It is time again for the normal clean-up of Blackboard. As you may have already noticed, Fall 2009 (FA09) course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on November 30th. Although the VCCS does maintain an archive of your courses, it is recommended that you maintain a copy of your course by exporting out the course content. All archived courses will be available through the VCCS for about 2 years after they are removed from Blackboard. You should also download a copy of your grade center from Blackboard for each course as back-up as well, if you have not done so already. (Downloading and Uploading from the Grade Center--Video Tutorial)
If you have taught online, login to your "MySVCC" page and click on "Blackboard" to see which courses you are enrolled in as an instructor. From your SVCC tab or Teach tab, you will need to click on the circular icon (looks similar to a gear) found on the upper right corner of your "My Blackboard Courses" module. This will allow you to see all courses that you have taught that are currently in Blackboard, even if you have chosen to not have them display in your "My Blackboard Courses" module. The criteria for removal at this stage is:
1. Course ID's ending in "FA09"
2. Or created before August 1, 2009
You should export content from any courses planned for removal and save the zipped files on your computer for future use.
Click on the link below to view instructions on how to export your content from within the Blackboard 9 environment.
Directions to Export Course Content
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Upcoming Workshops
I am going to offer a couple of short 30 minute mini workshops that may help you get rolling with your spring courses.
In the first session, I will walk you through the process of exporting course content from a previous course area and importing content into a course area for the upcoming spring semester. This will probably not take thirty minutes, so there may be a little time at the end to just answer Blackboard questions.
I will then have a second mini (30 minute) workshop on using Google Calendar and linking to the calendar within Blackboard. Some of you may want to utilize this tool to create course calendars for your spring classes. Google calendar is also a great tool just to keep track of your personal schedule.
Please register if you plan to attend either workshop. Registration Form
Christanna Campus (Room C16)
1:30 - 2:00 November 17th: Exporting and Importing Course Content in Blackboard
Date and Time (Pending) Using Google Calendar
John H. Daniel Campus (Room 22)
2:30 - 3:00 November 18th: Exporting and Importing Course Content in Blackboard
3:00 - 3:30 November 18th: Using Google Calendar
In the first session, I will walk you through the process of exporting course content from a previous course area and importing content into a course area for the upcoming spring semester. This will probably not take thirty minutes, so there may be a little time at the end to just answer Blackboard questions.
I will then have a second mini (30 minute) workshop on using Google Calendar and linking to the calendar within Blackboard. Some of you may want to utilize this tool to create course calendars for your spring classes. Google calendar is also a great tool just to keep track of your personal schedule.
Please register if you plan to attend either workshop. Registration Form
Christanna Campus (Room C16)
1:30 - 2:00 November 17th: Exporting and Importing Course Content in Blackboard
Date and Time (Pending) Using Google Calendar
John H. Daniel Campus (Room 22)
2:30 - 3:00 November 18th: Exporting and Importing Course Content in Blackboard
3:00 - 3:30 November 18th: Using Google Calendar
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Spring 2011 Blackboard Course Areas
Course shells have been created for all cyber, hybrid, and seated Spring 2011 courses.
Export and Import Course Content (Alternative to Course Copy)
Blackboard Template
Once again, course shells were created in Blackboard based on a template. Within the template a course menu was created with the minimum expectations on what should be found and used in all SVCC cyber courses (Announcements, Syllabus, Instructor, Assignments, Discussion Board, External Links, Student Grades, Email, and Student Help). You can add areas as needed, but the areas that are on the menu should be utilized appropriately. (Ex. Your syllabus should be in the syllabus area.) The hope is to have some consistency from course to course.
More information has been added to the "Student Help" section. Take a look at what is now available, so that you will be able to direct students to that area as needed. DO NOT REMOVE this button!!! If you remove that button from the course menu, all of the content located there will be removed from your course as well.
The Course Evaluation button has been hidden on the course menu. Be careful not to remove this from the menu, just leave it as unavailable to students for now. Near the end of the semester, all cyber and hybrid course instructors will need to make this area available to students on the course menu for online students to complete. This is only for CYBER and HYBRID COURSES. This online evaluation will not be completed by seated courses. There is a link at the bottom of this entry that will take you to a handout concerning adjusting the course menu.
An "Instructor Resources" area has been added as well, but it is not available to students and should not be made available to them on the course menu. There are links to materials and information on online resources that may be of interest to you. There is also a link to Southside's course syllabus template which you can download.
Course Cartridges
Course cartridges are publisher supplied content. If you plan on going this route, please pay careful attention to the following:
Blackboard Training Handouts
Blackboard Training Materials
Here you can find handouts on the following:
Adjusting the Course Navigation Menu (How to make the Course Evaluation Available to students)
Blackboard Enrollments
Remember as students enroll in courses, do not enroll the students in your course(s)yourself. Please click on the BB/SIS link below for information concerning enrollments.
BB/SIS Integration Tool (This will be utilized for Blackboard enrollments this Spring.)
Export and Import Course Content (Alternative to Course Copy)
Course Copy was a very problematic process at the start of the Fall session. We are now recommending that you use the export and import options instead of course copy. Blackboard reps are also saying that it is a more reliable process. It will allow you to copy your content from one course to another and will give you a back-up copy of your content saved to either your computer or other storage device.
I advise you to use this method, and do so sooner rather than later. Don't leave copying content until you come back in January after the holidays. I know that sometimes classes are added at the last minute, and nothing can be done about those situations, but for classes that are on the schedule now...go ahead and complete this step early. If you decide to use the course copy tool as opposed to export/import, then it is even more important that you do this before January and make sure that you only run it once per course. Running course copies multiple times for courses contributed to the problems at the start of the fall semester.
I am going to offer a workshop on each campus in which we will walk through this process together using export/import to copy your content. Workshop Information
If you course copy or use Export/Import to copy content from a previous course(s) into a new course shell in Blackboard or if you use a publisher cartridge, you may unintentionally bring over additional buttons that you don't need. You shouldn't have duplicate buttons on your course menu. Please either remove those or make them unavailable to students. (See the Blackboard Training Materials below.) Here are some tips to keep in mind before you begin this copy process.
- Review this handout on export/import if you plan to use this process to copy content.
- Review this handout on course copy if you plan to go this route.
- Be prepared to wait. When copying, it might take a few minutes, a few hours or even over a day for your course to copy. Do NOT under any circumstances run the copy process more than once for a course. If a course copy takes more than a day, submit a ticket to Issuetrak to have this checked, but do not start it again. If you do, you will end up with multiple copies of your course content and deleting the duplicate content will take you quite a bit of time.
- Select "Grade Center Columns and Settings" during course copy and export/import if you utilize tests in Blackboard, the Assignment feature that allows students to upload work into BB, the "grade forum" option with discussion boards. If you want your grade center columns to copy over or if you have anything linked to the Grade Center, this must be selected during course copy or export/import. This does not bring over your students' names or grades from a previous semester.
- No matter what process you decide to use, if you copy content, review it carefully after the process is completed. Correct dates, modify content, and reorganize as needed. Within the assignments area, you will have more that one READI assignment due to the copy. Get rid of the items identified as READI assessments, and keep only the one called SmarterMeasure. This is the updated item that was in our template. Also, if you have two grades buttons on your course menu, get rid of one. (See the template information below.)
Blackboard Template
Once again, course shells were created in Blackboard based on a template. Within the template a course menu was created with the minimum expectations on what should be found and used in all SVCC cyber courses (Announcements, Syllabus, Instructor, Assignments, Discussion Board, External Links, Student Grades, Email, and Student Help). You can add areas as needed, but the areas that are on the menu should be utilized appropriately. (Ex. Your syllabus should be in the syllabus area.) The hope is to have some consistency from course to course.
More information has been added to the "Student Help" section. Take a look at what is now available, so that you will be able to direct students to that area as needed. DO NOT REMOVE this button!!! If you remove that button from the course menu, all of the content located there will be removed from your course as well.
The Course Evaluation button has been hidden on the course menu. Be careful not to remove this from the menu, just leave it as unavailable to students for now. Near the end of the semester, all cyber and hybrid course instructors will need to make this area available to students on the course menu for online students to complete. This is only for CYBER and HYBRID COURSES. This online evaluation will not be completed by seated courses. There is a link at the bottom of this entry that will take you to a handout concerning adjusting the course menu.
An "Instructor Resources" area has been added as well, but it is not available to students and should not be made available to them on the course menu. There are links to materials and information on online resources that may be of interest to you. There is also a link to Southside's course syllabus template which you can download.
Course Cartridges
Course cartridges are publisher supplied content. If you plan on going this route, please pay careful attention to the following:
- Publishers are not always clear about whether there cartridges require additional access keys to be purchased by students. Before ordering a cartridge, make sure that your students will not have to buy access keys. If they do, it is up to you to make arrangements with the Bookstore. Managing access keys is NOT supported by the Blackboard Administrator--it is an issue completely between the publisher and the instructor.
- Course cartridges can take several hours to load, and they can load a tremendous amount of content into your class. Be sure to budget time to review the loaded content before your class starts.
- When you order your cartridge, be sure and ask the publisher to copy blackboard@southside.edu when they send the key. Also, be sure to submit a ticket to Issuetrak or email me at the blackboard address above when the publisher sends you the key to request that the cartridge be loaded into your course.
Blackboard Training Handouts
Blackboard Training Materials
Here you can find handouts on the following:
Adjusting the Course Navigation Menu (How to make the Course Evaluation Available to students)
Blackboard Enrollments
Remember as students enroll in courses, do not enroll the students in your course(s)yourself. Please click on the BB/SIS link below for information concerning enrollments.
BB/SIS Integration Tool (This will be utilized for Blackboard enrollments this Spring.)
Contact Information
Let me know if you have any questions or need any assistance with Blackboard. You can contact me at kelly.goscinski@southside.edu.
- Please submit all help requests concerning Blackboard through Issuetrak.
- Contact Ashley Leslie (ashley.leslie@southside.edu) for help in designing and developing your course content.
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