Version 1.2 - algonquincollege.com · Web view(2016W – 2018S) of content imported from Blackboard into Brightspace. You will build your next semester courses using the content

Blackboard to Brightspace Handbook

Working with your Imported Course Content

Table of ContentsContent........................................................................................................................................................3

Finding Your Imported Content...............................................................................................................3

Using Your Imported Course Content in Brightspace..............................................................................3

Copying Brightspace Course Content into a New Brightspace Course Shell............................................4

Remove All Reference to Blackboard within your Course and Attached Documents..............................6

Fixing Your Imported Content.................................................................................................................6

Text Descriptions with Attached Files..................................................................................................6

How to delete the Topic Description:......................................................................................................7

Missing Images....................................................................................................................................8

Professor Information..........................................................................................................................8

Check All Links to Files and Web Sites...................................................................................................10

Reduce the Number of Sub-Modules When Possible............................................................................10

Publisher Tools......................................................................................................................................10

Assignments..............................................................................................................................................11

TurnItIn Integration...............................................................................................................................12

Assigning due dates...............................................................................................................................12

Linking to Gradebook............................................................................................................................13

Rubrics...................................................................................................................................................14

Grade Book................................................................................................................................................14

Deleting Categories and Blackboard Columns.......................................................................................14

Items safe to delete:..........................................................................................................................14

How to Delete Categories & Items........................................................................................................14

Weight each item to equal 100%...........................................................................................................15

Discussions................................................................................................................................................16

Journals.....................................................................................................................................................20

Creating a Public Journal for Students...................................................................................................20

Creating Private Journals for Students..................................................................................................21

Wikis..........................................................................................................................................................23

Office 365 Collaborative Word Document.............................................................................................23

Pros....................................................................................................................................................25

Cons...................................................................................................................................................25

2 | P a g e Version 2.1 |August, 2018

Google Docs...........................................................................................................................................25

Pros....................................................................................................................................................30

Cons...................................................................................................................................................30

Blogs..........................................................................................................................................................30

Creating a Blog in Brightspace...............................................................................................................30

Quizzes......................................................................................................................................................30

Re-assign passwords to quizzes.........................................................................................................32

Assigning Due Dates..........................................................................................................................32

Best Practice for Setting Up New Quizzes..........................................................................................33

Groups.......................................................................................................................................................34

Notifications..............................................................................................................................................34

Encourage Students to Enable their Notifications.................................................................................34

Content

Finding Your Imported ContentYou can expect to see two years (2016W – 2018S) of content imported from Blackboard into Brightspace. You will build your next semester courses using the content imported from previous semesters from Blackboard.

If you are missing content, please send an email to [email protected].

Using Your Imported Course Content in BrightspaceYou are able to use the course content imported or migrated from Blackboard into Brightspace by copying content from a previous semester’s course.

Copying Brightspace Course Content into a New Brightspace Course Shell

1. Log in to https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/

2. Navigate to the course you would like to copy your Brightspace course content into.


https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/

mailto:[email protected]

3. Within the course, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your screen and select Import/Export/Copy Components

4. Select Copy Components from Another Org Unit and click Search for offering

5. Type the name of the course you want to copy into the search box and press enter.

6. Select the course you want to copy and click Add Selected

7. If you want to copy the entire course, select Copy All Components at the bottom of the screen. To copy only specific parts of the course such as the assignments or a particular section of


content, select Select Components and choose the course content you want to copy.

8. Select Offset all dates of copied components and specify the days and hours that the dates should be offset by or calculate the range between two dates and click Finish.

a. For example, if all of my assignments were due on Monday’s last semester but this semester my class is on Wednesday I would set the Direction under Days to Forward and set the Range to 2.

You can also ignore the Offset Dates section. However, this means that you will need to go back to individual content items to re-set due dates and availability dates (e.g. when students should see the content). This is done by clicking on the Add dates and restrictions… text of an added content item or under the Restrictions tab of individual activities.

Remove All Reference to Blackboard within your Course and Attached DocumentsBe sure to look for references to Blackboard throughout your course – including, within your attached files. Below are some tips to help you do that.

Click on each page of your course and do a Ctrl-F (or Cmd F on Mac) and to search for instances of the word Blackboard.

Download each attached Word, PowerPoint, or Adobe PDF document in your course and use Find and Replace to find instances of Blackboard and reupload them into Brightspace.

Note: to edit text within a pdf document, you need to use Adobe Acrobat DC (not just Adobe Reader). You can get this software by accessing the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite and downloading Adobe Acrobat DC. Gain access to the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite by contacting ITS or by following the steps outlined here: http://www7.algonquincollege.com/byod/adobe.htm


http://www7.algonquincollege.com/byod/adobe.htm

Duplicated Text Descriptions and Attached FilesIf you had Blackboard items with attached files and text descriptions, this content was imported into Brightspace as a Content Topic with a link to the file embedded on the Topic page.

Example of an Item with an attached file in Blackboard:

Example of a Content Topic in Brightspace with a description:

Note: The link to the .docx file is not displaying in the description. However, after clicking the title, you are brought to the page of the topic, which includes the link to the file Example of a Topic Page:

Note: The link to the .docx file is now displaying.

You may wish to re-upload the file as a file by itself to avoid the user to having to click on the content topic and then clicking on the file link.

To do this:1. Navigate to the module/sub-module in which you want to upload the file2. Use one of the two methods to adding a file to the folder:

a. Click Upload/Create then Upload File and follow the prompts, orb. Click and drag a file from a folder on your computer into the Content Module in which a

solid dark line will appear – and release your mouse


How to delete the Topic Description: With the previous example - because the same information exists in the description of the topic item and on the page of the topic item, it is suggested to delete the description of content topics and leave the content in the topic page.

1. Open the Content Module (folder) and locate the topic you want to delete the description of. 2. Click on any text within the description of the content topic.

3. Highlight everything in the rich text editor, delete it and click the Update button

Note: It’s appropriate to have a description that briefly describes what content will be in the topic page.

Missing ImagesSometimes, images embedded within Blackboard course content did not import into Brightspace.

The solution to this is to either re-upload the image or to delete the reference to the missing image.

To re-upload an image:

1. Go into the editing of the item that is missing the image.2. Click on the camera icon, browse to where the picture is on your computer, select the image.3. Click Add, alternative text for accessibility if required. Then click OK.


Professor InformationBlackboard courses that used the Contact tool to add Professor Information contact details to the main menu did not import over. This is because there is no equivalent Contact tool within Brightspace.

To fix this, you need to remove the placeholder/staff-info contact module on the course menu within Blackboard.

1. Click on the Module link for ‘placeholder/staff-info’ on the side menu of the Content area.

2. Locate the title of the module at the top of the page and click on the chevron next to it.

3. Select Delete Module4. Add your contact information as a file within Course Information.


5. Click on Upload / Create on the content page then Create a File

6. Consider using the Document Template for “Meet Facilitator”


Check All Links to Files and Web SitesWhile most attachments and web site links carried over from Blackboard to Brightspace, this didn’t always happen. Make sure that you check all links to ensure none of them are broken.

Reduce the Number of Sub-Modules When Possible If you had a number of folders within folders in your Blackboard course, this would have migrated over as nested sub-modules. The more nested sub-modules that you have, the more difficult it is for students to navigate – especially on mobile devices. This is because they all appear on the course menu in Brightspace.

Consider the moving content items located in the sub modules into the parent module (folder). As well, consider moving nested modules (folders) into the main menu of the Content area.

To do this:

Under Table of Contents in the left navigation panel you will find a list of all the modules and sub-modules currently in your course; topics are listed inside each module and sub-module. Modules, sub-modules, and topics can be re-ordered by simply dragging and dropping to a new location.

1. Hover your mouse over the 3 lines ( ) to the left of the name.

2. When the moving cursor icon ( ) appears, click to drag the module to its new location.

3. When the blue line appears in the correct spot, release your mouse.


Publisher ToolsIf you use publisher tools, such as MyLab, it is important to look at how the content transferred over. In many cases, it is simply a matter of re-linking the tools. Other times, it requires recreating the assignments and re-doing the settings – especially the due dates and availability.

Please contact your vendor representative if you have questions.

AssignmentsBrightspace does a good job migrating assignments from Blackboard. Check to make sure that the due dates and availability settings were copied properly.

1) Click on Activities and Assignments.

2) Click on the chevron next to the assignment and choose “Edit Submission Folder”


3) Click on the Restrictions tab and check the due and availability dates, then click on Save and Close.

Here you have the following options:

1. Hide from users.

2. Set up the Due Date, including the Availability and the End Date, if you need.

3. Release Conditions, You could use this option in case you want the students to submit a previous document before this particular assignment is available. For example, the student will have access to Assignment 2, only if they previously submit Assignment 1.


4. Special Access

a. To submit outside the normal availability dates or b. to allow only certain students to have access to this folder.

You might use this option if certain students need special accommodation.

TurnItIn Integration Brightspace gives you the option to enable the Turnitin integration on your submission folder to monitor, annotate and compare submission to an online database of original content (originality/plagiarism reports).

Turnitin Assignments did not migrate over from Blackboard. They need to be recreated.

You can enable Turnitin on an existing assignment by following these steps:

1) Click on Activities and Assignments.

2) Click on the chevron next to the assignment and choose “Edit Submission Folder”


3) Click on the Turnitin tab and enable GradeMark and Originality Check.


Linking to Gradebook You will notice that there is a little award icon next to every assignment, it means that the assignment is tied to a grade item in the Gradebook.

If your Assignment is not related to a grade item in the Gradebook, it might be because you have recently created it.

1. First confirm if there is an item to associate in the Grades, if not, you will have to create it. To do so refer to the Brightspace course, “Brightspace Essentials for Faculty”.

2. Once you know that there is an item to link in the grades, click on the chevron beside the Assignment that needs to be linke and select Edit Submission Folder.

3. That will take you to that particular Assignment Submission Folder, go to the Grade Item and choose the Assignment that needs to be linked, in this case is the “Assignment One: Mapping Food Systems” (See image below).

Rubrics Rubrics are one of the items that did not migrate from Blackboard to Brightspace. Therefore, you will have to create your Rubrics. Rubrics will need to be re-assigned to the activity or gradebook item they belong to.


Grade Book

Deleting Categories and Blackboard ColumnsYou may notice certain items that appear in your Grade Book that you may not be familiar with. These items may be Categories that were copied over from Blackboard. These are safe to delete.

By deleting these grade book items, it will clear many of the red ‘notes’ that you receive when visiting the Manage Grades area. You will still have one note if your Final Calculated Grade does not equal 100%.

Items safe to delete: Assignment, Blog, Discussion, Journal, Self And Peer, Survey, Test, and TurnItIn Assignment categories.

It is also safe to delete the Total and Weighted Total columns as Brightspace has its own built in final calculated grade item.

How to Delete Categories & Items1. Click on Progress > Grades in the Navbar.

2. Click Manage Grades.

3. Click the More Actions drop-down button and Delete.

4. Check off all the Categories and/or items listed above. You can identify Categories by them not having a Type in the right column (ie. Numeric). Note: The Weighted and Total items will show as a ‘Calculated type’.


5. Click Delete. Then click Delete again on the confirmation window.

Weight each item to equal 100%Weightings for each of your grade center items did not carry into Brightspace. They are also not calculated using the “Weighted Total” column we were used to in Blackboard. There is a new built in weighted total called “Final Calculated Grade”.

To re-calculate the total weights of your gradebook, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Progress > Grades2. Click on Manage Grades3. If you are happy with the grade items you have, click on the checkbox next to “Grade Item” (to

select all columns) and click Bulk Edit:

4. Assign each grade item (or category) a weighting. The goal is 100% of the total course.


Note: If you’re using categories and the “Weight each item manually” – the weights of each item in a category must equal to 100% of that category. For Example:

Assignments [Category] – 30% weightingAssignment #1 – 10% weighting (ends up being 3% of total grade)Assignment #2 – 30% weighting (ends up being 9% of total grade)Assignment #3 – 25% weighting (ends up being 7.5% of total grade)Assignment #4 – 35% weighting (ends up being 10.5% of total grade)

DiscussionsWhen Blackboard discussions come into Brightspace, the Discussion Topics come over as Forums. To fix this:

1. Delete all Discussion Topics that got carried over from Blackboard.2. Create a new Forum called Discussions.3. Create Topics within this Discussion Forum.

4. Assign a Locking start date when the assignment is due. This will mean the topic is still visible, but students can no longer submit.


5) Under the Assessment tab, assign or create a new Grade Item, and set the Score Out Of. It is best practice to set the score equal to the discussions weighting.


If applicable, add a D2L rubric to the Discussion under Assessment as well.

If you'd like to create multiple Forums for different types of discussion Topics, best practices are to separate them into Forums such as Discussions and Blogs, or perhaps Graded Discussions and Non-graded Discussions.


For more information, please refer to the Brightspace Essentials course for Faculty under Discussions Advanced Options.

Journals

Creating a Public Journal for StudentsFor a weekly graded Journal, you will click the chevron button on the side of your Discussion Forum and simply click Add Topic. Here you can create you weekly Journal entire Topics. For Journals that are not graded weekly and are handed in end we recommend creating an Assignment.


Creating Private Journals for StudentsCreating a Private Discussion allows students to have restricted discussion area where they can keep a private discussion between them and the instructor.

1) To begin go to the Groups section in the Activates tab. Once here you will see a Create Category button, click this button to start the process.

2) Enter a name for the Category. Feel free to add a description now, if you have no description, you can edit this in the future.

3) Next click the Enrollment Type menu. In the drop-down menu select Single user, member specific groups.


4) Once selected, click the Set up discussion areas. After all this has been completed click the Save button and continue.

5) You may now pick an area where the Private Journals will be housed. Click on the drop down menu you find your Discussion Forum.

6) When creating a Private Journal click on the option Create one topic with threads separated by group. If necessary edit the title.


7) Once you’ve completed these steps click on the Create and Next button. You will now be brought to a Summary page where you can review what you’ve created. Once reviewed click the Done button. Then click Save.

You can then proceed to the Discussion Forum and view you recently created Private Journals.

WikisBrightspace does not have a Wiki tool and therefore Blackboard Wikis do not migrate into Brightspace.

Below are some suggestions for alternative tools that can be used to replace Wikis.

Office 365 Collaborative Word DocumentFollow these steps to create a collaborative Word document in your Algonquin College Office 365 account and add it to Brightspace so students can make contributions.

1) Go to: https://www.office.com

2) Sign in with your Algonquin College email address and password

3) Under Apps, click on Word

4) Click on New Blank Document


https://www.office.com/

5) Click on Document 1 in the blue bar at the top of the screen to give your document a name.

6) If you wish to track the changes of student contributors, you can enable Track Changes by clicking on Edit in Word at the top of the screen.

7) Once the document opens in Microsoft Word select Review > Track Changes.

8) Return to your Office 365 Word document in your web browser and click Resume editing here.

9) You should now see that Track Changes is ON in the grey bar at the bottom of the screen.

10) Go to https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/ and sign in with your Algonquin College username and password.

11) Navigate to the course you would like to add your Office 365 document to and click on Content.



12) Click on the Module you would like to add your document to under Table of Contents in the left menu.In the module, click on Existing Activities > OneDrive.

13) In the window that appears, click Continue to OneDrive.

14) Log in to OneDrive with your Algonquin College email address and password, navigate to the document you created and click on it.

Pros Can use track changes to view who made edits to the document. Faculty and students already have an Office 365 account through Algonquin College so there is

no need for them to sign up for an account to create, contribute or be tracked.

Cons Does not embed into Brightspace, opens as an external link. Students can turn off Track Changes if the open the document in Word on their own laptop or

device.

Google Docs1. Go to https://drive.google.com/ and log in with your Google account. If you don’t have an

account, you can create one.


https://drive.google.com/

2. Once you have signed in, click New and select Google Docs.

3. Give your document a title by clicking on Untitled document at the top of the screen and entering some text.

4. Click on Share in the top right corner of the screen and select Anyone with the link can edit under Link sharing on.

5. Click on Advanced in the pop-up window that appears.


6. Change the Access from Private to Anyone with the link and change Can view to Can edit so that your student can edit the document.


7. Select Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people and click Save Changes.

8. Go to https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/ and sign in with your Algonquin College username and password.

9. Navigate to the course you would like to add your Office 365 document to and click on Content.

10. Click on the Module you would like to add your document to under Table of Contents in the left menu.

11. In the module, click on Existing Activities > Google Drive.



12. Click on Continue to Google Drive and sign into your Google Drive account.

13. Click on Allow to allow Brightspace to view and manage your files in Google Drive.

14. Navigate to the Google Doc you created, click on it and then click on Select.


Pros Google Docs embed into a Brightspace page so the student does not have to navigate away from

Brightspace to contribute to the document. If Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people is selected, students cannot

edit the permissions of the document.

Cons Students can make edits without being signed into Google Drive so their contributions are

anonymous making it difficult to track changes. If they happen to have a Google account and are signed in, the document will show their name with their edits however.

Blogs

Creating a Blog in Brightspace

1. Create a Topic in your Discussion Forums named Blogs. Inside of this topic students can create threads that can be used as Blogs.

QuizzesCheck quizzes to ensure all questions were migrated.

Below is a list of question types known to not migrate from Blackboard to Brightspace:

Calculated Formula

Calculated Numeric

Either/Or


Fill in Multiple Blanks

Hot Spot

Jumbled Sentence

Opinion Scale/Likert

Quiz Bowl

Solutions:

Calculated Formula – Create Significant Figures question in Brightspace

Calculated Numeric – Create Arithmetic question in Brightspace

Either/Or - Create Multiple Choice, deleting extra options so there are only 2

Fill in Multiple Blanks – Create Multi-Short Answer question (MSA)

Hot Spot – Edit image to add tags in certain areas, and create Multiple Choice Q

Jumbled Sentence – Have different options in MC question or Multiple Selection

Opinion Scale/Likert - Create Likert (it exists, just doesn't migrate)

Short Answer questions don't always migrate with the "case sensitive/case insensitive/etc." option selected. Therefore, it doesn't know how to treat answers, and gives 0 for this question.

Go into these questions and select one of the options.


Re-assign Passwords Quizzes Passwords don't migrate from Blackboard. Make sure to re-add them or make quiz unavailable.

1. Edit the quiz2. Navigate to Restrictions3. Set Status to Inactive

Check the Brightspace question library to ensure that your pool questions are there. If not, export questions from Blackboard and import them to the library and reset the random quiz. Recreate questions where applicable (see above list of question types that don't migrate).


Best Practice for Setting Up New QuizzesIt is best practice when creating new Quizzes to always set up the Questions in the Question Library first. Creating questions directly in Quizzes does not send them to the Question Library, and any future edits will require going into the quiz, etc; whereas updating a question in Question Library will automatically update where the question appears in quizzes.

o In the Quiz area, click on the Question Library tab to create your questions.

When creating a quiz, click Import questions from Question Library.


GroupsGroups did not migrate over from Blackboard. You will need to recreate your groups in Brightspace.

1. Go to Activities > Groups. 2. To set up your groups, click on New Category.3. Give the group Category a meaningful name (the category is the overall container for this

collection of groups).4. Select which type of Enrollment you would like to use.

a. # of Groups – No Auto Enrollments – set the number of groups, and the instructor will manually assign students.

b. Groups of # – set the group capacity, i.e. “groups of 4”.


c. # of Groups – set a group limit.d. Groups of # – Self Enrollment – set the group capacity and allow students to self-enroll.e. # of Groups, Capacity of # – Self Enrollment – set the group capacity and number of

groups, and allow students to self-enroll.f. Single user, member-specific groups – set up groups of 1 (used well for journal-like

discussions).5. Decide which Additional Options you would like:

a. Set up Discussion areas – This will set up a Discussion Item that only group members can use. The instructor can also view and participate in the discussion.

b. Set up lockers – Creates a shared repository for students to submit files to.c. Set up assignment submission folders –This assignment will allow a group submission.

You can also create a group assignment later following these instructions.6. Click Save

Notifications

Encourage Students to Enable their NotificationsBrightspace provides students flexible options by which they can choose how to receive messages and notifications from the system.

In Blackboard, an instructor could ensure that announcements were sent to a student’s email account. Within Brightspace, all course notifications – including emails – are turned off. This is to allow to set up how they wish to receive messages and notices from Brightspace.

Students need to go into their Notifications and check-off options related to how they want to receive notifications.

They can do this within Brightspace by:

1) Clicking on their name at the top right-hand corner of the screen; then, click on Notifications.

2) Ensure that they have Announcements – announcement updated and Announcement – new announcement available enabled for email.

