Our DTS and TEL colleagues have been working hard over the weekend to move Blackboard to a more reliable, cloud-based platform.

 

Blackboard and Turnitin were unavailable for the entire weekend, and we are considering the system to be “At Risk” on Monday 3rd July. 

  • from 20:00 BST on Friday 31 July
  • for the whole of Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 August
  • for most of Monday 3 August.

 

The new platform brings many advantages:

  • Regularly updated – quicker access to bug fixes and new features.
  • Future upgrades won’t require any downtime.
  • Greater system reliability.

 

Logging in to Blackboard

As part of the upgrade, there will be a change to how you log in to Blackboard. Your login will be exactly the same as signing in to other University systems, such as email and OneDrive. In fact, if you are already signed in to your University Microsoft account, you won’t need to sign in again to Blackboard.

You may find you are asked to sign in via Multi-Factor Authentication – a two-step security process to ensure your login details remain safe and secure. Further details of Multi-Factor Authentication can be found here.

For most students, when signing in, on the first screen you will need to enter username@student.reading.ac.uk – for example ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk. For our Henley Business School students, please find details here.

 

For further details, please see the following pages from our colleagues in the TEL team.