of the main features of the upgrade.
(NB the University of Liverpool does not currently have the Content System mentioned in this video)
The Blackboard Service Pack 8 website linked to below contains detailed screen shots of the new design for VITAL. Click on the "What's New" tab in the top right of the page.
Blackboard official Service Pack 8 information site.
Upgrade Winter 2011 - Service Pack 7
The date for the next upgrade to VITAL is currently scheduled to be w/b Monday 30th July 2012. To confirm this please check with the CSD Helpdesk.
(The latest service pack upgrade to VITAL took place on Monday 19th December 2011 and details of this, and other upgrades, are found on the 'Previous Upgrades' page. The service packs for VITAL consist of bug fixes
and new features and the main highlights of our latest service pack (7) are:
Fixes
Multiple files upload by 'drag and drop' now works.
Calendar 'widget' date picker alignment problems in some browsers no longer an issue.
SCORM content problems resolved by brand new SCORM player (see below).
Multiple URLs created in text editor and set to open in new window now work as expected.
Announcements sent as emails no longer contain long footers.
Assignment tool - accidental creation of duplicate copies of assignments set to allow only one submission now fixed.
Viewing permissions of content in Course Files area resolved.
As ever, we would ask if that you encounter any problems with any of the above fixes, or to report any new problems that you encounter then please do get in touch with CSD helpdesk.
New features
'Rubrics' criteria marking facility - allows you to create interactive criteria cards for marking student work and then calculating grades automatically. Similar to the Rubrics' card in Turnitin, this card can be attached to Blackboard assignments, blogs, wikis, journals and discussion boards. (NB cannot be used with Campus Packs or Turnitin items.)
There are three short, introductory films (listed below - all clickable links - open in a new window) which should get you up and running with Blackboard Rubrics.
New SCORM player. Completely new SCORM engine replacing the previous problematic version and you can
read more details here. If you have SCORM content currently uploaded in your VITAL module through the old player it is advised that you reupload using the new player. The new player has many more display and set-up options and integrates well with the Grade Centre for assessed items.
Timed assessments - new automatic 'save and submit' option when timed test ends.
Upgrade Summer 2011 - New Server Architecture
On Monday 18th July 2011 VITAL was upgraded in two ways. Firstly, VITAL was moved to new
hardware which will greatly improve the capacity and reliability of the service. Secondly, the software
was upgraded so that a large number of bugs and issues in VITAL were fixed.
Below is a presentation given by the VITAL technical team on some background to the upgrade and key
information on the technical improvements. The slides run automatically, Use the index in the bottom right
to move to a specific slide. (There are also some slides on the Mobile Learn service).
