On Tuesday, April 5, Information Technology Services (ITS) will enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Blackboard, Mason’s learning management system. Information about this change is available on the 2FA Roadmap.

Once enabled, all users, including students, faculty, and staff, will be required to authenticate using 2FA with their Patriot Pass credentials when accessing Blackboard/myMason services, including Organizations and Courses. Students, faculty, and staff already use 2FA with many Mason services, including Patriot Web, Office 365, Zoom, LinkedIn Learning, Qualtrics, and the VPN.

Impact on the Mason Community
To further protect your information, when accessing Blackboard/myMason, you will be prompted to use your second authentication method. If you are using a personal device that is not publicly accessible, you can use the “Remember Me” feature to save your second factor for 14 days. For security reasons, you should never use this feature on a public computer.

How to Prepare
2FA for Blackboard will be added automatically; users do not need to take any action. No significant downtime or changes to Blackboard are expected. Users logged into Blackboard during the maintenance period to turn 2FA on will not be impacted. If you receive an error that Shibboleth is unavailable, refresh your browser.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact the ITS Support Center at 703-993-8870 or support@gmu.edu.