Spring 2017 Blackboard instructors,
Information/reminders prior to the start of the Spring semester:
- Please address all of your Blackboard issues to Jeff Sperry as I focus on the Canvas launch. Jeff is working temporarily on a part-time basis until around 2 each day, Monday through Thursday until Feb. 16. His number is 424-1655.
- Make your courses available to students by the beginning of the day Tuesday. If you are not teaching an online or hybrid course and want to wait longer to make your courses available, that’s up to you. To make courses available, go into a course, and click Control Panel - Customization - Properties, and for Make Course Available, click Yes, then click Submit.
- If you want to upload Microsoft Word documents and PowerPoint presentations into Blackboard, please adhere to these updated instructions on how to make them accessible to students with disabilities:
Creating an accessible Word document for the web
Creating an accessible PowerPoint presentation for the web
- The Regular Effective Contact Guidelines, approved by the LPC Academic Senate, state that all Distance Education courses, whether fully online or hybrid, must demonstrate regular effective contact with student. For hybrids, this contact is required not only during on-campus meetings, but it is also required online.
- The LPC DE Committee has 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.
- Do not confuse your students by having both the Messages and Send Email tools available. Messages is an internal email tool that resides in each class, while the Send Email tool routes email sent through Bb to students' and instructors' external email accounts. It is recommended that you only use one of the tools. To hide one of the tools, go to Tools, then click Hide Link next to the tool to hide from students.
- If you use SafeAssign, after performing a course copy or moving an individual SafeAssignment to another course, an additional step is needed to activate the SafeAssignment in the new course. From the Control Panel, click Course Tools, then SafeAssign, then SafeAssign Items, then Synchronize This Course to establish the link between the SafeAssignment and the Central SafeAssign server.
- LPC is launching a new online tutoring service called NetTutor. It is integrated into Canvas. When we establish access information for students outside of Canvas, we’ll let everyone know. View info about NetTutor .
- Here is LPC’s DE drop policy:
The instructor may drop students who miss the first meeting of a course. The first meeting of online or hybrid Distance Education courses is the first day of the class as specified in the class schedule listing. For these courses, instructors may drop students who do not log into their Blackboard course and/or complete indicated activities by the third day of classes. DE instructors may drop students if they have not submitted work and/or accessed the class for two consecutive weeks. For Summer courses, DE instructors may drop students if they have not submitted work and/or accessed the class for one week.
Good luck with your courses!
Scott
