INTRODUCTION TO

BLACKBOARD 9

TOPICS

Course Availability

Content v. Assignments

Content / Assignment Tips & Tricks

Grade Center

Tool Management

Customizing Blackboard

Course Combine v. Course Copy

COURSE AVAILABILITY

• Login to Blackboard• Click the course to make available• Under the Control Panel, click

Customization• Click Properties• Under Set Availability section, select Yes• Click Submit

– The course is now available for students

CONTENT ITEMS V. ASSIGNMENTS

Content• Documents / files / links essential to

course• Supplemental / complementary

information– Additional readings– Reference information– Links to relevant journals / videos / web sites

CONTENT ITEMS V. ASSIGNMENTS

Content Options• Create Item -- upload documents and files• Build -- add links to folders, external links,

course links, and more• Evaluate -- add assignments, tests, and other

items that are graded• Collaborate -- discussion boards and groups• More -- everything else

(e.g. blogs, wikis, and Wimba live classrooms)

CONTENT ITEMS V. ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments• Assignments are tied to Grade Center

(GC)• Columns automatically created in GC• Have additional availability options and

allow for a Due Date– Due Date flags late items as “LATE”

• NOTE: Digital Dropbox is NOT available in Blackboard 9

Content Items• Several files can be linked to a

content item• Content is NOT tied to Grade

Center• No points associated with

items• Items do NOT allow for student

submissions• Items CAN be copied

individually to other courses

Assignments• Several files can be linked to

an assignment• Assignments tied to Grade

Center• Require points possible• Allow for submissions• Submissions must be retrieved

from Grade Center• Instructor can provide

feedback on submissions• Assignments CANNOT be

copied individually to other courses

CONTENT ITEMS V. ASSIGNMENTS

CONTENT / ASSIGNMENTS: TIPS & TRICKS

• Don’t use special characters in file names– Only use letters, numbers, underscore “_” and

hyphen “-”• Bad: Assignment #1.doc• Good: Assignment_1.doc

• Link to videos in external web sites (e.g. YouTube)– Embedded videos in Blackboard don’t work

well at all

CONTENT / ASSIGNMENTS: TIPS & TRICKS

• Define a standard for student submissions:– e.g. “HaysM_Technical_Definition.doc”

• contains identifier for student and assignment name

• Makes it much easier to identify documents when downloading submissions

• Organize content into folders• You can use Learning Modules for a more

guided learning process

GRADE CENTER

• Grade Center (GC) has not changed much from GC in Blackboard 8

• Accessed through Evaluation section under Control Panel

• Use Work Offline to Download / Upload Grade Center to / from Excel

GRADE CENTER

• Click Create Column to create a new Grade Center column– Points Possible must be greater than 0 for

Grade Center to calculate properly– Columns can be created for non-graded items

such as Section number• Make sure Column is not included in Grade Center

calculations

GRADE CENTER

• Click Create Calculated Column to create a new Grade Center column based on other columns– Weighted Columns can be tied to individual

items or entire categories (e.g. Quizzes, Tests, etc.)

– Bb 9 creates a default Total column and a default Weighted column for you

GRADE CENTER

• Click Manage to view the Grade Center management options:– Categories: Create new categories or

rearrange the existing GC categories (Assignment, Survey, Discussion, Test)

– Smart Views: View the GC columns according to user-defined criteria (e.g. how many failed a test?)

– Grading Schemas: Define your own grading criteria (e.g. 85+ is an “A”)

GRADE CENTER

• Click Manage to view the Grade Center management options:– Column Organization: Rearrange the columns

in the Grade Center– Send Email: Communicate with students

directly from the Grade Center

GRADE CENTER

Downloading Student Submissions for Assignments

• Assignments are tied to Grade Center• When students submit assignments,

instructors access submissions through Grade Center

• Instructors can download individual assignments submissions or download “in bulk”

GRADE CENTER

Downloading Student Submissions for Assignments

• Click action link in column header• Select Assignment File Download• Select the checkbox(es) for assignments

to be downloaded• Assignments are packaged into a ZIP file

and stored on your local machine or on the network (wherever you choose)

TOOL MANAGEMENT

• Tool Availability determines which tools are accessible in Blackboard– It’s found under Customization in Control

Panel• Not all Tools are available or even useful• Two main types of availability:

– General availability– Content Area availability– May want to turn on both for some tools (e.g.

blogs, wikis)

TOOL MANAGEMENT

• Individual Tools can be turned off or on in the Tools area– Click Hide Link or Show Link to toggle tools

on/off– Click Edit Mode OFF to see student view of

Tools• Tools can be linked directly from Course

Menu for easy access– e.g. blog, wiki, email, clicker registration, etc.

CUSTOMIZING BLACKBOARD

Moving Items:• Blackboard 9 has a “click-and-drag”

interface for moving buttons, modules and content items

• Simply click and hold the arrow icon next to the item

• Then drag the item to its new location

CUSTOMIZING BLACKBOARD

Personalizing Home Tab:• Click Add Module to add new modules to

the home page• Click-and-drag title bar of module to move

it around• Click gear icon in title bar of a module to

modify settings for module

CUSTOMIZING BLACKBOARD

Personalizing Home Tab:• Click the minimize icon to minimize a

module– Module is still available

• Click the close icon to completely close a module– You will need to click Add Module to open the

module on the home page again• Close What’s New module to speed up

performance

CUSTOMIZING BLACKBOARD

Adding Buttons to Course Menu:• Click the plus button above the course

menu• Select the type of object to add (e.g.

Content Area, Course Link, etc.)– New buttons are created at the bottom of the

course menu• Fill out the mini-form for the item to be

added

CUSTOMIZING BLACKBOARD

Adding Buttons to Course Menu:• Click Submit• New item will be added to end of Course

Menu• Use click-and-drag to reorder the menu

items OR• Click the Reorder Menu Items icon

– Use the up-and-down arrows to move item to new location

– Click Submit when finished

Before Course Combine After Course Combine

• Student A1• Student A2• Student A3

Section A

• Student B1• Student B2• Student B3

Section B

• Student C1• Student C2• Student C3

Section C

• Student A1, B1, C1• Student A2, B2, C2• Student A3, B3, C3

Section A

• Student B1• Student B2• Student B3

Section B

• Student C1• Student C2• Student C3

Section C

Make source sections

unavailable

COURSE COMBINE V. COURSE COPY

Course Combine• Combines enrollments in

one or more source sections into a single destination section

• Does NOT copy any content from one section to another

Course Copy• Copies content from one

course to another• Does NOT copy student

enrollments from one course to another

COURSE COMBINE V. COURSE COPY

PROBLEMS WITH BLACKBOARD?

• Contact the Help Desk at (573) 341-HELP or online at http://help.mst.edu

• Please have the following information available:– Which Operating System are you using?– Which Web Browser are you using?– What is the Course ID / Reference Number / Instructor

of the course that you are having problems with?• What steps did you go through when the problem

occurred?• Blackboard Support Information can be found online at:

http://edtech.mst.edu/support/blackboard9