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Blackboard Single Sign On - common issues

Owned by Andy Jaffrey
Last updated: Sept 23, 2021 by Gerard Ross
2 min read

Here are list of common Single Sign-On issues and solutions:

Account conflicts

Ulster University uses Microsoft Azure authentication for Single Sign-on. If you are logged in to a personal, or workplace Office/Office 365 account and try to login to Blackboard Learn, you will receive an error message. A simple way of seeing which account you are logged into. is to visit https://office.com and select your initials at the top right of the screen. This will display the name of the account you are currently logged in with (see image below).

Image showing current Office Account and Sign Out link

If you are using a personal/workplace/non-Ulster University Office.com/Office 365 account you should first Sign out of that account (and close your browser) before attempting to login to Blackboard Learn using your Ulster University account details.

Expired sessions

If you are logged into Blackboard Learn and leave the session open within your browser, the system will timeout after a set period of time (typically 8 hours) resulting in an error message. To resolve this issue we suggest going to http://office.com (logging in if you are not aready logged in), selecting your initials at the top right of the screen and choosing the Sign Out link (highlighted in red below):

Please note that we also recommend signing out of email if you are using the web version of Outlook at https://outlook.office.com/

 

You should then close and open your browser and try to login again.

This instructional video helps to explain the issue and shows you how to resolve the problem:

Forgotten Password

Blackboard authenticates against your main Ulster account, which is provided by Microsoft, so you can reset the password via the online service at https://passwordreset.microsoftonline.com/

If this does not work, you can contact the central Service Desk who can provide further guidance. https://www.ulster.ac.uk/ds/getting-help/service-desk

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) not set up

Ulster implemented Multi-Factor Authentication in late 2020 and all systems now use the MFA process. If you have not set this up then this can cause login problems. Further information is available at https://www.ulster.ac.uk/ds/getting-help/frequently-asked-questions-faq/how-do-i-keep-my-multi-factor-authentication-methods-up-to-date