[BB] Blackboard Learn Upgrade Proceeding

Bb Mailing List members,

The upgrade of Blackboard Learn is proceeding. It will be completed, as scheduled, on or before Saturday, January 6, 2018, given the current estimates. A task that was expected to take 1 hour ended up taking 39 hours, so that meant the upgrade could not be completed early, as we had hoped. We had enough extra time build in that we are still on schedule for the plan to bring the system back up before classes start at the Miller School of Medicine. We will update you as other information becomes available.

-- Bill --

William (Bill) Vilberg

Director of Learning Platforms

Academic Technologies, Information Technology

University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL

305-284-3944

[BB] Blackboard upgrade started

Dear Blackboard users,

The Blackboard upgrade has started and the system will be down until probably sometime before January 7th 2018. We will send another notification once it comes back up.

Please feel free to contact us for any requests and issues you might have. Our phone number is 305-284-3949 or you can email us at learningplatforms@miami.edu. 

We wish you all a happy new year,

Sincerely,

Your Blackboard Team

(P): 305-284-3949

[BB] Blackboard Learn Upgrade Downtime - Reminder

Dear Blackboard Learn user,  

 

Blackboard Learn will be upgraded over the winter break. It will be unavailable from 5:00 pm Wednesday, December 27, 2017 until sometime before Sunday, January 7, 2018.  

 

When the upgrade is completed, we will send an email to inform you that Blackboard Learn is available. Upon completion of the upgrade, everything on http://courses.miami.edu should be exactly as you left it before the upgrade.  

 

In addition, your Spring 2018 course sites will be in Blackboard Learn on November 16, 2017. So, if you wish, you will be able to work on them before the scheduled downtime.  

 

If you have questions of special needs related to this upgrade/downtime, please contact the UMIT Learning Platforms Help Desk at (305) 284-3949 or learningplatforms@miami.edu. 

 

Sincerely,  

 

Your Blackboard Team  

(P): 305-284-3949

[BB] Textbook details for Spring 2018 classes

Dear Blackboard mailing list members,

Please take a minute, if you have not already done so, and send your textbook requirements to the textbooks.bookstore@miami.edu email account.

Textbook details have been submitted for around 3,500 spring 2018 courses. But another 3,000 will probably use textbooks or other bookstore items. Because of the holiday and extended semester, it is important to let the bookstore know your plans now so that they can have things ready for our students in January.

If you will not be needing/using any textbooks for one or more of your courses, please let them know that as well. By working together we can make the student experience at the beginning of the semester as smooth as possible.

-- Bill --

William (Bill) Vilberg

Director of Learning Platforms

Academic Technologies, Information Technology

University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL

305-284-3944

[BB] Blackboard Learn Upgrade Downtime - Reminder

Dear Blackboard Learn user,  

Blackboard Learn will be upgraded over the winter break. It will be unavailable from 5:00 pm Wednesday, December 27, 2017 until sometime before Sunday, January 7, 2018.  

When the upgrade is completed, we will send an email to inform you that Blackboard Learn is available. Upon completion of the upgrade, everything on http://courses.miami.edu should be exactly as you left it before the upgrade.  

In addition, your Spring 2018 course sites will be in Blackboard Learn on November 16, 2017. So, if you wish, you will be able to work on them before the scheduled downtime.  

If you have questions of special needs related to this upgrade/downtime, please contact the UMIT Learning Platforms Help Desk at (305) 284-3949 or learningplatforms@miami.edu. 

Sincerely,  

Your Blackboard Team  

(P): 305-284-3949

[BB] Blackboard is looking for people to test the Blackboard Instructor app

Blackboard list members,

I know this is a busy time, but I wanted to pass this on in case you are interested in working with Blackboard to test out proposed changes in the Blackboard Instructor mobile app (iOS and Android). Here is the request. 

We're looking for instructors who are willing to test mobile grading workflows for Blackboard Instructor. Participants must:

• be available to participate in a remote 45-minute session between Thursday, November 30, and Monday, December 4
• regularly assign tests or homework that require writing (such as essay questions)
• be familiar with grading using rubrics
• use (or have an interest in using) smartphones for teaching
• have access to a smartphone (iOS or Android) and be willing to download a usability testing app to use during the session

If you meet the requirements and would like to participate, go to https://calendly.com/blackboard_ux/instructorgrading2 and sign up quickly for one of the slots.

The full request is below. Since UM is not using Blackboard Learn Ultra, the second request doesn't seem to apply to us.

- Bill - 

---

From: Bethany Stolle <Bethany.Stolle@blackboard.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 1:55 PM
To: Design Research
Subject: Blackboard Usability Test Opportunities: November 30-December 4

 

Hello!

 

Thank you for your interest in participating in a research session to test out proposed Blackboard designs. We have a couple of opportunities to test revised designs in the coming week. The sessions will be moderated remotely, so you can participate from the comfort of school, work, or home. Want to know more? Read on for details.

 

Blackboard Instructor

We're looking for instructors who are willing to test mobile grading workflows for Blackboard Instructor. Participants must:

• be available to participate in a remote 45-minute session between Thursday, November 30, and Monday, December 4
• regularly assign tests or homework that require writing (such as essay questions)
• be familiar with grading using rubrics
• use (or have an interest in using) smartphones for teaching
• have access to a smartphone (iOS or Android) and be willing to download a usability testing app to use during the session

 

Blackboard Learn Ultra

We're looking for instructors and students who are willing to test design prototypes for groups and activity indicators Blackboard Learn Ultra. Participants must:

• be available to participate in a remote 60-minute session between Monday, December 4, and Thursday, December 7
• use (or have familiarity with) group assignments or projects as part of classroom work
• have access to a laptop or desktop computer with audio/webcam capabilities, Chrome browser, and a strong internet connection

 

We have a limited number of test openings, so please sign up quickly if you're interested.

• Blackboard Instructor usability test: https://calendly.com/blackboard_ux/instructorgrading2
• Blackboard Learn Ultra usability test: https://calendly.com/blackboard_ux/learnultra3

 

After you're scheduled, you will receive a confirmation email and link to login to the session when it's time to begin. Participants who complete the usability test will receive a $25 gift card.

 

Thank you for considering this opportunity. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. 

 

Cheers,

Bethany 

 

P.S. Not available to participate but know of other faculty or students who might want to help? Forward the invite to them, and share this link to get on the list for future design research projects: Faculty & Staff Participant Survey, Student Participant Survey.

 

Bethany Stolle

Design Research Lead, Blackboard, Inc.

Bethany.Stolle@blackboard.com | 612.963.6395 | stolleb (Skype)

 

This email and any attachments may contain confidential and proprietary information of Blackboard that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, disclosure, copying, re-distribution or other use of any of this information is strictly prohibited. Please immediately notify the sender and delete this transmission if you received this email in error.

[BB] Blackboard Learn Upgrade - downtime

Dear Blackboard Learn user,  

Blackboard Learn will be upgraded over the winter break. It will be unavailable from 5:00 pm Wednesday, December 27, 2017 until sometime before Sunday, January 7, 2018.  

When the upgrade is completed, we will send an email to inform you that Blackboard Learn is available. Upon completion of the upgrade, everything on http://courses.miami.edu should be exactly as you left it before the upgrade.  

In addition, your Spring 2018 course sites will be in Blackboard Learn on November 16, 2017. So, if you wish, you will be able to work on them before the scheduled downtime.  

If you have questions of special needs related to this upgrade/downtime, please contact the UMIT Learning Platforms Help Desk at (305) 284-3949 or learningplatforms@miami.edu. 

Sincerely,  

Your Blackboard Team  

(P): 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Blackboard Instructional Resources

Hello Blackboard users,

Blackboard has put together a series of free  webinars for anyone who wants to attend. I encourage you to take a look at them and feel free to register if the time is good for you. They also have some interesting recording of previous sessions and they are available for playback.

Get your last 3 BITS: Invite your faculty, instructional designers, and faculty trainers to attend our Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS) webinars to learn tips and best practices for using Blackboard technology in their courses. Only 3 remaining sessions left in 2017! Register Here>>

 

Calling all Course Reviewers: We need course reviewers for the Exemplary Course Program! Invite your faculty, instructional designers, and faculty trainers to attend our ECP Course Reviewer Training on October 24 at 3:00 pm Eastern. Register Here>>

 

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question about your Blackboard course sites.

 

Your Blackboard Team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Prevent cheating during Blackboard tests: Attend a training

Blackboard users,

UM licenses two products from Respondus that can be used to monitor and reduce online cheating: Respondus Lockdown Browser (University wide site license) and Respondus Monitor (200 seats per year where a seat is one student in one class). A number of people have indicated interest in this capability, particularly after Hurricane Irma disrupted our learning process. While you may not be planning on teaching a fully on-line course, there may be times that you want to allow a student to take a test at a distance or perhaps have all your students take a test outside of class time. These two Respondus products can help increase your trust that the students are really taking the test themselves and are not using outside resources. 

The webinars listed below are 45 minute introductions to what these products are and how they can be used. If you are at all curious, I encourage you to register and take part. If you want to more about using Respondus Lockdown Browser tests in Blackboard, or obtaining some of the Respondus Monitor licenses, let me know.

— Bill —

William "Bill" Vilberg

Director, Learning Platforms, Information Technology

University of Miami

305-284-3944

To view this email as a web page, go here

September 2017 If you offer online quizzes or tests through Blackboard Learn, it's simple to prevent cheating with LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor. Join a free 45-minute training webinar to learn everything you need to get started. You'll see a demo of the applications, and learn how to prevent cheating in both proctored and non-proctored online tests. Your institution's license gives you access to these applications - so sign up for a date below! UPCOMING TRAINING DATES Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT Thursday, October 12 at 1pm ET / 10am PT     Assessment Tools for Learning Systems www.respondus.com

 

[BB] Files not opening in Blackboard

Dear blackboard users

We have received several reports of files not opening in courses from our Blackboard System. So if you have done a course copy from an older course site to your fall course site, please verify you can open the files attached. If they are not working and you receive an error message, let us know by emailing us at learningplatforms@miami.edu and provide the course ID where you are experiencing this issue.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

Learning Platforms Team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

[BB] Quickly create online exams with publisher test banks

Bb Users,

Another technology tool to help make your life easier, if you can invest a bit of time learning to use it.

UM has a site license for a Windows program, Resondus 4.0, to make exams. With it you can create, edit, print, and upload exams to Blackboard. They also have a test bank network where they host a lot of publisher test banks, all set to be imported into Respondus 4.0. Respondus has a webinar coming up on Wednesday, August 23, at 2pm. You can either register and watch live or, if this is a typical webinar, register and receive a link to a recording of the session. I know this is the busiest time of the year so your time is valuable. If you think you might benefit from this tool, try to invest a bit of time to use it.

My brother needed five different copies of the same test to give paper-and-pencil in class. He used this program to determine which questions to use, and then used it to print five versions with the questions in different orders. Very nice. And free to use for UM people.

If you have a Mac and want to use it, you can either install a program like VirtualBox that lets you run Windows as a program on your Mac, or set up your Mac with Bootcamp so that you can either boot into MacOS or Windows. 

Responses Lockdown Browser is a different program, from the same company, that is used to control a computer while students are taking an online test via Blackboard. We also license that product, but the two products do not depend on each other.

Have a GREAT semester!!

— Bill —

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Respondus" <info@respondus.com>

Subject: Quickly create online exams with publisher test banks

Date: August 17, 2017 at 10:50:34 AM EDT

To: bill.vilberg@gmail.com

To view this email as a web page, go here

Create online exams from publisher test banks  in just minutes - for free.  The Respondus Test Bank Network offers thousands of ready-to-use test banks for the leading textbooks in higher education. Whether you use Blackboard Learn, Brightspace, Canvas, or Moodle, you'll quickly see how the Respondus Test Bank Network can save you countless hours each term. And it's free with your Respondus 4.0 license.

Learn more in a free webinar on August 23 at 2pm ET! REGISTER FOR A WEBINAR SEARCH FOR A TEST BANK

Assessment Tools for Learning Systems www.respondus.com

This email was sent to: bill.vilberg@gmail.com This email was sent by: Respondus 8201 164th Avenue NE, Suite 200 Redmond Washington 98052 Profile Center | Unsubscribe

[BB] Reminder - Fall 2017 Blackboard Learn Course Setup Assistance

Dear Blackboard Users,

 

We are here to assist you with the tasks that are often done when setting up a Blackboard course site. Let us know if we can do any of these, or anything else, to assist you at the start of this semester. Send email to learningplatforms@miami.edu, call 305-284-3949, or when available fill out the form, to make a request or get assistance.

1.       COURSE SITE AVAILABILITY

When created, course sites are unavailable to students. This way you can set them up before the students access them. Call or email us and we can make them available to your students, or you can follow these easy steps to do it yourself:

·         Article - Instructions for using Qwickly to make course available

·         Video - Instructions for using Qwickly to make course available

 

2.       COURSE SITE MERGE

If you teach multiple sections of a course, or have both graduate and undergraduate students in the same 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 each section’s site separately. Tell us what sites you want merged and we will take care of it for you.

·         Request a course merge

Note: Courses should be merged before any student activity takes place in the course sites for the various sections. User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts, will not show up in the new, merged, site.

3.       COURSE SITE AUGMENT

We can do a course "augment" rather than a course merge if you would like. An augment maintains all of your original course sites and adds 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 section course sites for assignments or tests specific to each course section.  Fill out the form below or call to request a course augment.

·         Video – Difference between course merges and augments (15 minutes)

·         Form to request a course augment

4.        COURSE SITE COPY

If you have material from a prior semester that you would like to copy into the course site you are setting up, you can call or email us, or fill out the form below, and we will do a course copy for you. You can also follow the steps at the link below to do it yourself:

·         Course Copy instructions

·         Video about course copies (7 minutes)

·         Form to request a course copy

 

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

 

5.       ADDING TA’S & OTHER ENROLLMENTS TO A COURSE SITE

Teaching assistants are not added automatically to your class, they have to be entered manually. Email or call us and will be happy to do it for you, or you can do it yourself using the instructions at the following link:

·         Article - Instructions for Enrolling Users to Blackboard instructions

·         Video - Instructions for Enrolling Users to Blackboard instructions

 

 

Please feel free to contact us for any requests and issues you might have.  Our phone number is 305-284-3949 or you can email us at learningplatforms@miami.edu.

HOURS:

Monday - Thursday (Excluding University Holidays)

9AM - 9PM

 

Friday

9AM - 6PM

 

Saturday - Sunday

9AM - 2PM

 

Learning Platforms Team

(P): 305-284-3949

[BB] Blackboard has changed the module to access your courses.

Dear Blackboard users,

 

We have updated the module “My Courses” that allows you to access your courses from the Blackboard main page.

We have created a set of instructions to help you get started with it and set it up.

 

• “My Courses” setup instructions
• “My Courses” video instructions

 

If you have questions related to this issue, please contact the UMIT Learning Platforms Help Desk: (305) 284-3949, learningplatforms@miami.edu

 

 

Learning Platforms Team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

[BB] bbtest email sent to all users

 

​ Service Alert    A Blackboard Technician testing the email system inadvertently sent a test message to all accounts for the University of Miami with the subject line "bbtest". We apologize for this error. You may disregard and/or delete the message.   If you have questions related to this issue, please contact the UMIT Blackboard Help Desk: (305) 284-3949, blackboardhelp@miami.edu.     Thank you.

/umiamiit              @umitsupport

 

 

Learning Platforms Team

(P): 305-284-3949