Category: System Status

downtime (scheduled or not), updates, interrruptions …

Upgrade to Moodle 5.1 — Thursday, July 23rd

LITS will be upgrading Bryn Mawr’s instance of Moodle this Thursday, July 23rd, 2026 at approximately 7:30-8am EST. We do not anticipate any service disruptions due to this change. However, there will be changes to Moodle’s layout that we want you to be aware of-

Course Navigation and Organization:

  • A new Overview tab has been added to the top toolbar of the course page, enabling instructors to filter activities by type (example: quizzes, forums) rather than by week or topic, separate from the main course shell.
  • Sections can now have subsections, allowing you further structure and organization in your course.

Activity Management:

  • The Activities Chooser has been reorganized. Activities are now organized by type (assessment, communication, collaboration, etc.)rather than alphabetically.

Question Bank Changes:

  • You can now more easily share questions between courses you teach, rather than having questions contained to the course in which they were created. The questions bank also has an improved filter feature.

Content Creation and Accessibility:

  • Images now have an expanded alt text field. This will allow for more detailed descriptions of images.
  • Media files can now be drag and dropped directly into the TinyMCE text editor.

Grading and Feedback:

  • The middle divider in the Assignment grader interface can now be moved, allowing you more space for viewing students’ submissions or your feedback.
  • Moodle will now track whether students download feedback.

Removal of Chat:

  • The Chat activity will be decommissioned as part of this update. Instructors currently using this feature should identify alternative communication tools prior to the update.

For those with questions, please reach out to edtechservices@brynmawr.edu or the Help Desk at 610-526-7440 or help@brynmawr.edu. Thank you in advance for your attention to this!

All Network Services Back Online

Thank you for your patience while LITS carried out necessary work on our campus network. All internet connectivity and online services (including email, Moodle, and the VPN) should now be back online.

Please report any lingering issues or concerns to the Help Desk: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Reminder: Network Outage – Saturday, 7/11

Starting at 8am on Saturday, 7/11, LITS staff will be working to replace outdated networking equipment on campus. While the work is being done, there will be no network connectivity (internet, S: drive, VPN, and Remote Desktop access). We will work as quickly as we can and with as little disruption as possible. Thank you in advance for your patience while we perform this necessary maintenance.
Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Scheduled Maintenance: Bryn Mawr Blogs Migration to Cloud Hosting on July 7, 2026

On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Bryn Mawr Blogs (blogs.brynmawr.edu) will be migrated from on-premises hosting to cloud hosting. This migration will improve the long-term sustainability, reliability, and maintainability of the platform. 

As part of this migration, there will be a scheduled content freeze and service disruption from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EST) on July 7, 2026. 

During this maintenance window: 

    • Blog editing and login will be temporarily disabled. 
    • Any users logged in at 12:00 p.m. will be automatically logged out. 
    • Access to the platform will be unavailable while migration is in progress. 

Action Required:
Please save any drafts or unpublished work before 12:00 p.m. on July 7, 2026 to avoid losing unsaved changes. 

Once the migration is complete, login behavior will change for users. Please see our login documentation for users: 

Note: The new login described takes effect on July 7th after the migration.

After migration is complete and service has been restored, some users may need to clear their browser’s cache if they experience login issues or unexpected behavior when accessing Blogs. If issues persist after clearing your browser’s cache, or if you have questions about the new login process, please contact help@brynmawr.edu with Attention: Web Services. 

Thank you for your patience and support as we improve Bryn Mawr Blogs.

Emergency BiONiC Security Patching – Today (6/17) 12pm-1pm

We will be performing another round emergency security patching on PeopleSoft today (6/17) between 12pm-1pm. During this time, all components of and services tied to BiONiC, payhistory.brynmawr.edu, account provisioning, visitor account creation, and password resets will be unavailable.

We appreciate your patience while this maintenance is being completed and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Normal access will be restored as soon as the work is finished.

Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440

Emergency PeopleSoft Patching – Today (6/11) 1:30pm-2:30pm

We will be performing emergency security patching on PeopleSoft today (6/11) between 1:30pm-2:30pm. During this time, all components of and services tied to BiONiC, payhistory.brynmawr.edu, account provisioning, visitor account creation, and password resets will be unavailable.

We appreciate your patience while this maintenance is completed and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Normal access will be restored as soon as the work is finished.

Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440

VPN Unavailable – Tonight (6/1) 8pm-9pm

LITS will be performing an urgent upgrade to our VPN from 8pm-9pm tonight. This upgrade will address a security vulnerability. During this time, the VPN will be unavailable.

Thank you for your patience while we complete this critical maintenance. Please contact the Help Desk with any questions at help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Rescheduled: Network Outage

The planned network outage has been rescheduled from this coming Sunday (6/7) to Saturday, 7/11. Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.
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Starting at 8am on Sunday, 6/7, LITS staff will be working to replace outdated networking equipment on campus. While the work is being done, there will be no network connectivity in the morning and will transition to intermittent network outages throughout the rest of the day. We will work as quickly as we can and with as little disruption as possible. Thank you in advance for your patience while we perform this necessary maintenance.

Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.