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Missing Course Menu

When you go into the course, you’ll see a little ” > ” icon on the left side:

If you click that, it will expand the menu:


which will let you get access to the actual course materials and assignments.

Posted in Course Content, Frequently Asked Questions, General, Instructor Help, Student Help.

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By bbhelp – 2012/01/19

Bb Collaborate – General Information

Note: Elluminate was purchased by Blackboard in 2010. It has been rebranded as Blackboard Collaborate and upgraded.

For all campus support information about Bb Collaborate please visit: http://bbcollaborate.uark.edu

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Posted in Bb Collaborate, Instructor Help, Student Help, Training and Workshops.

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By kmuessi – 2012/01/18

Spring 2012 Blackboard Learn Courses

An important note about Spring 2012 course availability:

By request of the Provost and the ASG, students will have access to the courses on THURSDAY JANUARY 12th!

This will give students the opportunity to view the class syllabus, textbook and other course information before classes begin on January 17th.

If you need to make your entire course unavailable, you can do so by going under the Course Management Control Panel, then Customization. Select Properties, and then “No” to Make Course Available.  Then press Submit.  The course will be unavailable to students until you manually change that to “Yes”.

     _____________________________________________________________________________________________

January is upon us and it’s time to get requests in for your spring classes if you haven’t done so already.

To request a new course shell or a copy of a course you’ve used previously, go to http://bbsupport.uark.edu/request/ and complete the online form.

You can also use the form to let the Blackboard administrator know that you will be using Echo360 with your course. By doing this, anything you record in Echo360 using Classroom capture or Personal capture will automatically be uploaded to your Blackboard course. It’s that easy!

Also remember to use the Additional Comments or Requests section to let us know to include another instructor or TA to your course in Blackboard.

Posted in Announcements.

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By cbray – 2012/01/11

Set a New Course Entry Point

YouTube Preview Image

To set a new entry point for your course first enter the course you would like to edit.

Click on Customization then select Style.

Here you can change multiple aspects of the appearance of your course.

You can choose the styles of your course menus (both with color choices and text versus button styles for your menu items), how you would like your content to be displayed, and select a new course entry point.

The entry point is set to Home Page as a default but you can change this entry point to show what page you would like students to see first when entering your course.

All of your Course Menu links will appear in this drop down box – if you would like your students to see your Syllabus upon entering the course at the beginning of the semester select Syllabus.

You can come back later and change the entry point to display their assignment area when work is due or the quiz area when an assessment is upcoming.

Posted in General, Video Tutorials For Instructors.

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By bbhelp – 2012/01/11

Hide old course listings from your Course Menu in Blackboard

1. Click the Manage My Courses Module settings button.

Screen capture of the My Courses window with Manage My Courses Settings button highlighted

2. For the courses you wish to hide, deselect the checkbox for Course Name and for Announcements.

Image of course menu settings list with Course Name and Announcement Checkboxes highlighted

3. Click the Submit button at the top or bottom of the page.

Image of Cancel and Submit buttons in Blackboard

4. To “unhide” an old course, you follow the same steps but make sure the checkboxes are checked for courses you want to make visible again.

Posted in General.

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By Elaine – 2012/01/08

Respondus LockDown Browser – Mac/Java issue

Update, dated November 29, 2011:

We have new information to share regarding the Macintosh version of LockDown Browser that conflicts with Java 1.6.0_29 (see original message below).

A solution hasn’t yet been provided by Apple or WebKit (they continue to point fingers), but we have released an interim update that contains a workaround. With the update applied, LockDown Browser will detect if a user is running a Mac computer with Java 1.6.0_29 installed, and if so, disable Java during that session. To be clear, Java will NOT be disabled if an earlier version of Java is detected on a Mac computer, or if the user is running LockDown Browser on a Windows computer.

There is an issue to be aware of with this workaround. Blackboard Learn and CE/Vista use a Java applet to launch WebEQ during an exam. As a result, students using a Mac computer where the problematic version of Java is disabled will be unable to view or create WebEQ equations during an exam.

We hope this workaround is temporary and that Apple or WebKit will solve the underlying issue soon.

Continued…

Posted in Java, Macintosh, Respondus Lockdown Browser, Web Browsers.

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By cbray – 2011/11/22

Using Grading Schemas with Blackboard Learn

Printer Friendly Directions: Using Grading Schemas in Blackboard Learn

In Blackboard, Grading Schemas are used to assign a letter or word to a Grade Center column rather than a numeric value. Using Grading Schemas is a two-step process. First, the schema must be created (or modified) according to your criteria. Then the Grading Schema must be assigned to a column in the Grade Center.

  1. To create a new schema go to your Full Grade Center and click the Manage button.
  2. From the dropdown menu, select > Grading Schemas.
  3. By default, a Letter schema will appear in the Grading Schemas list. This grading schema follows the traditional A, B, C, D, F format. You may edit it by clicking the edit or “chevron” button next to Letter.
  4. To create a new schema, click the Create Grading Schema button.
  5. Under Schema Information, enter a *Name for the schema and provide a short Description.
  6. Under Schema Mapping, set the criteria for each option. Criteria might include: Pass/Fail, Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory, Complete/Incomplete, Good/Fair/Poor, etc. By default, new grading schemas include two criteria. If you need three or more, use the arrow buttons on the right to Insert Rows.
  7. Enter then numeric breakdown for each criteria. If only using two criteria such as Pass/Fail, leave it at 0%-<50% and 50%-100%. If using more than two, insert new rows as necessary and distribute points across criteria as needed with the total equaling 100%.
  8. After you have determined your numeric criteria, enter a label in the Will Equal column for each of your criteria. The default for new Grading Schema is A and F but you can enter whatever letters or words you prefer.
  9. Once you have determined the criteria for your new schema, click the Submit button. The newly created Grading Schema will be added to the list of options available in your Grade Center. The next set of instructions will explain how a Grading Schema is applied to a column in the Grade Center.

 

Applying a Grading Schema to a column in the Grade Center

  1. For an existing column click the Edit (or Chevron) button at the top of the column and select >Edit Column Information.
  2. Click the dropdown menu under Primary Display. Your new Grading Schema(s) will be available in the dropdown menu. Select the one you want to use and click the Submit button at the top or bottom of the page.
  3. If the column is automatically scored by a quiz or test, the schema item (pass/fail, complete/incomplete, etc.) will appear automatically. If the column is manually scored, then enter a value within the range for the appropriate item and click enter (or return). The appropriate schema item should then appear in the column.
  4. Note: for a newly created column, just select the appropriate schema from the dropdown menu under Primary Display.

 

Posted in Grade Center, Instructor Help.

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By Elaine – 2011/11/21

Assessment Troubles

We have recently installed a patch for Blackboard Learn which addresses issues related to assessments including “access denied” messages and answers not saving.   This patch updates several javascript files that are downloaded by a student’s web browser.

Students need to empty their browser cache in order to remove the old version of the updated files.

If Respondus LockDown Browser is used to take an exam, Microsoft Windows users will need to clear the Internet Explorer cache and Apple Macintosh users will need to clear the Safari cache.

Indiana University has a website with instructions for clearing the cache in many web browsers.

Posted in Tests, Quizzes and Surveys, Web Browsers.

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By cbray – 2011/11/10

Paste from Word Mashup

The Paste From Word Mashup provides an easy way to paste text from Microsoft® Word into the text editor without bringing Microsoft specific markup with it.  When used to paste text from Word, Microsoft markup is stripped out so the text does not become corrupt and appears as it did in the original Word document.

Paste From Word is a mashup that is added to the text editor. To access all the formatting functions including mashups, the text editor must be set to ON.

How to Access Paste From Word

  1. From any text editor, click the Mashup icon.
  2. Select Paste from Word from the drop-down menu.

  3. Paste any text copied from Microsoft word in the new window. You can use the keyboard
    shortcuts to paste text or right click your mouse and use cut and paste menu items.

  4. Click Submit. You text now appears in the text editor.

Posted in Mashup.

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By cbray – 2011/10/20

Securing the Human: Upgrade Your Human OS

During the second week of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, the IT Services Security Team reminds users that a computer is only secure as the human who operates it.

Humans don’t always evaluate risk accurately. For example, people tend to believe they are at greater risk of being killed by a shark even though they are more than twice as likely to be killed in a vending machine accident. When it comes to cyber security, people are afraid of getting caught up in a corporate high profile identity theft case, but are much more likely to fall victim to a phishing scam.

It’s easy to get caught off guard in situations that are unfamiliar, and humans generally accept what they’re told as true. Scams perpetrated through email, Facebook, Twitter, or over the phone, attack and exploit that vulnerability by preying on the public’s trust.

University of Arkansas employees can learn to better evaluate cyber security risks by completing a new online course, Securing the Human. Faculty and full-time staff can access this course by logging into learn.uark.edu and clicking Securing the Human under the My Organizations Plus heading. See security.uark.edu for resources on keeping your university account and other personal information secure.

Posted in Security.

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By cbray – 2011/10/10