Way back in May of 2012, I posted on a new addition to Blackboard, Course Structures. However, I haven’t seen any faculty really putting these to use, so I wanted to showcase at least one structure. In the video below I use the organization by Chapter (which, for any class based around the textbook, works fairly well), and show off a bit of the sample content and my thoughts on the mindset behind the structure. In particular, points I like in the structure are: The default entry point is a module page optimized for student use. The syllabus information is not a single linked document, but...

With our latest Blackboard upgrade (to version 9.1 SP12, to be specific) the system has some new test deployment options. Now, I know what you’re thinking, the options that already existed were good enough, why does Blackboard have to keep getting more complex, grumble grumble. But I’m here to tell you that these changes are actually for the better, and will address needs that have been unmet but often requested by quite a few faculty over the years. First off, no test deployment options have been removed. Existing tests will continue to function the way they were originally set up, no...

As I write this post, the latest Blackboard upgrade here at Palomar is still in progress. So the next time you hop into the Blackboard system, you’ll just head into a Grade Center and see all the familiar icons like the green exclamation point that means Needs Grading, right? Nope. Several icons in the new version of the Grade Center appear very different now. (The Grade Center itself isn’t significantly changed, but the look is different with these new icons.) So be warned, you’ll likely have a few jarring “what is THAT?” moments for a while during visits to the grade...

Have you ever been just sick to death of scrolling around within the Grade Center? Sometimes I have a need to see only particular students in the Grade Center, and even only particular grade entries for those students, and it can be frustrating to scroll back and forth to check on those specifics and ignore the rest. Wouldn’t it be nice to just tell the Blackboard course to show you only what you need to see, and not bother with the rest? Yes, yes it is nice. The tool in question is called a Smart View, in which you can set up a filter so that the Grade Center will only show content based around...

No, the Blackboard Thing of the Week was not abandoned, I just went on vacation for a long time! I’m back now, and finding out some interesting aspects in the new version of Blackboard (9.1 Service Pack 12, for any version number fans out there). One such has to do with the Course Copy tool… but in a good way. Our history of the Course Copy tool here at Palomar is a rocky one; semesters have gone by where we needed to have the whole tool disabled because it did not work properly, but still this is the primary way in which content is copied forward into new semester course sites. A question...