Spring 2011 Course Removal From Blackboard

It is time for some housekeeping in Blackboard. As you may have already noticed, Spring 2011 (SP11) course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on April 30th.  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 "SP11"
2. Or created before January 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

Spring 2011 Online and Hybrid Course Evaluation

The Spring 2011 Online and Hybrid Course Evaluation is now available. Students have been sent an email with a link to the evaluation asking them to complete this survey for each of their online or hybrid courses. By completing the survey, students even have the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes to win a $100 Amazon gift card... Now I want to complete this survey. : )

Instructor assistance in reminding and encouraging students to complete this evaluation is imperative. Although students were sent an email with a link to the survey, you have a course evaluation button on your course menu that you should make available to your students. After the button is available, you should post an announcement and send your students a reminder email directing them to that button. The more emphasis you put on completing the evaluation, the more students that will complete the survey.

I have placed a link below to a handout that mentions a few small things that you can do that may help increase the number of students that complete the evaluation. I have also included instructions in that handout on how to make the course evaluation button available in case you need some help.

Blackboard Training Materials
Course Evaluation Handout (Direct Link)
Blackboard Training Materials (To Download and/or Print Copies of Handouts)
Spring 2011 Course Evaluation Survey (Direct Link)

If you have any questions or find you need any assistance with Blackboard, please let me know.

Spring 2011 Courses and Blackboard

January 7th begins our Spring schedule of courses at Southside. The enrollment process to place students into their Blackboard course areas will begin today, Wednesday, January 5th, so students should be enrolled in course areas sometime Thursday, January 6th. This will be 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. (Please have your course available to students by Friday morning, January 7th, if you teach an online or hybrid course that begins that day.)

There are a few things that should be checked as you prepare to start this new session.

1. Course Copy or Export/Import: If you still need to copy content from a previous course into your current course(s), here are instructions on how to do so. Please read carefully!! 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. Click here for Course Copy Instructions (Read these instructions carefully!!)
   
   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 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/Import Instructions
   
   
2. Course Check: Did you check all content, assignments, and tests? Make sure to check everything carefully to make sure all content is displaying correctly. I recommend that you enroll your student account in your course(s) and access it using that account. See what your Grade Center looks like for students. (See step 7 below.)
   
   
   
3. Duplicate Menu Buttons: Check your course menu, do you have duplicate buttons? When you copied over course content into your new course, you may have copied buttons that you didn't need. You need to either delete or hide those to clean up your course menu. For example: You should have a "Student Help" button, not "Help?". Delete "Help?" if you see this in your course menu. Click here for Organizing the Course Menu Instructions (Warning if you course copied Instructor Resources or Student Help, you probably duplicated the content within those areas. Those areas are automatically created for all courses in the template. You don't need to include them in the course copy. Check the Student help button. You should see 4 folders. If you see duplicate folders, please get rid of them.) If your course is either an online or hybrid course, DO NOT remove the course evaluation button on the course menu. By default it is unavailable to students, but you can make it available near the end of the semester for your students to access the online course evaluation survey.
   
   
4. Invalid HTML Message in Blackboard 9: If you have content items displaying an "Invalid HTML" message. You can use these instructions to remove that message. Click here for Invalid HTML Message: Removal Instructions
   
   
5. Course Availability: You will need to modify the availability of your course for students to have access. Click here for Changing Course Availability Instructions (If your content is not quite ready to go on the 7th, either make your course available and post a welcome announcement with information for your students, or send an email to your students stating when they can expect access. Students become very concerned if they can not access their courses on time. Making your course available and posting the announcement is preferred...not all students check their email account. )
   
   
6. Enroll Yourself As A Student: Did you enroll your student account in your courses to check them out as a student sees them? I recommend that you do this, and take a close look at the student grades area. You might be surprised at what students see. Click here for Instructions
   
   
7. 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. Look at "Student's Grades" when you are enrolled as a student. Are there any problems or columns that you don't want them to see? We have several handouts already created on using the Grade Center, including one with reminders and tips on setting-up and cleaning up the Grade Center. Blackboard Handouts (Just scroll down the page to the Grade Center Handouts after clicking this link to the Google site.)
   
   
8. Student Enrollment: Remember DO NOT enroll students or remove students from your course area in Blackboard. This is all automated. Students are enrolled and disabled in your course according to what is in Peoplesoft. If you drop a student from your class, once this change is made in Peoplesoft, the Blackboard enrollments update the next morning.
   
   
9. URLs to Remember

• Blackboard 9 Issues: Tips and Workarounds (Please review. I will update this as issues arise or are resolved.)
  
  
• Technology Training Site (This link will take you directly to BB handouts and tutorials.)
  
  
• SVCC Distance Ed Page (Go to this website and scroll down to "Important Links". There you will find links to a Blackboard FAQ page, BB test taking tips page, Computer Maintenance Tips, etc. You might find useful information here that you direct your students to, such as how to submit an assignment into Blackboard or how to post to the discussion board.)
  

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)

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.