The Faculty Technology Center is hosting Blackboard Learn Show and Tell demonstrations on alternate days from 2 to 4 pm, April through May, in the Gibson Annex. Staff will discuss and demonstrate the new functions and features available in the upcoming Blackboard Learn Service Pack 8 upgrade, which will take effect in summer 2012.

Time and place: from 2 – 4pm at the Faculty Technology Center located in the Gibson Annex

Dates:

• April: 9^th, 11^th, 17^th, 19^th, 23^rd and 25^th
• May: 1^st, 3^rd, 7^th, 9^th, 22^nd and 24^th

Duration Note: Even though the stated times for the demonstrations are 2 hours in length, you will not be expected to stay for the entire time. This is an informal demonstration. Feel free to come for 10 minutes or stay for 2 hours. We will answer questions as they arise.

Included in the upgrade are new features, teaching aids, and improved functions. The following enhancements will be discussed in the Show and Tell:

• By using Automated Re-grading, faculty can now fix errors in assessment questions during the open period of the assessment without causing problems for students who have already completed the assessment. Blackboard Learn will automatically recalculate the scores of all submitted assessments including the updated question and notify the faculty and students impacted by the change.
• Negative Marking allows faculty to apply negative point values for incorrect answers on assessments. This can be used to discourage guessing.
• Activity Reports provide information on how a class is utilizing Blackboard Learn course materials. Available reports include Student Overview for a Single Course and Course Activity.
• Students and faculty will be able to move between their courses quickly using Course-to-Course Navigation.
• Course Themes offer a variety of color schemes and background images to add visual interest to the course. Themes do not affect course content and can be changed at any time.
• Faculty will be able to match their teaching methods and design preferences to a set of preexisting Course Structures. The course structures are templates for subject matter or teaching styles.
• Faculty and student access to HTML files and other associated files, such as images, is improved.
• When opening a new course in Blackboard Learn, faculty will see a new Quick Setup Guide. It’s where faculty can select a theme, a course structure or view documentation about getting started and working with content.

No registration for the Show and Tell demonstrations is required. All sessions are posted on the University Events Calendar at http://calendars.uark.edu.

If you don’t have time to visit with us, you can watch a recording of the highlights from Blackboard:

“What’s New in Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 SP8 for Higher Ed Educators” (29 minutes) – http://www.brainshark.com/blackboardinc/vu?pi=zH6zCvFZfz2Yq4z0

And if you taught a course last fall, you can log into the test server and look around:

http://bbtest.uark.edu (the test server is a copy of last fall, with the updates applied)

Remember, it’s a test server, so any changes you make will not affect your current courses, or the backups. So don’t worry about making changes.