Category: Information Page 23 of 31

Can’t navigate within a course?

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On November 3, 2010

In Information

If you can log onto UR Blackboard and can get to your course but cannot seem to find a way to “move around” (navigate) within your course, maybe you have inadvertently hidden the course menu (see screen capture below).

pic1.gif

You might not see the “Home Page” because some courses have it set up to bring students to some other page when accessing the course.  The main thing to notice is that there is no course menu (set of navigation buttons) on the left side.  To make the course menu reappear, look for the right-facing arrow on the far left side of the browser window in the dark blue area) and click it to toggle the course menu to reappear.  You should then see the course menu (see figure below).

pic2.gif

The 2011 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program is now open!

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On November 3, 2010

In Information

The following is an announcement from Blackboard, Inc.

Since its launch in 2000, the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program aims to help faculty use e-Learning technology more effectively by identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses.  Using a rubric, instructors and course designers are able to evaluate how well their own course conforms to best practices for Course Design, Interaction & Collaboration, Assessment and Learner Support.

Please consider participating in the 2011 Exemplary Course Program by submitting a course of your own or volunteering to be a reviewer or both!  The deadline for nominating your course for review is January 18, 2011. Feel free to forward this message on to faculty or instructional designers you think would benefit from participating in this program.

There are many benefits to participating in the Exemplary Course Program:

  • Learn course design best practices to improve the engagement, collaboration, assessment and learner support within your own courses
  • Develop a fresh perspective by seeing how other instructors and designers from your discipline or area of interest are developing their courses
  • Apply lessons learned from the Exemplary Course Rubric to your own courses or those you are helping to develop
  • Receive detailed feedback on your own course development on the best practices you are employing or areas in which it can be improved
  • Gain professional development experience and recognition for your accomplishments and participation in the program

This is a valuable learning experience for even the most seasoned instructor or designer.

To learn more about the 2011 Exemplary Course Program visit www.blackboard.com/ecp where you will find information on how to:

We hope that you will be participating in this year’s Exemplary Course Program. If you have any questions please send an email to ecp@blackboard.com.

Best Regards,
The Client Success Team

 

Blackboard Mobile Learn and Mobile Devices

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On September 27, 2010

In Information

For the last year, Blackboard has supported a new feature for people accessing the system via Apple devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad using wi-fi (by wi-fi, not by cellular connection) and by Sprint Android (only by Sprint network, not by wi-fi).  We occasionally get reports from members of the UR community that opening the application on their devices returns a message that the University of Richmond has not enabled the service.  This is not true as we first enabled this service Spring 2010 and have not made any changes.  When trying to access UR Blackboard through Blackboard Mobile learn app, mobile devices actually go through a corporate Blackboard server before accessing our UR servers.  As best as we can tell, there are two frequent causes of the aforementioned error:

(1) Blackboard seems to frequently update the mobile device apps and the recently outdated version often loses compatibility.

(2) Blackboard’s servers temporarily lose the ability to mediate the connection between the mobile device and the person’s institution’s Blackboard.

To best minimize these issues, people who want to use their mobile devices with UR Blackboard need to keep their Blackboard Mobile Learn applications as frequently updated as possible, and they should have a contingency such as using their device’s web browser with UR Blackboard if that is practical.

Journals: New in Blackboard 9

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On September 26, 2010

In Information, New Features

Journals allow your students to engage in reflective practice throughout the semester in a private platform that only the instructor and the student can access.

You can create a journal by going to:

  • Control Panel > Course Tools > Journals
  • The Tools menu item > Journals
  • A content area > Add Interactive Tool > Journal

This viewlet from Blackboard’s On-Demand Learning Center will take you through the Journal creation process step-by-step.

During creation, you can also specify whether you’d like students’ journals to be graded. Journals can be indexed monthly or weekly, and instructors can comment on students’ entries. (Note: Formatting of comments is currently unavailable, but a Blackboard representative said this feature would be available in a future version.)

Groups can also have journals. Journals and Blogs are VERY similar in groups, but there are some subtle (and important) differences:

  • In a Group, you can select whether all members of the group can view the journal (essentially, a blog), or members have individual journals (leave “Permit Members to View Journal” unchecked). Blogs are available to all members of the group by default.
  • Blogs have the option of anonymous comments and entries. Journals do not.

Once you’ve named your journal, please be careful not to edit the link; doing so may be associated with a bug.

Another idea: Journals can also be used by students to post short, written homework assignments that are all displayed on one screen.

If you have any questions, please send an email to blackboard@richmond.edu .

9.1 Bugs to be aware of

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On September 13, 2010

In Information, Warnings

Updated: September 15, 2010

Most of these bugs and known product defects Blackboard are minor, but please keep these in mind when contacting your technology liaison for Blackboard support.

1. Send Email

The Send Email screen looks strange in IE8 via the Control Panel. The Submit bar runs through the Attach File link.

Workaround: If this impedes your sending e-mail, send e-mail through the Tools menu item > Send Email.

2. Strange text after setting External Link menu item to open in new window

If you’re going to add an External Link as a menu item, do not set it to open in a new window. If you do, Blackboard adds strange text to it and gives the user a 404 Not Found error when s/he clicks the link.

3. Save as Draft when posting to Discussion Board

When using Save as Draft, you may receive an error and lose your submission. Blackboard has confirmed this is a bug and will be fixed in a future version.

Workaround: Compose your response in a text editor and paste into Blackboard only when you’re ready to submit.

4. Tasks appearing in arbitrary order

Ideally, tasks would appear in a student’s Tasks module in order of priority and due date. However, they only appear this way on the My Blackboard page; in the Home Page they appear in an arbitrary order. Blackboard has also confirmed this bug, which will be fixed in a future version.

Workaround: If you use Tasks, be mindful of this and tell your students they may not appear in order of date due. If you’re using Tasks but not Announcements, consider creating a Tasks tool link in your course menu and setting Tasks to your course entry point. From the Tasks tool link, students can sort tasks by Title, Priority or Due Date.

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