As part of ongoing security work first announced in 2021, Building Blocks as a method of integrating 3rd-party tools continues to be phased out and replaced with newer methods. Most 3rd-party Building Blocks are no longer supported. There are 13 exceptions along with some additional solutions supported by Anthology Professional Services under a support contract (ICM). These Building Blocks may still be in use.
Blackboard release v3902.1.0 will include a significant change, updating important software libraries to Java 21. This change could impact 3rd-party Building Blocks. This release is targeted to be available in test/stage environments September 9, 2025. The targeted production release date is October 2, 2025. Between these two dates, we strongly encourage administrators to test any adopted 3rd-party Building Blocks in test/stage environments and report any issues to the partner provider, so they resolve them quickly.
Below is the exception list of Building Blocks that can still be used in Blackboard. Unless noted, the Building Block integration is only applicable to Original Course View. These solutions may have additional separate integrations that won’t be affected by this Java 21 update.
Building Block | Course View |
EAC | Original and Ultra |
Impact by Instructure | Original |
ReadSpeaker | Original |
Respondus Lockdown Browser | Original |
Amaplex | Original |
BioSig | Original |
Examity | Original |
Honorlock | Original |
Watermark – Evaluation Kit | Original |
Explorance – Blue Course Evaluation | Original |
Dublabs | Original |
SMOWL | Original |
Sumadi | Original |
Additional notes:
• This bulletin only pertains to 3rd-party and custom-Building Blocks. In the Building Block tool list for administrators, many Blackboard core features are listed. These are ready for Java 21 and won’t be impacted.
• We also recommend testing Building Blocks from Anthology Professional Services that have ICM support. Report any issues to Anthology Product Support.
• Integrations using LTI aren’t affected by this Java 21 update.
• For customers on a Blackboard Self-hosting Extended Support Contract, you won’t be immediately impacted in October 2025. However, you should test 3rd-party Building Blocks prior to upgrading to Blackboard release v3902.1.0.
If you have any questions or need support for one of these 13 Building Blocks, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the respective partner.