Friday, December 16, 2016

Blackboard Fall wrap-up

Blackboard instructors,

 

Hope your semester went well. To wrap up Fall 2016, please note the following:

 

  1. Make sure you: a) archive your course, b) check the accuracy of your grades, c) archive your emails, d) download your Grade Center, and e) make your course unavailable to students when they no longer need access. If your Total column in the Grade Center is set to Calculate as a Running Total and display as a Percentage, please make sure your grades are accurate by either turning Calculate as a Running Total off or entering zeros for missing assignments. If you have hidden columns in which you entered points possible but did not score students, check that you have not included those points in the Grade Center calculations and have not made the columns invisible to students. If your points possible don’t look correct, make sure all visible columns are included in the calculations.

 

Also, there has been recent emphasis by accreditors and federal regulators to prove instructor-student contact in DE and hybrid courses, so archiving your emails has become increasingly important. More information, and instructions on the tasks above, can be found in the document “Closing your course”.

  1. Once you determine that students no longer need access to your class, make it unavailable to them. To make the class unavailable, go to Control Panel - Customization - Properties, and for Make Course Available, click No, then click Submit.

  2. Click here to view information on copying courses. Important: If you are using publisher materials and need to copy them into your new course, make sure you scroll down the Copy Course page, and under the heading Course Cartridge Materials, check the box. This is a very easy box to miss because it is located further down on the page from the rest of the checkboxes. Please make sure you check this box each time you copy a course. If you don't, your exams will be copied, but the pools that house the questions, do not.

  3. The LPC DE Committee developed recommendations, along with answers to frequently asked questions, that are intended to aid instructors—particularly new instructors—in determining how many students to add and when to add those students near the beginning of the semester. View the recommendations and FAQs.

  4. If you are teaching a DE class in the Spring and contact your students prior to the start of the semester, encourage them to attend an Online Learning Orientation. I will be conducting one for students in Blackboard classes and one for students in Canvas classes. View dates, times, and more info.

  5. If you haven’t requested your Spring course(s) yet, log into Class-Web, click Menu for Faculty, and click the Bb link at the bottom. Keep in mind that I won’t be able to approve course requests between Dec. 21 and Jan. 3 because...

  6. I will be off Dec. 21-Jan. 3. I’ll be back Jan. 4. Jeff Sperry will return to his former position on a short-term basis Jan. 9. He’ll be working approximately 20 hours a week through Feb. 16. While he’s here, he will be handling all of the Blackboard issues while I concentrate on launching Canvas.

 

Happy Holidays,

Scott

 

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