With a planned upgrade to version 9 in the Summer of 2010, the UR community can expect many new features and an enhanced look and feel for their flagship course management system. Some of the principle additions are; a new course homepage, easier access to course tools and rapid reorganization of the menus without using the “control panel”, new options for self and peer-assessment, and simplified creation and management of groups within a course. Here is a sneak peak: http://www.blackboard.com/release9/
Category: Online Training Materials
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.
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.
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]