Blackboard user tips

From Jenny Darrow, Academic Technology:

We know there is still plenty of summer left to enjoy, but we wanted to let you know that the fall 2010 Blackboard courses have been created and are available for you to begin setting up course content. Since the upgrade (that took place earlier this month) involves a slight learning curve for most users, it is recommended that you take a look at your courses and begin building them as soon as possible.

When you first login to your course you’re going to notice that the interface looks different but once you get acclimated we think you’ll appreciate the improvements. Here are a few key pointers to help you get started before you begin building your course.

• Be sure the “ON/OFF” toggle on the Blackboard course home page is “ON” (upper right-hand corner of the screen). This provides you with instructor access to the course. Toggle to “OFF” when you want to view the course as a student would.
• The new Control Panel is always located on the left side of the screen giving you quick access to course files and tools.
• What were formerly known as Course Statistics are now called Course Reports. You can find this under the Evaluation link in the Control Panel. After opening up this tool, you will see different options. Select Overall Summary of User Activity unless you need to run statistics on the specific areas listed. You can still select users and a date range. Now, you have the ability to export this in different formats (i.e. PDF, HTML, Excel, and Word)

Workshops for August and the rest of the fall semester are currently being planned, so stay tuned. In the meantime, visit our growing library of Blackboard “how-to” documentation which be found on the AT site.

If you have any questions about Blackboard, please e-mail our support team: blackboard@keene.edu.