Wednesday, May 9, 2012

One Final Blackboard Upgrade Update and Summer Session Reminders

It is just about that time!!  The Blackboard upgrade to version 9.1 is upon us.  Blackboard will be unavailable from 8:00 AM Friday, May 11th until 11:30 PM Sunday, May 13th.   Here are some last minute reminders and additional notes for you, and links to training materials for the major areas impacted by the upgrade and/or new tools available to you.

Reminders and Notes:
  1. Before the upgrade - Export your course content and save to your computer (It never hurts to back-up.  This is a good rule of thumb as part of your wrap-up at the end of each semester.  Export your content - This creates a zip file that you can save to your computer or flash drive.  Just remember where you saved it!)  : )   For instructions on how to do this, go this site and scroll down to 'Course Management and Navigation'.  There is an 'Export Course' handout linked there.    Blackboard 9.0 Handouts
     
  2. After the Upgrade - Check your course(s) after the upgrade.  Those of you who are teaching summer courses, need to go through your courses very carefully to look for areas that may need to be fixed.  Use this course checklist as a guideline.  Be ready to make corrections.
     
  3. Change/Note Concerning File Management within Blackboard 9.1  -- Please review notation below within the training materials section.

  4. Two Additional New Tools:  There is a 'Manage Users' tool and 'Copy and Paste From Word' option that will also be added to Blackboard at the time of the upgrade.  These are not new 9.1 features, but are tools that have been approved to be integrated into our system and the upgrade seems like a good time to do it.  : )  Although these are very minor additions, I believe they will prove to be extremely useful.  Here are some guides to these tools for your review. 

    Manage User Tool    Copy and Paste from Word Mash-Up
     
  5. Do not forget that you will no longer have the capability to enroll or remove students within your course areas.  In the past, you had to enroll your own student account in your course(s), but you will not need to do this now.  I do encourage you to utilize your student account when checking your courses before the start of the semester...especially after this upgrade.  (Using Instructor Student Accounts)
     
  6. Course Copies - Feel free to run your course copy or export/import of your content into your new summer course areas before the upgrade.  Please DO NOT wait until the day before classes begin to do this.  It can take up to 24 hours for a course copy to process, so you may have to wait awhile, especially right before the beginning of a session. If the copy does not process in 24 hours, please email me at kelly.goscinski@southside.edu.  I can submit a ticket with the VCCS to check their logs.  You don't want to run a copy twice and end up with duplicate content.  (The link above to our Blackboard 9.0 handouts has one on course copies and another on exporting/importing content depending on which method you use.) 
You can find information below on the primary new features and tools available within Blackboard 9.1.  I have included links to the recordings of our online sessions (There are some areas that do not have recordings posted at this time.), and our instructional guides that we shared during the sessions are all linked below as well.


File Management within Blackboard 9.1: "Course files eliminate redundancy and simplify the management of content updates. An in-course file storage structure makes it easier to keep track of documents used in courses, similar to the type of file and folder structure that is used on your PC. A new thumb nail view and drag and drop upload applet make it quick and easy to get files into Blackboard and to view the image files." 

UPDATE:  The drag and drop capability to upload multiple files at once into the "My Files" area within Blackboard 9.1 will not be functional as of the May upgrade.  Although this is a feature of 9.1, there is a modification that must be made to the Blackboard server before this will be functional.  That will hopefully be coming soon, so I will keep you updated.  On another note, you can still upload multiple files at once, but you will first need to organize those files into a zipped file (compressed file).  You can then import them as a package into the My Files area.    Multiple File Upload Instructions

Instructional Handout/Guide to File Management within Blackboard 9.1 

Adding Content - Creating Blank Pages, Learning Modules w/Table of Contents, Mash-Ups, Adding Textbook Information ( Getting started with Course Content )

Instructional Handout/Guide to Adding Content within Blackboard 9.1 (Extended Version)
Quick Guide to New Content Types in Blackboard 9.1 

Interactive Rubrics: Creating a Grading Rubric, Associating a Rubric with a Gradable Item, Grading with a Rubric


Instructional Handout/Guide to the New Interactive Rubrics Tool
Discussion Boards, Journals, Blogs, and Wikis - Special focus on Wikis since this a new option: "Wikis enable active collaboration around course content and group projects. Users collaborate on a document using only a web browser. Educators can see the process and evolution of the work and even participate. Furthermore, educators can see each participant’s contributions and grade accordingly."



Instructional Handout/Guide to Discussion Boards, Wikis, Journals, and Blogs in 9.1 (Extended instructions)

Quick Guide to these Communication Tools
New Options and Features within the Grade Center: Needs Grading View, Anonymous Grading, Grading By Question Attempt, Color Coding

Instructional Handout/Guide to the new Grade Center Features  
New Options and Features in Blackboard Testing: Setting Test Options, Question Finder, Linking to Questions, Question Sets, Copying Tests

Instructional Handout/Guide to Testing in Blackboard 9.1 
Guide to Using the Question Finder and Question Sets Options 
Blackboard Collaborate: Integrated within Blackboard -- Provides instructors with a tool to set-up and utilize online meeting rooms.

Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing Tool

Instructional Handout/Guide to using Collaborate in Blackboard 9.1
How to Utilize Collaborate (Recording- Recorded 5/12
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