Managing Your Courses in Blackboard

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Managing Your Courses in Blackboard

• Fall Convocation
• Sandy Philip
• October 30, 2009

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Bb Instructor Outcomes

• Aware of the Course Deletion Procedure
• Ability to discern the best options for your
  course after term is completed
• Fully understand the implications of the option
  chosen
• Skill to carry out the option on their own
  without assistance
• Ability to recreate or reuse the content and
  session without assistance

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Bb Course Deletion Procedure

• Monday (11/23) last day for instructor to access
  course from Summer, 2007
• Removal of Term Course Shells
• Tuesday, November 24, 2009
• Suggested retention of
• Syllabus
• Electronic grade book
• Electronic student work

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Class Term Types

• Term class shell - A class shell created for
  single term use (i.e. Fall 2009). A term shell
  must be created for each term Blackboard is used
  for the class, and will automatically receive
  daily updates of student rosters. A term shell
  is the only class shell that should be used for
  students.
• Master class shell - A class shell created in
  Blackboard for use as a template to copy to term
  class shells. A master shell is for development
  only and will not receive student rosters.
• Other class shell - a class shell created for
  institutional usage, for groups or departments.
  Other class shells will not receive student
  rosters, and rosters must be maintained by the
  class shell owner.

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Term Course Maintenance

• Class Creation
• Three choices for putting materials into the term
  class shell

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Bb Course Maintenance Webpage

• http//bbwebapp.matcmadison.edu/

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Master Course Method

• Step 1 Create a master course as a template
  for future courses

Master Course (master-101-123-mwinckler)
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Master Course Method

• Step 2 Request the Fall term course shell to
  be created (on the website)

Master Course (master-101-123-mwinckler)
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
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Master Course Method

• Step 3 Request that the master course be
  copied into the term course

Master Course (master-101-123-mwinckler)
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
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Master Course Method
Master Course (master-101-123-mwinckler)
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
Spring Term Course Shell (12345_1078)
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Master Course Method
Master Course (master-101-123-mwinckler)
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
Spring Term Course Shell (12345_1078)
Summer Term Course Shell (12345_1080)
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Cascade Method
Step 1 - The course is created and developed
within the term course
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
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Cascade Method
Step 2 - The next term, that course is copied
into the next term course
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
Spring Term Course Shell (12345_1078)
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Cascade Method
Fall Term Course Shell (12345_1074)
Spring Term Course Shell (12345_1078)
Summer Term Course Shell (12345_1080)
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Term Course Maintenance

• Class Roster
• Two options for applying the roster

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Course Rosters

• Roster that day (24 hour lag)
• Roster upgrades
• 2-3 weeks before semester
• Then upgrades everyday
• Once in always in
• Wait list not there
• Stop roster stops updates
• Manual Enrollment building block
• Find User

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Course Management Options

• Archive
• Delete
• Export
• Recycle
• Copy

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Course Management Archive

• Creates complete copy of a Course in zipped file
  format
• All grades and associated setting are included in
  the Course package
• Need Bb Administrator to restore

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Course Management Archive

• Average size with no media (est 100MB)
• Bugs/lost info/no guarantees
• Large classes dont work
• Times out server

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Course Management Delete

• Goodbye forever
• Always send out confirmation for delete
• If more that one instructor, all must okay
• Get rid of all instructor and request course shell

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Course Management Export

• Select all or part of existing Course to a zipped
  file
• No student data
• Calculated Grade columns can be selected as part
  of the export
• Import Package uploads materials from zipped file
• Entire file or selected parts can be chosen

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Course Management Recycle

• Select areas to keep and areas to remove
• Repurposes the course for reuse

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Course Management Copy

• New Course
• Select material from existing course to be copied
  to new Course
• Grade Center settings are copied to new course
• Existing Course
• Source and destination Courses are merged
• Nothing in destination is overridden
• Could duplicate grade columns

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Course Management Copy

• Request at same time you request shell
• Dont use old course shells
• Problematic

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Data Retention Techniques

• Download Grade book to Excel
• Using bFree for content
• Shareware
• Discussion Board Archive Feature
• Better to use Wiki or Blog?

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bFree

• Shareware
• The Bfree software does show  the Discussion
  board threads (which are stored in the database
  AND the archive)
• Here is the link to the Download page
• http//its2.unc.edu/tl/tli/bFree/about.html

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bFree Basic usage instructions

• Creates a file system for your hard drive
• browse to course archive file
• open archive to view course content in original
  Blackboard menu structure
• Also, you can Extract as files folders or as
   static website

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Blackboard Resource Page

• Course Management
• http//matcmadison.edu/in/blackboard-resources