[BB] My Current Courses is fixed

Dear Bb Users,

 

The issue with “My Current Courses” is fixed and you should now be able to see your courses for the current semester.

 

We apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused.

 

Thanks,

 

Rick Ramos

Department of Information Technology

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] My Current Courses Module

Dear Bb Users

 

The module "My Current Courses" where classes for the current semester are displayed in the Blackboard home tab is not working at this moment. Instead you will see a list of all the courses you are enrolled in Blackboard. We are working to solve this issue as soon as possible.

 

Thank you,

 

Rick Ramos

Department of Information Technology

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] FW: re: Classroom Technology Training session in Memorial room 115 from 2:20pm - 3:20 pm On Friday August 24th

Dear Blackboard Users:

 

The general purpose classrooms in Memorial, the Learning Center, and the Residential College Classrooms feature some wonderful technology that can be used to enhance teaching. This session will demonstrate the features of the rooms, from the lights and telephone system to the writing tablet and video cameras. All teachers using these rooms are encouraged to attend the scheduled demonstrations.

 

The training session will be in the Dooley Memorial Classroom 115 from 2:20 pm to 3:20 pm, Friday August 24th. For additional information please contact Dale Deas 305-284-3263 or Marie White 305-284-6239.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

Instructional Advancement Center

Blackboard Course Management System

 

 

 

Re: [BB] Classroom Technology Training session in Memorial room 115 from 2:20pm - 3:20 pm

Dear Blackboard Users:

 

The general purpose classrooms in Memorial, the Learning Center, and the Residential College Classrooms feature some wonderful technology that can be used to enhance teaching. This session will demonstrate the features of the rooms, from the lights and telephone system to the writing tablet and video cameras. All teachers using these rooms are encouraged to attend the scheduled demonstrations.

 

The training session will be in the Dooley Memorial Classroom 115 from 2:20 pm to 3:20 pm. For additional information please contact Dale Deas 305-284-3263 or Marie White 305-284-6239.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

Instructional Advancement Center

Blackboard Course Management System

 

 

 

Re: [BB] Set up your Course Site

Actually, we CAN do an augment of a course site that was already merged or vice-versa. Check with Alex.

I think the restriction is that we cannot augment the same course into two different master sites. So if Accounting has already set up an augment to put all of their sites into a master site, and then SBA wants to put everything in SBA in a master site, it won't work. At least I think that was a real restriction. But we just did both an augment and merge of the same courses for Dr. Ram in Engineering.

-- 

Bill Vilberg

8-3944 or 786-250-2255

On Friday, August 17, 2012 at 3:53 PM, Ramos, Ricardo wrote:

Hello Bb Users,

 

With the beginning of every semester, you might like to have your course to be setup in a specific way. Below are services we offer for your courses, please take a look at them and let us know if you are interested in any of them:

1.      Course Merge

If you teach multiple sections of a course, it may be easier to combine them into one Blackboard course site, rather than have a separate site for each section. With the merged site, you can post your course material once rather than posting it in every section's site separately. To have us create a merged site, request a "course merge".

Note: Access to the original courses site will be lost so make sure to let us know if there is any material you would like to copy over to the newly created merged site. User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts will not be copied.

2.      Course Augment

There is also the option to do a "course augment" which will maintain all of your original course sites and add one additional master site with all of the students from your various sections. With the "course augment" option you can use the master site to post course material in one location, and reserve the individual course sites for assignments or tests specific to each course section.

 Note: We cannot do an augment of a course site that was already merged or vice-versa.

3.     Course Copy

  If you have material from a prior semester that you would like to copy to the new semester, you can call us to do a course copy for you or you can follow the steps at the link below to do it yourself:

http://goo.gl/uq1qU

Note: You need to be enrolled as an instructor in both courses sites in order to perform a Course Copy. User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts will not be copied.

4.      Teaching Assistant enrollment

Teaching assistants are not added automatically to your class. They have to be entered manually. You can have us do it for you or you can do it yourself using the instructions at the following link:

http://goo.gl/ON85r

Please feel free to contact us for any issues you might have. Our business hours are from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and our phone number is 305-284-3949 or you can email us at blackboardhelp@miami.edu

 

Rick Ramos

Department of Information Technology

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] Set up your Course Site

Hello Bb Users,

 

With the beginning of every semester, you might like to have your course to be setup in a specific way. Below are services we offer for your courses, please take a look at them and let us know if you are interested in any of them:

1.      Course Merge

If you teach multiple sections of a course, it may be easier to combine them into one Blackboard course site, rather than have a separate site for each section. With the merged site, you can post your course material once rather than posting it in every section’s site separately. To have us create a merged site, request a "course merge".

Note: Access to the original courses site will be lost so make sure to let us know if there is any material you would like to copy over to the newly created merged site. User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts will not be copied.

2.      Course Augment

There is also the option to do a "course augment" which will maintain all of your original course sites and add one additional master site with all of the students from your various sections. With the "course augment" option you can use the master site to post course material in one location, and reserve the individual course sites for assignments or tests specific to each course section.

 Note: We cannot do an augment of a course site that was already merged or vice-versa.

3.     Course Copy

  If you have material from a prior semester that you would like to copy to the new semester, you can call us to do a course copy for you or you can follow the steps at the link below to do it yourself:

http://goo.gl/uq1qU

Note: You need to be enrolled as an instructor in both courses sites in order to perform a Course Copy. User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts will not be copied.

4.      Teaching Assistant enrollment

Teaching assistants are not added automatically to your class. They have to be entered manually. You can have us do it for you or you can do it yourself using the instructions at the following link:

http://goo.gl/ON85r

Please feel free to contact us for any issues you might have. Our business hours are from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and our phone number is 305-284-3949 or you can email us at blackboardhelp@miami.edu

 

Rick Ramos

Department of Information Technology

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] New first year students are NOT in Blackboard at this time

Blackboard users,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

If you send an email today from your Blackboard class site to all the students in that class site, first year students who are new to UM will not receive the email. If you wait and send the email this coming Monday, everyone in your class site at that time (which will then include the first year students who are new to UM) will receive the eMail.

BACKGROUND

New first year students at UM see their schedules on MyUM two days before the first day of fall classes. Blackboard matches that release date. New first year students will be placed into their Blackboard course sites on the Sunday night/Monday morning before classes begin.

A difference between MyUM and Blackboard is what you can see. On MyUM you can see the class rosters, as I understand it, before the students can see their schedules. On Blackboard you can see the students in your class sites at the same time that students can see their schedules. So if you want to see who is in your class right now, including new first year students, go to My UM. If you want to send an email to everyone in your class, and you have any new first year students, wait until Monday to send the email.

-- 

Bill Vilberg

8-3944 or 786-250-2255

[BB] Emails re Lore

Blackboard users,

A message about the Lore learning management system (LMS) is being sent to professors at UM. I have included a copy below. Lore is in no way associated with UM. We are still using Blackboard as our LMS. The goal of the message, I think, is to make it look like we switched to Lore. We didn't.

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 8-3944

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lore <team@lore-mail.com>
Reply-To: Lore <team@lore-mail.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 4:17 
Subject: ________ , welcome to Lore

Dear ________ , Lore is a new alternative to learning management systems that's now available at University of Miami. It's free and this spring professors at over 600 schools used it for their courses. Like well-known social networks, class discussions on Lore are lightweight and fun. Students have given professors feedback that it helps make courses memorable. On Lore you also have tools for grading, sharing course materials, and keeping a calendar that are incredibly easy to use. Right now Lore is only available by invitation but but we're starting to open access for the fall. If you'd like to give it a try, your invitation is here. Hope you like it — The Lore Team

Click here to unsubscribe. Lore, PO Box 1018, New York, NY, 10013.

[BB] Blackboard New Look and Feel!

Hello Bb Users,

 

On August 8^th 2012, Blackboard at the University of Miami will have a new look to take full advantage of our recent upgrade to Service Pack 8 (SP8). The new version will improve the experience for students, and instructors.

 

FACE TO FACE TRAINING SESSIONS

 

To help with the transition to the new look and feel, we have scheduled multiple training sessions. "Blackboard Upgrade Information Session "New Look and Feel"" is designed for people who have used Blackboard and need to quickly get up to speed with SP8. "Introduction to Blackboard" is designed for people who have not used Blackboard before and need to start at the beginning. Multiple offerings of both trainings are available.

 

See the schedule and register for a training session at http://iacevents.org

 

==ON-LINE VIDEO==

 

Blackboard has created several videos to explain the new features and improvements in this new version.

 

-New Themes (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/NKd1h) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/R1Z2b)

 

- Quick Setup Guide and Course Structures (Help Page: http://goo.gl/ZoMTD )

- Course-to-Course Navigation (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/QTuok) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/hnIXZ)

- Activity Reports (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/dCcSP) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/w9SiU)

- Improved Adaptive Release: (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/R7Jrx) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/ReGpc)

 

- Timed Assessments Enhancement: (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/yBoVy) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/kvDcu)

 

- Automated Re-grading: (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/qVmK1) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/ZCt4o)

- Negative Marking: (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/gpOl0) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/vWv4s)

- Interactive Rubrics: (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/qX6cd) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/w0NEM)

 

- Needs Grading Tool Enhancement: (Video Demo: http://goo.gl/oKlg0) (Help Page: http://goo.gl/Ktaol)

==CONTACT THE HELP DESK==

 

Our help desk team is available to answer any of your questions. We can be reached by phone at 305-284-3949 or by email at blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Let us know what we can do to help you use Blackboard at its fullest.

 

Blackboard Support Team: Bill, Alex, Rick, and Kelley Instructional Advancement Center

 

 

 

Rick Ramos

Department of Information Technology

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949