[BB] Blackboard courses sites setup

Dear Blackboard Users,

 

With the beginning of every semester, you might like to have your Blackboard course sites setup in a specific way. Below are services we offer for your course sites. Let us know if we can do any of these, or anything else to assist you at the start of the semester. Send email to blackboardhelp@miami.edu or call 305-284-3949 to make a request or get assistance.

1.      Course 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.

Note: This should be done before any activity takes place in the course sites. Please be aware User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts will not be copied to the new site.

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 section course sites for assignments or tests specific to each course section.

3.     Course 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 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 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.

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

 

5.     Course Availability

 

When created, course sites are unavailable to students. We can make them available for you or you can follow these easy steps to do it yourself:

 

http://goo.gl/J5fsL5 

 

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

 

Your Blackboard team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Bb Webinar starts in one hour

It is Wednesday so we will have a Virtual Office Hours session starting at 3:30 pm. Topics are:

• Course Customization: Teaching Styles and Propertie
• Notification Email Settings

If you would like to join us, go to http://tinyurl.com/umiamibb/. If you have not used Blackboard Collaborate before, try connecting early, to give time to get everything set up on your computer. Call 305-284-3949 to get help with Collaborate, if you need it.

 - Bill - 

-- 
William Vilberg
Sent with Airmail

[BB] Supporting Faculty in Developing Online Course Proficiencies

The Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) is running a "Supporting Faculty in Developing Online Course Proficiencies" short course June 5-17 and UM will be participating. Please join us, UMIT Academic Technologies, for the three webinar sessions: Thursday, June 5; Wednesday, June 11; and Tuesday, June 17; 1:00 - 2:30 pm; in Richter Library, Third Floor Conference Room. With all of the recent activity around on-line courses at UM, this looks like an excellent event for us.

To register for this (free) event at UM, go to our registration form http://tinyurl.com/mrjmltm

For complete details about the short course, go to the ELI site http://tinyurl.com/lff24be

- Bill -


William (Bill) Vilberg
Assistant Director
Information Technology
University of Miami
305-284-3944 (desk)
786-250-2255 (cell)

[BB] UM Bb Virtual Office Hour

Dear Blackboard users,

 

Please join us on Wednesday, 5/7/2014, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., for our "UM Bb Office Hours" webinar. You can participate from your office, your home, or anywhere you can get an internet connection. Sessions will take place using Collaborate, the web conferencing system built into Blackboard. 

Go to http://tinyurl.com/umiamibb, enter your name, and the Collaborate java application should start. It should all be automatic, but it may take a few minutes the first time you do it. You can even try it out right now, to make sure you can get in.

This week there will be presentations about end of semester activities (archive course, export grade center, export grade history) and flipped classroom, Dr. Wang from the Biology department will be talking about his experience in the topic. There will also be plenty of time for open discussion and questions. 

We plan on doing this every Wednesday at 3:30 pm. We hope you can join us

 

Blackboard Collaborate first time users click here to check systems requirements.

 

Thank you,

 

Rick Ramos

Help Desk Supervisor

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Inline Grading work around

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

Inline Grading Unavailable - The outside server that processes documents for inline grading is currently down.  To work around this, please download the document on the lower right side of the inline grading interface.

 

 

Your Blackboard team

 

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Inline Grading in The Grade Center

Hello blackboard users,

 

Please be aware the Blackboard inline grading tool that allows you to preview assignments in the grade center is currently not working. Blackboard is aware of the issue and working on fixing it as soon as possible.

 

We will inform you as soon as a fix is in place.

 

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Blackboard team at: (305) 284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Your Blackboard team

 

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Blackboard Phishing scam

Blackboard Users,

The message "Blackboard Notification - New Article" from "Blackboard Articles" is a phishing scam. If you receive it, you should delete it. I have included a copy, received by a faculty member at UM, below.

The "Click here to sign in..." link on the original message links to a page where you are asked to sign in. This page is NOT part of any system at UM. The site will capture your username and password and probably use it to try to access your accounts on various system.

If you have already entered yourCaneID  information using that link, I encourage you to change your CaneID password. You can do that by going to the https://caneidhelp.miami.edu/ page and selecting the "Change Your Password" link.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions: bill.vilberg@miami.edu or 786-250-2255 (cell and desk).

 - Bill - 

Sent from my IQTELL Virtual Workspace

---

  

From: Blackboard Articles [mailto:articles@www.blackboard.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2014 3:43 PM
To: <snip>
Subject: Blackboard Notification - New Article

 

Hello,

Your school has uploaded an article with your information tagged in the content.

Please sign in immediately to review your information.

Click here to sign in and review the article now

Comment/Notifications of articles that are published will be delivered to you.


Black board Articles.

[BB] Blackboard Collaborate Announcement

Dear Blackboard Users,

 

On April 1st the Learning Platforms team in Academic Technologies, a part of UMIT, will be announcing the availability of the Blackboard Collaborate system for webinars and web conferencing. The event will take place 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm. You can attend in person at Richter Library, Room 305, or online at the http://tinyurl.com/umiamibb web site. To register, please go to http://iacevents.org and select the session you wish to attend.

Blackboard Collaborate has been available inside of Blackboard Learn for a while. Now it will be available outside of Blackboard Learn as a full webinar and web conferencing system. Blackboard Collaborate supports video, audio, presentations, and screen sharing. People do not have to be part of UM in order to be a participant or a moderator of a session. 

If you are interested in using the Blackboard Collaborate system, please attend the exciting announcement on April 1st. For more information about this event, or special accommodations, please contact Rick Ramos at either 305-284-3949 or r.ramos3@miami.edu .

 

Thank you,

 

Rick Ramos

Help Desk Supervisor

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Today's webinar topics: NBC Learn and SafeAssign

Blackboard users,

I hope you are having an excellent spring break. Today, as every Wednesday, the Learning Platforms team will host our Virtual Office Hours Webinar, 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Please join us if you can. Go to http://tinyurl.com/umiamibb to join.

Todays topics are:
• Using NBC Learn Videos in Blackboard
• SafeAssign: Detecting Plagiarism in Student Submissions

If you haven't used the Blackboard Collaborate webinar system before, please start to get things set up at 3:00 pm. On Macs you have to load a special program to help get the webinar started.

Segments from previous sessions can be found by going to http://tinyurl.com/umiamibbarchive. These segments are on YouTube, so nothing special is needed to watch them.

- Bill -


William (Bill) Vilberg
Assistant Director in Academic Technologies
Information Technology
University of Miami
305-284-3944 (desk)
786-250-2255 (cell)

[BB] Blackboard office hours 2/26/2014

Dear Blackboard users,

 

Please join us on Wednesday, 2/26/2014, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., for our "UM Bb Office Hours" webinar. You can participate from your office, your home, or anywhere you can get an internet connection. Sessions will take place using Collaborate, the web conferencing system built into Blackboard. 

Go to http://tinyurl.com/umiamibb, enter your name, and the Collaborate java application should start. It should all be automatic, but it may take a few minutes the first time you do it. You can even try it out right now, to make sure you can get in.

There will be presentations on using Collaborate as a participant, leading a Collaborate session and Blackboard adaptive release. There will also be plenty of time for open discussion and questions. 

We plan on doing this every Wednesday at 3:30 pm. We hope you can join us

 

 

Rick Ramos

Help Desk Supervisor

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Blackboard Office Hours

Dear Blackboard users,

 

Please join us on Wednesday, 2/12/2014, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., for our "UM Bb Office Hours" webinar. You can participate from your office, your home, or anywhere you can get an internet connection. Sessions will take place using Collaborate, the web conferencing system built into Blackboard. 

Go to http://tinyurl.com/umiamibb, enter your name, and the Collaborate java application should start. It should all be automatic, but it may take a few minutes the first time you do it. You can even try it out right now, to make sure you can get in.

There will be presentations on adding a Kaltura video in your course, creating a banner and/or changing the theme, and using surveys for classroom assessments. There will also be plenty of time for open discussion and questions. 

We plan on doing this every Wednesday at 3:30 pm. We hope you can join us

 

 

Rick Ramos

Help Desk Supervisor

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Safe Assign service restored

Dear Blackboard users,

 

The SafeAssign database experienced connection problems which caused a SafeAssign outage.  The services have been restored and can be accessed again.

 

If you have questions or concerns about these upcoming changes, please contact the Blackboard team at: (305) 284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Regards,

 

Rick Ramos

Help Desk Supervisor

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Safe Assign problem

Dear Blackboard Users,

 

We are experiencing some issues with accessing the safe assign tool. We are working with Blackboard to re-establish the service as soon as possible.

 

We apologize for the inconvenience,

 

If you have questions or concerns about these upcoming changes, please contact the Blackboard team at: (305) 284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Regards,

 

 

Rick Ramos

Help Desk Supervisor

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Blackboard working normally

The issue in Virginia has been resolved, we were told. Blackboard should be functioning normally.

Bill
From my iPhone

[BB] Blackboard issues

Blackboard users,

The hosting site, where our Blackboard server is located, is experiencing difficulties. The Blackboard system is still available, but the Home page looks different. In addition, because of the problem at the hosting site, SafeAssign is currently unavailable.

We will update you as we get more information. My cell phone is listed below, if you want/need/wish to contact me.

- Bill -


William Vilberg
Assistant Director, Learning Platforms
Information Technology
P: (305) 284-3944
C: (786) 250-2255

[BB] Blackboard courses sites setup

Blackboard Users,

 

With the beginning of every semester, you might like to have your Blackboard course sites setup in a specific way. Below are services we offer for your course sites. Let us know if we can do any of these, or anything else to assist you at the start of the semester. Send email to blackboardhelp@miami.edu or call 305-284-3949 to make a request or get assistance.

1.      Course 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.

Note: This should be done before any activity takes place in the course sites. Please be aware User records, such as discussion board posts, grades, and assessment attempts will not be copied to the new site.

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 section course sites for assignments or tests specific to each course section.

3.     Course 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 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 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.

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

 

5.     Course Availability

 

When created, course sites are unavailable to students. We can make them available for you or you can follow these easy steps to do it yourself:

 

http://goo.gl/J5fsL5 

 

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 atblackboardhelp@miami.edu

 

 

Your Blackboard team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Softchalk training

Dear Blackboard users,

 

SoftChalk Create is a program, licensed by UM, that makes it easy to create on-line learning activities. UM IT Academic Technologies has arranged for some training next week to introduce you to SoftChalk Create and to help you develop some material that you can use in your Blackboard course site. You can either join us in the Faculty Exploratory, Room 305, in Richter Library for the webinars or participate in the sessions from the convenience of your home or office. 

 

To register for the Faculty Exploratory events, please go to www.iacevents.org. To register so that you can participate at your own computer, use the "gotomeeting" links below.

 

Tuesday, Jan. 7th – 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/367119920

This one-hour Short Course class will show the many features of SoftChalk Create. In the overview, you will see how to take a Word document and easily make it into an interactive web page, how to save your lesson, add a design style, create interactive activities and text annotations.  Lastly, you'll see how to place your lesson for delivery in a Blackboard.

 

Thursday, Jan. 9th – 1:00pm - 4:00pm EST - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/858116280

This three and a half hour class will cover the advanced features of SoftChalk. In this webinar you will learn how to:

• Create a text file to be used in Several Activities
• Publish an Activity to the SoftChalk Library
• Create Quiz Group Questions
• Create a Personal Style using the SoftChalk Style Builder
• Create a Scenario Branching Lesson

When you register you will be asked to download a file. This file is necessary for you to participate in the class.

 

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Blackboard team at: (305) 284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Regards,

 

Your Blackboard Team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Blackboard is now upgraded to Service Pack 14!

Dear Blackboard Users,

 

The Blackboard system was upgraded to Service Pack 14. You may need to restart your browser if you don't get to the login page.

 

Here are a few valuable resources to familiarize yourself with the new Blackboard Learn features and be ready to integrate them in your instruction:

·       On-Demand Learning Center: free access to video tutorials and getting started guides

·       Feature Showcase: review all of the new features

·       Help.Blackboard.com: assistance using the new Blackboard Learn platform, organized by role

·       Educator Cohort: series of online meetings to familiarize educators with new features 

 

In addition, The UMIT Learning Platforms team has scheduled workshops and online training classes for faculty, instructors, and their assistants. Please click here for more information: http://www.iacevents.org/.

 

If you have questions or concerns about these upcoming changes, please contact the Blackboard team at: (305) 284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Your Blackboard team

[BB] Blackboard upgrade to SP14

Dear Blackboard Users,

 

We will be upgrading to the latest version of Blackboard Learn™, Service Pack 14, on Wednesday December 25^th 2013 starting at 2:30 p.m. The system will be unavailable due to the upgrade and will be available again at noon on Thursday December 26^th 2013 (please note that no action will be required from you for this upgrade as it will be completed automatically).

 

Many existing features have been improved and some exciting new features added to make your day more efficient. Here is an overview of tools that you can expect to be using soon:

 

• Achievements: The Achievements tool allows instructors and course designers to designate criteria for issuing rewards to students in the form of both Badges and Certificates.

 

• Course Messages Notifications: Course messages are private and secure text-based communication that occurs within a course and among course members. Although similar to email, you must be logged into a course to read and send course messages.

 

• Date Management: After instructors have copied a course, they can speed up the transition of old dates to new ones relevant for the new course using Date Management. From Date Management, instructors can adjust all availability dates, due dates, and adaptive release dates.

 

• Grade Center Improvements: Blackboard has made several improvements to grading and Grade Center in Service Pack 14.

 

• Groups Management: Blackboard has improved the management of groups within the course site.

 

• Inline Grading: Instructors have a consistent grading sidebar within assignments, blogs, discussions, journals, and wikis. This grading sidebar allows them to grade a submission, post, and entry without leaving the page.

 

• Test IP Address Filtering: As a way to prevent cheating and secure high stakes tests, Blackboard Learn Service Pack 14 is introducing Test IP address filtering to enforce location restrictions specified by administrators to correspond to specified IP addresses or IP ranges. This can limit the computers that have access to certain tests to a testing lab for example or other location that can be monitored or proctored.

 

Here are a few valuable resources to familiarize yourself with the new Blackboard Learn features and be ready to integrate them in your instruction:

 

• On-Demand Learning Center: free access to video tutorials and getting started guides
• Feature Showcase: review all of the new features
• Help.Blackboard.com: assistance using the new Blackboard Learn platform, organized by role
• Educator Cohort: series of online meetings to familiarize educators with new features

 

In addition, the Learning Platforms Team has scheduled workshops and online training classes. Please click here for more information: http://www.iacmiami.org/.

 

If you have questions or concerns about these upcoming changes, please contact the Blackboard team at: (305) 284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Regards,

 

Your Blackboard Team

(P): 305-284-3949

 

 

[BB] Spring 2014 Course sites available

Hello Blackboard Users,

 

The course sites for Spring 2014 are have been created in Blackboard. To see your Spring 2014 course sites, click on the "Courses" tab in Blackboard.

 

The course sites are unavailable to the students. When you are ready for the students to access your course site, follow the simple instructions or watch the video at the following link: http://blackboardinfo.weebly.com/1/post/2013/08/course-sites-are-created-unavailable.html.

 

If you have questions or concerns, please email the Blackboard Help Desk at blackboardhelp@miami.edu, or call 305-284-3949 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

 

Sincerely,

 

Your Blackboard Team

(P): 305-284-3949