Category:Blackboard - Faculty
- Use this link to contact the IT Help Desk
- Consult the Faculty Bb Bulletin for help setting up, saving and closing course shells in addition to other important policy and productivity features.
- New: FAQ-oriented Bb/Faculty support page
Standard Practices
The Basics!
Standard practices are the conventions followed by faculty and the Blackboard support staff in order to guarantee that the semester, in this case, starts smoothly. Adhering standard practices guarantee a common experience: students are added to the courses on the same day. It also helps guarantee clear, commonly understood communication between instructors and Teaching with Technology staff.
- Students are added to course shells two days prior to the start of the semester.
- Instructors can communicate with students before they are added to shells
- Instructors are responsible for activating their course shells; students will not be able to participate in, or even see, course shells until they're activated. The exception are courses taught completely online.
- Course shells are identified by the year/semester - department and course number - course section Example: 201740-hist1010-80 Semester designations: Spring: 10 - Summer: 25 - Fall: 40 - Winter: 50
Transfer course content
Until recently there have been two two means for requesting a transfer, an online form and the Help Desk (HD). Recently these options have been narrowed to the Help Desk alone. The form was a legacy tool we'd used prior to the advent of the Help Desk. After the HD came into being we kept the form until people became accustomed to the Help Desk. Four years on the HD is an established feature of the technology environment at William Paterson and the form has been terminated.
To request a transfer please access the Help Desk and select the request types Blackboard and Course Transfer Request.
Enter the department, semester, the four-digit course number and two digit course section for both the origin and destination courses. Enter special directions in the Request Detail interface.
Do it Yourself Option Use the Control Panel Packages and Utilities tab to save a copy of an existing course and upload it into a new shell: Export, Archive, and Restore Courses
Merge cross-listed or multi-section course shells
Please use the Help Desk to request course merges. The merge form has been deprecated (see above).
Note: Until very recently solution available to us was the Merge (Combine). The availability of the Master option gives faculty more choices, so please consult this link to decide which solution is best for you. http://bit.ly/wpunj-bb-mergemaster
Activate course shell
There are two ways to one might activate a course shell. Remember that students will not see course content, or even a link to the course, until it has been activated.
The easy way: Qwickly
- On the My Blackboard page select Faculty: Set Course Availability in the Tools menu (upper left):
- Click ON to activate a course and OFF to deactivate (at the end of the semester, for example):
The old way: Course properties
In the Control Panel (bottom left corner of the course shell) select Customization, then Properties:
In area number three select availability to Yes:
Finish by clicking the Submit button:
Communicate with students before they've been added to course shells
- Follow these directions: Email students using WPConnect Updated August 2014
View Student Roster
After students have been added to course shells (see the first unit of the Standard Practices module) start by selecting Users in the Control Panel:
Control Panel => Users and Groups => Users
The Roster:
Beginning of the semester
Which Blackboard tasks are most useful in the period leading up to the start of the semester? Content can be moved from previous semesters to coming semester, old course shells can be hidden and new shells can be activated for student use, Many of the items below are covered above in the Standard Practices area. Do you have questions or need support? Please file a ticket with the Online Help Desk: http://www.wpunj.edu/helpdesk/
Blackboard: Getting Started
This area covers basic information including a tour of the Blackboard interface, using course-to-course navigation and learning the importance of Action Link.
A catalog of close to 60 short videos on every aspect of Blackboard! |
Course Building
Collaboration
Blackboard provides a number of tools for interacting with students, including discussion boards, journals, blogs and wikis. Do you have questions or need support? Please file a ticket with the Online Help Desk: http://www.wpunj.edu/helpdesk/
A Journal is a tool used for ongoing communication between student & instructor |
Create a Journal | Create and Edit Entries | Comment on an Entry | Bb Corp Journal Site |
Blog |
A Blog is a tool used for ongoing communication between student & the class |
Create a Blog | Create/Edit Entries | Comments | |
Wiki | |||
Create a Wiki | Add rich content | Edit a Wiki | Linking Pages |
View Page History | Grading a Wiki | ||
Google Docs, Sharing |
Share Google Docs within Bb |
Groups | |||
Create, Add students | Basics, PDF | ||
Blackboard Collaborate |
A tool for synchronous video chat, office hours, & lecture capture |
Collaborate Support documents, videos and links the IT Wiki |
Collaborate Help Desk, provided by Blackboard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year! |
Content Collection
The content collection is one of the most underutilized tools in in the Blackboard suite. In this section learn to transfer content across courses within and between semesters. Why upload ten documents one at a time when you can upload them all in one package and then create links to that content in several courses this semester and throughout course shells semesters to come!
Content Collection Manual | Create: Folder | Add: Files | Link: Files to Multiple Courses |
Add: Zipped Files | Download a package | Email a file |
Grade Center
Assessments
Survey Results | Working with Grade Data | Multiple Assignment Submissions |
Course Reports & Retention Center
This tool provides an easy way for you to discover which students in your course are at risk.
Portfolios
Introduction: Access Portfolio | About Portfolios | Create Portfolio | Portfolio Artifacts |
Share Portfolio |
End of the Semester
Export course | Archive a course (machine readable) | Restore/Import | Archive/Export/Restore [Doc] |
Pages in category "Blackboard - Faculty"
This category contains only the following page.