We are aware of students being in Blackboard courses that they have either dropped or not registered for and are attempting to address the issue. Please let us know if you are impacted by this at blackboard@richmond.edu and it is not addressed by the end of the day.
Thank you!
If you are seeing the message “Course Unavailable to Students” you can make the course available using the Qwickly module or by going into the course Control Panel -> Customization -> Properties and then make the course available.
Since all courses are being created without requests and some professors do not use Blackboard. Thus, all courses are created as Unavailable so professors can make the decision when to make the course available to students.
As you begin the Fall 2018 semester, here are some important updates to Blackboard we’d like to share with you.
Automatic Course Creation
All courses will now be created in Blackboard automatically. There is no longer a course request system. Your courses will be displayed in the “My Courses” area on the page after the login screen. All created courses are set to unavailable and must be turned on by the instructor when ready. You can do this using the Qwickly module (http://goqwickly.com/demos/) on the home screen of Blackboard or by going into the course and going to Customization -> Properties -> Availability.
Merging Courses
Since all courses are being automatically created, there is a new way to merge your courses within the Blackboard platform. This creates a “parent/child” relationship where you maintain one course for working with the students. The student will see the course in which they are enrolled as the title of the course but will be directed to the parent course. More information on merging courses can be found here: http://bit.ly/2OAj2eJ
Organize your course list by term
To help you manage all the courses (past, present and future), it is recommended that you turn on “Group by term” in the “My Courses” area. To turn this on, hover over the “My Courses” title bar and click on the gear icon to the right of the title. On the next screen, click on “Group by term”. Once this is on, you can rearrange the terms, select which ones are visible to you, select which ones to expand when first logging on, etc. Step-by-step instructions can be found here: http://bit.ly/2n2CcgI
Viewing student photos after Course Copy
If you copy a previous course into your new course, don’t forget to dismiss the completed notification so that student photos will appear under Tools -> Student Photos. More information can be found here: http://bit.ly/2LV5ZX0v
Students no longer removed from Blackboard courses
Beginning with Summer 2018, students will not be removed from courses until they graduate from the University. This means that if you do not wish for students to have access to your course after the end of the semester, you will need to make the course unavailable. You can do this using the Qwickly module (http://goqwickly.com/demos/) on the home screen of Blackboard or by going into the course and going to Customization -> Properties -> Availability.
We hope you have a successful semester and if we can assist in anyway please contact blackboard@richmond.edu or call 287-6860. For additional assistance please visit https://blog.richmond.edu/blackboard.
Thank you,
Instructors may use the Course Merge Tool when they want to merge enrollments of two sections of the same course (same department and catalog number) or merging different types of courses (two different departments and catalog numbers).
Some instructors would rather manage class enrollments and content in a single Blackboard course rather than separate courses.
The Course Merge Tool copies the student enrollments from one or more “Child” Courses into a “Parent” Course.
After merging the courses, students will see the content from the Parent Course. Students will see the course name as the course they actually enrolled in. All student enrollments from the Child Courses will be added to the Parent Course.
The Course Merge Tool does not copy any content from the Child Courses to the Parent Course.
Note: If you want to copy content from any of the Child Courses to the Parent Course you should do this prior to using the Course Merge Tool. After merging all content should be added to the Parent Course only.
In order to merge courses, the instructor must be enrolled in the Child and Parent Blackboard courses as “Instructor”.
The Child and Parent Blackboard courses must be listed in the same term in the Schedule of Classes.
The Child Courses will be made unavailable and instructors must not make the Child Courses available in the future.
If you need to unmerge your Blackboard courses you will need to contact Blackboard Support by calling 804-287-6860 or email blackboard@richmond.edu. A Blackboard Support staff person will contact you to coordinate unmerging your Blackboard courses.
To merge two or more Blackboard courses follow these steps:
First determine the Parent Course. This is the course where all your content must currently reside.
Open the Parent Course in Blackboard.
In the Control Panel, click on the down arrowhead next to Course Tools (lower left); you will see a list of tools an instructor may use (these tools are not visible to students)
Click on the Course Merge tool and the Course Merge application will start.
The first screen will show you the Parent Course (the course you are currently logged into).
Click on the link to select the Child Courses you want to merge into the Parent Course.
On the Select Child Courses page, check the box for one or more Child Courses.
You should only see courses of the same term where you are enrolled as “Instructor”. The Parent Course should not be in the list of Child Courses you can select.
Click on the Confirm Merge Choices button.
On the confirmation page, read over carefully which course will be the Parent and which course(s) will be the Child(ren).
Click on the Perform Merge Courses button.
You should next see the Course Merge success page.
If you encounter any problems with using the Course Merge tool please contact UR’s Blackboard support team at 804-287-6860 or email Blackboard@richmond.edu. More help information can be read by clicking on the Help Documentation button at the top of this page.
The latest version of Safari causes problems uploading content to Blackboard. It is recommended that you use either Chrome or Firefox instead. This is a known issue with Blackboard, Inc. and will be resolved in a future release. If you have any questions, please contact blackboard@richmond.edu for support.
After the maintenance down time on December 29th, the following change will be reflected in the inline grading feature in Blackboard.
Blackboard’s current service for the implementation of inline grading is through the Crocodoc tool, and Box Inc. (who owns it) has decided to discontinue it. The end-of-life date for Crocodoc is January 15, 2018.
As a result, Blackboard has updated their inline grading capability to leverage the Crocodoc replacement, “Box View”. Box View offers several improvements over Crocodoc, including improved rendering fidelity and expanded support for new file types. The University of Richmond will update our server on December 29th and move to the new Box View.
During this time between December 29, 2017 and January 15, 2018, the Crocodoc service and ability to view previously annotated documents within a browser won’t be available but the rest of Blackboard will function properly. The document viewing capabilities are the only feature affected during the transition.
After the transition, users won’t be able to change the existing annotations made in Crocodoc as all annotations are read-only in the new Box View. The Crocodoc annotations are “burned” into a PDF and users can’t remove or change the annotations. Users can add new annotations with the New Box View annotation tools, but they can’t interact with annotations created in Crocodoc.
This table compares the two annotation services.
|
Functions and Details |
Crocodoc |
New Box View |
|
File types for annotations |
PDF, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, DOC, and DOCX |
Over 100 different file types |
|
Videos and images displayed |
No |
Yes |
|
Course areas |
Original Assignments |
Original Assignments |
|
Annotation types |
Text- and point-based comments, highlighting, and drawing |
Point-based comments and highlighting |
|
Download |
Users download a copy of a student file with the option to download in the original format or in a PDF version that includes the annotations |
Users can download a copy of a student file, but annotations won’t appear |
|
Print function |
No |
Yes |
|
Students |
Can’t add annotations to documents |
Can’t add annotations to documents |
We understand that may have come to rely on Crocodoc when they do inline grading in Blackboard. After we upgrade, the transition to the new Box View will be as seamless as possible. Crocodoc will not be available for a few minutes and then New Box View replaces Crocodoc in the affected course grading areas.
*Comparison view of Crocodoc and New Box View annotations on an assignment
While the Crocodoc service will technically reach end-of-life, the databases that contain student-submitted data and documents won’t be deleted or destroyed. Blackboard is working with Box to define a long-term strategy for the decommission of Crocodoc servers permanently. While we don’t have a timeline available yet, we have no expectation of a decommission of Crocodoc servers.
After the end-of-life date and during the migration, the Crocodoc service will display a “Service Unavailable” message to users.
New Box View will completely replace the Crocodoc feature in Blackboard, with the same general user experience and interface elements. Users will see some slight differences, primarily more streamlined buttons and options.
You shouldn’t expect significant change management for your users. Some users may not notice the change at all due to the similar nature of the UI between the two services.
*Comparison view of Crocodoc and New Box View annotations on an assignment
The transition won’t impact Blackboard’s rubrics or rubric data. Instructors will be able to use the same rubrics within the inline grading interface alongside the new Box View service. Rubrics are a separate feature that doesn’t share code with the Crocodoc or new Box View service.