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.
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