[BB] Safe Assignment Update & "Faculty Info"

Bb Users,

 

Safe Assignment is still down. There is a problem that Blackboard is currently researching. All our Safe Assignment has been migrated, though so it will be accessible when we complete the switch to Safe Assign, but it may take another day or two. Thank you for your patience on this issue.

 

In addition, people have been having problems with Staff/Factulty Information displaying when a course has been copied from a past semester to the Spring 2008 semester. When you click the link on the left, it says "Folder empty." This is a bug in Blackboard that was very rare in the past, but looks like it is much more prevalent this semester. While we try and figure out a fix, the workaround is to manually recreate the staff profile.  (We would be happy to recreate your staff profile for you.) Unfortunately, if you have more than one instructor, this bug appears to allow only ONE instructor profile to be displayed. This is clearly not acceptable, but I haven't found a workaround for it yet, so if you have a course copy and multiple instructors, please ask us to do it for you.

 

If you have a course copy and would like us to handle it for you, or if you are experiencing the "Folder Empty" problem, please create a ticket (http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com/?cmd=addticket&sid), and we will take care of it to the best of our ability.

 

Sorry about the unexpected issues and (hopefully temporary) lack of complete resolution.

 

...and Happy New Year!

-Jennifer

____________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard Manager & Analyst
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

 

[BB] Safe Assignment Down 12/27 - 12/28

Blackboard Users,

 

I am upgrading Safe Assignment to Blackboard’s “Safe Assign.” Safe Assignments will be accessible through Safe Assign once the upgrade is complete and all the data is copied, but the upgrade instructions indicate that this process will take about a day for “larger institutions.”

 

I will send out a note when the upgrade is complete, but in the meantime, Safe Assignment will not be accessible, and I apologize for any inconvenience.

 

-Jennifer

____________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard Manager & Analyst
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

 

[BB] Archiving & Removing Courses from Blackboard ('04-'05)

Bb Users,

 

We will be archiving and removing old courses from Blackboard over the next couple of weeks.

 

Every year we archive and remove old courses. This time around we will be removing the 2004-2005 (Fall 2004 – Summer 2005) courses from the Blackboard system. Courses from the 2005-2006 school year will be made unavailable to students, but will still be accessible to faculty.

 

We will begin this process of archiving and removing courses on December 7^th and hope to be finished by December 24^th. I have attached a document that explains how to archive and save your own courses to your computer.

 

QUESTIONS:

1. WHAT IS ARCHIVING?
   Archiving means we take your entire course and save it to a disk. Then we remove it from the Blackboard System. If we ever need to restore the course, we can, but it may take some time.
2. CAN YOU ARCHIVE AND SAVE YOUR OWN COURSE?
   Yes, you can! Attached is a document that explains how to archive your course and how to download a great tool that will make navigating that archived course easier.
3. OTHER QUESTIONS?
   Please open a ticket with the Blackboard Help Desk.
   
   

Thank you, and happy end-of-semester,

Jennifer

____________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard Manager & Analyst
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

 

[BB] "Total" Gradebook Column Available to Students

Bb Users,

 

We just discovered a bug today. If you have opted to make the “Total” or the “Running Weighted Total” column in your gradebook UNAVAILABLE to students, they can still see it.

*If your entire gradebook is unavailable to students, this is not an issue.*

 

Blackboard is working on a fix for us, but we don’t know how quickly it will be ready. In the meantime, there is a manual fix that we at the Help Desk can perform by archiving and restoring your course.

 

If you have made your Total/Running Weighted Total column “Unavailable” to students, and you need us to fix it right away, please create a ticket using our ticketing system, or call the Help Desk at x8-3949.

 

I sincerely apologize for any problem this causes you, but we will do the best we can to rectify it as quickly as possible.

 

-Jennifer

____________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard Manager & Analyst
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

[BB] Powerpoint Display Problems iin Blackboard

Blackboard Users,

 

If you use the Internet Explorer 7.0 browser, you may notice problems displaying Powerpoint files. In this case they appear as one blank slide or as nothing but a line. Blackboard is trying to work with Microsoft to create a patch for this issue.

 

Until then, there are a few workarounds for you and your students.

 

1. If you or your students want to use a different browser, this issue does not exist in Firefox or Netscape.
2. If you right-click the link and save the file to your computer, you will be able to open it that way
3. If you want to convert your Powerpoint presentations to PDF format before you post it, you can download a free PDF converter at http://www.primopdf.com/.

 

If you have any problems, please create a ticket using our ticketing system, or call the Help Desk at x8-3949.

 

As always, we’ll keep you informed as we get more information.

____________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard Manager & Analyst
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

[BB] Password Problems

Blackboard Users,

 

Blackboard recently made an adjustment to our data that caused SOME passwords to be reset to users’ birthdays. Although this problem has been corrected, it may have affected some users who have not realized it yet.

 

If you find yourself unable to login to Blackboard, try entering your birthday in the password field in this format: 1/1/1979

 

If that doesn’t work, please create a ticket using our ticketing system, or call the Help Desk at x8-3949.

 

We apologize for any inconvenience, and thanks again for your patience.

 

-Jennifer

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard Manager & Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

Bb List Information

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:00:57

You are subscribed to the Bb list at the University of Miami. I created
this list to distribute information about the Blackboard course web site
system at UM.

Here are a few reminders.

1. If you want to unsubscribe you can do it a number of ways. A. Send me
an e-mail and I will remove you from the list. B. Go to
http://listserv.miami.edu/archives/bb.html, click on the "Join or leave
the list" link, and follow the instructions. C. Send the message
"UNSUBSCRIBE BB" (in the body of the list, not the subject) to
listserv@listserv.miami.edu. (This will only work if sent from the
address that you are subscribed as.)

2. If you know someone who would like to subscribe tell them to do one of
the following. A. Send me an e-mail and I will add them to the list. B.
Go to http://www.snurl.com/bbforms and fill out the "Mailing List" form.
B. Go to http://listserv.miami.edu/archives/bb.html, click on the "Join
or leave the list" link, and follow the instructions. C. Send the message
"SUBSCRIBE BB" (in the body of the list, not the subject) to
listserv@listserv.miami.edu.

3. Searchable archives of the list are available at
http://listserv.miami.edu/archives/bb.html. The archives go back to July
2001 when the Bb list was created.

Bill Vilberg bill.vilberg@miami.edu Home: 305-255-9138 Work: 305-284-3949
Cell: 786-218-3052

[BB] Safe Assignment Problems

Blackboard Users,

 

For those of you who use Safe Assignment, we are aware that the response time has been unacceptable and the availability has been sporadic.

 

Safe Assignment is aware of this problem and is working to correct it. They apologize for the hardships they are causing for faculty and students and hope to have the problem resolved by next week.

 

The story behind this issue is that Blackboard purchased Safe Assignment over the summer. Safe Assignment overestimate the number of people who would immediately switch over to the Blackboard version and were unprepared to handle the volume of users they are currently supporting.

 

We hope to make the switch to the Blackboard version between semesters to minimize impact, but if this problem persists, we will re-evaluate that decision and make an emergency switch if we have to.

 

In the meantime, if we can help in any way by uploading papers and providing printouts or links to the reports for you, please call us as 8-3949.

 

I have asked that Safe Assignment notify me when this problem is solved. I will pass that information along when I get it. I apologize for the inconvenience, and I fully understand how bad the timing is.

 

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard Manager & Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

[BB] Unscheduled Blackboard Downtime Fri. 2-5am

Blackboard Users,

 

Blackboard needs to diagnose an administrative problem for us and will be unavailable for at least some of the time between the early morning hours of 2:00am and 5:00am, Friday, September 28.

 

We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard Manager & Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

[BB] Blackboard, LessonBuilder, and SCORM; Oh, My!

Blackboard users,

UM has a site license for the learning object development tool SoftChalk LessonBuilder. You can download the software from http://www.miami.edu/software.  A number of projects and individuals have started using LessonBuilder to develop materials with content and learning activities for their students. 

On Tuesday at 1:00 PM there will be a webinar demonstrating how to integrate SoftChalk into Blackboard so that grades on assessments created within the SoftChalk environment are posted to the Blackboard gradebook, among other things.  You can sign up for the seminar below.  I have already signed up, hoping to learn more about this tool and how we can take advantage of it to enhance learning outside the classroom.

Bill Vilberg

 

From: Thomas Wilson [mailto:thomas@softchalk.com]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 3:56 PM
To: Vilberg, William R.
Subject: Thanks and reminders from the Eastern Team at SoftChalk

 

 

Dear Bill,

Greetings from the Eastern Team! Our names are Mary Beth Kim and Thomas Wilson. We know that you’ve been very busy during the last month with the start of a new school year. Hopefully, now is a good time for you to take a fresh look at our product, SoftChalk LessonBuilder, and we greatly appreciate any consideration you may have already given our software during this busy period of your year.

 

We would also like to announce a special webinar that will show you how to integrate LessonBuilder into the Blackboard LMS. This Webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, September 25 at 1pm ET and additional information can be found below. You can register for this webinar by simply clicking the “REGISTER NOW” link below.

 

Blackboard/LessonBuilder Integration- Special Partner webinar -Florida Community College System, Jacksonville FL -Blackboard Corp, Washington DC	Tuesday, September 25 10am PT | 11am MT | 12pm CT | 1pm ET	REGISTER NOW!
In this session, Bill Ganza the Director of Professional Development at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, will show how lessons created with LessonBuilder can be imported into Blackboard. He will show how the lessons are saved, brought into Blackboard and how the quizzes and learning activities become part of the Blackboard gradebook. Prior to Bll's presentation Jan Day from Blackboard will describe the Blackboard-SoftChalk partnership.

 

 

If you or others at your institution would like to learn even more about LessonBuilder itself, we offer online webinars that allow us to demonstrate the power and ease of using the software. Demonstrations typically last about 45 minutes and we can address your questions during these interactive online sessions. You can visit the schedule of online presentations to select a time frame that fits your needs.

 

Alternatively, we can also schedule private sessions that are more fully customizable to your specific interests or questions. Private webinars are scheduled at your convenience and we can fully accommodate your schedule.

 

And remember, you can download the 30 day free trial and see what all of the excitement is about for yourself. The 30 day free trial has all features fully enabled so you can explore the entire range of functionality that LessonBuilder has to offer.

Please let us know if you would like to schedule an online webinar to show your team the full power and functionality of LessonBuilder.

Thanks from SoftChalk, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Mary Beth Kim

Regional Sales Director

SoftChalk

marybeth@softchalk.com

877-638-2425 ext.103 (office)

757-897-6591 (cell)

 

Thomas Wilson

Eastern Region Sales

SoftChalk

Thomas@softchalk.com

877-638-2425 ext. 106 (office)

828-231-7646 (cell)

 

[BB] Lunch & Learn: Voice Tools

Blackboard Users,

 

The Instructional Advancement Center has a new Lunch & Learn session coming up on
Wednesday, September 12 from 12:20 to 1:30pm in the Whitten University Center Flamingo Ballroom C/D.

 

Voice Tools: What They Can Do For You and Your Class

 

The interaction and student engagement level of your class can be increased by when faculty and students can easily embed vocal interactions into their Blackboard course Web site.

 

UM has recently purchased a suite of voice tools that are now available through Blackboard. These tools provide the following features:

o   Live Conversation and/or Voice Coaching

o   Threaded Voice Boards

o   Embedded Voice within Course Pages

o   Voice-Enabled E-Mail

o   Oral Assessments

 

To register for this session go to http://snipurl.com/1qcpa.

 

For more information on Wimba’s voice tools go to: http://www.wimba.com/products/voicetools.  

 

 

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard Manager & Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

[BB] New "How to Login to Blackboard" guide

A new copy of the instructions on how to login to Blackboard is available.  Some faculty members like to include this in their packets for students.  It had not been updated since 2004, so it still referenced EASY and was much too complicated. 

 

For a direct link to the pdf file, use this http://www.miami.edu/bb/bblogin.pdf link.

 

The new version can also be found by going to www.miami.edu/blackboard and looking on the far left side of the page for the  “HANDOUT: Blackboard Login Instructions” link. 

 

It can also be found from within Blackboard on the Support tab, in the Students section, using the “Blackboard login instructions” link.

 

Bill Vilberg

 

[BB] Blackboard Training

[Please forgive the cross-posting, if you get two copies of this message.]

 

We will be offering two different Blackboard trainings before the start of the semester.  The first one will be the Introduction to Blackboard for New Users.  It will show participants how to make an announcement, upload a syllabus, see who is in the class, and send an e-mail to the class.  It is for new users.  If you have experience with Blackboard, this will be beneath your abilities.

 

This training will be held on Monday, August 13, 11:00-12:30 PM, and Thursday, August 16, at the same time.  For more information, or to register, go to http://www.miami.edu/iac and click on the “Training Activities” link in the menu bar.

 

The other training session will cover new features in Blackboard.  We upgraded this summer, and we thought those of you with experience might like to see “What’s New with 7.2?” 

 

This training will be held on Thursday, August 16, 1:00-2:30 PM, and Thursday, August 16, at the same time. For more information, or to register, go to http://www.miami.edu/iac and click on the “Training Activities” link in the menu bar.

 

Bill Vilberg

 

[BB] Instructor access to old (pre-summer) courses - FIXED

The problem has been fixed, so everyone should be able to access their old courses again.  If you encounter problems, please let us know.

 

Bill Vilberg

 

[BB] Access to old (pre-summer) courses

Instructors are not currently able to access their Blackboard courses from before this summer.  There was a mistake in the data run.  We are getting a new data run and should have it corrected sometime tomorrow (Thursday).

 

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

Bill V.

[BB] Course Merges for the Fall

Blackboard Users,

 

Back to school time is approaching fast, so I wanted to remind you of some of the things we can do for you BEFORE the fall rush. The following are link to online forms that will create tickets in our ticketing system requesting a:

 

Course Merge: Combine two or more courses into one course site.

 

Course Copy:   Copy the material from one course site into another one.

 

Student Account: Create a student account for an instructor which can be enrolled in their course to view it as a student would.

 

Have another request or question? Fill out our Customer Service Request Form or call us at 305-284-3949.

 

 

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard & Technology Integration Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

[BB] Bb Downtime Late Sunday Night

Blackboard Users,

 

Blackboard needs to diagnose an administrative problem for us and will be unavailable for at least some of the time between the early morning hours of 12:00am and 4:00am, Monday, July 23.

 

Hopefully this interruption will not be too much of an inconvenience to you or your students.

 

 

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard & Technology Integration Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

[BB] Fall Courses under "My Current Courses"

Blackboard Users,

 

The Fall 2007 semester (-081) is now visible under “My Current Courses” on the Blackboard Home tab.

 

 

(The fall semester is only FIVE weeks away.)

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard & Technology Integration Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949

 

[BB] Blackboard Update: UPGRADED

Blackboard Users,

We did it! Blackboard has been officially upgraded to system 7.2. It is back up and running.

Thank you all again for your support, assistance, and patience.

If you haven't had a chance to look around and/or try out some of the new features, I look forward to your feedback when you do.

If you have a course on the temporary server....

Courses We Moved Before the Upgrade:
We can move it back to regular at the end of the summer when your semester is finished. If you haven't posted a lot of content on the temporary server, and you want to start using regular Blackboard again, you are welcome to repost your content there and inform your students that they should switch back. If you decide to do this, you should post an announcement on the temporary server to make this clear to students. We can help you do that.

Courses We Created During the Upgrade:
You can stay on the temporary server if you like, but it might be easier for you to abandon it and start using regular Blackboard again since your students are probably using temporary accounts.

NOTE: "Moving" means we replace the content of one site with the content on the other site. We will not move any courses at the end of the summer until we double-check with you.

Thank you again,

________________________________________________
JENNIFER CLISTER
BlackBoard Manager
University of Miami IAC
305-284-3949

[BB] Blackboard System Upgrade: TESTING

Blackboard Users,

Finally! Blackboard has been upgraded, and we've ironed out all the wrinkles. We're ready to have you test it so that we can be absolutely certain it is ready to be made publicly available on Thursday, 7/5 (according to schedule).

As we have asked in the past, could you please review your course sites to make sure things look and function properly? Some things may look a little different, and there are a few new functions, but if you could confirm that everything works, it would be a great help.

Here is the URL: http://216.200.111.251

NOTE: It is important NOT to share this URL with your students. The site will be available to everyone on Thursday (7/5) via the regular Blackboard URL.This is only a test.

Information for Instructors with Courses on the Temporary Server...

For those of you who have had your courses moved to the temporary server, you are welcome to keep using it for the rest of the summer. At the end of the summer, we can replace the version of your course that is currently on regular Blackboard with the one you have been using over the summer (if you want that). Of course, you are free to start using regular Blackboard again and abandon the temporary server if you choose to do so at any time.

For those who have NOT had courses moved, but have had temporary courses and accounts created, you may want to switch back to regular Blackboard when it is publicly available on Thursday (7/5). Any content that you posted before Bb went down will still be there, so if you haven't posted too much new content to the temporary server, it might be easier to abandon it. Since your students are logging in to the temporary server with temporary accounts (while students in courses that were moved before Bb went down have the same login info as they do on regular Bb), it may be easier for them to return to the regular Blackboard site.

Thank you again,

____________________________________

JENNIFER CLISTER

Blackboard & Technology Integration Analyst

University of Miami IAC

305-284-3949