[BB] Blackboard Tips

Hello Bb Users,

How many different people log onto Blackboard the first week of school? This semester we had 13,333 vs. 11,998 a year ago. That is an 11% increase. This is because of what YOU are doing. Thank you.

 

here is some information that we hope you find useful.

 

1.       LOGIN: Some students may have questions on how to log into blackboard. We have a handout available to help them with these questions. You might include this information in your syllabus.

 

Blackboard Login Handout:  http://goo.gl/9oAuB

 

2.       FILE (PDF) ISSUE:  If you do what looks like the right thing when you want to post a file in Blackboard, your students may run into problems opening them, particularly, PDF files. Instead of using "Create a File", you need to “Create an Item” and attach the file to it. Here is a  link to step by step instructions to add items and attach files:

 

Creating Content in a Course Area: http://goo.gl/D7aGi

 

3.       BROWSERS:  Many  issues that students and faculty encounter with Blackboard are related to Browser compatibility. You can quickly solve many problems by switching to a different browser.  Our recommendation is to use the latest versions of Firefox or Chrome as the most compatible browsers for Blackboard with the latest version of Java also installed.

 

In some cases, Internet Explorer (IE) requires complicated settings to make it work, so if you really want to use IE and would like some assistance, please contact our blackboard help desk using our contact information at the bottom of this page. Blackboard offers a list of compatible browsers compatible, but we don't find it completely accurate. If you would like to see it, click on the link below:

 

Blackboard's Browser Chart: http://goo.gl/XhqW8

 

4.       HIDDEN MENUS:  On occasions, you will access a course and there the course menu will not be present. You may have no idea how it happened or how to fix it.  This is a "feature" in Blackboard to allow your course content to fill the window. Please look at the hand out at the link below to see how to use and recover from the "hidden menu" syndrome:

 

Hiding and Restoring Course Menus:  http://goo.gl/IF8Sb

 

5.       TRAINING:  We offer instructor led trainings and workshops in the Faculty Exploratory at the Richter Library. A new series of workshops on ways to improve your Blackboard class site by avoiding weak practices in technology enhanced learning (TEL) begins with a session on Friday, February 24, 2:30-4:00 pm. You can register for this or any of our events by going to our Registration site and clicking on the title of the session:

 

Registration Site: http://goo.gl/0Wjee

 

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.

Thank you,

Rick Ramos

Manager of your Blackboard Support team

 

 

 

[BB] SafeAssign upgrade on Monday February 13th 2012

Hello Bb Users,

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

 

SafeAssign will be unavailable Monday, February 13^th 2012, starting at 8:00 am. It will probably be back in a few minutes. It could take until 9:30 am to get it upgraded.

 

DETAILS:

 

During Fall 2011, the SafeAssign tool was almost unusable due to the massive delays in processing time. We were all disappointed and frustrated by the service provided. SafeAssign is an “original writing” analyzer, which helps you determine what parts of a student’s assignment is not original. In  response to the problem, Blackboard has worked to try to make sure this problem does not reoccur.

 

As part of the upgrade, we need to install some new SafeAssign code (Building Block version 2.5) on our server. We will do this on Monday February 13th 2012 starting at 8:00 AM EST. We expect it to only take a few minutes. We are unable to practice it, so we might run into problems. We estimate the longest it would take is until 9:30 AM EST. During the time we are doing the upgrade, SafeAssign will not be available and no submissions will be processed.

 

Highlighted Fixes:

 

·         SafeAssign took a long time to displays submissions for courses with large rosters. That will be fixed.

·         SafeAssign had a problem downloading assignments that contained the forward slash (/) character in the titled. That will be fixed.

·         Sometimes SafeAssign did not attach the correct Feedback file on the SafeAssignment grade. This resulted in one student seeing another student’s feedback. This will be fixed.

 

User Documentation:

 

The latest SafeAssign documentation is available on line.

 

·         Safe Assign Student Guide

·         Safe Assign Instructor Guide

 

Please contact the Blackboard help desk if you have any question about either the upgrade or SafeAssign in general. The Blackboard help desk is available at 305-284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu

 

Thanks,

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] SafeAssign upgrade on Monday February

Hello Bb Users,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

 

SafeAssign will be unavailable Monday, February 13^th 2012, starting at 8:00 am. It will probably be back in a few minutes. It could take until 9:30 am to get it upgraded.

 

DETAILS:

 

During Fall 2011, the SafeAssign tool was almost unusable due to the massive delays in processing time. We were all disappointed and frustrated by the service provided. SafeAssign is an “original writing” analyzer, which helps you determine what parts of a student’s assignment is not original. In  response to the problem, Blackboard has worked to try to make sure this problem does not reoccur.

As part of the upgrade, we need to install some new SafeAssign code (Building Block version 2.5) on our server. We will do this on Monday February 13th 2012 starting at 8:00 AM EST. We expect it to only take a few minutes. We are unable to practice it, so we might run into problems. We estimate the longest it would take is until 9:30 AM EST. During the time we are doing the upgrade, SafeAssign will not be available and no submissions will be processed.

Highlighted Fixes:

 

·         SafeAssign took a long time to displays submissions for courses with large rosters. That will be fixed.

·         SafeAssign had a problem downloading assignments that contained the forward slash (/) character in the titled. That will be fixed.

·         Sometimes SafeAssign did not attach the correct Feedback file on the SafeAssignment grade. This resulted in one student seeing another student’s feedback. This will be fixed.

User Documentation:

 

The latest SafeAssign documentation is available on line.

 

·         Safe Assign Student Guide

·         Safe Assign Instructor Guide

Please contact the Blackboard help desk if you have any question about either the upgrade or SafeAssign in general. The Blackboard help desk is available at 305-284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu

Thanks,

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] Blackboard Tips

Hello BB Users,

 

We hope everyone is having a good semester. We will be regularly sharing tips and ways to help with your Blackboard sites. In this email, we want to share with you some of the Blackboard services we can offer to you.

You can request the services below by clicking on the "Resources" tab at the top of any Blackboard page (once you have logged in) and then click the "Common service request forms" link. You can also place any request by clicking on the "Help" link at the top of your Blackboard page, and then creating a help desk ticket.

 

Please provide the course ID of any courses we will be working with. You can find the course ID right above the announcement menu in your course, for example it will say something like: "122 - MDR70312 - FAMILY MEDICINE (SPRING 2012)".

 

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.

 

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

 

Thank you,

 

Rick Ramos

Manager of your Blackboard Support team

 

 

 

Re: [BB] Blackboard & iClicker training- reminder

Blackboard List Members,

 

This is a reminder of the training classes that the Instructional Advancement Center’s team are offering:

 

iClicker

 

Participate in a demonstration of how the iClicker classroom student response system works and learn how to use the system in your classes. Faculty find that iClickers can increase engagement, learning, and class participation. Give it a try. Start by attending this short training session.

 

Blackboard

 

Whether you are using the Blackboard course web site system or not, you may want to participate in one or more of the training sessions.

 

- Introduction to Blackboard 9.1

- Blackboard Grade Center

- Blackboard Training - Assignments

- Blackboard Learning Modules

 

For full descriptions, dates, times, and rooms, and the registration forms for these training sessions, please visit the http://iacevents.org web site and click on the title of the desired training session. For additional information contact Kelley Seaman at k.seaman@miami.edu

 

Kelley Seaman

 

University of Miami

Instructional Advancement Center

Richter Library, 325 (LC 0320)

305-284-2008 P

305-284-3865 F

                                                                                      

Re: [BB] General Purpose Classroom Technology Training

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. These sessions 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 one of the scheduled demonstrations.

The classes will be held:  Wednesday 1/18/12 from 9:05 am – 10:05 am  Memorial Bldg. room 204     

Wednesday 1/18/12 from 2:30 pm – 3:20 pm  Memorial Bldg. room 314

Friday 1/20/12 from 9:05 am – 10:05 am  Memorial Bldg. room 204

Ken Gamber, 305-284-6239 or kgamber@miami.edu, is also available for private sessions if you cannot make a scheduled session or would prefer one-on-one training.

 

University of Miami

Instructional Advancement Center

Richter Library, 325 (LC 0320)

305-284-2008 P

305-284-3865 F

                                                                                       

 

 

[BB] Pre-semester Rush

Bb using Faculty at UM,

Classes start this coming Tuesday. Requests for Blackboard activities are coming in at an incredible rate. We are short staffed at the moment, so your requests my not be handled as quickly as usual. Our student workers don't start until next week and some of our full-time employees are out sick.

If you need something done on Blackboard, please fill out a ticket. You can create a ticket by sending your request in an email to blackboardhelp@miami.edu. You can also get to the ticketing system by going to Blackboard and clicking on the Help link in the banner at the top of every page and then clicking on the "Create Blackboard Help Desk Ticket" link on the next screen that appears.

Please try to refrain from calling or emailing any of us directly, if possible. We need to spend our time working on tickets. Thanks in advance.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement Center
Information Technology
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu
305-284-3944

Re: [BB] iClicker training starts Thursday, Jan. 12th

Blackboard List Members,

 

Participate in a demonstration of how the iClicker classroom student response system works and learn how to use the system in your classes. Faculty find that iClickers can increase engagement, learning, and class participation. Give it a try. Start by attending any one of the following training sessions:

 

Thursday January 12^th 3 – 4:30 pm

Friday January 13^th 3 – 4:30 pm

Wednesday January 18^th 2:30 – 4:00 pm

 

To register please visit http://iacevents.org and for additional information contact Kelley Seaman 305-284-2008 or k.seaman@miami.edu

 

Kelley Seaman

Instructional Advancement Center

 

 

[BB] Blackboard Training Starts Monday, Jan 9

Blackboard List Members,

Whether you are using the Blackboard course web site system or not, you may want to participate in one or more of the training sessions starting Monday, January 9th.

- Introduction to Blackboard 9.1
- Blackboard Grade Center
- Blackboard Training - Assignments
- Blackboard Learning Modules

For full descriptions, dates, times, and rooms, and the registration forms for these training sessions, please visit the http://iacevents.org web site and click on the title of the desired training session. For additional information contact Kelley Seaman at k.seaman@miami.edu or 305-284-2008.

Bill Vilberg

[This message is being sent to the Blackboard mailing list at the University of Miami. If you would like to be removed from this list, let me know in a reply to this message. If you know people who would like to subscribe to this list, they can go to https://listserv.miami.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=BB&A=1 and fill out the automated form.]

[BB] Security Certificate problem

Blackboard users,

We currently have a problem with the security certificate for www.courses.miami.edu. You are likely to see a warning message, until we get the problem corrected. You can safely continue to the web site, even though your browser indicates the certificate problem. We are working on it, and will let you know when the problem is resolved.

Bill Vilberg

[BB] Safe Assign - Please do not resubmit

Bb users,

Blackboard is saying that resubmissions are one of the causes of the long delays in Safe Assign processing. If you are waiting for a Safe Assign report, please do not resubmit the item.

If a report isn't available after 72 hours (3 days) please let us know so we can document it and check things out. Please provide the course, assignment, and whether the report was requested via direct submit. We have limited access to information inside Blackboard, but we will do what we can.

Blackboard continues to report that the delays will be less than 24 hours as soon as the backlog gets processed. We will see. The current situation is, of course, completely unsatisfactory, and is one of the things leading us to reevaluate our long term commitment to Blackboard.

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[BB] Safe Assignment issue

Hello Bb Users

 

Please be informed that we are once again experiencing issues with SafeAssignment. In addition, on Friday Dec. 9th, 2011 between the hours of 02:00 am to 04:00 am US Eastern, Blackboard will be performing preventative maintenance on SafeAssign. During this 2 hour period, the Blackboard Safeassign client applications will not be unavailable.

 

We apologize for the inconvenience, and please feel free to contact the help desk if you have any issue or concern at 305-284-3949 or email at blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Thanks,

 

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] PAUSE before using DELETE in Blackboard

Blackboard users,

We are processing an increasing number of requests from faculty members to restore their Blackboard course sites to a previous date. Such a restore takes a number of days to accomplish, at best, and can only be done to the state of a nightly backup. So if grades are added and then the grade column is deleted the same day, there is no way to recover them.

Some services, such as SafeAssign, add further complexity to the situation. SafeAssign stores papers on an external server which deletes the information immediately. It is very difficult or impossible to restore information that has been deleted from SafeAssign.

Please pause before deleting anything in Blackboard. Think of the consequences of what you are doing. If you are not sure how to proceed, consult with the Blackboard Help Desk at either 205-284-3949 or blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

We will do all we can to help you if you make a mistake, but there are limitations to what we can do. Help us and yourself by pausing before deleting anything in Blackboard to make sure that you won't regret your actions.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement Center
Information Technology
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu
305-284-3944

[BB] Safe Assignment Delays

Hello Bb Users,

 

Unfortunately, SafeAssign Services are again temporarily experiencing delays due to high usage. This might result in longer paper processing times. This is a recurring issue at the end of each semester due to high amounts of papers submitted to SafeAssign.

 

Blackboard regrets any inconvenience this may cause.

 

We will update you as soon as we receive notification from Blackboard of any change.

 

If you have any issues or questions, please feel free to call us at 305-284-3949 or email at blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Thank you,

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

Re: [BB] Safe Assignment delays update

Hi Rick,

I don't really experience what you promised below. It has been over 30 mins., and today's uploads seem to be just as slow as on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I was forced to work on Black Friday and Saturday to upload my class of 40 students and see the results of Safe Assign within the 30 mins. interval.

Furthermore, the waiting of 24-hours (or until after midnight) after you have deleted a student's work before you can resubmit the revised paper for the check is also an inconvenience Blackboard should address. (Yes, a few students can actually make the necessary changes to "qualify" within a few short hours, when given the second chance.)

Kaufui Vincent Wong

Professor and Faculty Senator

U. Miami

________________________________
From: UM Blackboard Announcements [BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU] on behalf of Ramos, Ricardo [r.ramos3@MIAMI.EDU]
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 10:08 AM
To: BB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [BB] Safe Assignment delays update

Hello Bb Users,

Please be informed SafeAssign Services high load situation has been resolved and paper processing is back to normal processing times. Blackboard regrets any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us at 305-284-3949 or email at blackboardhelp@miami.edu<mailto:blackboardhelp@miami.edu>.

Thanks,

Rick Ramos
Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor
305-284-3949

[BB] Safe Assignment delays update

Hello Bb Users,

 

Please be informed SafeAssign Services high load situation has been resolved and paper processing is back to normal processing times. Blackboard regrets any inconvenience this may have caused.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us at 305-284-3949 or email at blackboardhelp@miami.edu.

 

Thanks,

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

Re: [BB] Changing Blackboard login selection page

HI Bill,

Looks good to me and simplifies the log in process.

Lyndon Godsall Ed.D, Ed.S, M.Ed, B.Ed
Instructional Designer
305-284-2710 Office
954-647-4634 Cell
l.godsall@miami.edu

On 11/18/11 3:45 PM, "Vilberg, William R." <bill.vilberg@MIAMI.EDU> wrote:

>Blackboard users,
>
>We are proposing some changes to the Blackbaord login selection page.
>This is the page that you use to select either the CaneID or the
>Blackboard login page. Before implementing them we wanted to run the
>changes by you to see if you have any problems with them. The first two
>are fairly minor, but we specifically want to know how the third change
>might affect your use of. Please let us know if any of these will have an
>affect on how you use Blackboard.
>
>You can see images of the current and proposed login selection pages at
>http://goo.gl/S09LY
>
>These are the changes being proposed:
>
>1. You can press ENTER/RETURN to use your CaneID username and password.
>(Since that is what most people do, it should speed up the process of
>logging in.)
>
>2. The text has been changed to, hopefully, make the options clearer
>("Login with" instead of "I have a ") and to direct people to the CaneID
>login page (larger text and bold text style on the primary path).
>
>3. The "Guest login" option has been removed. (Everyone accessing the
>Blackboard system will need to login.)
>
>If any of these will (negatively) impact your use of Blackboard, please
>let us know.
>
>No change will take place until after finals, but we need to get things
>scheduled now.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Bill Vilberg
>Technology Enhanced Learning
>bill.vilberg@miami.edu
>786-250-2255

[BB] Changing Blackboard login selection page

Blackboard users,

We are proposing some changes to the Blackbaord login selection page. This is the page that you use to select either the CaneID or the Blackboard login page. Before implementing them we wanted to run the changes by you to see if you have any problems with them. The first two are fairly minor, but we specifically want to know how the third change might affect your use of. Please let us know if any of these will have an affect on how you use Blackboard.

You can see images of the current and proposed login selection pages at http://goo.gl/S09LY

These are the changes being proposed:

1. You can press ENTER/RETURN to use your CaneID username and password. (Since that is what most people do, it should speed up the process of logging in.)

2. The text has been changed to, hopefully, make the options clearer ("Login with" instead of "I have a ") and to direct people to the CaneID login page (larger text and bold text style on the primary path).

3. The "Guest login" option has been removed. (Everyone accessing the Blackboard system will need to login.)

If any of these will (negatively) impact your use of Blackboard, please let us know.

No change will take place until after finals, but we need to get things scheduled now.

Thank you,

Bill Vilberg
Technology Enhanced Learning
bill.vilberg@miami.edu
786-250-2255

[BB] Safe Assignment delays

Hello Bb Users

 

SafeAssign Services are temporarily experiencing delays due to high usage. This might result in longer paper processing times. Blackboard regrets any inconvenience this may cause.

 

We will inform you as soon as the service is back to normal.

 

Thanks,

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

 

 

[BB] Spring 2012 classes

Hello Bb Users,

 

Please be informed that we just recently added all the spring classes into Blackboard and should be available to all enrolled in a class.

 

If you need any additional information, please feel free to contact our Blackboard Help Desk at 305-284-3949 or email us at blackboardhelp@miami.edu

 

Thanks,

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949