Copyright: What is legal?

I just recently attended the VCCS Distance Education Peer Group Conference (October 15th-16th). The keynote speaker for the conference spoke to the group about Copyright and Creative Commons License. There are so many gray areas when it comes to copyright that it can be difficult to understand what you can and can't do especially online. Often when working online, we find images, video, and music that we would like to use, because it is just perfect...but did you consider copyright. Everything is copyrighted upon creation, even without the "Big C". So just because you find it online and you don't see the copyright symbol, doesn't mean you can use it without permission. Instead, look for work that uses a creative commons license.

Creative Commons is a term you may be familiar with, but did you know that there are different levels of Creative Commons? Creative Commons allows groups or individuals to make their work available for some level of use (CC). You can use it under certain conditions, usually with certain restrictions. You do have to be careful and pay attention to what type of creative commons license applies to the work you want to use. There are six primary Creative Commons licenses offered. This website provides a brief description of each. Creative Commons: About Licenses

There are many websites that offer content with creative commons licenses. In fact, the web browser Mozilla Firefox has a built in search button to look specifically for creative commons licensed material. I have provided links to a variety of resources below, and I have embedded the presenters presentation which she has available on the Slideshare website.

Search Engine for Creative Commons Licensed Material
Flickr (Isolate Creative Commons Licensed Photos through Advanced Search)
Flickr Commons (No Known Copyright Restrictions)
Life Photo Archives Hosted by Google (Personal and Non-Commercial Use)
Stockvault (Use without Attribution)
Morguefile
CCMixter (Music Creative Commons)

Digital Copyright: Cool Tools to Legally Spice Up Your Learning

View more presentations from Michelle Lentz.

Blackboard Grade Center Training

I am going to offer a Grade Center training session on both the Daniel Campus and Christanna Campus for the end of October. The training is for those that have either never used the Grade Center or who need a refresher on how to set up the grade center.

This is open to all full-time and adjunct faculty and would be appropriate for both online and seated course instructors. Remember Blackboard course areas are set-up for ALL courses, not just those online.

This workshop will focus on the following topics/tools. If you would like to attend, please click the link below to view the dates and times and to register.

1. Creating a final grade column (calculated column)
2. Creating columns and entering grades
3. Deleting columns (keeping your grade center cleaned up)
4. Managing your grade center (categories, column organization)
5. Sending Emails through the Grade Center

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p5OCzAypDL_96xU_szEzWSA

Availability of Previous Courses

Don't forget to make courses from previous semesters unavailable to students (Spring and Summer 2010).

Since Fall 09 incompletes were wrapped up at the end of the Spring 10 semester, I am going to make all Fall 09 course areas in Blackboard unavailable tomorrow evening (August 19th) before the new semester officially begins. If for some reason your Fall 09 course(s) need(s) to remain available to students, please just let me know by 4:00 pm on the 19th. The Fall 09 courses, if left available, will be most problematic for students. They see fall and don't notice the year, and they think they are enrolled in the wrong course in Blackboard.

As far as your Spring or Summer 2010 course areas are concerned, instructions on modifying course availability can be found at the web address linked at the bottom of this posting. If you are hiding courses from your view on the SVCC and/or Teach tab, you will need to first go to either your SVCC or Teach tab within Blackboard and click on the circular icon (picture) in the upper right corner of your My Blackboard Courses module (box). It looks a little like a flower. That will allow you to manage the settings for that particular module, and display the courses from previous semester on your tab. (Hiding course on your display only hides them from your view, not your students.) Once you have done this, you will be able to enter that course area to make the course unavailable to students. I appreciate your help with this. Students get very confused when they see links to courses they are no longer enrolled in at Southside.

Modifying Course Availability

Fall Courses and Blackboard: Are you ready?

August 20th begins our Fall schedule of courses at Southside. The enrollment process to place students into their Blackboard course areas will begin on Wednesday, August 18th, so students should be enrolled in course areas sometime Thursday. 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, August 20th, if you teach an online or hybrid course that starts that day.)

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

1. Course Copy: 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!!)
   
   
2. Course Check: Did you check all content, assignments, and tests after the upgrade to Blackboard 9? Make sure to check everything carefully to make sure all content is displaying correctly.
   
   
3. Test Bank Software: If you utilize either Test Gen or Exam View, you may have issues with these publishers' test bank software that can only be corrected by updating to the latest version. TestGen (Pearson) needs to be v7.4.4 (go to help menu and click check for updates). ExamView (Cengage) needs to be v 6.2 – you will probably need to log in to their website get this update. If you run into trouble updating, you will need to contact your book rep for assistance.
   
   
4. 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.
   
   
5. Invalid HTML Message in Blackboard 9: When you checked your course after the upgrade, within editing mode, you may have had some content items displaying an "Invalid HTML" message. You can use these instructions to remove that message. Click here for Invalid HTML Message: Removal Instructions
   
   
6. 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 20th, 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. )
   
   
7. 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
   
   
8. Grade Center: Remember that your grade center area will need to be either set-up or cleaned-up. If you course copy, 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? (There will be grade center trainings scheduled in late August to help with this.)
   
   
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.)
  

Removal from Blackboard of Summer 2009 and/or Courses Created Before May 2009

It is time again for the normal clean-up of Blackboard. As you may have already noticed, Summer 2009 (SU09) course areas in Blackboard have been identified and marked for removal on July 30th. Although the VCCS does maintain an archive of your courses, it is recommended that you maintain a copy of your course by exporting out the course content. All archived courses will be available through the VCCS for about 1 year 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 displayed in your "My Blackboard Courses" module. The criteria for removal at this stage is:

1. Course ID's ending in "SU09"
2. Or created before May 1, 2009

You should export content from any courses planned for removal and save the zipped files on your computer for future use.

Click on the link below to view instructions on how to export your content from within the Blackboard 9 environment.

Directions to Export Course Content

Blackboard Updates, Fall Courses, and Training

• Fall Course Shells: Fall course shells have been created and instructors enrolled. If you are planning to course copy content from a previous semester into your fall course area, you need to review these updated instructions on the course copy process. DO NOT assume that you can figure this out. Review this handout first. https://docs.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZW1haWwudmNjcy5lZHV8c291dGhzaWRlLWluZm9ybWF0aW9uLXRlY2hub2xvZ3ktc2l0ZXxneDoyODNiNGUxNDc1Zjg1MGQ2
  
  
• Student Enrollments in Fall Courses: Students will not be enrolled until the day before the Fall session begins, and they will be enrolled for all cyber, hybrid, and seated courses. You should not be enrolling any students manually. Remember that Blackboard and Student Information are now linked.
  
  
• Fall Course Availability: When your course areas were set-up, they were set as "unavailable" to students. You will have to make it available when your session is ready to begin. Here is the handout on modifying course availability. https://docs.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZW1haWwudmNjcy5lZHV8c291dGhzaWRlLWluZm9ybWF0aW9uLXRlY2hub2xvZ3ktc2l0ZXxneDo0MDdhMzQ4ZjQ5YjIxZjNl
  
  
• Spring 2010 Course Availability: Did you make your Spring 10 course areas unavailable in Blackboard at the end of the last semester? If not, please do so ASAP. If you have students with incompletes, I can help with this. Put in an Issuetrak ticket with the course information (ex. HIS 102 K6) and identify the students who need to retain access. (See handout linked above on how to modify course availability if needed.)
  
  
• Blackboard 9 Tips and Workarounds: I have been developing a list of Blackboard 9 tips and workarounds for problems, and I will continue to add to this list as new issues arise. Please review the information carefully at this link!! Bookmark this link and check back to it periodically and if you encounter a problem. http://svtechtime.blogspot.com/2010/06/blackboard-9-issues-tips-and-work.html
  
  
• Blackboard 9 Training Materials: Don't forget that there are many handouts and tutorials that have already been created on using Blackboard. Ashley Leslie and I will continue to add to this. (Recently Added: Collecting and Viewing Discussion Board Threads and Replies, Enabling and Utilizing Grade Forum in the Discussion Board, Listing User in Blackboard, Enrolling your Student User Account in your Course) https://sites.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/southside-information-technology-site/blackboard-1/blackboard-training/blackboard-9-training-materials
  
  
• Student Online Learning Workshop: We have scheduled new online learning workshops for students on both campuses, and the information has been posted on the college website and emailed to students. Please promote these with your students. We have not had a great turnout for these in the past. Here is the link to information on these workshops with dates and times, locations, and an online registration form. http://southside.edu/academics/disted/studenttraining.asp
  
  
• Grade Center Training: Instructor training workshops have been scheduled that will focus on the Grade Center in Blackboard. A two-hour "Back to the Basics" session has been scheduled on each campus. This will be geared towards those who have not used the Grade Center before or feel they need a refresher of the basics. A one-hour session has also been scheduled on each campus that will look at what's new with the Grade Center in Blackboard 9 and will look at clean-up from one semester to the next. This is geared for those of you who have been using the Grade Center, but would like some assistance with looking at the changes from version 8 to 9. This would also be good for those instructors who would like some pointers on what needs to be done to their Grade Center at the start of a session. Go to the website linked here to see the dates, times, and locations for each session and to sign-up to attend. If you register, make sure that you know your user name and password to login to your MySVCC page prior to attending the training session. If you have not logged in to your MySVCC page or to Blackboard in a while, try to do so at at least a few days before the workshop. There will be a hands-on component to each workshop, and logging in issues should be resolved before the workshops. https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p5OCzAypDL_96xU_szEzWSA

Attachments Not Opening in Internet Explorer 8

ATTACHMENTS NOT OPENING WITH IE8 – There is a known issue between Blackboard 9, Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft Office files (.doc, .docx, etc.) that results in users not being able to click to open attachments in Blackboard. This impacts file attachments to content areas, files attached to the grade center, files attached to the discussion board, etc for both students and instructors.

The problem is described below along with four possible resolutions. Remember that this only affects Internet Explorer. Instructors and students may attempt to open a file by clicking on the link.

• (Solution 1) When clicking on an attached file in Blackboard 9 when using Internet Explorer, you should see the Information Bar appear at the top of the page To access the attached file, the user will need to click on “Allow” and then “Download File…” or simply “Download File” depending on the browser settings on the Information Bar. This will result in the File Download window appearing at which point the user can proceed to Open or Save.
  
  
• (Solution 2) Try right clicking on the file and selecting 'Open in New Window'. From this window, you would then have the option to 'Save' or 'Open'.
  
  
• (Solution 3) If you have administrator rights to your computer you can adjust the browser settings on the computer from which Blackboard is being accessed, the problem can be resolved through changing the following browser settings. Follow the steps below.
  
  
  • Open Internet Explorer.
  • Click on ‘Tools’.
  • Click on ‘Internet Options’.
  • Click on the ‘Security tab’.
  • Click on ‘Custom Level’.
  • Scroll down and locate ‘Downloads’ and select Enable for ‘Automatic prompting for file downloads’.
  • Click ‘Ok’.
  • Select ‘Yes’ on the Warning window that appears.
  • Click ‘Apply’ and then ‘Ok’.
    
    
• (Solution 4) If the first two solutions do not work for you, or if you are not able to change your browser settings, use Firefox!