Author: Jon Page 23 of 24

Disabling the Digital Dropbox

Sick and tired of hearing students “save” instead of “submit” their digital dropbox files? With Blackboard 8, you can create assignments, which students submit and can then be accessed from Grade Center, and remove the Digital Dropbox functionality altogether. This eliminates the excuse of, “I thought I sent it to you…” When in actuality, the student saved the assignment but forgot to hit “submit.”

Disabling the Dropbox:

This is rather simple. In the Control Panel under Manage Tools, select Tool Availability. Uncheck the box under Available next to Dropbox.

Creating an Assignment:

In the desired content area, go into Edit Mode. (You can get there from the Control Panel, too.) On the drop-down menu, click +Assignment. Fill out the form fields on the following page, and once you hit Submit, your assignment appears in a column in the Grade Center.

Viewing a Submitted Assignment:

In Grade Center, find the column containing assignments to be graded. When a student has submitted an assignment, you’ll see a white exclamation point surrounded by a green box. Click the down arrow and select Grade Details. When you get to the next screen, under Actions click View Attempt.This screen will let you view the student’s comments and attached files, and will let you provide feedback to the student.

“Grade Center” and “Safari 4 Beta for PC” issues

bb8sf4b.jpg

No need for alarm – it’s not too bad. However, it seems there are some intermittent errors with Apple’s new Safari 4 beta browser for PC and Blackboard 8’s Grade Center.  Apparently the javascript engine has been rewritten to make it more fast and efficient with AJAX apps (like Grade Center).  For those of you noticing improper loading, misaligned tables and/or missing graphics – have no alarm, you can always use Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer and everything will work just fine! Stay tuned on planned bug fixes from Apple.

Note to all Mac users of Safari 4 beta: Fortunately this notice does not affect you.

All about Grade Center from CNDLS at Georgetown

Take a look at this comprehensive resource on Blackboard 8’s Grade Center. Thirty-two FAQs detail everything from rearranging your Grade Center items to weighting grades by item and category. This guide tells you how to do what you did in BB7 in the new version in an easy-to-read format. Check it out, and comment on the tip that was most useful to you!

CNDLS: Grades (Faculty FAQs)

Using Blackboard to augment class meetings

One of UR’s own SCS distance-education professors, Paula Gordon, writes about the positive pedagogical impact of a course management system, particularly Blackboard. I thought this piece might be particularly interesting for UR faculty, particularly those who haven’t yet dived in to the more advanced functionality of Blackboard or another LMS, to read.

Using Blackboard to augment class meetings

Blackboard 8 Grade Center video tutorials

Gary Friesen, Directory of Academic Technology at Taylor University created and compiled a great collection of Grade Center tutorials that are available to guests on TU’s Blackboard website.  If you’re new to the Grade Center, these tutorials will have you up and running in no time! Take a look at his tutorials here.

http://grfriesen.typepad.com/becoming_a_millennial/2008/11/210-blackboard-grade-center-22-tutorial-videos.html

Once logged in as a guest, click Grade Center 8.0 on the left colum. Be sure to have Windows Media Player or VLC Player on your Mac installed to see the videos (theyre in .wmv format).

[Update as of 3/13/2010: Access is denied when trying to view these videos – no confirmation yet if they will be back online]

Page 23 of 24

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén