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Category: Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #137: Turnitin – Voice Comments

The ability for an instructor to leave a personal voice comment is a powerful tool for providing feedback to students.

image showing Turnitin voice comments

Turnitin GradeMark has a feature that lets instructors add a voice comment to a student’s paper. With just a few clicks, instructors can quickly record a detailed message of up to 3 minutes in length and attach it to the student’s paper. Instructors can use the orally recorded feedback as a supplement to written comments.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions for voice comments are available [Video]
How to use Turnitin GradeMark (PDF) (Interactive Tutorial)
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

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Published on 2 Comments on Bb Tip #136: Merging Courses

Blackboard has a Section Merge Tool that allows faculty to combine two or more courses into a single course. Faculty do not have to make a request to the Information Technology Center to merge their courses.

Using the Section Merge Tool to combine courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students in a single Blackboard course which can be useful for collaborative work. Merging courses reduces the number of courses an instructor has to manage within Blackboard, especially when each section has identical content.

Once you’ve merged courses you can upload your course content and assignments into the merged course; communicate with the students in the merged course; setup collaborative course work; and have one gradebook for the merged course. You can create groups within your merged course that correspond to the original course sections. This way you can target a particular course section (group) of students for specific things (e.g. send email to a specific group, make content available to specific group, enter/view gradebook entries for a specific group, etc.)

NOTE: Merging of courses is typically done at the start of the semester before content is added and before students submit course work. You should wait to merge courses if there is a possibility that there will be last minute changes to instructor course section assignments. You can request a Master Course Shell to build your course and then transfer the content into your merged course.

You should carefully consider whether merging courses is right for you. Some disadvantages to merging courses are:

  • Course enrollments for the merged courses will be combined which can make grading student work a challenge. You can use Smart Views to make grading easier.
  • If you decide you want to unmerge courses after students have submitted course work, student work and grades will be lost. Only student enrollments are retained when you unmerge courses.

Follow these steps to do it.

In order to merge courses you must be listed as the instructor for each of the courses.

  1. Login to Blackboard and click on the [Section Merge] tab.
  2. Click on [Click Here to Create and Manage Merged Courses] on the Section Merge Tool page.
  3. Click on [Setup New Merged Course] on the Manage Merged Courses page.
  4. Carefully select ALL courses you want to be merged (combined) from the list and click [Submit].
  5. On the Select Existing Course page, select the course you want to be the merged (combined) course (i.e. the course where you want all enrolled students to be and where you want to upload course contents). Click [Submit].
  6. You should see a green confirmation bar indicating the merge was successful. Only the merged course name will appear in the list of courses for both the instructor and enrolled students. 

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions are available [PDF].
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #135: End of Semester Tasks

As we approach the end of the semester there are a few things you can do in Blackboard to wrap up for the semester.

Download your gradebook

Student access to courses is removed two weeks after the end of a semester. During this process all grade book records are deleted. You should download your gradebook to your local computer after you submit your final grades.

Create a master copy of your course

Courses remain on the Blackboard system for three semesters before they are removed. You can request a Master Course Shell that you can use to develop and maintain your course materials. Master Course Shells will not be removed from the Blackboard system.

Hide old courses from view

When you login to Blackboard you will see your courses for previous semesters listed along with the courses you are currently teaching on the Xavier University and Courses tabs. If you do not want to see older courses in the list, you can hide them from view.

Follow these steps to do it.

Instructions are available in previous Bb tips for downloading your grade book, requesting master course shells, and hiding old courses from view.

Want more information?

Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #134: Customizing the Grade Center

image of a keyboard with a customize key

Instructors can customize their view of the Grade Center by hiding and/or reordering columns to focus on specific columns and reduce scrolling. Hidden columns are not deleted from the Grade Center. Instructors can show/hide and reorder Grade Center columns at any time.

Follow these steps to do it.

You can hide Grade Center columns in one of two ways.

Method One - Hide Column

image showing Grade Center column menu options

Method Two - Column Organization

image showing Grade Center Manage menu with Column Organization selected

  1. On the [Manage] menu, select [Column Organization].
  2. Click the checkbox to the left of the column you want to hide and then click on the [Show/Hide] button.
  3. Click [Submit].

When you use Column Organization to hide a column, this will hide the column from the instructor’s Grade Center view. However, students can still see the hidden column in My Grades. To hide columns from students you should use the drop-down menu to the right of the column name and choose "Show/Hide to Users" or edit the column information and answer no to the "Show this Column to Students" option. You can easily tell when a column is hidden from students because in the instructor's Grade Center view, the column will have a circle with red slash next to the column name.

Additionally, instructors can also use Smart Views to get a focused view of the Grade Center.

Want more information?

Customize the Grade Center [Video]
Reorder, freeze, and hide Grade Center columns
About Smart Views
Working with the Grade Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #133: Grade Center

The Grade Center is more than just a way to record students' grades. It's a dynamic and interactive tool, allowing instructors to record data, calculate grades, and monitor student progress. In addition to being able to record grades, instructors can track student work and share private comments and feedback with students throughout the semester.

image showing Grade Center

The Grade Center is integrated with gradable items such as tests, assignments, discussion boards, blogs, journals, wikis, and ungraded items, such as surveys and self-assessments. Instructors can create Grade Center columns for activities and/or requirements done outside of Blackboard, such as exams given on paper, oral presentations, and participation.

Students also benefit when their instructor uses the Grade Center. Students have the opportunity to adjust their approach to learning to improve their performance when they see their grades and instructor feedback.

Follow these steps to do it.

Listed below are links to previous Bb tips on using the Grade Center:

Want more information?

Working with the Grade Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #132: Keeping Students on Track

Students are more likely to be successful in a course when they attend regularly and keep up with their coursework. Instructors can use Blackboard to help students stay on track.

Review Status, Performance Dashboard, and the Retention Center are features in Blackboard that collectively enable instructors to access student progress.

Review Status allows instructors to give students the ability to mark an item as "reviewed." When Review Status is enabled, there are benefits for instructors and students. The instructor can check to see who has reviewed the item, while students can use the feature to keep track of which content they have reviewed. This is especially useful when students review content in a non-linear fashion.

The Performance Dashboard is used to monitor student progress throughout the course and help keep them on track. A summary of access and progress for each student appears in a table format. Instructors can see the last time a student has accessed the course, which items they have reviewed, and how much they are participating in discussion boards.

The Retention Center is a tool that allows instructors to monitor student performance. Instructors can utilize the Retention Center to identify students who are struggling and help them take immediate action for improvement. Instructors can begin using the default rules in the Retention Center immediately—no additional setup is required. However, instructors can edit the default rules and/or set their own criteria or rules to monitor student performance.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions for tracking student performance [PDF].
Enabling Review Status
Using the Performance Dashboard
Using the Retention Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

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Published on 3 Comments on Bb Tip #131: Performance Dashboard

The Performance Dashboard gives instructors a "view at a glance" on how students are progressing within the course. Instructors use the information in the Performance Dashboard to monitor student progress and keep students on track.

image showing performance dashboard

Various types of user activity information is available in the Performance Dashboard. The information includes:

  • Last Course Access: The date and time when the user last accessed the course.
  • Days Since Last Course Access: The number of days that has elapsed since the last time the user accessed the course.
  • Review Status: Displays how many items have been reviewed.
  • Adaptive Release: Clicking on the icon opens a new window showing a directory tree overview of the entire course relative to the user, and the access status.
  • Discussion Board: This column lists the number of Discussion Board comments created by the user. Clicking a number link opens the Discussion Board page listing all of the selected user's Discussion Board comments in the course.
  • Customize Retention Center: This column shows the number of triggered rules and the number of total rules that may trigger a warning. For example, 3/5 means the user has triggered three rules out of five. Clicking on the data in this column will display a page showing the Retention Center status for the user.
  • View Grades: This column provides direct links to the full Grade Center.

Follow these steps to do it.

To view the Performance Dashboard, you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on the [Evaluation] link to expand it.
  2. Click on [Performance Dashboard].

To print the Performance Dashboard, you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on the [Evaluation] link to expand it.
  2. Click on [Performance Dashboard].
  3. Click on the printer icon in the right hand corner of the heading.
print preview performance dashboard

Want more information?

Using the Performance Dashboard [webpage] [video].
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

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Published on 1 Comment on Bb Tip #130: Lock Discussion Threads

If you setup a discussion forum with date and time restrictions, once the scheduled available time has passed the forum becomes unavailable and disappears from the student's view. If you would like students to be able to read posts once the date restriction has past but not be able to submit new posts, you can "lock" the discussion thread to prevent new posts. Students may read the threads but not make any additions or modifications.

image showing how to lock db thread

Follow these steps to do it.

To lock discussion board threads, you should:

  1. Open the Forum in the Discussion Board.
  2. Select the threads you want to lock (you can select all threads by checking the box to the left of “Date” in the header).
  3. Click the [Thread Actions] menu button and choose [Lock] from the list. Verify the status under the discussion board shows "Locked".
  4. Once you have successfully locked the thread, remember to go back and edit the forum to remove the date and time restrictions so that the students can see the threads.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions are available [PDF].
Drip-feeding course contents to students.
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #129: Course Calendar

You can use the course calendar to provide students with dates for course-related events. Instructors can create events on their respective course calendars. Everyone who is enrolled in the course will see the course-related events in their calendar.

The calendar displays a consolidated view of all institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events. You can view events by day, week, or month. Color coding makes it easy to distinguish which course each event is tied to.

image of a Blackboard calendar

Common calendar entries include:

  • Instructor office hours
  • Due dates for assignments
  • Exams
  • Guest speakers
  • Meetings

Course items with due dates are automatically created in the course calendar. If an instructor edits an item to change the due date, the calendar gets updated as well.

Drag and drop works in the calendar. Instructors can drag and drop an item onto a new date to change the due date.

As a shortcut to view, edit, or grade attempts for an item, instructors can simply click on the item in the calendar.

You cannot import external calendars into Blackboard. However, you can import your Bb Learn calendar into an external calendar application (i.e., Google Calendar, iCal).

Follow these steps to do it.

To create a new event on the course calendar:

  1. On the calendar, click the plus (+) to create a new event or click a specific date to create an event.
  2. Type the New Event Name.
  3. Select the course calendar to associate the event to.
  4. Select the Start and End times.
  5. Type the Event Description.
  6. Click [Save].

To add a course item with a due date to the course calendar:

When you create items with due dates, the calendar event automatically appears on the course calendar. Content items with adaptive release and availability rules are shown on the calendar at the appropriate time, ensuring that the release of an item on the course calendar is in sync with the availability rules you set.

To edit or delete an event:

Click the event to edit or delete it. OR

Click and drag the event to another date in the main view (or on the smaller monthly view) to change the due date of the event. The time of the event and calendar it is associated with remain the same.

If the event is a course item that has date availability rules set, you should edit the item to adjust the availability dates.

Want more information?

Working with the Calendar
Using the Blackboard Calendar (video)
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

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Published on 1 Comment on Bb Tip #128: Drip-Feeding

"Drip-feeding" is a term you will likely hear in association with online and hybrid learning. While the term "drip-feeding" is new to many people, most are familiar with the concept.

faucet with water dripping slowing

Drip-feeding is "scheduled lesson delivery." Essentially, professors can determine when they want certain content in their courses to become available. Professors can configure their course content and then set-up the sequential delivery of that content. Once set-up, the Learning Management System (LMS) will auto-drip the content to students without any more work by the professor.

The “Date and Time Restrictions” in Blackboard control when items are available to students. Utilizing date/time restrictions allow faculty to create content at a time that is convenient to them and make it visible to students at the appropriate time. This can be very handy because faculty can set-up their course content well in advance of when they want it to be available to their students. For example, create all the course content at the beginning of the semester, set the date/time restrictions, and then let Blackboard auto-drip the content.

Some professors may be hesitant to set date/time restrictions for the entire semester because assignment dates/times may need to be adjusted as the semester progresses. This means, the professor would have to go into the content items to adjust the dates/times when necessary. The Date Management tool can simplify this process. The Date Management tool allows professors to easily change due dates, availability dates, and adaptive release dates at one time (all on one page). The Date Management tool will save professors some time as they will not have to edit each individual item to adjust the dates/times. My Bb Tip #125: Date Management blog post explains how to use this tool.

Drip-feeding course content will not work for every situation. However, if you think it can work for you, give it a try.

Follow these steps to do it.

To set Date and Time Restrictions, you should:

  1. Log in to Blackboard and access the relevant area of your course.
  2. Add new content or edit existing content.
  3. In the Options section, you will find the option to Select Date and Time Restrictions. Select the availability options you require: Display After, Display Until or both.

    4. navigation

  4. Use the date picker to select the date you want the content to be available.
    5. navigation
  5. Use the time picker to select the time you want the content to be available.
    6. navigation
  6. Click [Submit] to save the changes.

Want more information?

Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Photo credit: work found at ndbutter / CC BY NC-ND 2.0