Computer Services has announced that Temple’s resident online resource, Blackboard, will be completely phased out after the semester’s end. This announcement comes after efforts this year by the university to introduce Canvas as its new online class resource.
Effective at midnight on May 31st, all Blackboard content will be officially “retired” by the university. Going forward, all class content will be posted to Canvas, and any class info still hosted on Blackboard will be lost. In preparation for this take down, the university is encouraging students to export their data from the site for personal use, as well as download any past grades that may be of use to students.
Introduced in 1999, Blackboard has long been Temple’s go-to resource for online class material, grading, and even online test taking. In January of last year, Computer Services began holding several town hall meetings in Ritter Hall to take opinions from students and staff on possibly replacing the service with a more up to date software.
Despite several updates to Blackboard in 2016, Temple’s Computer Services decided not to renew the contract with Blackboard, which will expire this summer. Opting for a complete overhaul, the new Canvas service is said to be more organized and integrated than Blackboard, and allows students to have more versatility in the way that they interact with online material.
Information regarding exporting Blackboard data can be found here or on Temple’s Computer Services website, along with information regarding the use and navigation of Canvas.
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