My Dundee Blog

Just a wee reminder of the scheduled downtime of My Dundee, starting the 23rd July and lasting until the 27th. The service will be taken offline early on Monday morning and user will not be able to access it until the afternoon of the 27th. This is so we can upgrade Blackboard (the service My Dundee is based on) to the Q4 2017 release (click here for details). Users should be aware that as with all scheduled downtime, the service ... read more

A big part of implementing our new module creation process is sorting through the tangle of legacy processes and requirements that have built up over the years in Blackboard so we can have a more efficient, ordered platform. In this post I’m going to talk about non-standard modules, enrolment rules and how we’re handling them this year. This is useful for anyone who needs to understand how their modules are created in Blackboard and how students are enrolled, especially if ... read more

This summer, CTIL will implement a new process for creating modules in Blackboard (My Dundee) as a first step in a series of planned improvements to how we manage our digital education services. The old manual method will make way for an automated one that works on the basic principle of 'If it's in SITS, then it will appear in Blackboard, whatever the time of year'. This change will have implications to instructors so read on to get the full ... read more

During the week, I attended a highly interactive workshop during the week in the Engine Shed in Stirling, lead by Sara Thomas, the Scotland Programme Coordinator for Wikimedia UK. While aimed at public library staff, I wasn’t the only person from a University there ... read more

Those of you who are observant, may have noticed a new slider button at the bottom of Feedback Studio. Turnitin have recently introduced a new high resolution view of the students paper, but this does mean it's a larger file size, so you may find disabling the high resolution useful for papers that are loading slowly. However, using the high resolution may find the papers are clearer and easier to read. Turnitin's release notes have more about this, and other recent ... read more

We are writing to inform you about upcoming maintenance of the Questionmark OnDemand EU platform (ondemand.questionmark.eu) and advise of potential for downtime/disruption to the service. Maintenance window begins: Saturday, 19-May-2018, 7:00 Maintenance window ends: Saturday, 19-May-2018, 13:00 Potential for downtime/service disruption: During the maintenance window, Questionmark OnDemand customers (and participants taking assessments) will experience service disruptions. Purpose of the Maintenance The purpose of the maintenance is to deploy system updates to ensure the ongoing reliability, security and uptime of the ... read more

Blackboard (the software powering My Dundee) run webinars covering a range of items of interest to users. In the past, these tended to be aimed at support teams, however, they have now started to run some aimed at those who work directly with the learners. There are 2 series that are running in the next few weeks. Collaborate A series of 10 webinars over 10 days, looking at many aspects of getting the most out of Collaborate to support students ... read more

As some staff have noticed, Turnitin has had a number of short lived, but annoying, periods of down time recently. They have published a  letter from the CEO, looking at the recent issues and, more critically, what they are doing to mitigate issues in the future. In particular they have said: During this peak grading season, we have stringently limited updates to our offerings. Our top priority is a reliable user experience. We have convened a Task Force to: Analyze the ... read more

This issue has now been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience. Users have reported an issue when trying to access Questionmark OnDemand assessments on My Dundee. Affected students receive a message saying "The page cannot be displayed because an internal server error has occurred." This issue has been reported to UoD IT who are working with the vendor to find a resolution. We will issue further guidance and information once we know more ... read more

In addition to the service downtime on the 12th April,  we have been notified by Maple TA that the service will be unavailable between 3am and 4am on the 11th April, as they have to install some security patches ... read more