Blackboard Tip: Suggestions for the End of the Semester

Following some suggestions for the end of the semester

·         Make your courses unavailable

·         Automatic Zero fill  for grade book blank items

·         Download your grade book

·         Archive  your  course

Make your  courses unavailable:

-            From the Control Panel, click Customization and select Properties.

-           Under the third option  Set Availability, check the box next to No.

-           Click Submit.

Automatic Zero fill  for grade book blank items :

Click the chevron (two down arrows) near the weighted total column .

Select Edit Column Information

Select No for Calculate as Running Total.

Click Submit

Download  course Grade Book:

-          From within your grade center click Work Offline - select Download.

-          On the Download Grades page under Data, select Full Grade Center, and under Options, keep the option section  as default  click submit .

          Click the Download button and choose where to save the file.

The file will be saved with  excel 2003     *.xls extension .

Archive your course

-           From the Control Panel, click Packages and Utilities and select Export/Archive Course.

   

-          Click Archive.

Note:  Archive saves all elements of the course, which includes all student grades, tests, student activities and the course roster. Export saves  all or parts of the course structure. Exporting does not include student activities or student roster.

 

-            On the Archive Course page under Select Copy Options, select Include Grade Center History. -    Click Submit.

   

     Note:  The archived course is saved in a zip and may take some time to be processed.  An email will be sent when the process is completed.

-           Click the Archive File link   to download  to your computer or click the chevron near the file name and select open .

Blackboard Tip: Self and Peer Assessment

Blackboard  Self and Peer Assessment feature helps students  evaluate their own work and the work of their classmates. Evaluation can be anonymous i.e. the student do not see the name of the classmate who submitted the work.    Instructors provide questions, points possible are set by adding a criteria to each question.  Following are the steps  to create Self and Peer Assessment .

          -With Edit Mode on , select the content area you want to place the assessment in. Click Evaluate – select Create Self and Peer Assessment

  Note: Self and peer assessment is not enabled by default , you would need to enable the tool through the control panel –Customization –Tool Availability- Select the check box near the Self and Peer Assessment name.       

- Enter a name for the assessment in the Name field - Enter instructions- Enter the submission start date and submission end date- Enter the start date and end date for   evaluations ( The evaluation start date needs to be after the submission end date).

  Enter the start date and end date for the evaluation . To allow Anonymous Evaluations, click Yes.  To allow Self Evaluations, click Yes. To allow students to view their own Evaluation Results, click Yes .  Enter the Number Of Submissions to Evaluate field (The number entered in this field does not include self assessment i.e. if you set the number of submissions to evaluate to 1 and your allow self-evaluation as well, then the total number of evaluations that a student is actually evaluating is 2. Enter zero (0) in this field  if your are setting student self evaluation only.

   -Click Yes to make the assessment available

   - track the number of views, click Yes radio button

   - Select the Display After and/or Display Until dates if necessary

   -  If necessary, set the date and time restrictions

   - Click Submit.

Note: A column is created in the grade center for the assessment.

 To Add a question click Create Question button

   - Enter the question in the Question Text Editor

   - Enter a model response in the Text Editor

   - Click Submit

To Add Criteria to a Question:

- Click the drop down arrow to the right of the questions

- Select Criteria

- Click Create Criteria

- Enter criteria text in the Criteria Text Editor

- Assign points

- Determine if partial credit is allowed

- Select the Feedback to User settings

- Click Submit

When the evaluation is done you can move the grades assigned by students to the grade center  by accessing the Peer Assessment through the Control Panel Course Tools-  Self and Peer Assessment - click the chevron near the question and select view results . You are able to  view, download and send results to the grade center.

Blackboard Tip: End of the Semester Checklist

Following some suggestions for the end of the semester

·         Make your courses unavailable

·         Download your gradebook

·         Archive  your  course

Make your  courses unavailable:

-            From the Control Panel, click Customization and select Properties.

-           Under the third option  Set Availability, check the box next to No.

-           Click Submit.

Download  course Gradebook:

-          From within your grade center click Work Offline - select Download.

-          On the Download Grades page under Data, select Full Grade Center, and under Options, keep the option section  as default  click submit .

          Click the Download button and choose where to save the file.

The file will be saved with  excel 2003     *.xls extension .

Archive your course

-           From the Control Panel, click Packages and Utilities and select Export/Archive Course.

   

-          Click Archive.

Note:  Archive saves all elements of the course, which includes all student grades, tests, student activities and the course roster. Export saves  all or parts of the course structure. Exporting does not include student activities or student roster.

 

-            On the Archive Course page under Select Copy Options, select Include Grade Center History. -    Click Submit.

  

     Note:  The archived course is saved in a zip and may take some time to be processed.  An email will be sent when the process is completed.

-           Click the Archive File link   to download  to your computer or click the chevron near the file name and select open .

Blackboard Tip: Adding a Quick Comment to a Grade

Adding a comment is a way that you can give feedback to students on their performance . Following steps to add quick comment

·         From within blackboard grade center rollover  an entered grade

·         Click the chevron near the grade (Note: in order to view the quick comment button, the cell needs to include a grade.)

·         Select Quick Comment from the contextual menu

·         Type in the Feedback to user box to share comments with students

·         Type in the Grading Notes textbox for reference. The grading notes are only available to instructors and other users such as TAs who have access to the grade center.

·         Click Submit

Blackboard Tip: Tracking Reports

Instructors can use the Tracking Reports area to generate reports on the Course usage and activity. Instructors can view specific Student’s usage to determine if Students are actively using the Course. The report appears in the form of graphical charts.

•   With Edit Mode On , from the control panel, click “Evaluation”, select “Tracking Report”

          

• Click Run from the contextual menu for one of the reports: 

•  Select the format for the report, either PDF, HTML, Excel, or Word. 
• Select the users for the report.
• Select a Start Date and/or End Date for the report

• you can choose what you would like to do with the report, You may Download Report or choose to Run a new report. Press OK

Blackboard Tip: Beginning of the Semester Checklist

Time to get online courses ready for Spring semester. Following is a checklist we recommend

                Update the Syllabus

                Check if information accurate when copying from last semester

                Due dates are updated

                Points system and assignments

                Check Course Menu

Make sure   Edit Mode is  ON. You may use the drag and drop feature to change the order of menu items. Course Menu items that do not contain any content are automatically hidden from student view but are visible to the instructor while in Edit Mode.

-  In the upper right-hand corner, make sure Edit Mode is ON.

-  To add a new link to the Course Menu, click the red “+” and select the area you want to add. Note: The “+” is unavailable when Edit Mode is turned off

-  Rename, Hide or Delete links as necessary using the chevron (pull-down menu) next to each link. Note: If you remove a content area  menu item, all information within that area is removed permanently.

-  Organize your course menu using the drag and drop feature. For longer course menus you may want to consider creating  Sub headers and Dividers by clicking on the “+” icon and selecting these features

Turn Off unnecessary tools

-           Select Tools on the Course Menu.

-          Click Hide Link next to the tools that you are not using.

To view the Tools that will be available to students, turn off the Edit Mode button

Enhance your Course Design

Select Customization in the Control Panel area.

-           Click on Style and select Buttons or Text, choose the Default Menu View, and the Default Content View. You also have the option to change the Entry Point of the course and Upload a Banner.

You may also create a Banner very easily in PowerPoint.

-          Open a new PowerPoint presentation and select a Blank Content Layout.

-           Resize the slide 7 to 8 inches in width and 1.5 inches in height.

-           Design your banner using WordArt, Text boxes, ClipArt or digital Photos.

-           Save the Banner as a JPEG file.

-           To upload the Banner into Blackboard, select Customization in the Control Panel area.

-           Click on Style and scroll down to Select Banner, click Browse and Select the JPEG file of the Banner you created in PowerPoint and click Submit

Set Office Hours and Contact Information

Changing the course entry point

-          From the Control Panel  select Customization and Style.

-          Change the Course Entry Point to Announcement

Make Course Available

-          From the control Panel Select Customization and Properties in the Control Panel area.

-          In the Set Availability, Make Course Available area select Yes and click Submit.

Post a Welcome Announcement

-          Select Course Tools.

-           Click Announcements link and Create Announcement.

-           Fill in the Subject and Message fields and select the appropriate Options.

-           Click Submit.

Send A Welcome Email

  Send an email to your students once the course is made available. You may want to consider copying and pasting the Welcome Announcement into the body of the email.

-           From the control Panel click   Course Tools.

-           Click Send Email.

-           Select the Users.

-           Type in a Subject and a Message and click Submit