Hi Everyone,

A few Blackboard reminders as we begin a new semester.
If you are still in the process of course copying from an early semester into your new course area, please keep in mind that this is happening throughout the VCCS system. There has been a backlog of course copies, which means they are taking longer to process. It can take up to 24 hours for a course copy to complete. DO NOT run course copy a second time. Submit a ticket on Issuetrak concerning the problem, and I can in turn ask the VCCS to check there logs and see if the copy is pending before you run it again. If you run it a second time and there was just a delay, you will end up with duplicate content. (Here is a link to a tutorial in course copying if needed. http://southside.edu/academics/disted/tutorials/coursecopy/)

Check your course menu, do you have duplicate buttons or areas that are empty? When you copied over course content into your new course, you probably copied buttons that you don't need. You need to get rid of those to clean up your course menu. Here is a web address with instructions on modifying your course menu (http://www.scribd.com/full/15707877?access_key=key-avw8aev9x04v7hwpguu) . If you have both a "Student Help" and "Help?" buttons, please keep the "Student Help" and remove the other. The "Help?" was brought over when you did your course copy and is not needed. This also applies with "Student's Grade" and "My Grades". You don't need both buttons, so you can remove the "My Grades" option.

I am starting the student enrollment process. If all goes well, students will be enrolled in your course areas in Blackboard tomorrow (Thursday). Please make sure that you make your course area available to students by Friday morning if it is a regular session online or hybrid course. Go to this web address for instructions on how to make your course available. http://svtechtime.blogspot.com/2009/05/changing-course-availability-in.html If your content isn't quite up and ready to go, at the start of your session, make your course available, but post a welcome announcement with information for your students. Let them know when you will have the content ready. Students become very concerned if they can not access their course on time.

Remember that you are NOT to manually enroll your students or remove students from your course. Blackboard and SIS are linked now, so your enrollments in Blackboard will be updated every morning. Here is a web address with more information that was sent out in November concerning this Blackboard/SIS Integration tool. http://svtechtime.blogspot.com/2009/11/student-informationblackboard.html

Blackboard course shells have been created for all online and seated courses. Although student enrollments are being run for all courses, including seated, these course areas will be unavailable to students until the instructor changes the course availability.

Good luck this semester, and if you need any assistance with Blackboard, please let me know.

Course Availability and Blackboard Fall 2009 Courses

As you wrap up your Fall 2009 courses, don't forget to make these course areas on Blackboard unavailable to students.

There is only one way to do this, and those instructions have been included below. If you are hiding courses from your view on the SVCC and/or Teach tab, by clicking on the "pencil" icon (picture) and making selections to no longer display course names on your list...this is NOT making the course(s) unavailable. This only hides the course from your view. You need to make the course unavailable to students so they no longer have access to it on Blackboard.

If you have a 1 or 2 students who will need to continue to have access to your course through the Spring semester due to incompletes, I can make the course unavailable to all students but those 1 or 2 who need continued access. Just submit a ticket to Issuetrak stating what you need and make sure that you identify the course or courses (ex. ENG 241 A6) and the full names of the students who need to maintain access. https://southside.issuetrak.com/login.asp

Just remember that when those students are finished, you then need to make the course area unavailable.

Changing Course Availability
1. Go to https://my.vccs.edu/
2. Log-in
3. Click on "Blackboard" under the "My Tools" list.
4. Click on the course (listed on either your "Teach" tab or "SVCC" tab)
5. Click on the "Control Panel" option (from within the course)
6. Click "Settings" in the "Course Options" box
7. Click on "Course Availability"
8. Click "No" to make it unavailable to all students enrolled; Click "Yes" to make it available to all students enrolled
9. Click on "Submit"

Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope that you have a great holiday!!
(kelly.goscinski@southside.edu)

Fall 2008 Courses to Be Removed From Blackboard

All FAll 2008 (and prior) courses will be removed from Blackboard. The criteria for removal at this stage is:

1. Course ID's ending in "FA08"


2. Or course areas created before August 1, 2008

Courses marked for deletion, have had the statement "Will delete December 15, 2009" added to their title within Blackboard. Check your courses!!! On December 15, 2009, all of these flagged courses will be removed from the Blackboard production area.

I highly recommend that you create your own archive of your course(s) that will contain all of your content and student data. Although the VCCS does archive copies of the courses, it is a good rule of thumb to keep your own copy. The VCCS will only keep the Fall 2008 archived course files until Fall of 2010.

To create and save an archive (zipped file) of your course,

1. Go to the "Control Panel" of your course area on Blackboard


2. Click on "Archive Course" in the "Course Options" box. (Exporting will allow you to create a back-up file of only your content without student grades, etc. To do this, you would select "Export Course" instead of archive. The procedure is very similar to archiving.)


3. Click on "Archive".


4. Make sure that "Include Grade Center History" to maintain an archived file that includes student grades.


5. Click "Submit".

It will take time for this archived file to be created. You will receive an email when it is available. You will need to repeat steps 1 and 2 above to find the file to then save to your computer, flash drive, or alternate storage device.

If you have any questions or need any assistance, please contact me at kelly.goscinski@southside.edu.

Spring 2010 Courses in Blackboard

Course shells have been created for all cyber, hybrid, and seated Spring 2010 courses.

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Blackboard Template

Once again, course shells were created in Blackboard based on a template. This template was used for both Summer and Fall 09 courses, and it was reviewed again this fall to address any needed modifications. 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's 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 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 COURSES. This online evaluation will not be completed by either hybrid or 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. You can take a look at this through the "Control Panel". 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.

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Course Copy

If you course copy from a previous course into your new course shell in Blackboard or use a publisher cartridge, you may unintentionally bring over additional buttons that you don't need. You shouldn't have empty 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 the course copy process.

• View this tutorial on course copy. http://southside.edu/academics/disted/tutorials/coursecopy/
  
  
• 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 if you utilize tests in Blackboard or the Assignment feature that allows students to upload work into BB. 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. This does not bring over your students' names or grades from a previous semester.

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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.

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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)

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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.)

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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.

Student Information/Blackboard Integration Tool

Very Important For All SVCC Instructors

Course shells are in the process of being created for all cyber, hybrid, and seated Spring 2010 courses. Unless we encounter a problem, they should all be up with instructors enrolled by tomorrow morning (11/21/09). A new Blackboard/SIS integration tool was used to create all of these courses, and as new courses are added into SIS...the course shells will be created and instructors enrolled automatically. Courses are created based on the information in SIS every evening and morning. Instructor and student enrollments in these courses will be updated every morning based on SIS. Student enrollments for the Spring courses will not begin processing within Blackboard until the morning of the first day of the Spring semester.

Since we are using this new tool, it is important that you DO NOT MANUALLY ENROLL YOUR STUDENTS!!! By using this tool and letting it enroll your students, it can update your Blackboard enrollment every morning. If a student drops your class, then they will be deactivated in your course (this is different than simply making the course unavailable to them) the next morning. This means that they will no longer have access. You will not be able to see them in your course, but if they have posted assignments or commented on the discussion board, nothing is actually removed. You just can't see it. If someone is dropped for non-payment, the same rules apply and they will be deactivated. However if they do make their payment, they will then be reactivated the day after they are added back into SIS. You no longer have to keep comparing your enrollment list in SIS to your Blackboard enrollments. You should not be changing the availability of the course to individual students. This tool takes care of it for you, unless you manually enroll someone. The SIS/BB tool would still work with your other students, just not for those you enroll on your own.Now, you might be thinking this is great...but what is the downside. There is usually always at least one. : )

The primary downside that I see at this point is that we have lost some control over student access and enrollment in our courses. Where I see this causing a problem is with students who might be dropped from your course after the semester begins due to financial aid problems. Once they are dropped in SIS, they will then lose access to your course the next day. If it takes a while to resolve this issue...we then have a problem. Right now, the only way to reenable a students access before all is fixed in SIS, is by asking the VCCS to reactivate at the system level. To do this, you would have to let me know, and I would have to file a ticket with them. Even if they reactivate, it is only temporary. When SIS and Blackboard update the next morning....the students will once again be deactivated. The VCCS is currently working on an update that would allow me to temporarily reactivate if needed. Hopefully this update is right around the corner. Just remember, that beginning in January, if you need to see the grades or assignments of a student who has been deactivated, you will need to put the request in through Issuetrak for me to temporarily reactivate your student.

I think that this tool is a step in the right direction and will be a real time saver. You will no longer have to request for courses to be created or to have enrollments run. This should all be done automatically as long as your course is in SIS. When the courses are created, they will automatically be set to "unavailable", so even when the students are enrolled....they won't see your course until you change its availability. I will send out instructions on this later in December just in case you aren't sure how to do this.

Remember that there are always growing pains with a new tool, and although we tested this successfully with several courses this fall...there are always problems that we can't predict. Please be patient as we encounter these, and let me know if you have any questions. Remember that Blackboard Help requests can be submitted through Issuetrak, but that if you just have a question, feel free to call me or email me at kelly.goscinski@southside.edu.

The Grade Center and Blackboard

The Grade Center is a great tool that can be used to keep students updated on their progress through a course, but there are many bells and whistles in the Blackboard 8 Grade Center...which also means more things that can go wrong. : )

I just recently became aware of a new gliche in the Grade Center related to weighting grades. If you weight grades and use the "drop lowest grade" feature of this calculated column, it may not actually be dropping the lowest grade. If you utilize this feature, you may want to use the exempt option below instead. This "drop lowest grade" feature does not appear to be reliable, so until Blackboard addresses this issue...don't use it.

The only work around at this point is to exempt individual grades for students. Please see the image to the left. If you have a grade that you would like to exempt from a student's grade calculation, you will need to do the following. (To drop the lowest grade for every student though, you would need to follow this process for each student.)

1. Go to the Grade Center within your course.

2. Go to the cell that contains the score that you would like to exempt from that student's grade.

3. Hover over the cell and then click on the double arrow button that appears.

4. Click on "Exempt Grade"from this menu.

I will let you know if hear that Blackboard has corrected this problem, but I wanted you to be aware of this possible issue.

Don't forget to clean up your grade center and check your grade center for user error issues. We all make mistakes!! : )

• Clean up categories that you are not using (some categories are in by default and can't be removed, but others should be removed). As you course copy from semester to semester, your categories will be duplicated...get rid of the duplicates. Be careful of having both "exam" and "tests" as categories...if you apply the wrong category to a column, this will cause problems if you are weighting grades by category.
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• Go to Manage and Organize Grade Center and check the categories and point totals applied to your assignments throughout the semester. Catch errors before they cause problems.
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• Enroll yourself in your course(s) as a student. Log-in as a students, go to "My Grades" on the course menu, and see what the student sees. Click here for more information on how to do this.
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• Get rid of calculated columns in the grade center that you are not using (Average, Total Points, Weighted Total). If it is a column that can't be removed, modify the column to not display the column in "My Grades". Just because you "hide" a column from your view in the Grade Center does not mean that students can not see it.

H1N1 and Blackboard

I know that we have been hearing a lot concerning H1N1 as of late, and many colleges are looking at plans on how to manage an outbreak. The VCCS is no different, and each college is looking at what will happen if their college must close down temporarily. Most schools, including Southside, have decided that all seated courses will go online utilizing Blackboard in the event of a closure.

Blackboard can be used to post lecture notes, instructional materials, assignments, announcements, and tests. You can also use the email tool as an easy, quick way to send mass emails to your students.

It is time to be prepared and ready with your seated courses. Waiting until the college is effected by H1N1 to then look into Blackboard is not the way to go. If you are not already using Blackboard with your courses, check to see that you have a course area set-up for each of your seated courses in Blackboard, make sure your students are enrolled, and begin using some tools in Blackboard to familiarize yourself with this resource. For example, begin by posting your syllabus, post your instructor contact information, and begin using the Announcement tool .

Go to the web address below for information on accessing Blackboard. There are also training handouts on listing the users in your course (to check your student enrollments), how to modify the course navigation menu, organizing/adding course content, and adding an assignment upload area into your course for students to submit assignments within Blackboard. There are also Blackboard 8 tutorials within Atomic Learning that could help you navigate Blackboard as well.

There are multiple steps involved with using testing within Blackboard, so if you wish to try out the testing feature, you may want to request some assistance.

Send an email to blackboard@southside.edu if you have questions or need assistance. Ashley Leslie (ashley.leslie@southside.edu), our Instructional Technologist, is also an excellent resource in designing and organizing your course on Blackboard.

If you find that you need a course area created or you just need your students enrolled in your Blackboard area, please submit a ticket through our help request system. Please note what you need and for what course (example: ENG 111 02) in the ticket. These requests should only be for Fall 2009 courses. https://southside.issuetrak.com/login.asp

Blackboard Instructor Information:
https://sites.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/southside-information-technology-site/blackboard-1
Atomic Learning Information:
https://sites.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/southside-information-technology-site/atomiclearning