Blackboard CE 6.1

One year after migrating from WebCT 4.1 to WebCT 6.0, and finally to Blackboard CE 6.1 much has changed--yet some things have remained the same. Although most of the chronic problems of 6.0 have been fixed, there are still a few nagging issues. Blackboard is responsible for some of this. But the constantly changing world of technology is also to blame--from the release of IE 7, the Java upgrades to version 9, then 10, then 11; the different behavior of Firefox; to OS 10 and Safari. Who knows what VISTA will bring our way.

Learning Management Systems are still in their infancy and are constantly changing. Market and technology forces will lead us into uncharted territory. Just when we think we've got our sea legs the winds will shift again. Prepare for a long and bumpy journey. Thankfully we at JCCC have excellent technical support for faculty/staff and students.

ATAC is currently prioritizing the desired functions of the 'ideal' LMS. We hope to bring vendors of other systems on campus by the end of the semester so we can test the waters and see if there is a better LMS out there, or weather the storm with Blackboard and see what their new line of integrated products look like in the next year. I'm looking forward to going to Boston in July for the Blackboard World '07 conference to see what's on the horizon.

6.1 has some new features that hopefully many of you are already using. One feature I particularly like is the advanced controls the instructor has on the Discussion tool. When editing a Topic in Teach, scroll down to Topic Behavior Options. There are now three options to choose from:

• Students can post messages and reply to messages
• Students can reply to messages but cannot post messages
• Students can post messages but cannot reply to messages

For my purposes the second option is most beneficial because it prohibits students from creating a new thread in a threaded discussion.

In conjunction with the Discussions, Blackboard has created a Grading Forms tool that allows the instructor to create a grading rubric that is integrated with the graded topic functionality. This allows the instructor to quickly and efficiently grade Discussion topics, have that grade post in the Grade Book, and allows the student to view the grading rubric in MyGrades. I will be demonstrating this new feature on March 7 in the CTL at the noon Technology Brown Bag. I hope to see you there. If you're not able to attend, Ed Lovitt will podcast the session. I will also write a short description and publish it in the March edition of DL Delivery.

Reinstating Students in DL Classes

Two years ago the DLCC approved a procedure that allowed faculty to use the attend/no-attend feature in EASI to drop students enrolled in online courses if students fail to perform certain tasks (specified in the syllabus) within a specific timeframe. As a result, many students dropped in this manner request reinstatement. But the traditional process requires students to come to campus and fill out a form, signed both by the instructor and the Assistant Dean--very cumbersome for online students, and faculty, who have a long commute to campus or live outside the area. The DLCC, in conjunction with Margaret Herron, JCCC Registrar, have approved the following procedure to reinstate students:

For students in distance learning classes (on-line, television, self-paced, video-based or a combination of these approaches), who are dropped for non-attendance and an instructor wishes to reinstate the student in their class, please send an email to Margaret Herron, JCCC Registrar, at mherron3@jccc.edu through your JCCC faculty email account.  Emails will not be accepted from other email accounts for security purposes.  Please include the CRN of the course the student is to be reinstated in, the student’s JCCC ID number and the student name.  You will receive an email once the student has been reinstated informing you that the student has been enrolled in your course.

Online Course Information Guide

Summer 2007 session is just around the corner. If you are teaching a summer course please review your information on the Online Course Information Guide and send any additions or corrections to me at michaelr@jccc.edu. If you are teaching a new online course, please send me your new page ASAP. Simply cut-and-paste your current page(s) into Dream Weaver, FrontPage, or Word, edit, and return to me as an attachment to email. I'll cut-and-paste it into the Guide over your current page. It's that simple!

The Online Course Student Feedback Survey can be found at http://jcccsurvey.jccc.edu/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=3M0l53L12595K. There are several ways of delivering the survey. One is to create a Calendar entry by cutting-and-pasting the URL above after selecting the Add Entry button. Click the More Options link to display the Internet URL field. The instructor can set the Calendar dates that the Survey will be available. The instructor can also create an Announcement alerting the students that the Survey is available.

Another mode of delivery is to create an entry in the Web Links. This method allows the instructor to create an icon linked to the Survey on the Course Content Home page and set Release Criteria.

The link to the survey can also be embedded in an email--whether Blackboard or stumail.

Lastly one can create a Learning Module page and launch the Survey from it. To do so, first download the Online_Survey .htm file to your desktop, then upload it to your course using the File Manager in Build. Then select Learning Modules from the Course Tools. Select the Action Link for the learning module within which you want the survey to fall and select ‘Go to Learning Module.’ Using the Add File button select the Online_Survey.htm file from the File Manager and click OK. Move the Online Survey Learning Module where you wish in the table of contents. By using Selective Release you can release the Online Survey after students complete an exam or quiz, a writing assignment, or a learning module.

If you have any questions about the survey or how best to implement it in your course shell, please contact me at ext. 4191, or email at michaelr@jccc.edu. I hope to create a Captivate tutorial and make that available soon.

Online Student CD

The online student CD is located at http://students.jccc.edu/dlorientation. You might want to add this URL to your Web Links tool. You can also direct students to the hands-on exercises to help them gain familiarity with WebCT before the semester begins. To gain access to the Z - Dev Courses - DL Orientation shell, type in OCB30401 to 99 as the User name on the WebCT login page, and 123456 as the Password.