Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Collaboration Tools - Best Practices

As we wrap up our month of blog posts on collaborative tools within Blackboard, we would like to focus on some of the best practices for implementing these tools, as outlined within the official Blackboard Help pages (linked within each title below), as well as sharing some additional resources that offer ideas for effectively using these collaborative tools within your courses.

Best Practice: Interactive Tools in Action - Visit this link for lists of suggestions for using each of the collaborative tools, as well as ideas for using the tools in combination.
Effective use of interactive and collaborative tools is essential for developing a successful online community.  While "students report that their satisfaction with online courses relates to instructor presence, and the collaboration and sense of community they experience" (goo.gl/MwySFF), these tools can serve effectively within traditional face-to-face courses as well.  Choosing the right interactive tools, based on course goals, can help to effectively build community by encouraging interaction and development of ideas.  

Best Practice: Grading Reflective Writing
There is much debate over whether instructors should grade reflective writing.  Some give points for completion, rather than assigning a grade to students' ideas.  Instead of assigning a score, they provide feedback to students' ideas in the form of comments.  This helps students to value the writing process, rather than focusing on details for the sake of earning points.  For those who choose to assign grades, it can be very helpful to include a rubric within the tool, and use this as a guide for evaluating the content.  

Best Practice: Commenting on Reflective Writing
"Good job" doesn't provide helpful feedback for students.  Instead, it is important for instructors to focus on providing specific and meaningful comments that will "encourage students to write more, examine their own writing and learning, and feel comfortable when sharing their thoughts and opinions" (goo.gl/hYDvfE).  It is also essential to focus on the big idea and provide positive comments regarding the student contributions.  Since the Blackboard tools allow students to comment back, this allows for dialogue and opportunities to continually encourage students with their writing.

Additional Resources




For additional assistance with Blackboard collaboration tools, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.


Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, December 2 at 12noon or Thursday, December 3 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.

There will be no ICC Blackboard blog series during the month of December.  Our January blog series will focus on assignments and will include topics about inline grading, SafeAssign, and rubrics.



Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Blogs, Journals, & Wikis

Blogs, Journals, and Wikis are collaboration tools similar to Discussion Boards, but each has some variation, as well as a different interface.  There are various ways to incorporate any of these tools into your Blackboard courses:
  1. Add a Tool Link to the course navigation menu (Discussion Boards are there by
    default, and others can be added)
  2. Add a Tool Link within any content area (these can link either to the full tool or only to one particular instance of the tool)
  3. Make any of the collaboration tools available within course groups


BLOGS

A blog, or "web log," is an online forum for sharing information with others.  Blog entries are typically more lengthy than discussion board entries, and blogs are typically updated frequently.  Most blogs include a commenting feature, allowing opportunities for interaction.  Blogs are an effective way for sharing ideas, information, and even artifacts of sorts (via the attachment feature).  Within Blackboard there are three types of blogs: course blogs, where the instructor sets the topic, and all students can add entries and comment on entries; individual blogs, where each student adds entries to their own blog, and other students can view and comment on the entries; and group blogs, where group members can post entries, and other students can view and comment on the entries.  For more information visit Blackboard Help's Blogs page.

JOURNALS
Journals are very similar to blogs.  The primary difference is that, within Blackboard, Journals are set to be private by default, meaning they are only visible to the instructor - not to any other students within the course (unless the instructor chooses to change these default settings).  Journals could be particularly useful as a self-reflective tool for students, where they could reflect on the course, course-related materials, the learning process, or their own progress within the course.  They could also be useful tools for the writing process, as instructors could guide students and provide suggestions on drafts of a written project.  Both instructors and students could engage in conversation via comments to a journal entry.  Students can make multiple entries for a single journal topic, and journals can either be graded or used only for communication purposes.  For more information visit Blackboard Help's Journals page.

WIKIS
Wikis are yet another collaborative tool available within Blackboard.  The primary difference between Wikis and the other collaborative tools is that any course member can add content to and edit a Wiki, making it a truly collaborative experience, where information gradually built upon.  It is also possible to track changes and additions and to revert to an earlier version, if necessary.  Wikis are an effective means for serving as a repository of information compiled by course members.  For more information visit Blackboard Help's Wikis page.  For ideas about using Wikis, visit Best Practices: Wikis in Action.




The ICC Teaching and Learning Center staff is available to help you build and incorporate any of these tools into your Blackboard courses.  
Stay tuned for next week's blog post, where we'll share some ideas and tips for best practices when using discussion boards, blogs, journals, and wikis.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Discussion Boards

Discussion Boards are a commonly-used Blackboard feature that can serve various purposes (list taken from Blackboard Help - Discussions):
  • An online meeting place for social interaction among peers
  • An additional medium for collaboration and the exchange of ideas
  • A medium to pose questions about homework assignments, readings, and course content
  • A way to demonstrate the understanding or application of course material
  • A record of discussion that members can review at a later point
  • A graded activity that demonstrates understanding or application of course material
View Blackboard Learn's video (below) for a comprehensive overview of how discussions work:


The possibilities for incorporating discussion boards into a course, be it online or face-to-face, are numerous.  Instructors could create a number of forums that present questions, and students could answer by creating new threads within the forum and interacting with one another within these threads.  Questions could be related to content from the textbook, current events/issues related to course content, or extensions of in-class discussions.  Instructors could also create a number of threads in relation to a forum topic (restricting students from creating new threads), and students could choose to respond to one or two threads of choice or respond to threads according to group assignments from the instructor.  Visit Blackboard Help's official page, About Forums and Threads, for additional information.

We typically recommend including a general questions forum that could be called something like "Ask the Instructor."  Encourage students to use this forum to ask general questions about the course or assignments (not personal questions about issues like grades), rather than emailing questions to you.  You might even consider allowing students to post anonymously to this forum, as some may be more likely to ask questions if their name is not connected to it.

Blackboard Help's Set Up Discussions page also provides several helpful tips for developing effective discussions, including defining participation requirements, crafting effective questions, encouraging new ideas, and moderating forums.  There are several options available in terms of setting how much control you allow students to have within the forum.  This help page also discusses options for making discussion forums and threads available to students via either the navigation menu or tool links within course areas - it would be helpful to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each option.  TLC staff is available to help you explore options and determine which method will work best in each of your course settings.






Visit Blackboard Help's official page on Discussions for additional information, ideas, and links to supplemental topics related to Blackboard discussions.

In the next couple of weeks we'll focus on other collaborative Blackboard tools like Blogs, Journals, and Wikis, as well as best practices for using any of the tools individually or in combination.  

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Performance Dashboard

As with the Course Reports and Retention Center, the Performance Dashboard for any Blackboard course can also be accessed under the Evaluation area of the Blackboard Control Panel.

The Performance Dashboard provides an overview into all user activity within the course.  From this one area, instructors can monitor the following information (if you have each feature enabled within your course) about each user within a course.
(image taken from Blackboard Help's Performance Dashboard page)

  • Date/Time of last course access
  • Days since last course access
  • Review Status - indicates how many items the user has reviewed if you use the review status feature
  • Adaptive Release - clicking on the folder will display a new window with an overview of course areas (for which Adaptive Release is enabled) that a user has accessed (learn more about Adaptive Release at Blackboard Help's Release Content page) - the following symbols are used to indicate user access

  • Discussion Board - clicking the displayed number opens a page displaying information about all discussion board posts from that particular user, including the total posts, date of last post, average post length, minimum/maximum post length, and average post position within each forum

  • Customize Retention Center - displays number of rules a user has triggered out of the total number of retention center rules; clicking the displayed number opens a page showing Retention Center status for a particular user
  • View Grades - provides a direct link to the Full Grade Center

Any of the columns can be sorted in 
in either ascending or descending order.  Clicking on the print icon will open a new window that displays information in a printer-friendly format.  


For a video overview of the Performance Dashboard, visit Blackboard OnDemand's Performance Dashboard tutorial.  For additional details, visit Blackboard Help's Performance Dashboard page.





For additional assistance with Blackboard Reports and Evaluation, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.


Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, November 4 at 12noon or Thursday, November 5 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.



Our November blog series will focus on collaboration tools (discussion boards, blogs, journals, and wikis).

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Retention Center

Instructors can access the Retention Center either under the Evaluation menu of the Blackboard Control Panel or from the My Blackboard drop-down menu in the upper-right area of Blackboard.  See both methods for accessing the Retention Center in the image below (taken from Blackboard's official help page for the Retention Center):


Blackboard's Retention Center (formerly known as the "Early Warning System") provides instructors with a visual overview of student activity and progress within a given course.  This system, which requires no initial setup to function but can be customized to suit your preferences, offers an effective means for monitoring student progress and easily identifying which students are at risk within your course.  Additionally, pre-written messages are available to email to at-risk students, encouraging them to take immediate action.

Check out Blackboard's video for an overview of the Retention Center and its features:



There are four pre-configured default rules for the Retention Center:
  • Course Activity - Activity in the last 1 week(s) is 20% below course average
  • Course Access - Last access more than 5 day(s) ago
  • Grade - External Grade is 25% below class average
  • Missed Deadline - 1 deadline(s) have been missed by more than 0 days

Since these are already established, there is no setup required on the part of the instructor; however, any of the default rules can be customized, and new rules can also be added.  The Course Activity and Grade rules use the rest of students in that particular course as the norm, while the Course Access and Missed Deadline rules are individually-based.  The numbers used for measurement within any of these rules can be modified.  

Visiting the Retention Center will display an At-Risk Table, providing a visual overview of student activity and progress within the given course (as displayed in the video) and helping instructors to easily identify at-risk students.  Instructors can drill down into the Retention Center to view details about individual students and then choose when to email students to alert them of any issues, as well as suggesting actions to be taken.  Emails are pre-written but can be customized by the instructor.  This offers an effective means for viewing overall student activity without having to individually monitor each student's interactions to identify any potential issues.

Additionally, instructors can even monitor their own activity within a course to help you "become more aware of how your behaviors are (or are not) contributing to student success" (https://en-us.help.blackboard.com/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/130_Student_Performance/010_Retention_Center).  This information can only be viewed by the instructor and can be used to help keep yourself on track or recognize which areas might require your attention.  

For additional details and customization options of the Retention Center, view Blackboard's official Retention Center Help page.  Visit us again next week to learn more about monitoring students via the Performance Dashboard.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Course Reports

Under the Evaluation menu of the Blackboard Control Panel, instructors can select the Course Reports option to run various forms of reports that monitor student usage and activity within a course.  Different types of reports will allow instructors to tell how much time particular students have spent within a course, as well as which areas of the course they accessed (to some degree).  


Report Types


All descriptions below of report types were taken directly from the Blackboard Course Reports page with additional details taken from Blackboard Help's Course Reports page.


  • All User Activity inside Content Areas:  displays a summary of all user activity inside Content Areas (any button on the course navigation menu that does not link only to a specific Blackboard tool) for the course
  • Course Activity Overview:  displays overall activity within a single course, sorted by student and date; data includes the total and average time spent per user and the total amount of activity the user had in the course

    You can also run a report for Student Overview for Single Course by clicking on an individual student's name.  This report can help you determine which days of the week students are active in your course and see how much time overall students spend (taken from About Course Report Types).  
  • Overall Summary of User Activity:  displays user activity for all areas of the course, as well as activity dates, times, and days of the week

    Use this report to view student access as well as how often course tools are used 
    (taken from About Course Report Types).  
  • Single Course User Participation Report:  displays detailed statistics on submissions (assignments, tests, discussions, blogs, journals) for all users in the course during a specified time frame; items need not be graded to be included in the report and are provided in an Excel spreadsheet (taken from About Course Report Types)
  • Student Overview for Single Course:  displays an individual student's activity within a course, sorted by date; data includes total overall time the student spent in the course, as well as detailed information about the student's activity, such as which items and Content Areas the student accessed and the time spent on each

    Use this report to check a particular student's course activity (taken from About Course Report Types).  
  • User Activity in Forums:  displays a summary of user activity in Discussion Board forums for the course; allows instructors to see which forums are used most
  • User Activity in Groups:  displays a summary of user activity in Groups for the course; allows instructors to see how active students are in their groups

Generating a Report

  1. From the Course Reports page, select the drop-down menu next to the type of report you wish to generate, and click Run.
  2. Select report specifications on the Run Reports page.
      • Format (PDF, HTML, Excel, Word)
      • Start and End Dates
      • Students/Users (to select multiple students/users, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on each name)
  3. Click Submit.
      • PDF and HTML formats will open in a new window
      • Excel and Word formats prompt you to save the file first
  4. Select one of the following tasks once the report has run:
      • Download Report  (to save it to the Downloads folder on your computer)
      • Run a New Report  (to enter different criteria or run a different report type)
  5. Click OK.



    Contact the Teaching & Learning Center at any time with questions about Blackboard's Course Reports.

    In the following posts this month, we'll cover the additional areas of the Evaluation menu: Performance Dashboard and Retention Center.  

    Wednesday, September 30, 2015

    Grade Center Reporting

    Grade Center Reporting within Blackboard offers options for creating and printing reports for either your entire Grade Center or for individual students or projects.  Customized reports based on specific criteria can also be generated.  Individual reports can be printed for each each student.  These can also be saved as PDFs for instructor records - it can be very helpful to create an individual report for each student at the end of a semester and save these as PDFs so that you have them for future reference, if needed.  Check out Blackboard OnDemand's video for Creating a Grade Report.

    Grade Center reports can be created from the Reports menu on the action bar.  You can then select options to be included within the report.



    Grade History

    Grade History can also be accessed from the Reports drop-down list within the Full Grade Center.  The Grade History page records all activity and changes within the Grade Center and can be filtered to display a specific date range (1 day, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, 6 months, all) or to display items by column name, score, or date.  The Grade History for a course can be downloaded and saved as an Excel file.  Watch Viewing and Downloading Grade History for a video tutorial of this process.


    Grade Center Statistics

    Statistics can be viewed within the Blackboard Grade Center for both users and columns.  Users' statistics pages will provide information about a student's ID, contact information, and items completed.  Column statistics pages include information about a graded item, including average, median, and standard deviation.  There are several viewing and filtering options available on both statistics pages.

    Download Grade Center

    From within the Full Grade Center, you can download a copy of the Grade Center to an Excel spreadsheet.  This will allow you to have full access to scores within the Grade Center outside of Blackboard, should any questions arise over student grades, without the need to restore an entire archived course.  This does not save student submissions or your feedback (archiving the course will do that), but does allow you to have access to all grades.  This should be done for every Blackboard course once a semester ends and grades have been entered but can also be done at any time during the semester.  The following guides, provided by the Teaching and Learning Center provide step-by-step instructions, as well as additional explanations.




    For additional assistance with the Blackboard Grade Center, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.


    Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, October 7 at 12noon or Thursday, October 8 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.



    Our November blog series will focus on the Blackboard reports.

    Wednesday, September 23, 2015

    Managing the Grade Center

    Blackboard's Grade Center is actually very complex - in this week's post, we'll cover a variety of ways that you can customize the Grade Center to help it work more effectively for you.  

    All of the areas described below can be found within the Manage drop-down menu within the Full Grade Center (shown to the right).  Each of the headings below links to an official Blackboard help page that includes step-by-step instructions for managing and customizing any of these areas:


    Grading Schema

    Grading schema are set by default to a 90/80/70/60 grading scale.  By default, a numeric score (points) shows in the Grade Center when an item is graded.  If you choose to show letters instead of points - or to display a letter grade within a Total column - the letter will be determined based on the Grading Schema.  This can be customized if you use a different grading scale.  You can also create different types of grading schema, other than letters, such as Pass/Fail, Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory, or ones based on a numeric or other rating criteria.


    Color Coding

    Rules based on either grades or status can be set to color code the Grade Center grid to provide a visual overview of student information.  Colors are only visible in the instructor's Grade Center; students will never be able to view these.  Rules for grading statuses of In Progress, Needs Grading, or Exempt are already created, but background and text colors for the cells need to be set if you wish to use these.  Instructors can also set custom criteria so that grades that fall above/below or within a range of a certain percentage will appear with a colored background/text.  Check out the video overview for color coding the Grade Center:

     


    Categories

    Categories are used for grouping related columns together, particularly for the purpose of using a weighted grade system.  Categories can also be used to filter your view of the Grade Center to view columns associated with only one category, to create a Smart View (see topic below), or to create a printable report of all columns associated with a specific category.  By default, there are eight categories included in the Grade Center: Assignment, Blog, Discussion, Journal, Self and Peer, Survey, Test, Wiki (when the tool is available and you created a gradable wiki).  One of these eight categories is automatically assigned to the Grade Center column when you create a gradable item within any of the categories.  While the default categories cannot be deleted, instructors do have the ability to create additional custom categories that fit their own courses.


    Smart Views

    Smart Views provide a focused view of the Grade Center based on either specific columns, categories, or students.  Once you create a Smart View, the information is saved within your course to be viewed again.  By default, there are Smart Views for Assignments and Tests that are saved as favorites and display under the Full Grade Center label on the navigation panel.  You can switch between Full Grade Center and any Smart View at any time.  Sometimes, when multiple sections of classes are enrolled into the same Blackboard course, Smart Views are helpful for seeing a focused view of each section within the Grade Center.  Smart Views can also be created as part of the group setup process.  These are very helpful when there are numerous students enrolled in the course, and you want to only view a select group or section at a time.


    Row Visibility / Column Organization

    Rows can be hidden within a Grade Center - this is especially useful if a student has withdrawn from your course and you have made them unavailable so that they can no longer access the course.  Hiding their row in the Grade Center will hide it from your view, and you can always show it again if you should need to access any data about the student.

    Additionally, you can select column organization to rearrange any columns in the Grade Center, freeze columns in the top table so that they remain stationary as you scroll across the Grade Center, hide columns from the instructor view (this is useful if you have entered grades for an entire column and want to hide it from the Grade Center so that you don't have to scroll past every column to enter new grades), show hidden columns, and change a column's category or grading period.  

    Check out the following video tutorial for additional information about customizing the Grade Center:







    See Blackboard's official help page for details about Customizing the Grade Center.  
    Contact the Teaching & Learning Center at any time with questions about the Blackboard Grade Center.

    In next week's post we'll discuss grading reports and steps for downloading the Grade Center to Excel.  Our Blackboard Users' Group will meet on October 7 & 8.

    Wednesday, September 16, 2015

    Grade Center Columns

    Adding Columns to the Grade Center

    Any item that has points associated with it (assignment, test, discussion board, journal, etc.) in your Blackboard course will automatically generate a column in the Grade Center.  If you are collecting an assignment in the classroom, instead of via Blackboard, you can manually create columns in the Grade Center from the Create Column button at the start of the action bar.  Visit Blackboard's official help page for more information about Grade Columns.


    Default/Frozen Columns

    There are eight columns that appear by default in the Full Grade Center.  These can be customized (frozen, hidden, moved) within the Manage > Column Organization area of the Grade Center - we'll cover this in more detail in next week's post:
    • Last Name/First Name: these are frozen by default, meaning they will always display in place, even as you scroll across the Grade Center (other columns can also be frozen, if you wish)
    • Last Access: indicates the last date each student accessed your Blackboard course
    • Username/Student ID: both taken from eServices roster; can be hidden if you do not wish to view either or both
    • Availability: indicates whether this course is available to each student; can also be hidden if you wish
    • Weighted Total/Total: see next section

    Total vs. Weighted Total Columns

    By default, Blackboard's Grade Center - in the instructor view - includes both a Total column and a Weighted Total column.  The Weighted Total column is used to help you arrive at a final grade if you weight grades.  The Total column is used to arrive at a final grade if you use a points system.  Instructors need to decide which to use and delete the other, so as not to confuse students.  

    In the Teaching & Learning Center we recommend using the total column, rather than the weighted column.  It's much less confusing for students, as they can easily understand how their grade is calculated when a Total column is used.  Additionally, grades are always accurate and are not skewed throughout the semester due to category weightings.  Instructional Technologists in the Teaching & Learning Center are available to meet with you to review your weighted grade system and help you convert it to a total points system so that the same weightings still apply.

    If you are using a weighted total, you need to ensure that each item in the Grade Center has a category assigned to it so that all calculations will figure correctly.  You also need to ensure that each category has a value assigned within the Weighted Total column and that the categories are appropriately weighted - either equally or proportionally.




    Visit Blackboard's official help page for more about the Grade Center Interface.  Contact the Teaching & Learning Center at any time with questions about the Blackboard Grade Center.

    In the following posts this month, we'll cover grading schema, color codes, categories, Smart Views, column organization, and row visibility, as well as grading reports.  


    Wednesday, August 26, 2015

    Customizing the Navigation Menu

    Default Course Navigation Menu

    There are eight buttons included on the course navigation menu by default when instructors request a new Blackboard course: Announcements, Course Information, Course Content, Discussion Board, My Grades, Send Email, Blackboard Help, and Tools (hidden from students by default).  For more information about how these work and suggested information to be included within each one, view the New Blackboard Course guide.


    Menu Buttons


    The following areas are Tool Links, which means they can perform one specific function: Announcements, Discussion Board, My Grades (only visible from student view), Send Email.  Course Information and Course Content are content areas, which means anything can be added within these areas using the buttons on the action bar (shown below):




    Blackboard Help is a web link that takes students to the official Blackboard Help page for the current version we have installed.  Tools is hidden by default (instructors can show it if they wish) because there are several tools available that are not used in most courses.  Instead of having all tools visible, instructors can add those they wish to use as additional buttons on the navigation menu.  


    Customizing the Navigation Menu


    We recommend keeping the number of buttons on the navigation menu to as few as possible to help student more easily navigate a Blackboard course.  Instructors may customize the navigation menu as much as they would like by adding, deleting, renaming, or rearranging any buttons on the navigation menu.  To make changes to the navigation menu:

    • drop down next to any menu item to rename, hide, or delete the item
    • click on the + sign in the upper-left area of the navigation menu to add a new button (tool link, content link, web link, etc.)
    • click on the left end of a menu item and drag it to rearrange the menu items

    Resources

    For more detailed instructions - and a video - about customizing the navigation menu, visit Instructor Features on the Blackboard Help site.

    For additional assistance with customizing your navigation menu, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.


    Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, September 2 at 12noon or Thursday, September 3 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.

    Our October blog series will focus on the Blackboard Grade Center.






    Wednesday, August 19, 2015

    User Management

    Instructors may choose to manually enroll their students into a Blackboard course site instead of requesting a batch enrollment.  Those who do request a batch enrollment, however, will still need to manually manage any changes that appear on the eServices roster, as there is no link between eServices and Blackboard.  

    To enroll students within a Blackboard course:
    1. Click on the Users/Groups area within your Blackboard course site Control Panel
    2. Select Users
      • If you know the students' usernames, type those directly into the username box.  Multiple usernames should be separated by commas and spaces.
      • If you do not know students' usernames, click on the Browse button to search by first or last name.  (Note: It is best to check your eServices roster and use the exact username, rather than trying to search for a student since there can be multiple students with the same first/last name.)
    3. Once the usernames have been entered, click Submit

    Note:
    It is possible for a student who recently enrolled to be listed on an eServices roster and not yet be available in Blackboard.  Updates are run each morning, so check back daily to see if the student username appears in Blackboard.

    Important: NEVER remove a student from your Blackboard course site once the semester has begun.  Instead, click the drop-down circle next to the student's username in the Users area, and select Change User's Availability in course.  Changing a user's availability to 'No' restricts the student from accessing the course yet retains the student data should you need it in the future (if the student re-enrolls or for date of last attendance information).  


    Learn more about batch enrollments on our Beginning A Semester Blackboard guide.  Next week we'll cover tips for customizing the navigation menu in your Blackboard course sites.





    Wednesday, August 12, 2015

    Batch Enrollment

    At the start of a new semester, instructors have two options for enrolling students into Blackboard courses:
    1. Request a batch enrollment from the Teaching and Learning Center (form available from the Quick Links area of the Teaching & Learning Center web page)
    2. Manually enroll students from the Users area of the Blackboard course (more about this topic will follow in next week's blog post)
    Some tips when choosing to request a batch enrollment:
    • Ensure all former students have been removed from the course - failure to remove former students will result in adding the new/current students to the roster of former/past students in the same site
    • Know where to find your 4-digit class number (eServices roster or class schedule) and Blackboard Course ID (Customization > Properties) 
    • Batch enrollments are completed in the order they are received and cannot be completed at a specific time or on a specific day
    • Change course availability to "No" within Customization > Properties if your batch enrollment is processed before you want students to see the course
    IMPORTANT: A batch enrollment is a snapshot of your eServices roster at the time the batch enroll was processed - there is no link between the roster in eServices and the roster in Blackboard.  
    • It is best to request the batch enroll no earlier than one week before the class is scheduled to start to ensure a more accurate roster.
    • If your class enrollment changes, you must add or remove students manually (or change a user's availability) within the Users area of your Blackboard course.  
    Learn more about batch enrollments on our Beginning A Semester Blackboard guide.  Next week we'll cover the topic of User Management.


    Thursday, August 6, 2015

    2015-2016 Blackboard Blog Topics

    Here's an overview of the monthly topics we'll cover throughout this academic year.  Follow our blog via email, and plan to attend the in-person users' group sessions to learn more about any of these and to exchange ideas with other Blackboard users.
    • August - Beginning A Semester
    • September - Grade Center
    • October - Reports
    • November - Collaboration Tools
    • January - Assignments
    • February - Tests & Pools
    • March - Web Content
    • April - Ending A Semester

    ICC Blackboard Blog & Users' Group

    New in Fall 2015 . . . TLC staff will post Blackboard tips and tricks throughout the year, focusing on a different topic each month.  Faculty and staff can subscribe to blog posts via email, revisit any topic at any time online, and engage with others by posting comments and questions within the blog.  A users’ group will meet in the TLC during the first week of each month to discuss and share ideas about using various Blackboard tools to enhance teaching and learning.  See the calendar for monthly topics and users' group meeting dates.