Fall 2011 Course Deletion

It is time for some housekeeping in Blackboard. Fall 2011 (FA11) course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on November 9th.  Although the VCCS does maintain an archive of your courses, it is recommended that you maintain a copy of your course by exporting 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 "FA11"
2. Or created before August 1, 2011

You should export content from any courses planned for removal AND save the zipped files on your computer for future use. (These file are not stored in Blackboard.)

Click on the link below and scroll down to the section called "Course Management and Navigation". From there you will find instructions on exporting course content. You can either view the instructions or download to save or print.

Blackboard Instructional Handouts

Upcoming Blackboard Upgrade

On the weekend of November 16th our current Blackboard system will be updated from Blackboard version 9.1 service pack 7 to 9.1 service pack 9.  This is not considered a major upgrade, but it will take approximately 24 hours to complete the process, and there are a few new features to be aware of.  (The upgrade will not take all weekend, but at this time we do not have a confirmed time frame.)

Information on new features and tools have been added to our technology training site.  Here is a direct link.

Blackboard Update - What to Expect