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What's new in Blackboard 7.3?

Software updates give and software updates take away. I know I heard lots of complaints about lost functionality in the Discussion Board feature with the 7.0/7.1 update. You wonder why some of the features were removed...Well, some are returning with the 7.3 update. Here are some key changes:
Restoring the capability in release 7.1, the Instructor can again view the Course Discussions in a Tree View, in which the post titles to a particular thread are visible. The use must select the Tree View icon located on the right side of the Course Discussions page. Selecting a post from the Course Discussions page will navigate the user to the Thread Detail page and will display the post as well.

On the action toolbar, there are new icons. Mark as Read and Mark as Unread allow the Instructor to classify which forums have been read or not. The Search area has been rolled up into a graphic icon of a magnifying glass. Selecting this icon will drop down the search area. Within the Search tool, it is now possible to search by time. Also, Subscribe and Unsubscribe icons allow users to subscribe or unsubscribe to a forum.
I think "Restoring the capability in release 7.1" is a good indicator that many people complained. The Blackboard Reference Center has more information about the update.

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