bCourses

Updates to bCourses Integrated Tools

February 27, 2024
The story so far

When Berkeley first switched to the bCourses (Canvas) learning management system in 2014, there were a number of custom tools the vendor could not provide that we built ourselves. We’ve maintained these tools over the years, but recent changes in software architecture required us to rebuild them from the ground up. For the past several months, we have been gradually updating these tools. We’ve already released new versions of the Roster Photos and Mailing Lists tools. Last week, we replaced the underlying processes that sync enrollments between bCourses and...

Feature Spotlight: bCourses Welcome Email

January 8, 2024

Have you ever wished that you could automatically send a message to students as soon as they enroll in your course? The bCourses Welcome Email feature is designed to do exactly this! While you can send an announcement at any time, students who enroll later might miss it. The Welcome Email is designed to solve this problem.

See this article for more information on how to configure and use the bCourses Welcome Email: How do I send a welcome email to...

Zoom/Kaltura changes: Zoom Alternative Hosts automatically added as Collaborators in Kaltura (NOW ROLLED BACK)

October 19, 2023
Please note: the change that this article describes has been rolled back as of 11/26/23. The current behavior is that Zoom alternative hosts do NOT become Kaltura co-hosts or co-collaborators.

An update to the Zoom to Kaltura integration made by Kaltura in early October benefits many Zoom users who have wanted colleagues (co-instructors, GSI’s,staff, etc) to be able to manage the recording files copied to Kaltura via the integration....

bCourses Zoom Integration Update for Spring 2024

December 4, 2023

In preparation for the Spring 2024 term, we will be making an updated Zoom-bCourses integration available to all instructors. The newer integration is actively supported by Zoom and receives regular feature improvements. Read about the new features

For a short period, there will be two Zoom integrations listed in your course navigation settings (“Zoom” and “Zoom (2024)”). As you begin setting up your Spring 2024 course sites, we...

Leverage Technology for Easier Attendance

August 21, 2023
Berkeley has several instructional tools that can be used for efficient attendance tracking. Review the key things to consider.

SuiteC Spring 2023 Update

December 13, 2022

We are happy to announce a new batch of features and fixes for the SuiteC collaboration tools:

Whiteboards

While we had initially planned to retire the SuiteC Whiteboard tool, it had a lot of fans, so we’ve brought it back! Users can once again collaborate on Whiteboards directly from SuiteC, and publish them to the Asset Library. Whiteboards can be enabled in all bCourses sites under Settings > Navigation. See this knowledge base article for more detailed instructions:...

Fall 21 SuiteC Updates

October 4, 2021
SuiteC Fall 21 Update

When we re-built the SuiteC tools earlier this year, we prioritized the popular Asset Library and Engagement Index tools and made the decision to retire the native whiteboard tool and support use of the many available third party whiteboard tools. Our first major update to SuiteC includes a number of ways to make it easier to bring these external whiteboards into the Asset Library.

Support for Google Jamboard

All students have access to the ...

New integration will automatically copy Zoom Cloud Recordings to Kaltura starting on January 6

December 17, 2020

Starting January 6, 2021, at 8 am, whenever any campus member uses their UC Berkeley Zoom account to host a meeting that is recorded to the Zoom Cloud, the resulting recording will be automatically copied to UC Berkeley’s campus video management system, Kaltura. One of two things will happen:

If the Zoom account owner has no Kaltura account, the recording will be deleted from Kaltura within 24 hours (this does not affect the Zoom Cloud recording, which will still be available in Zoom for 30 days). It will never be shared with anybody else.

If the...

Updated Zoom Integration Available for Fall 2020

September 16, 2020
Updated Zoom Integration to be Released August 15th, 2020

As many Fall 2020 courses will utilize synchronous online instruction via the Zoom video conferencing platform, we are happy to announce the availability of a new Zoom integration for bCourses, which will be enabled on August 15th. This new integration will replace the existing integration, which will be removed at the same time.

Features of the New Integration

If you’ve used the previous integration, you will see all of the same ability to schedule meetings from within bCourses that immediately appear on the course...

Changes to Turnitin Academic Integrity Service

April 26, 2021

In-between Spring and Summer instruction, we will upgrade the Turnitin academic integrity integration available inside bCourses: On May 23rd, we will enable a new Turnitin integration, and turn off the legacy integration.

Turnitin Similarity Reports generated before 5/23/21 will no longer be accessible by instructors in bCourses after that date.

We scheduled this upgrade in-between semesters to minimize the impact of this change, but understand that some instructors may need to access reports generated from the legacy integration, and we will have options available...