Blackboard "Need-to-know"
Tips - Vol. 4; 2004 - 2005
* PREVIOUS COURSES WILL
BE DELETED JANUARY 31. Please
contact brk@bradley.edu if you need to retain your courses
on the server for another semester.
* IMPORTANT: If
you may need to access student work from Fall semester, please
save your students' work to your computer.
THE STUDENT WORK CANNOT BE ARCHIVED WITH THE BLACKBOARD
COURSE. Once the students are removed from the course, their work
is no longer linked to them and cannot be retrieved.
* Blackboard automatically
displays the “Class Average”.
The Registrar's office has indicated that the class average
cannot be shared for classes of 10 or fewer. Unfortunately
the Blackboard software does not allow us to turn off the "class
average" feature. To comply with this, the course enrollment
must be increased to 11 by adding fictitious students and
grades. This will cloak the grade book class average. We
have established "FERPA STUDENT" accounts 1 through
9 that may added to any course site for this purpose through
the Control Panel “Enroll User” link. If you
would like assistance, please contact x2344.
* Do you have extra students on your roster? You can delete
them through the course Control Panel “Remove Users” link.
* Here is a way to extend
classroom discussion beyond the walls of the classroom
- the Blackboard Discussion
Board! The Discussion Board allows students
to apply their knowledge in a reflective manner. This method
can even the playing
field for shy students or students that use English as a
second language, giving everyone an equal voice in the class.
Plus, this is completed at a time and place that is convenient
to the student. Here is an example assignment:
* Peer reviewed
discussion topics -
Post a topic for discussion with some specific points to
address. Require a 1 - 2 paragraph (100-200 words) response
and require they reply to two of their classmates' responses
to the topic. Set a time frame for which this should be completed,
for example one week. If this is a large class, divide them
into groups so that they don’t have to read everyone's
comments. Another variation is to offer several discussion
topics and allow the students to pick their topic. As instructor,
you monitor, but don't reply to everyone - just where intervention
is needed. You may even want to appoint a student moderator
per discussion topic or group (providing opportunities for
leadership and responsibility for the students).
* Tips for managing active
Discussion Boards
An active Discussion Board may quickly grow to 50, 100, or
more postings. Here are techniques that will allow you
to reduce the time you spend reviewing the postings of
your class.
1) Utilize the “Sort By” feature to arrange your
students’ postings by Author, Date, or Subject.
2) Use “Expand All” or “Collapse All” to
only view the topics of interest at the moment.
3) Use the tools under “Show Options” to select
and collect groups of discussion postings onto one page to
quickly view several postings on one page. This is useful
to see the quality and quantity of a particular student’s
responses.
4) Choose “Unread” to see only those postings
you haven’t read yet.
You can utilize the benefits of Team Teaching with Blackboard.
If you would like other faculty (or staff) to have access
to your site, please email the names and course numbers to
the Blackboard office at brk@bradley.edu. The faculty member
of record must make the request.
If you have requested your course section(s) to be combined,
you will see one or more courses listed as “unavailable”.
That is because this course was disabled and students were
added to another section.
* Did you know you can copy content from one course
to another? Go to the Control Panel of the original course (containing
the content). Choose “Copy Course”. You will
be prompted to browse for the course which has the content.
Then choose the course to which you want the content to be
copied. Then you will be prompted to choose the areas of
the course you would like to copy. Check the boxes and “Submit”.
Blackboard will copy everything within those areas.
* Did you know you can move
content around within your course? Lets say you have more files than you originally thought,
and now think it would be better to put them in a folder.
You can! Just create a folder in a content area like the “Course
Documents” button. Then go to the first item you would
like to move and click the “Copy” button. Then
indicate where you would like the material to go.
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