It is time for some housekeeping in Blackboard. As you may have already noticed, Fall 2012 course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on December 5th. 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 mouse-over the "My Blackboard Courses" module and click on the
circular icon (looks similar to a gear) found on the upper right
corner of that area. 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 on your tab. The criteria for removal at this stage is:
1. Course ID's ending in "FA12"
2. OR created before August 1, 2012
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
Friday, November 22, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Spring 2014 Blackboard Course Shells Available
Your course areas in Blackboard for all online, hybrid, and seated
summer classes are available to instructors. The following are
reminders concerning Blackboard and information to keep in mind as you
develop your courses.
Recent Blackboard Update
On the weekend of Nov. 9th, Blackboard was updated to Blackboard 9.1 SP13. There are some great new features and updates to existing features, including a new date management tool. If you are copying content from a course shell for a previous semester, this new date management tool is a great option to update the availability dates for items in your course and due dates.
To review the primary additions from the update, including date management, please go to the following website. Update Information
Publisher Content
We now have the Blackboard building blocks (integration) for three Publishers: McGraw-Hill Connect (which we have had for a few semesters), Pearson MyLabs/Mastering, and Cengage Learning MindLinks. If you are using any of these Publisher tools, you can now integrate your content and grades into your Blackboard course areas. Information is linked below for using these integrations. When you go to one of the links, review the information on the resources tab.
Smarthinking
Smarthinking is an online tutoring service that Southside students have access to use. This is not a new service, but it is now integrated with our Blackboard system. There is a link to Smarthinking, using this new integration, in the Student Help area of our Spring 2014 course shells. For the Spring 2014 semester, students can only access Smarthinking through a Blackboard course shell. You can direct students to Smarthinking in the student help section, or you can use the Smarthinking tool in Blackboard to make a link to this resource on your course menu or from within any content area (for ex. assignments). Students will no longer have to create a Smarthinking account. By accessing Smarthinking through the Blackboard integration, an account is set-up based on their Blackboard account and they are automatically signed in.
A guide will be developed on how to create the Smarthinking links in your courses.
Atomic Learning
Course Availability
Instructors are to make course areas available by 8:00 AM on the day that the session begins. Make sure that your content is ready to go and course is available to students on time.
Student Enrollments and Instructor Student Accounts
Student enrollments within Blackboard will be activated on December 18th, so students should be enrolled in course areas by the 19th. They will not have access to your course areas until you make the areas available within Blackboard at the start of your session.
Remember that your instructor student accounts are automatically enrolled in all course shells (as students). Guide to Using Your Student Account
Requirements
Requirements for Online Classes
Training/User Guides
Blackboard User Guides
Export and Import Course Content or Course Copy
You can copy your content from one course to another by using either "Course Copy" or "Export/Import". Neither option seems to be a perfect solution, so remember to always gives yourself time to review the copied content. Export/Import does give you a back-up copy of your content saved to either your computer or other storage device, and Blackboard reps have stated that this is a more reliable process, especially if you have a lot of content. At Southside, however, we have seen some problems when using export/import related to copying tests in Blackboard, so please be aware of that.
Whatever method you choose, do this sooner rather than later. Don't leave copying content until the week before classes begin, or even worse, the day that classes begin. Give yourself plenty of time to review and update your content. 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 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.
Recent Blackboard Update
On the weekend of Nov. 9th, Blackboard was updated to Blackboard 9.1 SP13. There are some great new features and updates to existing features, including a new date management tool. If you are copying content from a course shell for a previous semester, this new date management tool is a great option to update the availability dates for items in your course and due dates.
To review the primary additions from the update, including date management, please go to the following website. Update Information
Publisher Content
We now have the Blackboard building blocks (integration) for three Publishers: McGraw-Hill Connect (which we have had for a few semesters), Pearson MyLabs/Mastering, and Cengage Learning MindLinks. If you are using any of these Publisher tools, you can now integrate your content and grades into your Blackboard course areas. Information is linked below for using these integrations. When you go to one of the links, review the information on the resources tab.
Smarthinking
Smarthinking is an online tutoring service that Southside students have access to use. This is not a new service, but it is now integrated with our Blackboard system. There is a link to Smarthinking, using this new integration, in the Student Help area of our Spring 2014 course shells. For the Spring 2014 semester, students can only access Smarthinking through a Blackboard course shell. You can direct students to Smarthinking in the student help section, or you can use the Smarthinking tool in Blackboard to make a link to this resource on your course menu or from within any content area (for ex. assignments). Students will no longer have to create a Smarthinking account. By accessing Smarthinking through the Blackboard integration, an account is set-up based on their Blackboard account and they are automatically signed in.
A guide will be developed on how to create the Smarthinking links in your courses.
Atomic Learning
Atomic Learning provides thousands of short, easy-to-understand tutorial movies and a library of curriculum resources, including tutorials on Gmail, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, etc. This is not a new resource for Southside, but it is now integrated into our Blackboard System. This will allow you to easily add links to videos on various topics within your course(s). For example, if you have a project in which students must create a PowerPoint slideshow, add links to PowerPoint tutorials for your students to view before completing the project. There are even videos on using graphing calculators for those math instructors. : )
There is information on this resource and how to integrate the videos into your courses in the instructor resources section of all Blackboard Spring 2014 course shells, and there is information for students in the student help section. The Atomic Learning module on the SVCC tab in Blackboard will be updated at the end of the semester, and the Atomic Learning site will continue to be accessible through that module.
If you already have links to Atomic Learning videos, you will need to update those in your Spring 2014 course shells using this new integration tool. Your videos in your current courses will work until the end of the semester, but at the end of the semester we will completely switch to this new integration and old links to videos will no longer be valid.
Here is a link to information and a video on this integration. Atomic Learning and Blackboard
There will also be a training on the new integration on the following dates.
- November 19th 3:00 - 4:15 Rm 22 Keysville
- November 20th 12:00 - 1:15 Rm B9 Alberta
Course Availability
Instructors are to make course areas available by 8:00 AM on the day that the session begins. Make sure that your content is ready to go and course is available to students on time.
Student Enrollments and Instructor Student Accounts
Student enrollments within Blackboard will be activated on December 18th, so students should be enrolled in course areas by the 19th. They will not have access to your course areas until you make the areas available within Blackboard at the start of your session.
Remember that your instructor student accounts are automatically enrolled in all course shells (as students). Guide to Using Your Student Account
Requirements
Requirements for Online Classes
Training/User Guides
Blackboard User Guides
Export and Import Course Content or Course Copy
You can copy your content from one course to another by using either "Course Copy" or "Export/Import". Neither option seems to be a perfect solution, so remember to always gives yourself time to review the copied content. Export/Import does give you a back-up copy of your content saved to either your computer or other storage device, and Blackboard reps have stated that this is a more reliable process, especially if you have a lot of content. At Southside, however, we have seen some problems when using export/import related to copying tests in Blackboard, so please be aware of that.
Whatever method you choose, do this sooner rather than later. Don't leave copying content until the week before classes begin, or even worse, the day that classes begin. Give yourself plenty of time to review and update your content. 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 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 these handouts on export/import if you plan to use this process to copy content. Exporting Content and Importing Content
- Review this handout on course copy if you plan to go this route.
- Be prepared to wait. When copying content, it might take a few minutes, a few hours, or even over a day for your course to copy. The course copy process should not be run more than once. If a course copy takes more than a 24 hours and you still do not see your content, submit a ticket to Issuetrak to have this checked, but do not start it again. If you do, you could 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, or the grading option with discussion boards, wikis, journals, or blogs. 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 SmarterMeasure assignment due to the copy. Keep only one. This is the updated item that was in our template. Also, if you have two "Student Grades" buttons on your course menu, get rid of one. (See the template information below.)
- DO NOT include the "Instructor Resources", "Course Evaluation", or "Student Help" content areas in the course copy or export. These areas are set-up in our course shell template that we use to create all course areas in Blackboard. If you include these in the copy, you are going to end up with duplicate content that will need to be deleted.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Summer 2012 Course Removal from Blackboard
It is time for some housekeeping in Blackboard. As you may have already noticed, SUMMER 2012 (SU12) course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on August 2nd. 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 "SU12"
2. Or created before May 1, 2012
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
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 "SU12"
2. Or created before May 1, 2012
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
Monday, April 22, 2013
Spring 2012 Course Removal From Blackboard
It is time for some housekeeping in Blackboard. As you may have already noticed, Spring 2012 (SP12) course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on May 2nd. 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 "SP12"
2. Or created before January 1, 2012
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
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 "SP12"
2. Or created before January 1, 2012
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
Friday, April 12, 2013
Summer Course Areas Available and Preliminary Information on Upcoming Blackboard Update
Your course areas in Blackboard for all online, hybrid, and seated
summer classes are available to instructors. The following are reminders concerning Blackboard and information to keep in mind as you develop your courses.
Blackboard Update
There will be an update to Blackboard from version 9.1 Service Pack 9 to 9.1 Service Pack 11. There isn't a confirmed date on this at this time, but it looks like it will take place on either May 19th or the 26th. During the update Blackboard will be unavailable to all users. As soon as a date and time frame are set, a notification will be sent to instructors and students. Although more information will be sent out later, here is a link to a Blackboard page concerning new features and updates to existing features found in service packs 10 and 11. As you are looking through the features identified for SP10 and SP11, keep in mind that it does not look like we will have the "Social Learning Tools" enabled. I know that "User Profiles", "Cloud Profiles", and "Spaces" will not be in our upgrade.
What's New in Service Packs 10 and 11
This site has some good information on this upgrade as well, but once again user profiles will not be enabled, so the sections concerning profiles, people, and posts should not be enabled in our update.
New Features - Northern Illinois University
Course Availability
Instructors are to make course areas available by 8:00 AM on the day that the session begins.
Student Enrollments and Instructor Student Accounts
Student enrollments within Blackboard will be activated on May 20th, so students should be enrolled in course areas by the 21st. They will not have access to your course areas until you make the areas available within Blackboard.
Remember that your instructor student accounts are automatically enrolled in all course shells (as students). Guide to Using Your Student Account
Requirements
Requirements for Online Classes
Training/User Guides
Blackboard User Guides
Export and Import Course Content or Course Copy
You can copy your content from one course to another by using either "Course Copy" or "Export/Import". Neither option seems to be a perfect solution, so remember to always gives yourself time to review the copied content. Export/Import does give you a back-up copy of your content saved to either your computer or other storage device, and Blackboard reps have stated that this is a more reliable process, especially if you have a lot of content. At Southside, however, we have seen some problems when using export/import related to copying tests in Blackboard, so please be aware of that.
Whatever method you choose, do this sooner rather than later. Don't leave copying content until the week before classes begin, or even worse, the day that classes begin. Give yourself plenty of time to review and update your content. 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 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.
Blackboard Update
There will be an update to Blackboard from version 9.1 Service Pack 9 to 9.1 Service Pack 11. There isn't a confirmed date on this at this time, but it looks like it will take place on either May 19th or the 26th. During the update Blackboard will be unavailable to all users. As soon as a date and time frame are set, a notification will be sent to instructors and students. Although more information will be sent out later, here is a link to a Blackboard page concerning new features and updates to existing features found in service packs 10 and 11. As you are looking through the features identified for SP10 and SP11, keep in mind that it does not look like we will have the "Social Learning Tools" enabled. I know that "User Profiles", "Cloud Profiles", and "Spaces" will not be in our upgrade.
What's New in Service Packs 10 and 11
This site has some good information on this upgrade as well, but once again user profiles will not be enabled, so the sections concerning profiles, people, and posts should not be enabled in our update.
New Features - Northern Illinois University
Course Availability
Instructors are to make course areas available by 8:00 AM on the day that the session begins.
Student Enrollments and Instructor Student Accounts
Student enrollments within Blackboard will be activated on May 20th, so students should be enrolled in course areas by the 21st. They will not have access to your course areas until you make the areas available within Blackboard.
Remember that your instructor student accounts are automatically enrolled in all course shells (as students). Guide to Using Your Student Account
Requirements
Requirements for Online Classes
Training/User Guides
Blackboard User Guides
Export and Import Course Content or Course Copy
You can copy your content from one course to another by using either "Course Copy" or "Export/Import". Neither option seems to be a perfect solution, so remember to always gives yourself time to review the copied content. Export/Import does give you a back-up copy of your content saved to either your computer or other storage device, and Blackboard reps have stated that this is a more reliable process, especially if you have a lot of content. At Southside, however, we have seen some problems when using export/import related to copying tests in Blackboard, so please be aware of that.
Whatever method you choose, do this sooner rather than later. Don't leave copying content until the week before classes begin, or even worse, the day that classes begin. Give yourself plenty of time to review and update your content. 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 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 these handouts on export/import if you plan to use this process to copy content. Exporting Content and Importing Content
- Review this handout on course copy if you plan to go this route.
- Be prepared to wait. When copying content, it might take a few minutes, a few hours, or even over a day for your course to copy. The course copy process should not be run more than once. If a course copy takes more than a 24 hours and you still do not see your content, submit a ticket to Issuetrak to have this checked, but do not start it again. If you do, you could 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, or the grading option with discussion boards, wikis, journals, or blogs. 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 "Student Grades" buttons on your course menu, get rid of one. (See the template information below.)
- DO NOT include the "Instructor Resources", "Course Evaluation", or "Student Help" content areas in the course copy or export. These areas are set-up in our course shell template that we use to create all course areas in Blackboard. If you include these in the copy, you are going to end up with duplicate content that will need to be deleted.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Upcoming Technology Summit at John Tyler Community College
Upcoming Technology Summit!!
John Tyler Community College and the VCCS Mid-Central Center for Teaching Excellence have organized a technology summit to be held on JTCC's Midlothian Campus on Friday, April 19th.
Session topics include the following:
· Advantages of auto typing software
· Chromebooks in our classrooms
· Open Educational Resources (OERs)
· Copyright and Fair Use
· Accessibility of Instructional Media
· Google Apps for Education
· Our Laws, Our Privacy and Technology
· Turnitin versus SafeAssign
You can find registration, agenda, and session information here: JTCC Tech Summit
It sounds like they have some great sessions planned, there is no registration fee to attend, and they are even providing lunch. : ) I hope that some of you are able to attend and take advantage of this opportunity.
John Tyler Community College and the VCCS Mid-Central Center for Teaching Excellence have organized a technology summit to be held on JTCC's Midlothian Campus on Friday, April 19th.
Session topics include the following:
· Advantages of auto typing software
· Chromebooks in our classrooms
· Open Educational Resources (OERs)
· Copyright and Fair Use
· Accessibility of Instructional Media
· Google Apps for Education
· Our Laws, Our Privacy and Technology
· Turnitin versus SafeAssign
You can find registration, agenda, and session information here: JTCC Tech Summit
It sounds like they have some great sessions planned, there is no registration fee to attend, and they are even providing lunch. : ) I hope that some of you are able to attend and take advantage of this opportunity.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
TOTAL Workshops - March Offering
We are planning to facilitate a pilot of another "Total" workshop during
the month of March, beginning right after spring break week. The
"Using Best Practices in Online Teaching" workshop began a few weeks ago
and will wrap up very soon. Ashley Leslie has lead this workshop, and
we hope to get a lot of feedback and suggestions from participants once
it is completed.
These workshops are for those instructors who already have experience with Blackboard, don't have time to take a full course, and are looking for a professional development opportunity that targets a specific area of interest. In March, we will run the "Designing Meaningful Discussion Activities" online workshop for any SVCC instructors (adjunct or full-time). It will begin after spring break and will run for 3 weeks (March 11th - 31st). If you would like to participate in this workshop, please complete the form linked below.
We would appreciate your participation. Thanks!
Workshop Sign-Up
These workshops are for those instructors who already have experience with Blackboard, don't have time to take a full course, and are looking for a professional development opportunity that targets a specific area of interest. In March, we will run the "Designing Meaningful Discussion Activities" online workshop for any SVCC instructors (adjunct or full-time). It will begin after spring break and will run for 3 weeks (March 11th - 31st). If you would like to participate in this workshop, please complete the form linked below.
We would appreciate your participation. Thanks!
Workshop Sign-Up
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
TOTAL Online Workshops - February Workshop Offerings
Thanks to those of you who completed the survey concerning the online
workshops. I reviewed the results and the following two workshops were
selected for the initial pilot. You can click on either link below to
read a description of each workshop including objectives. With each
online workshop, you will have required tasks to complete each week in
Blackboard. The participant(s) will receive a certificate from the VCCS
upon successful completion of the workshop at the end of the session.
Please click the links below to read the workshop descriptions, and the link to sign-up to participate can be found below as well. Remember that when you sign-up that you are making a commitment to participate in the online workshop each week and to complete the required tasks.
These workshops are free and open to any full-time or adjunct instructor at SVCC, but there are some prerequisites to consider.
You should already have...
Using Best Practices in Online Teaching - Description (4-weeks) February 4th - March 2nd
Designing Meaningful Discussion Activities - Description (3-weeks) February 4th - February 24th
Participant Workshop Sign-Up (You can sign up for either workshop or both...your preference.)
Please click the links below to read the workshop descriptions, and the link to sign-up to participate can be found below as well. Remember that when you sign-up that you are making a commitment to participate in the online workshop each week and to complete the required tasks.
These workshops are free and open to any full-time or adjunct instructor at SVCC, but there are some prerequisites to consider.
You should already have...
- Training or experience in the use of Blackboard instructor tools.
- Ability to use the Internet in an effective and efficient manner.
- Basic knowledge about the operation of a computer, file management, and software installation.
Using Best Practices in Online Teaching - Description (4-weeks) February 4th - March 2nd
Designing Meaningful Discussion Activities - Description (3-weeks) February 4th - February 24th
Participant Workshop Sign-Up (You can sign up for either workshop or both...your preference.)
Friday, January 11, 2013
TOTAL Online Workshops - Interest Survey
Personnel from a few colleges within the Virginia Community College
System have worked to develop a series of workshops on various topics
pertinent to online learning. These workshops will be facilitated
online
through the Blackboard System, approximately 4-weeks long, and free to
any VCCS employee (part-time and full-time). These workshops are for
those instructors who already have experience with Blackboard, don't
have time
to take a full course, and are looking for a professional development
opportunity that targets a specific area of interest. We will be
piloting a few of these workshops this spring and would like to collect
some information from you to help guide us in selecting the initial
workshops for the pilot. Your participation in this survey would be
greatly appreciated. The survey consists of 5 items, so it should not
take up too much or your time. We will collect survey results over the
course of the next week (until Friday, January 18th), so please do not
delay in completing this.
If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact me. Thank you!
Survey
If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact me. Thank you!
Survey
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Start of A New Semester
January 8th begins our Spring semester at Southside. The
enrollment process to place students into their Blackboard course
areas has begun, so any students displaying on your roster
within SIS should display within your course area in Blackboard sometime tomorrow (1/3/13) . This was done for
all
online, hybrid, AND seated courses. You still control student access
to your course area and will need to make your course area available by
the start of the session. (If you
have an online or hybrid course that begins on January 8th, your course
should be available to students no later than 8:00 AM that day.) Please make sure that your course is ready to roll on time. We begin getting calls from students bright and early that morning when they can not get into their courses.
There are a few things that should be checked as you prepare to start this new session.
There are a few things that should be checked as you prepare to start this new session.
- Minimum Requirements for Distance Learning Courses -- (Online Course Checklist)
- Course Copy or Export/Import to Copy Content from One Course Area to Another: Remember that a course copy can take up to 24 hours or more to
complete. DO NOT run a course
copy a second time, you could end up with double content...this
cannot be undone. Submit an IssueTrak ticket after 24 hours if you
still have not received an email stating that the process has been
completed. I can submit a request to the VCCS to check their logs. Course Copy Instructions
Another option when copying content is to export the content out of your original course and import into the new one. By utilizing this option, you will have a back-up of your course on your computer or flash drive, and we have found this process to be more reliable and at times even faster than course copy. Export Course Content / Import Course Content
Neither process noted here is full-proof, you MUST check all of your content, test links, etc. and make corrections as needed.
- Course Check: Did you check all content, assignments, and tests? Make sure to check everything carefully to make sure all content is displaying correctly. Once you have made your course available, I recommend using your student account to access your course to double check your content . See what your Grade Center looks like for students. (See step 10 below.) Using Your Student Account
- Duplicate Menu Buttons or Content: When you copied over course content into your new course, you may have included areas that weren't needed. Delete or hide buttons on your course menu that lead to empty or duplicate content. (For example: You should have a "Student Help" button, not "Help?". Delete "Help?" if you see this in your course menu). Click into each area on your course menu (other than Student Grades), and check for duplicate content within those areas. Clean-up your course areas. Adjusting the Course Menu
- Copy and Paste from Word Tool:
There is a new copy and paste from word tool that was integrated into
our Blackboard system last May. This allows you to copy content from Word
into an area of Blackboard (announcement, item, test question, folder,
etc.) without formatting issues or other problems that can arise from
pasting from Word. This tool is easy to use, but would not be easy to
locate on your own. Take a look at the instructional guide linked
above.
- McGraw-Hill Connect and Blackboard Integration Tools:
Those of you who utilize McGraw-Hill Connect will need to check out
these tools. You now have the capability to link your Connect "Course"
with your Blackboard course shell.
Getting Started Instructions (Begin with this)
McGraw Hill's Connect Tutorials Page - Scroll down to the bottom for video tutorials on integrating your course with Blackboard. (This is a great follow-up to the getting started document with step-by-step instructions on adding content.)
Blackboard's Instructional Guide (Page 15 begins the instructions on adding content) - Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing, Instant Messenger, and Voice Authoring Tools
- Blackboard Mash-Ups: Tools within Blackboard 9.1 to easily add YouTube videos, Slideshare
presentations, Flickr Photos, Links to Collaborate session or recordings
of sessions, Record Audio, and copy/paste Microsoft Word content.
- Course Availability: You will need to modify the availability of your course for students to have access. Modifying Course Availability
- Grade Center: Remember that your grade center area will need to be either set-up or cleaned-up. If you course copy or utilize export/import to copy content, you will need to go through your grade center and clean it up. Check your categories (they duplicate every time you course copy) and remove categories that you aren't using other than the default categories that can't be removed. (Click on Manage and then Categories within the Grade Center.) Double check assigned column categories and points possible by going to Manage and then Column Organization. Remove columns that you are not using. Use your student account, and click on the Student Grades button on the course menu to find out what students are seeing. Basic Set-Up and Clean-Up Instructions
- URLs to Remember
- Technology Training Site (This link will take you directly to BB handouts page.)
- SVCC Technology Page : This has links to information on Blackboard, Using Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing, Using Panopto, etc. There could be information here that you could link within your course to provide students with information on how to use these tools.
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