The My Dundee upgrade week is approaching (July 17th) and we’re going to give the platform a brand new look.

New Theme

We will be adopting the 2016 Blackboard Theme (Blackboard is the platform on which My Dundee is based on). This theme will bring some badly needed responsive design to the platform, meaning that the people will get a better web experience on various screen sizes including tablets and phones. It also improves the accessibility of the platform by adopting many of the provisions of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines. You will notice some minor changes in the layout, but everything will still be in much the same place as before.

We have thoroughly tested this new theme but it is possible that highly customised courses using extensive HTML may need adjusting. We encourage everybody to check their modules and organisations after the upgrade has completed and to report any problems to help4u@dundee.ac.uk.

You can find out more about the 2016 theme on the Blackboard support pages.

UoD Branding

We will also be implementing the new University Branding. This is a cosmetic change, but will improve the feel and uniformity of the platform – we’re quite happy with the results on our test server.

As part of this re-branding process is that you will find some limitations to how much you can customise the look of individual modules. For example, you will no longer be able to change the look of the Module Menu or apply your own branding to major UI elements such as the top banner. However, you will still be able to create module banners, which is the most popular way of making your module stand out for your students.

Q4 2016 Changes

The version of Blackboard we will be moving to for My Dundee is called Q4 2016. This is primarily a host of back end stability improvements, however, there are some new features that staff / students should find useful in their day to day use of MyDundee.

• Drag and drop – for uploading files (in some cases).
• New Icons to choose when you add items.
• Ability to send students email reminders about submissions (Blackboard assignments only)

For more information on the changes included in this update, go to the blackboard update page.

After the Upgrade

The upgrade week starts with UoDIT making the changes and thoroughly testing the system. After that CTIL will execute various tests on the front-end to ensure the upgrade has completed successfully. We will then apply the above mentioned changes to the them and branding before signalling the UoDIT that we’re ready to make My Dundee live again. The process should be complete on by the end of day on Friday the 21st at the latest, at which time we will issue a notice to users.

Though everything will be thoroughly tested by both CTIL and UoDIT, My Dundee is a big and diverse platform and we  strongly advise you to check you modules as soon as you can and submit any issues to help4u@dundee.ac.uk.