We’ve established an excellent record of Learning Edge Blackboard 9.1 availability (achieving 99.95% uptime last year) and we take your need to access the system very seriously. So, on Monday, having noted a higher volume of calls to the helpdesk and tweets from some of you saying that you’d been having trouble accessing Blackboard we immediately began investigating. What we discovered was that many of you had expired passwords, but didn’t realise it.
To maintain the security of your personal information, student passwords should be changed every 90 days (30 days for staff), but, as more and more of you are using your own devices (laptops, tablets and mobile phones) to log into the Edge Hill systems, you don’t always see the reminder that your password is due to expire. The first you know about it is when you can’t login to the resources you need.
When your password expires you can’t:
- Connect your mobile devices or laptop to Eduroam WIFI
- Connect to the internet via the Captive Portal on hall PCs
- Login to the Go Portal on or off campus
- Login to learningedge.edgehill.ac.uk or the Blackboard Mobile Learn app
If you find you can’t access any Edge Hill systems, the first thing to try is resetting your password. You can do this via the GO Portal login page, providing you’ve added an alternative email address to your GO account. If you haven’t added an alternative email address, we recommend you do this now – edit ‘settings’ in GO. Of course, you’ll need an internet connection to access the GO portal, so if you’re in your halls, or using a mobile device or laptop on campus, you’ll need to use one of the open access PCs to do this.
It will also be a good idea to make a note in your diary every time you set a new password to remind you when you’ll need to change it again. This way, if you miss the on-campus reminder, you still won’t get locked out!
I hope this information has been helpful and I trust that you are now logged in. If you need any further information or assistance please contact the Learning Services help desk on 01695 584286 or visit www.ehu.ac.uk/askus.
Meg Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager