Blackboard Learn ™

System Announcements

• Two upcoming Blackboard outages 5/18 and 5/31 through 6/4 (Friday, May 17, 2013)
  

  Two schedule Blackboard outages are coming up.  The first is tomorrow Saturday 5/18 night from 12am-3am EST, The second will occur on May 31st starting at 5:30pm EST and will continue through till the morning of June 4th.  
• Java 7 update 21 release alert, please update your java to the most current version. (Wednesday, April 17, 2013)
  

  Java 7 update 21 release alert, please update your java to the most current version.

  For all PCs and Macs using OSX 10.7 and 10.8, head to:

  http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

  For a Mac using OSX 10.6, follow this link for the update: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1573

  You must uninstall older versions of java left on your Windows machines, please refer to this article for instructions and steps.

  http://java.com/en/download/uninstall.jsp

  It's always suggested to purge your java cache after an update, to do that on a PC,

  1. Click on the Start button at the bottom of your screen.
  2. Click on Control Panel
  3. Double-click on Java.
  4. Click on the Settings button (under Temporary Files) and then select Delete Files button, then click OK.
  5. Click OK again.
  6. Close the Java Control Panel.

  On a Mac, you can clear out the java cache by

  1. Click on Apple icon at the top
  2. Click the System Preferences icon to open
  3. Click on Java icon located under the Other section to open Java Control Panel
  4. In Java Control Panel click on Settings under Temporary Internet Files
  5. Click on the Delete Files button on Temporary Internet Files window
  6. This will open the Delete Files and Applications window, click OK to confirm delete

  If you are having problems updating please contact the virtual support center.

• Chrome browser no longer supported in Blackboard (Thursday, March 14, 2013)
  

  CHROME BROWSER NO LONGER SUPPORTED IN OUR BLACKBOARD ENVIRONMENT

  Due to a lack of a 64 bit browser that is required for proper Java functionality, the Chrome browser is no longer a supported browser.  We highly recommend you use Firefox version 19 to interact with our Blackboard environment.  If you use Chrome in Blackboard, you WILL experience problems interacting with the environment and accessing content.

• AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE PEER TUTORING CENTER: (Monday, November 26, 2012)
  

  The NCVPS Peer Tutoring Center is looking for new volunteers! We want you to join our team for the 2013 Spring Semester. If you feel rewarded from helping others or need some extra community service hours, then the Peer Tutoring Center is the answer for you! A Peer Tutoring Center volunteer must

  1. have successfully completed at least one NCVPS course
  2. have a recommendation from an NCVPS teacher or your school eLA
  3. commit to 5-6 hours per week to working with the Peer Tutoring Center and attend monthly meetings via the Wimba Live Classroom

  If you would like to become a part of the wonderful team of Peer Tutors for the 2013 Spring Semester and the years to come, contact your teacher for more information today!

  Remember, We Are Students Helping Students, that's why we need you to add to our excellent team!

• Blackboard 9.1 Internet Browser Compatibility Notice (Friday, August 5, 2011)
  
  Good morning,
       After our Blackboard upgrade, NCVPS has been getting used to the new 9.1 system and have learned of a few incompatibility issues that could and will likely affect student use of our system. These issues are mainly centered around Internet Explorer versions 8 and 9. When using these versions of IE in Blackboard, students will experience issues with content being viewable, participating in assessments, and uploading assignment files into the system. IE 8 can be manipulated to be usable to a degree by using IE 8 in compatibility mode. As of right now, the best suited browser for Blackboard 9.1 has been found to be Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and higher. As always, students and districts need to make sure that their versions of Flash and Java are up to date for these browsers for continued participation in the NCVPS program.
       In addition to using IE 8 or 9 in the course environment some of the issues stated above can be overcome by making sure browser history and internet cache is cleared prior to the login to the Blackboard environment. We thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter and NCVPS will keep you updated with any new developments.