Month: April 2012

Portal: Outages on April 17 and 18

Posted on by avihyman

Once again, please accept my sincere apologies if you have had trouble accessing the Learning Portal yesterday and/or today (April 17 and 18).

I can assure you that we would never intentionally take down the Portal, especially without prior notice, and especially not during exam time.

As I’ve reported here before, we have been having trouble with a database on which the Learning Portal relies. The trouble is not specifically with the Blackboard software, although this is of little comfort to all those trying to use the Learning Portal.

We have a dedicated team who are constantly monitoring the system, responding immediately when something goes wrong, and trying to analyze the causes as to prevent them from happening.

In the meantime, you can check the current system status at this website:
http://www.systemstatus.utoronto.ca/system/systems/portal

With sincere apologies,

AJ Hyman, Director, Academic & Collaborative Technologies, UofT

News: Access the Learning Portal with your Mobile Device!

Posted on by avihyman

We are happy to announce that you can now access our
Learning Portal through your mobile device!

The Blackboard Mobile Learn app enables students to receive course notifications and updates to course content from their mobile device. The app can be used with both wireless and cellular networks.

While Mobile Learn is not intended to replace the main browser-based interface to the Learning Portal, the app does provide quick access to course Announcements, Grades, and contribute entries to Blogs, Discussion forums and Journals. New content should be added to the course using your computer desktop. Some media and file formats may not display on certain devices. Note the Mobile Learn app should not be used for assessment purposes such as tests, quizzes, surveys and assignments.

Not only can you view updates to the course, the Dashboard feature gives you the latest information on all of your courses and organizations in one spot!

Once you’ve downloaded the app all you need is your UTORid and password to access your courses.

Available on:

  • Android devices
  • Blackberry (coming soon)
  • iPhone / iPod Touch
  • iPad

For more information, please visit these important websites:

PLEASE NOTE:
Blackboard Mobile Learn is developed by Blackboard, rather than locally at UofT. As such, we are unable to accommodate requests to extend or modify Apps.