[BB] My Current Courses

Blackboard List Members,

The My Current Courses on the Blackboard Home tab are currently displaying the Spring 2007 (072) courses, and both Summer session courses (073, 074).

The Fall 2008 (081) courses were accidentally displayed under My Current Courses for several days, but this was in error and has been corrected. The Fall courses can bee accessed through the All Courses tab.

You can always access both future and past semesters’ courses through the All Courses tab in Blackboard (see diagram).

The All Courses tab is located near the top of the Blackboard header and to the right of the other tabs.

The Fall courses will be added to My Current Courses over the summer, but you can work on them over the summer by going through the All Courses tab. (We are hoping to upgrade Blackboard this summer, and it will most likely be down for approximately 1 week between the last week of June and first week of July. We will share more information on the upgrade as it becomes available.)

Student enrollments will continue to be processed throughout the summer. New students who are just starting at UM will not have their enrollments processed until the night before classes start.

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Educational Technology Integration Analyst

Instructional Advancement Center

305-284-5328

[BB] Blackboard upgrade planned this summer

Blackboard users,

We are currently using an old version of Blackboard, system 6. Support for that version is running out, so we need to upgrade to Blackboard system 7. It will take one week to perform the upgrade. During that week the Blackboard server will not be available.

Blackboard is now being used by the Coral Gables campus, Medical, Law, and Executive MBA, all of which have different schedules. There are always courses using Blackboard at UM. That is wonderful, but it makes the upgrade difficult to schedule. We are reviewing the possible dates for the upgrade, and setting up procedures for courses that might need Blackboard during the upgrade.

The current proposal for the upgrade is Tuesday, June 26, 2007, through Tuesday, July 3, 2007. That is after the first summer session on the Gables campus, and seems to meet the needs of the Executive MBA and Medical programs. When we upgraded to System 6 in 2004, we did it at about that same time of year.

Our plan is to have a second server available for people who are teaching during the upgrade week and cannot afford to lose that week of access to the Blackboard system. We would place those people's course(s) on the second server, and their students would access your course information there. For others, there would be no access to Blackboard for one week.

This is just a heads-up to let you know what is being planned. You will get more information as it becomes available.

Bill Vilberg

Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement

305-284-3944

[BB] E-mail to students with AOL accounts

AOL is not accepting e-mail from @miami.edu accounts at this time. They will fix the problem, but it will take 24-48 hours. If you send something and get a reply that your message is undelivered after 4 hours and will be held for 5 days, that is what you are seeing. You message will be sent as soon as AOL allows UM to send them e-mail.

I will put a notice on the Bb Home page, to let students know what is going on. There is nothing they can do, except get a different account. I strongly recommend the new UMail system for students. You can send students to www.miami.edu/umail for more info.

Bill Vilberg

Assoc. Dir. of Instructional Advancement

305-284-3944

[BB] Intro to Blackboard Training next Friday

Getting Started with Blackboard

Are you an instructor who would like a brief introduction to the Blackboard system so that you can start using it to enhance the courses that you teach or support the groups that you lead? During this 1.5 hour hands-on session you will create an announcement, upload a syllabus and a PowerPoint slide show, learn how to see who is in your site, and send an e-mail message to everyone in your site. No previous experience with Blackboard is required.

Friday, April 13
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Memorial Classroom Building
Room 105

Please go to http://www.miami.edu/iac and click "Training Activities" on the left to access the registration links

Or…

Register directly here: https://www6.miami.edu/UMH/Forms/UMH_Form_Display/1,3233,1332,00.html

Registration is required.

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Educational Technology Integration Analyst

University of Miami Instructional Advancement Center

305-284-5328