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Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning | | |
The Questions and Answers in detail:
A: Blackboards are automatically created for most course sections at UIS, per the Blackboard for All initiative from Campus Senate Academic Technology Committee.
The Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning (OTEL) will be happy to give a Blackboard demonstration and discuss effective practices for online learning with you and any other course developers in your group.
See the Blackboard for All page for more information.
A: For instructors and their assistants, OTEL offers
seminars on using Blackboard for online instruction in our regular seminar
series. Seminar series trainings are (usually) the first Friday of every
month. View
the training schedule. OTEL Faculty Friday training sessions are usually
located in HRB-112 but check the training schedule to be sure. On-campus
Blackboard student training sessions are offered the first or second week
of each semester.
Q: How do I add a single student or another faculty member to my board?
A: When your course is first created, it is populated with the names and information of those student who are registered on the first day of class (using the UIS Registration database).
To add a single student the instructor must manually select the student's NetID from the Blackboard database. This is a three step process.
The first step in adding a user is to first verify whether they are already enrolled in your class.
Step 1: Log into your Blackboard site, click Control Panel, then click List/Modify Users. In the resulting dialog box type in either the last name of the user you are planning to add, or the NetID of the user you are planning to add. We recommend using the student's NetID. Be sure to select the appropriate radio button corresponding to which search string you are using. If the user you are planning to add is not already enrolled in your course you will receive a message None Found. You can now proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Click Control Panel, click Add Users, then click Enroll Existing User. In the resulting dialog box type in either the last name of the user you are planning to add, or the NetID of the user you are planning to add. Again, we recommend using the student's NetID. Be sure to select the appropriate radio button corresponding to which search string you are using.
Blackboard will return the search query. If the student you were searching for is listed, place a check mark in the box next to their name and click on the submit button.
If the user name does not display in the query, contact
UIS TechSupport or OTEL for assistance.
A: Students are expected to maintain their own
passwords and contact information within Blackboard. To change their information
students can go to the TOOLS section, click on the Personal Information link,
select change Personal Information or Change Password.
Q: How do I remove a student from my class in Blackboard?
A: Removing students from your class is similar to adding students. Please read the following warning before removing any student. Warning: Removing users (students) from your class will remove all information associated with that student from your Blackboard online grade book.
To remove students from your course, go to the course Control Panel, then select Remove Users, then search for the student's NetID or last name.
If you use the Blackboard online grade book, be sure to export the grade book to your hard drive prior to removing any student. If you need assistance, contact OTEL or UIS TechSupport. Please be sure to export your Blackboard online grade book and remove the students from your class after the semester has ended, except for those finishing incompletes.
A: As user accounts are created on Blackboard, the UIS email-address (which is of the form netid@uis.edu) is selected as the default entry. Users are free to change this setting in Blackboard, by editing their Personal Information. However, students are encourage to use their UIS email account to facilitate troubleshooting should problems arise.
A: Blackboard has no grade-import feature. You can use it for online grade keeping, but you have to enter all grades manually (add a column via "Add Entry" in spreadsheet view), this becomes a rather tedious procedure. Grades for online quizzes are kept automatically by Blackboard , no need to make columns for those.
Even if you don't offer online quizzes with Blackboard , you might seriously consider maintaining all other student grades in Blackboard's online grade book. Students enjoy being able to securely check their grades online, anytime and anywhere.
To add a grade from a paper assignment, for example, go
into Control Panel | Online Gradebook | Spreadsheet View,
click the Add Item button, name the grade book entry and enter the
grades. Each student will be able to see his or her grades only, class averages,
and so forth.
Q: How do I get my grades out of Blackboard ?
A: Blackboard can export your online grades to a
comma-delimited file, readable by all spreadsheet programs, for statistical
analysis, reordering or further processing in a spreadsheet or statistical
application, or submission. To do this go into Control Panel > Gradebook > Download Grades. Note: There is no way to re-import
those files into Blackboard.
A: Blackboard gives you several options for uploading course documents or simply linking to existing materials on the web.
From your Blackboard main page, click Control
Panel (you must have instructor or course builder privileges to see the
Control Panel), then click Course Documents. Here you should see a list
of your current course documents and at the top a button labeled Add Item and
another labeled Add Folder. Click the button Add Item.
Option One
Option Two
You may add items to the course by linking to the file document. Browser to
the specific file and type in the hyper link title. Note: You'll need to
resubmit the file to the Blackboard server if you make in any changes. Please
contact OTEL, 206-7317, if you would like
assistance in placing your materials on your course site.
A: Go to the Control Panel of your course, select Course Utilities, select Archive Course. Then check off which sections of the course you would like to archive. Be sure to submit the request.
Q: How do I allow a student to take a quiz that he/she has already taken?
A: If a student takes a quiz once, or starts to take the quiz but does not finish for whatever reason, he/she will not be allowed to take the quiz a second time, unless you have allowed multiple attempts when creating the quiz (Note: quizzes with multiple attempts are now recorded in the grade book).
To clear an attempt on a quiz made by a student, go to the Control Panel, then Online Grade book, then Spreadsheet View. This displays a list of all the students in your class with the results of their quizzes and surveys. Click on the exclamation mark ( ! ) corresponding to the student and quiz in question. On the page that appears, click the Clear Attempt button. The student is now able to take the quiz again.
Be sure to emphasize to your students that they only need
to click on the submit button ONE time. If your quiz or assessment is password
protected and a student clicks the submit button more than once on the submit
password screen they will cause the system to block them out. Clicking the
button multiple times does not make things go any faster, and in most cases the
submissions will fail; the system will block access to the affected assessment
for that student for all subsequent attempts.
Resizing the browser window frame in Netscape is another way students can
interrupt quiz attempts.
Q: A student says she took a quiz or turned in an assignment but had problems. Is there any way I can verify this?
A: If there is ever a dispute about a quiz having been taken or not, a term paper submission, etc., the Blackboard administrators could inspect the server logs and find out what really happened. Doing this, however, is a lot of work, so we would only do it upon request and on rare occasions. Often, the fact that students know that everything in Blackboard is logged and that you have access to these logs can preempt many possible claims or arguments.
Q: What happens to my Blackboard site at the end of the semester?
A: Blackboard course sites will be automatically closed two weeks after the end of the semester. Blackboard sites can easily be reused in later terms by simply copying the course's contents to a new site. To learn to copy your course materials, please see the Blackboard Copy Process page or contact OTEL.
A: Students experiencing technical problems should call the UIS Tech Support Hotline toll-free (in Illinois) at 877.847.0443. Outside Illinois, please call 217.206.7357. When classes are in session, telephone assistance is available M-F 8:00 AM to midnight, Saturday from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, and Sunday from 3:30 PM to midnight. All times are Central Standard Time. You may also e-mail techsupport@uis.edu for after-hours assistance.
Q: The Blackboard server seems to be down, what should I do?
A: Blackboard is monitored by Academic Computing. If you suspect any problems with the service, please contact techsupport@uis.edu or check on the web at http://otel.uis.edu/suggest.htm and report your problem by filling in the form.
Q: What if I want to post Microsoft Word documents in Blackboard?
A:You may certainly post Microsoft Word documents in Blackboard.
The documents below were created in Microsoft Word. If you do not have Microsoft Word installed on your computer, or if you are having trouble viewing the documents below, please download the FREE Microsoft Word Viewer.
If you continue to have technical difficulties, please contact the UIS Help Desk at techsupport@uis.edu or 217.206.7357
Q: What if I want to post Microsoft Powerpoint presentations in Blackboard?
A: You may certainly post Microsoft Powerpoint presentations in Blackboard.
Some material for this course is shown using Microsoft PowerPoint. If you do not have Microsoft Powerpoint installed on your computer or if you are having trouble viewing the documents with a ppt file extension, please click "http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/ppview97.aspx" to install the FREE Microsoft PowerPoint viewer.
If you continue to have technical difficulties, please contact the UIS Help Desk at techsupport@uis.edu or 217.206.7357
A: Word Viewer 2003 will let you view, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed.
An alternative would be to convert Word documents to a format people who do not have Word can read, such as Rich Text Format (RTF).
To save a Word document as an RTF file, click "Save As..." and in the "Save as Type:" pull-down menu select "Rich Text Format (*.rtf)".
Q: How do I view Microsoft Powerpoint presentations in Blackboard?
A: PowerPoint Viewer 2003 l ets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions. It is free to download and lets you view Powerpoints in Internet explorer.
Most powerpoint lectures are big files. At OTEL, we have a software called Impatica that converts a PowerPoint file into a compressed format that is optimized for streaming over the Internet. The Impatica file is typically 95% smaller than the PowerPoint HTML files.
Learn more about Impatica for Powerpoint
OTEL can provide this service for you, as needed, for your online class. Contact us by calling 217-206-7317 or emailing otel.uis.edu for assistance.
Q: Why can I only see part of the statistics for my class?
A: The upgrade to
Blackboard 6.0 in Spring 2004 helped to make the server and applications housed
on the server more robust to address the growing needs of our campus. The
enterprise level is more robust, due in part, to the introduction of Oracle as
the backend database holding all of our user information rather than the more
limited SQL database which came with Blackboard 5. In Blackboard 5 user
statistics was stored on the same production server without interruption or
consequence. However, the change to Blackboard 6.0 Enterprise and Oracle
requires that statistical data be purged after 30 days due to the high volume of
data collected. Blackboard Support strongly recommends that we not change this
setting as to do so would seriously risk overall system performance.
In order to maintain services our instructors have come to depend upon, we have
set up a copy of our production server which will be used to display longer
range Blackboard user statistics. The statistical display is not automatic and
must be done manually requiring two days of processing time due to the
sheer size of the data and the recovery steps. At the end of each semester, we
will take the steps necessary to bring the web server which holds a copy of
Blackboard (
http://bbstats.uis.edu ) up-to-date so that faculty can access data for the
entire semester ( for example: January 12, 2004 - May 6, 2004). We hope to have
the restored statistical data available for users to view on the Blackboard copy
server ( http://bbstats.uis.edu
) by the end of each semester and before grades are due.
Again, to view a display of the entire semester's worth of statistical data for
your class you will need to login to a different Blackboard server with a
different web address of
http://bbstats.uis.edu . You can login to this server with the
same username and password which you use for
the production Blackboard server. Note that the server which currently houses
this copy of Blackboard is not as strong as the production server so the
statistical data is a bit slow in displaying and may even time-out your web
service over a 56k modem line.
Please contact the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning 206-7317 if you need
assistance in retrieving Blackboard statistical data or have further questions
about this topic.