Support for Retired Blackboard Integrations

Starting on January 1, 2024, Blackboard will begin to phase out support for a specific type of third-party integration called Building Blocks (B2s). These retired integrations affect courses taught in the Original Course Experience.

Why are some integrations retiring?

As part of a multi-year initiative, Blackboard is aligning with industry standards, to produce more advanced, efficient, and secure tools and integrations. With that in mind, from January 1, 2024, Blackboard will wind down support for third-party Building Blocks (B2s) in Blackboard Learn and move to integrations based on REST APIs, 1EdTech LTI standards, and Partner Cloud.

How will this affect faculty and students?

Over the past two years, the Learning Platforms team has dedicated resources to transition to newer integration standards. This has been achieved with minimal downtime or service interruptions, ensuring a smooth experience for faculty, staff, and students.

However, due to the limited support of some integrations, changes to courses will be necessary for some and will take into effect on January 1, 2024. Faculty are encouraged to review their course sections and make changes to the new courses using the recommended alternative solutions. Students will likely experience broken links, or access issues from January 1, 2024 onwards if alternative solutions are not used.

How do faculty make changes to their courses?

To assist faculty in this transition, an overview of the affected third-party integrations, and recommendations are shared below. Most, if not all Building Blocks replacements are now found in the Content Market: Add Content from External Sources.

End of Life - June 30, 2024

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  • Kaltura

    About: Kaltura is the University's media management platform that directly connects to Blackboard Learn, and allows instructors, and students to embed and share media content.  

    Impact: The Kaltura B2 will be made inactive, and only Kaltura's LTI 1.3 tools such as Media Gallery, Kaltura Media, and Kaltura Embed tool will be available in Blackboard. Media uploaded to Kaltura using the mashup tool or using older tool links, are converted to the latest Kaltura integration. All courses with a Kaltura link were migrated to the new updated LTI 1.3 link. This includes all student uploaded media in Blackboard assessments.

    Recommendations: Instructors are recommended to review Kaltura links within their courses, and update media content if necessary. View help guides to add Kaltura media and report any errors or unexpected behavior to learningplatforms@miami.edu.

  • Echo360

    About: Echo360 is a tool that allows instructors (Law School only) to create and/or upload content to their Echo Video Library and allows them to link that content in their Blackboard courses. This content can then be viewed by users enrolled in the course where the content is linked.  

    Impact: The Echo360 B2 will be made inactive, and only Echo LTI 1.1 tool will be available. Media created, uploaded, and newly linked content will now all be done solely through the Echo360 LTI 1.1 tools. Contents linked in courses currently have been migrated from the Echo360 Building Block to the Echo360 LTI 1.1 tool. Linked content will now launch from the LTI tool. There is no visual changes to the linked content, or when the tool is accessed. You will also notice the alternative formats icon added next to the title of the recording. 

    Recommendations: There is no anticipated changes caused by the migration. However, if there are any issues with current linked content, instructors can delete them in their Blackboard course, Launch the Echo360 LTI 1.1 deep linking tool, and relink their content to the course. 

  • McGraw-Hill Connect

    About: McGraw Hill Connect enables instructors to leverage course and assessment materials and connect directly within Blackboard Learn. McGraw Hill Connect was previously titled Connect and Create.   

    Impact: The McGraw Hill Connect and Create B2 will be made inactive, and only McGraw-Hill LTIA tool will be available. All courses with a McGraw-Hill Connect link were migrated to the new updated LTI link, called McGraw-Hill LTIA. Visually, this link will change in both Original and Ultra to include a McGraw-Hill logo. A student who attempts to access the link may not be able to access the course. If so, an instructor will need to pair the course with a Connect section.  

    Recommendations:  Instructors are recommended to review courses that use McGraw Hill Connect as soon as possible. Click the link, select Connect and Pair with a Connect Section. Your section is automatically paired, migrated, and synced. Do not leave this page until the process has completed, and confirmed the course content has been migrated. 

    mcgraw hill connect window

    mcgraw hill registration page

    mcgraw migration

    mcgraw

  • Pearson MyLab & Mastering

    About: Pearson MyLab & Mastering is a tool that allows instructors to provide students with content such as assignments, quizzes, and books from Pearson courses. 

    Impact: Pearson MyLab & Mastering B2 will be made inactive, and only Pearson Access tool will be available. Pearson MyLab & Mastering Building Block content has been migrated to Pearson Access content. links should have the new Pearson Access icon next to them. Once someone clicks on the link, it should redirect to the Pearson Access website requesting a login to access/relink the content. 

    Recommendations: Instructors are recommended to ensure their links are accessible. If they are not, instructors are advised to remove the current Pearson Access link and add a brand new one to the content needed to be accessed by students. This can be acheived through adding a link via the Content Market.

  • Macmillan Learning

    About: The Macmillan Learning Partner Cloud tool allows instructors to provide students with Macmillan Learning course items such as assignments, quizzes, books, and chapter readings and link them to their Blackboard courses.  

    Impact: The Macmillian Partner Cloud tool will be made inactive, and only Macmillan Learning LTI 1.3 tool will be available. Macmillan Learning Partner Cloud content has been migrated to the new Macmillan Learning LTI 1.3 Partner Cloud tool. Links will have the Macmillan Learning icon next to them. After migration, while the links are preserved in the course, instructors will have to relink Macmillan content to the latest course.

    Recommendations: Instructors are encouraged to make copies of their Macmillan Learning courses, link the new copies to their new Blackboard courses, then add new Macmillan Learning content links to the Blackboard courses.

    macmillian

    macmillian register screen

End of Life - December 31, 2023

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  • Charon Link Builder

    Charon Link Builder Editor
    Example Item with Charon Link Builder Links

    About: Charon Link Builder allows instructors to link to course items within a description (e.g., for an item, folder, assessment).

    Impact: The names of the links will remain the same, but the links will break and will become inaccessible. New courses will need to leverage a different tool.

    Recommendations: Instructors are recommended to update their courses as soon as possible. Blackboard has existing tools to help create course links. Instructors can create course links or use the content collection to link to existing files in your course. 

  • SoftChalk - Publish with ScoreCenter, Synchronize Copied Content

    SoftChalk - Synchronize Copied Content
    SoftChalk - Publish with ScoreCenter

    About: The SoftChalk integration allows instructors to upload SoftChalk Create (Desktop) content, and collect student scores in the Blackboard Grade Center. The Synchronize Copied Content tool allows instructors to resolve links to lessons that are copied across Blackboard courses.

    Impact: The names of the links will remain the same, but the links will break and will become inaccessible. New courses will need to leverage a different tool.

    Recommendations: Instructors are recommended to update their courses as soon as possible. As SoftChalk does not have a migration tool available, there is some review and manual workflow to prepare content to use in Blackboard Learn. We would advise instructors to review and confirm if you require SoftChalk content.

    • Download Content: Faculty can download the SoftChalk content from Blackboard: In the Tools > Content Collection, go to the folder that contains the files or folders you want to download. Select the files and folders to download. Select the Download Package button. You can also find the Download Package option in the item's menu. A window may appear asking you if you want to open the file or save it. Select Save File and select OK.
    • Temporarily Migrate to SoftChalk Cloud (Optional): SoftChalk has prepared a workflow to support instructors to migrate their content to SoftChalk Cloud: Migration to SoftChalk Cloud Guide. However, we strongly recommend reviewing the latest notice about SoftChalk Cloud. View the full support site here.

  • iClicker Classic Plugin (iClicker Classic Remote Registration, Instructor Tools)

    iClicker Remote Registration
    iClicker Instructor Reports

    About: The iClicker Blackboard Learn plug-in allows instructors to create a link for students to register their iClicker remotes directly within Blackboard. Instructors can download the class roster and student registrations from Blackboard and upload iClicker scores into Blackboard’s Grade Center.

    Impact: Grades will remain, and are archived per the standard procedure. New courses will need to leverage iClicker's new functionality.

    iClicker Classic is moving to iClicker Cloud in January 2024, and there are some major workflows beyond the integration. To learn more about migration and its impact on course instructors and students, please access their migration support page.

    Recommendations: Instructors will need to follow a different workflow for supporting the syncing of grades, and students registering remotes. Instructors can sync grades by following this guide (Roster & Grade Sync) and students can register a remote through their account (Register a Remote).

  • iSpring Learning Module Plugin

    iSpring Link and Launcher

    About: iSpring Learning Module Plugin is a custom integration that allowed instructors to upload iSpring content, and collect student scores in the Blackboard Grade Center.

    Impact: The names of the links will remain the same, but the links will break and will become inaccessible. New courses will need to leverage a different tool.

    Recommendations: Instructors are recommended to update their courses as soon as possible. iSpring can publish and export authored content into SCORM packages. Once a SCORM package has been created from iSpring instructors can follow the guidance to add SCORM Packages in Ultra or Original Course View courses. Access the iSpring knowledge base to learn how to export content, based on your product.

  • Top Hat Gradebook Sync

    Top Hat Gradebook Sync Panel

    About: Top Hat Gradebook Sync allows instructors to sync their Top Hat gradebook with the Blackboard Grade Center.

    Impact: Grades will remain, and are archived per the standard procedure. New courses will need to leverage an updated TopHat tool.

    Recommendations: Instructors who use the third-party Top Hat will be able to leverage the newly updated integration, Top Hat (LTI 1.3).

    There are two links available in Blackboard. 1) Top Hat Course Launch - which allows instructors to create a course link and directly launch TopHat and 2) Top Hat Deep Linking which allows instructors build content in Blackboard that contains links to content in Top Hat. This integration supports the syncing between the Top Hat Gradebook and Blackboard Grade Center. Review the support guide and instructor here.

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