Blackboard 9 Comprehensive Instructor Manual

Transcription

1 Blackboard 9 Comprehensive Instructor Manual PRESENTED BY: Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Office of Faculty & Research Learning@Carey

2 Table of Contents I. Blackboard 9 Procedures... 4 A. Log-in Procedures... 4 B. Course Creation Procedures... 4 C. New Default Course Template... 4 II. Modify Content Areas... 5 A. Upload An Item Change to Edit Mode Add an Item... 6 B. Add Folders... 7 C. Add a Course Link... 9 III. Enhance Communication with Students A. Create an Announcement B. Discussion Board Add a Discussion Forum a. Collect Threads for Less Navigation b. Graded Discussion Forums C. Groups Create a Group Add Students to a Group a. Create Single Group with Self Enroll b. Create Single Group with Manual Enroll c. Create Group Set with Self Enroll d. Create Group Set with Manual Enroll e. Create Group Set with Random Enroll D. Send IV. Assignments A. Create an Assignment B. View a Received Assignment View a Received Assignment a. Grade and Leave Feedback Check For Plagiarism V. Quizzes in Blackboard A. Create a Question Pool Add a Multiple-Choice Question to a Question Pool Add an Essay Question to a Question Pool B. Create the Quiz Build the Quiz in the Test Manager a. Test Creation Settings... 55

3 Blackboard Instructor Manual 3 2. Add Questions to a Quiz C. Deploy a Quiz VI. Grade Center A. How Students View Grades B. Organizing the Grade Center Add a Graded Item Create a Weighted Average Column Hide Columns Show or Rearrange Columns Changing a Column Name C. Providing Feedback in the Grade Center Feedback on Assignments Batch Download of Assignments D. Quizzes Feedback on Quizzes Quiz Data a. Item Analysis b. Grade Distribution E. Reset an Assignment or Quiz by Clearing an Attempt VII. Customize Course Options A. Manage the Course Menu Create a Content Area Create a Tool Link Create a Course Link or External Link B. Make Your Course Available C. Course Copy D. Course Archives VIII. Questions?

4 Blackboard Instructor Manual 4 I. BLACKBOARD 9 PROCEDURES A. LOG-IN PROCEDURES To access your course materials, you will log into: You will use your JHED ID and JHED password to log into Blackboard. This is the same log-in information you use to access your and ISIS. Browser Compatibility (data from ) B. COURSE CREATION PROCEDURES In the new version of Blackboard, courses will automatically be created each semester, pulling data from ISIS. New course shells will be created six weeks before the start of each semester. For many courses, that will mean that the course shell is created well before the actual start date of the course. For example, all spring semester courses will be created in the middle of November, regardless of the exact start date of the course. Students will be enrolled in course sites as soon as they are created. For this reason, all courses will automatically be created with the setting Unavailable. We will cover how to make your course available when your materials are ready under the Section VII.B- Make Your Course Available. Tip: Upload your syllabus and make your course available two weeks before the start of the semester to give students a chance to preview the scope of your course. C. NEW DEFAULT COURSE TEMPLATE The default course template contains the most basic sections that we might expect in a new course.

5 Blackboard Instructor Manual 5 Each section is intended for the following purpose: Announcements: An area to post new materials, create reminders, or share new information. Syllabus: Every course should contain the course syllabus in this section. Course Documents: A default location for instructional materials of the course. Assignments: A location defined for the purpose of Blackboard collected Assignments, found under the Create Assessment function. Discussion Board: The discussion board is a collaborative tool for communication outside of class meetings, as well as an option for assessment when using the Grading option. Faculty Information: In this section, list office hours and contact information for the faculty teaching the course. Also, where appropriate consider including information about program staff. My Grades: This is where the students will go to view their own grades within a course. Course Evaluations: Includes information on the Mid-Term Evaluation and the IDEA Evaluation. e-reserves: If you submit your course Syllabus to the MSE Library via reserves@jhu.edu, 4-6 weeks in advance of the course start date, links to your selected readings will appear in this section. JHU Library: Takes the student directly to the Business section of the JHU Library. It opens a new page/tab to the following URL: MyCarey: Takes the student to the student portal, in a new tab/page APA Style: Gives the student instructions on using APA Style when completing assignments. Policies & Services: Opens a new tab or link to a Carey page that includes the most updated policies. II. MODIFY CONTENT AREAS Content areas are the sections in your Blackboard course site where you can add materials for students. On the left-hand menu navigation, the areas for Syllabus, Course Documents, and Faculty & Staff are all content areas. In this section, you can find information on how to upload your syllabus (as well as other file attachments), add a folder to organize materials, add a course link, or add an external link. A. UPLOAD AN ITEM We will start by uploading a file the syllabus. At minimum every course must have a syllabus posted in Blackboard. First, select Syllabus in the navigation on the left. That is the content area we will work in for this first item. 1. CHANGE TO EDIT MODE When you log into your courses, the default view that you see is the Edit Mode. As the instructor, you can easily switch on the Edit Mode within the content areas to make changes. To turn on the Edit Mode, select the Edit Mode link in the top right corner from within any content area, like Syllabus, Course Documents, or Faculty Information.

6 Blackboard Instructor Manual 6 Once in Edit Mode, you will see several options for uploading files. 2. ADD AN ITEM To upload your file, mouse over (just hover - no need to click) the Build Content drop-down menu and click Item. In the Add Item view, you will need to enter a Title. The Title will be the heading students see first. Notice the Mash Up feature which allows you to include a Flicker Photo, Slide Share, Paste from Word, or You Tube Video. The Paste from Word option is great for cleaning the format for html.

7 Blackboard Instructor Manual 7 In part (2), you can attach a file from your computer or from the content collection. To attach a file from your computer, click the Browse My Computer button and navigate to the file you wish to add. In part 3 (below) you have Options. By default the content will be Available for students to view and tracking number of views is off. Note: Please make sure that the name of the file you are uploading, does not include spaces or special characters. (do not use (@,#,&,%,^,*,-,~) Use numbers, letters, and underscore only. For most users the default options will work fine. But you may set Display Dates if you desire. Click the Submit button when you are finished. B. ADD FOLDERS Next, we will make some changes to the Course Document section. An excellent way to organize course content is to use folders to group related materials. Some strategies for doing this might be organizing materials in weekly folders or related to certain topics or themes covered in the course. First, select the Course Documents link on the left-hand navigation. If you are not already in Edit Mode, change to Edit Mode. (Review Section II.A.1- Change to Edit for instructions). Select the Build Content drop-down menu and click Content Folder under the New Page column.

8 Blackboard Instructor Manual 8 The Create Content Folder menu will appear. Under Content Folder Information (1), the first item, Name, will be the text that appears next to the folder icon and is required. The information pasted in the Text box will be information that students see posted underneath the folder icon. It is advisable to include a description of the scope of the folder s contents in the Text area. Under Options (2), you have options to Permit Users to View this Content, Track Number of Views, and Select Date and Time Restrictions. The default options are fine, but just note that you can track views or restrict the appearance of the content to certain dates.

9 Blackboard Instructor Manual 9 After you are finished, click the Submit button. C. ADD A COURSE LINK Adding a course link is an efficient way to make sure that you do not repeat course content at multiple locations --thus requiring multiple locations to update content. It is also a great way to create links to specific discussion boards or groups. While in the Edit Mode of a Content Area, select the Build Content drop-down menu and click Course Link under the Create column. There are two required aspects to Creating the Course Link: Browsing the feature of the course that you would like to link, and giving the link a Name. Firstly, under Course Link Information (1), click the Browse button to the left of Choose Item to find the feature you want to link.

10 Blackboard Instructor Manual 10 When you select Browse, you will be able to click on the course area you are linking to. You can select the Expand All icon to see all of the content. Once you have selected an item to link, the Location field will automatically update. Next, enter the Name, which will be the title of the link. The text box can contain a description of the link that your students will see.

11 Blackboard Instructor Manual 11 After you have selected the course link and entered a Name, if you have special date restrictions, you can choose those in Options (2). Click the Submit button to complete the item. III. ENHANCE COMMUNICATION WITH STUDENTS The most value to instruction is added when using Blackboard to communicate with students and provide opportunities for students to interact and collaborate with each other. The tools we will emphasize for these purposes are Announcements, the Discussion Board, Groups, and the Blackboard Send function. A. CREATE AN ANNOUNCEMENT Announcements are a key mechanism for catching students attention, notifying students of course changes or new content to the site, or reminding students of deadlines. Additionally, creating an announcement allows you to automatically students (and instructors) when a new announcement is posted. Your course is by design set to open at Announcements, so it is the first area that students see when they enter the course. To create an Announcement, Select Announcements in the Course Tools section of the Control Panel on the bottom left-hand navigation. Once in the Announcements view, you can select the Create Announcement button.

12 Blackboard Instructor Manual 12 First, in Announcement Information (1), you will need to enter the Subject of your announcement. Under Message you will include the body of your announcement for students. Be sure to write in the second person in order to address it directly to the students who are reading the announcement. Under Web Announcement Options (2), you have two important choices. First, what is the Duration of this announcement? Will this announcement be Date Restricted or Not? If the announcement is Not Date Restricted it will always appear at the top of the list of announcements. But you can also choose specific dates for the announcement to display. This is particularly useful for time-sensitive announcements. Second, do you want to Override User Notification Settings? Doing so will enable s to be sent to all users, even those who choose not to receive Announcement notifications through . Consider checking this option if the Announcement is significant. Course Link (3) provides the opportunity to create a link directly to course resources that students need to access. To link to specific course content, select the Browse button and select the area of the course you are referring to. If you include a Course Link, students will be able to click directly on that link to be directed to that section of the course.

13 Blackboard Instructor Manual 13 When you are finished, click the Submit button. B. DISCUSSION BOARD The principle tool for online student discussion is the Discussion Board. There are a couple of key differences in Blackboard 9. These differences are the ability to: View a forum in either tree view or list view Subscribe to a discussion forum 1. ADD A DISCUSSION FORUM The procedures for adding a discussion forum are very similar to the steps you followed in Blackboard 8. After entering the Discussion Board through the left-hand navigation, select the Create Forum button. In Forum Information (1), the Name field is required and should give enough detail or specificity so students can easily discern that they are in the correct discussion forum when posting. It would be ideal to include specific instructions or questions that should be addressed in more detail in the Description text box.

14 Blackboard Instructor Manual 14 You can set specific dates that the discussion forum is available in Forum Availability (2). Finally, there are several key options that you can select in Forum Settings (3).

15 Blackboard Instructor Manual 15 There are a lot of options here, so a description of each is in order. The starred items are defaulted as enabled. Allow Anonymous Posts: If this is checked, students can opt to not associate their name with a post. When to use this: This might be an applicable setting for a General Questions forum if you want to remove any stigma with asking all variety of questions or with an Evaluative forum if you want students to give general feedback about the course. Allow Author to Delete Own Posts: Students can remove a post that they are unhappy with. When to use this: This depends on your teaching style. Selecting this and the option to only allow for the removal of only posts with no replies gives students an opportunity to remedy an error without jeopardizing context. Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts: Students can modify their published post if this is selected. The downside is that they could drastically modify their post in a discussion thread and the context of the discussion might become unclear. When to use this: This depends on your teaching style and the manner in which you facilitate the discussion forums. Allow Post Tagging: This isn t relevant to our installation. *Allow Users to Reply with Quote: Students can easily quote pieces of another thread that they are replying to. This is good practice to allow for optimal consideration of the context of a reply. *Allow File Attachments: Students can easily embed a photo, video or attached document to their discussion board posting. Allowing attachments enables the use of multimedia or external artifacts in the discussion. Tip: Consider adding a discussion forum with Anonymous posting where students can post questions about the course or course content. *Allow Members to Create New Threads: Students can create new threads of discussion within the forum. This is important to enable in order to let new flows of conversation evolve. Subscribe: It is beneficial to enable the ability to subscribe to discussion forums. The option we recommend is to enable the option to allow members to subscribe to forum. Allow Members to Rate Posts: This creates an option for students to give posts ratings based on 1-5 stars. Students and the instructor will see these ratings as an average, as can be seen this in this screenshot: Force Moderation of Posts: Posts will not appear until they have been reviewed by a moderator, which would either be the instructor or an assigned student.

16 Blackboard Instructor Manual 16 Grade: For more about Graded Discussion Forums, see the next Section III.B.1.b- Graded Discussion Forums. The grading option automatically creates a Grade Center item for either each discussion forum or for threads. Note that you cannot select to grade threads and also let users create their own threads. These instructions will only cover entire discussion forum grading, rather than the individual threads option. After you have selected the options you wish to implement, click the Submit button. A. COLLECT THREADS FOR LESS NAVIGATION Navigating through threads stemming from one conversation to another can be tedious at times. There is a better way to get all the threads from one topic pulled together, through the Collect function. First, select all or as many thread topics as you like, next select Collect. Check the top box to select all threads. Next choose Collect, and it will display every message from the chosen threads. You will then be brought to a single page where you simply scroll down to read every post. You may also choose to print the page, using the Print Preview button that automatically creates a very printer friendly document.

17 Blackboard Instructor Manual 17 B. GRADED DISCUSSION FORUMS If you select the radio button for Grade Forum, you will also have to select a number of points that the graded forum is worth. In our example, this graded forum is worth 10 points: After we click submit, a column will automatically be created in the Grade Center with the same title as the graded discussion forum, worth the number of points specified. Open the Discussion Board by clicking the link on the left-hand navigation. You will see all of the forums created.

18 Blackboard Instructor Manual 18 Select the double downward-facing arrows to open the drop-down menu to the right of the forum that you want to grade. In this example, we will grade Weekly Reflection 1. After opening the drop-down menu, select Grade. Once the Grade Forum Users window opens, you will see the students posts for this forum and be able to provide a grade. This view divides threads into threads of a user s contributions to the forum. In this case, we can see the student with username songhouse1 has made one post. After we select the Grade button, we can see all of the posts songhouse1 has contributed to this forum, including replies to other students.

19 Blackboard Instructor Manual 19 After clicking Grade, the Grade Forum for the user will load. In this example, all of songhouse1 s posts will appear. After reading the student s posts click Edit Grade on the right-hand panel to grade his entries. Once the Forum Grade menu appears, enter the Current Grade Value, Feedback, and any Grading Notes you want to include for your own reference. The student will not see the Grading Notes you enter here. Click Save Grade when you have finished grading this student s posts. Click OK when you have finished reviewing this student s posts.

20 Blackboard Instructor Manual 20 C. GROUPS The Group tool is important to know how to implement. A Group area allows you to create a space for a specific group of students to engage in discussion forums, file exchange, and send s only to each other. You might consider setting up Group areas when assigning group or team work. Also, some of your students may request that you set up Group spaces for them as they might have used this tool in other courses. There are two key steps to setting up a Group: You must first Create a Group, and then Enroll Students to the Group using one of three available methods. Creating Groups in Blackboard 9 is more streamlined than it was in Blackboard 8 for greater ease. Tip: Consider creating Groups for students when you assign project or team-based assignments. 1. CREATE A GROUP To create a Group, select Users and Groups in the Control Panel on the bottom left-hand navigation. The section will expand to show more options, select Groups.

21 Blackboard Instructor Manual When creating new Groups in Blackboard 9, there are a few options: To create one new Group, you can select the Create Single Group drop-down menu. If you want to create multiple groups with the same setting, you can select the Create Group Set drop-down menu. Once you have chosen to create either one group or multiple groups with the same setting, you have the option to enroll students into the groups using Self Enrollment, Manual Enrollment, or Random Enrollment. A description of each is in order. Self Enrollment: If you prefer that students enroll themselves in a group, select Self Enroll from the drop-down menu. Self- Enrollment Groups allow students to join a Group by adding their names to a sign-up sheet. Sign-up sheets can be made available on the Groups page and can limit the number of people allowed to join the Group. Manual Enrollment: If you prefer to enroll students in a group by manually selecting the students, select Manual Enroll from the drop-down menu. Tip: Consider using the Create Group Set option along with Random Enrollment if you want to separate the class into groups and prefer that the students be randomly assigned to these groups. Random Enrollment: If you prefer to allow Blackboard to randomly enroll students into groups, select Random Enroll from the drop-down menu. Random Enrollment Groups distribute membership into Groups based on the desired number of students per group, or the desired number of Groups. For example, if there are 24 students enrolled in a Course, and the Instructor wanted four students per group, the system would create six Groups. If the Instructor wanted four groups, the system would randomly enroll six students per Group. Please note that this option is only available when you choose to create multiple groups with the same setting using the Create Group Set option. Once you have chosen how many groups to create and the style of enrollment, setting up the Group itself is fairly straightforward. You must give the group a Name in Group Information (1). Under Description, you might consider listing the names of the students who will be added to the group or specifying what the group will be used for. You will want to leave the Group Available set to Yes as well.

22 Blackboard Instructor Manual 22 Under Tool Availability (2), unless you or your students have a particular preference, you can enable all the group tools by checking next to Blogs, Collaboration, Discussion Board, , File Exchange, Journals, Tasks, My Scholar Home, Scholar Course Home, and Wikis. Under Blogs, if you select the radio button for Grade, you will also have to select a number of points that the graded blog is worth. In our example, this graded blog is worth 10 points:

23 Blackboard Instructor Manual 23 Under Journals, if you select the radio button for Grade, you will also have to select a number of points that the graded journal is worth. In our example, this graded journal is worth 10 points: Under Wikis, if you select the radio button for Grade, you will also have to select a number of points that the graded wiki is worth. In our example, this graded wiki is worth 10 points: After we click submit, a column will automatically be created in the Grade Center with the same title as the graded Blog, Journal, or Wiki entry, worth the number of points specified. Under Module Personalization Setting (3), the default setting is to Allow Personalization so individual group members can personalize their group space modules. When you are finished editing the Group Information (1), Tool Availability (2), and Module Personalization Setting (3), it is time to add students to the group. There are five different methods to add students to a group and they are outlined below. 2. ADD STUDENTS TO A GROUP There are five ways to add students to a group depending on if you chose to Create Single Group or Create Group Set, and depending on what method you chose to enroll students into the group. Each method is outline below. If you selected Create Single Group AND Self Enroll, see Section III.C.2.a - Create Single Group with Self Enroll If you selected Create Single Group AND Manual Enroll see Section III.C.2.b - Create Single Group with Manual Enroll

24 Blackboard Instructor Manual 24 If you selected Create Group Set AND Self Enroll see Section 0 - Click Submit when you have finished adding members to this group. Create Group Set with Self Enroll If you selected Create Group Set AND Manual Enroll see Section 0 - Click Submit when you have finished adding members to this group set. Create Group Set with Manual Enroll If you selected Create Group Set AND Random Enroll see Section 0 - Click Submit when you have finished adding members to this group set. Create Group Set with Random Enroll A. CREATE SINGLE GROUP WITH SELF ENROLL If you selected Create Single Group AND Self Enroll, you must create a Sign-up Sheet for students to self enroll in the group. Under Sign-up Options (4), you must enter a Name of Sign-up Sheet. Under Sign-up Sheet Instructions, you might consider giving students any additional instructions as you see fit.

25 Blackboard Instructor Manual 25 Next, indicate the Maximum Number of Members to limit the number of students that can enroll in this group. In the following example, 5 is the maximum number of students that can sign up for this group. You also have the option to Show Members. By checking this box, you would allow students to see the names of other members in the group before they sign up. If you prefer anonymity when students are signing up for groups, do not check this box. The option to Allow Students to sign-up from the Groups listing page is checked by default. It enables students to access the sign-up sheet on the Groups listing page. We suggest that you keep this option checked, as it eases navigation for students. Click Submit when you have finished. B. CREATE SINGLE GROUP WITH MANUAL ENROLL If you selected Create Single Group AND Manual Enroll, you must Manually Enroll students to the group. Under Memberships (4), the Items to Select field contains a list of students in the course. Highlight the names of the students you wish to include in the group and select the right arrow between Items to Select and Selected Items to add them. Their names should now appear under the Selected Items field.

26 Blackboard Instructor Manual 26 In this example, Greg House is enrolled in this group. Click Submit when you have finished adding members to this group. C. CREATE GROUP SET WITH SELF ENROLL If you selected Create Group Set AND Self Enroll you must create a Sign-up Sheet for students to self enroll in the group. Under Sign-up Options (4), you must enter a Name of Sign-up Sheet. Under Sign-up Sheet Instructions, you might consider giving students any additional instructions as you see fit. Next, indicate the Maximum Number of Members to limit the number of students that can enroll in this group. In the following example, 5 is the maximum number of students that can sign up for this group. You also have the option to Show Members. By checking this box, you would allow students to see the names of other members in the group before they sign up. If you prefer anonymity when students are signing up for groups, do not check this box.

27 Blackboard Instructor Manual 27 The option to Allow Students to sign-up from the Groups listing page is checked by default. It enables students to access the sign-up sheet on the Groups listing page. We suggest that you keep this option checked, as it eases navigation for students. To specify how many groups you want to create with the settings you have just selected, under Group Set Options (5), enter the Number of Groups in the text field. In this example, there will be 4 groups with the settings we have just chosen. Click Submit when you have finished adding members to this group set. D. CREATE GROUP SET WITH MANUAL ENROLL If you selected Create Group Set AND Manual Enroll you must Manually Enroll students to the groups. Under Group Set Options (4), enter the Number of Groups you want to create with the settings you have chosen. In this example, we will create 2 groups with the selected settings. Click Submit when you have finished. A new page will open entitled Edit Group Set Enrollments. On this page, you will manually enroll students into each of the groups in the set. Under Group Set Information (1), the Name and Description you have chosen for this set of groups will appear.

28 Blackboard Instructor Manual 28 Under Group Set Members Filter Options (2), there are 2 selections to look over. First, you can choose to Show All Course Roles in the Available Members List. By doing so, you will include instructors and teaching assistants in the list of available members to add to the groups. If you only want to add students to the groups, do not check this option. You can also Remove Members already in a Group from the Available Members List. By checking this option, once a student is placed in a group, his or her name will no longer appear in the Items to Select field. This option is selected by default, as it is a useful tool in ensuring each student is only enrolled in only one group. Under Group Set Enrollments (3), you can rename the groups by entering text in the Name fields. The Items to Select field contains a list of students in the course. To add students to the first group, highlight the names of the students you wish to include in the group and select the right arrow between Items to Select and Selected Items to add them. Their names should now appear under the Selected Items field. Using those steps, add students to each of the groups.

29 Blackboard Instructor Manual 29 If you decide that you need fewer or additional groups, click Delete Group or Add Group. Click Submit when you have finished adding members to this group set. E. CREATE GROUP SET WITH RANDOM ENROLL If you selected Create Group Set AND Random Enroll under Membership (4), you have 2 options to help you Determine the Number of Groups you want to create. You can determine the number of groups by entering the Number of Students per Group to establish how many students you want in each group. You can also determine the number of groups by simply entering the Number of Groups you want to create. In the following example, the number of groups is determined by stating that we want 5 students in each group. So if there were 20 students enrolled in this course, we would have 4 groups, each with 5 students. Next, you must Determine How to Enroll any Remaining Members into groups. If after creating groups and randomly enrolling students, there are a few students that are not enrolled in a group, there are 3 ways to add them to a group. For example, if you have 22 students in your course, and you choose to create groups of 5, Random Enrollment would place 5 students into 4 groups. Thus, 2 students would not be enrolled in a group. The following 3 options would determine how those 2 students would be placed into a group.

30 Blackboard Instructor Manual 30 You can Distribute the remaining members amongst the groups which would randomly place the remaining members into the established groups. You can Put the remaining members in their own group which would create an additional group and place the remaining members into it. Or you can Manually add the remaining members to groups which would refrain from placing the remaining members into any group, and would allow you to manually add them to a group of your choice. If you are not particular about the groups being exactly even, or about deciding where to place the remaining members, you can keep the default setting, which is to Distribute the remaining members amongst the groups. Click Submit when you have finished editing the settings for this group set. D. SEND The function in Blackboard allows you to easily send to various users in Blackboard. You can send a message to all students, all instructors, or any combination of individual users. Because the addresses are pulled from ISIS, this can be a helpful way to reach students with important communications, such as details about course materials or scheduling prior to the start of the class. Also, keep in mind that since this information is pulled directly from ISIS, it is important that if problems arise, addresses need to be updated in ISIS. Tip: Consider sending students an two weeks before the start of the semester to welcome them to the course and notify them of what they should bring to the first class meeting. In order to Send , open the Control Panel by clicking the drop-down menu in the left-hand navigation. Under the Course Tools menu, select Send

31 Blackboard Instructor Manual 31 In the Send menu, there are a number of options, which are fairly self-explanatory, including the ability to send an to all users, single/select users, or single/select groups which allow you to isolate individual students or groups to via Blackboard. IV. ASSIGNMENTS In this new version of Blackboard, the best way for students to submit papers for grading is through the Assignment tool. The Digital Dropbox no longer exists. A. CREATE AN ASSIGNMENT The most efficient strategy for having students submit papers and projects is to set up Assignment links. Using Assignments has the following advantages: Students upload through a hyperlink, the number of attempts can be set by the instructor Instructor accesses through the Grade Center Items submitted through the Assignment link are date and time-stamped. Items cannot be lost in or Digital Dropbox(which is no longer available) To add an assignment, we need to return to a content area and ensure that Edit Mode is on. Click the drop-down arrow next to Create Assessment and choose Assignment.

32 Blackboard Instructor Manual 32 In the Create Assignment menu, under Assignment Information (1), you need to give the assignment a Name and Color. The default color is black, but if you choose to change it, select the drop-down arrow next to the color block and Select a swatch color. Be sure to click Apply after selecting a color. Under Instructions it is helpful to include at least some brief guidelines so students know that they have to click the link to submit their assignment. In Assignment Files (2), you can attach files relevant to the assignment. Under Grading (3), indicate the Points Possible on this assignment. Under Availability (4), you will want to make sure you Make the Assignment Available. You can also decide to limit the Number of Attempts a student has at completing the assignment, Limit Availability by setting date restrictions, or Track Number of Views.

33 Blackboard Instructor Manual 33 Under Due Dates (5), specify the date and time the assignment is due. If using this option, be sure to check the box to the left of the date. Under Recipients (6), the default setting is to send overall grades for the assignment to All Students Individually but you can also choose to send grades for this assignment to Groups of Students. When you have finished, click the Submit button.

34 Blackboard Instructor Manual 34 B. VIEW A RECEIVED ASSIGNMENT To review received Assignments or SafeAssignments submitted by students, you will need to enter the Control Panel by opening the drop-down menu on the left-hand navigation. 1. VIEW A RECEIVED ASSIGNMENT To view an Assignment that has been submitted, you will need to visit the Grade Center. To do so, open the drop-down Control Panel menu in the left-hand navigation, select Grade Center and Assignments. Once in the Grade Center: Assignments menu, you will see your enrolled students and columns for any Assignments that you have created. These are automatically created in the Grade Center (Note: therefore, they must be deleted by removing the Assignment or Safe Assignment in its original context). In this view, our example student, Greg House, has created a submission for our Assignment. We can tell that there is a submission by the green exclamation points.

35 Blackboard Instructor Manual 35 A. GRADE AND LEAVE FEEDBACK Whatever the Assessment, whether an Assignment, Safe Assignment, or Test, if you need to view the work the student has submitted, the procedure is similar to grade and leave feedback. First, you need to scroll next to the green exclamation point until you see the double downward-facing arrows appear. Once you click the double downward-facing arrows, additional options will appear. Select the View Grade Details option. The first thing you will want to do if the assignment required an attachment is view the actual assignment. In the Grade Details menu, scroll down to View Attempt and click it.

36 Blackboard Instructor Manual 36 In the deeper assignment details, you will see the file the student has uploaded. To open the file, you can simply click on the file and open it. Or, you can right-click and save it to your computer. After reviewing the document, under Grade Current Attempt (3), you can provide the grade for the assignment and Feedback which will be visible to the student. You can also attach a file that the student

37 Blackboard Instructor Manual 37 would be able to see. If you are in the habit of typing comments directly on a paper, this would be a good way to provide the commented paper back to the student. The Instructor Notes (4) section allows you to make notes about the assignment that will not be visible to the student but will be visible to you at a later point. Again, you can also attach a file here, but this file will not be visible to students. When you are finished, click Save and Exit. CHECK FOR PLAGIARISM SafeAssign This application will allow you to quickly check your students written submissions for plagiarism. This serves to check student submissions against a database of materials including journals, internet sources, and previously submitted papers. 1. Navigate to the SafeAssign area by selecting the Course Tools section under Control Panel and then click the SafeAssign link.

38 Blackboard Instructor Manual Select the DirectSubmit link to open the Private Direct Submit window. 3. Click the Submit A Paper button to add a paper. 4. Under Submission Options, select Submit as draft (recommended) if you do not want to add the paper to the Institutional Search Database. Important: If you do not check this, any future submissions of this paper will result in 100% matching.

39 Blackboard Instructor Manual If you only want to submit the paper to the Institutional Search Database and you do not want to check for plagiarism, click the Skip Plagiarism Checking checkbox. Most people submit documents to check for plagiarism so you will not likely check this box. 6. Under Upload File, browse for the file to attach (note the acceptable file formats) or copy and paste the text (not recommended). Select the appropriate radio button for whichever method you selected. 7. Click Submit when you have completed your selections. 8. To read the report, return to the SafeAssign window and select the DirectSubmit link. 9. View the Originality Report. Interpreting the Report: Overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches existing sources. This score is a warning indicator only and papers should be reviewed to see if the matches are properly attributed. Scores below 15 percent: These papers typical include some quotes and few common phrases or blocks of text that match other documents. These papers typically do not require further analysis, as there is no evidence of the possibility of plagiarism in these papers. Scores between 15 percent and 40 percent: These papers include extensive quoted or paraphrased material or they may include plagiarism. These papers should be reviewed to determine if the matching content is properly attributed.

40 Blackboard Instructor Manual 40 Scores over 40 percent: There is a very high probability that text in this paper was copied from other sources. These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess and should be reviewed for plagiarism. More information on how to read the SafeAssign Report can be found here: V. QUIZZES IN BLACKBOARD There are some instances where providing a quick quiz to check for content comprehension or as a mechanism to deliver an essay question could be beneficial. There are two recommended steps for creating a quiz: Creating a Pool and then Creating a Quiz from the pool questions. A. CREATE A QUESTION POOL If you are going to be using a lot of questions or randomizing the appearance of a quiz, it would be best to set up one or multiple question pools first. When you create a Question Pool, you add a set of questions that can then be pulled into a quiz. Some reasons you might consider creating a pool instead of just creating a quiz directly include: Point values for each question do not need to be determined in advance; A quiz can be created that pulls different questions for each student from a bigger pool; Questions can easily be re-ordered or randomized when pulling them into a quiz. Open the Control Panel drop-down menu in the left-hand navigation and select Course Tools and Tests, Surveys and Pools.

41 Blackboard Instructor Manual 41 Once the Tests, Surveys and Pools menu opens, select Pools.

42 Blackboard Instructor Manual 42 Select Build Pool to begin writing questions. Type a name for your pool in the Name textbox. Providing a Description is optional. A note about the content items covered in the pool is advisable. Instructions are also optional. These are for your reference when building a pool, as you will have to reiterate any instructions for students to see when you deploy the pool as part of a quiz.

43 Blackboard Instructor Manual 43 Click Submit to finish creating the pool. 1. ADD A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTION TO A QUESTION POOL Now that the pool has been created, questions can be added. Go back into the Pool that was created by selecting Tests, Surveys and Pools under the Course Tools drop-down menu in the Control Panel lefthand navigation.

44 Blackboard Instructor Manual 44 Module 1 Pool is an existing pool in this example. Click the double downward-facing arrows to the right of the pool you want to add questions to and select Edit. Beneath the Pool Canvas heading, there is Create Question option, with double downward-facing arrows. Select the arrows to see the available options. For this example, we will create a multiple choice item. Scroll down and select Multiple Choice.

45 Blackboard Instructor Manual 45 Assign your question a name in the Question Title text box. Cut and paste your question into the Question Text box.

46 Blackboard Instructor Manual 46 If you want students to see A, B, C, etc before each answer; use Answer Numbering in Options (2). If you later randomize the answers, the Answer Numbering will stay consistent if you use this feature. To select Answer Numbering, select the drop-down arrow, and choose the preferred numbering option. In Options (2), you can also opt to Show Answers in Random Order by checking the box. Each student would then receive answers in a different order. This can help prevent cheating. At the same time, if you use Show Answers in Random Order, you cannot do an item analysis in Blackboard. Answers (3) must each be pasted in a separate Answer text box.

47 Blackboard Instructor Manual 47 The default number of answers is four. If you need more than four answers, select the drop-down arrow next to Number of Answers and choose a different option.

48 Blackboard Instructor Manual 48 Identify the correct answer to the question by choosing the radio button next to the correct answer. Feedback (4) on each question is optional. Feedback can be particularly helpful when students can be directed to particular sections of the material for reference. Consider giving students Incorrect Response Feedback to aid them in finding the right answer in the course material.

49 Blackboard Instructor Manual 49 You have the option to add Categories and Keywords (5) to questions. To add Categories, Topics, Levels of Difficulty, or Keywords, click the Add button to the right of the option and enter a Tag in the text box. Click OK when you have finished editing the Tag.

50 Blackboard Instructor Manual 50 Instructor Notes (6) are optional, but if you would like them as a reference, you can use this text box. When you have finished, click Submit.

51 Blackboard Instructor Manual ADD AN ESSAY QUESTION TO A QUESTION POOL Just as in the previous example, go back into the Pool that was created by selecting Tests, Surveys and Pools under the Course Tools drop-down menu in the Control Panel left-hand navigation. Click the double downward-facing arrows to the right of the pool you want to add the essay question to, and select Edit. Beneath the Pool Canvas heading, there is Create Question option with a double downward-facing arrows. Click the arrows and select Essay. Assign the Essay question a name in the Question Title field. Cut and paste the Essay question into the Question Text box. It is preferable to cut and paste from Notepad to avoid the extra formatting embedded in Microsoft Word.

52 Blackboard Instructor Manual 52 You can provide a sample response in Answer (2) if you wish. In Categories and Keywords (3), you can add Categories, Topics, Levels of Difficulty, or Keywords. To do so, click the Add button to the right of the option and enter a Tag in the text box. Click OK when you have finished editing the Tag. Instructor Notes (4) are optional, but if you would like them as a reference, you can use the text box. After you are finished, click Submit.

53 Blackboard Instructor Manual 53 B. CREATE THE QUIZ To create a test, open the Control Panel drop-down menu in the left-hand navigation and select Course Tools and Tests, Surveys and Pools. Once the Tests, Surveys and Pools menu opens, select Tests. Once you are in the Tests Manager, select the Build Test button. Once in the Test Information screen, you will need to provide a Name for the test.

54 Blackboard Instructor Manual 54 You can provide details about the test in the Description text box. You can provide instructions for the Test in the Instructions text box.

55 Blackboard Instructor Manual 55 When you are finished, click Submit. 1. BUILD THE QUIZ IN THE TEST MANAGER A. TEST CREATION SETTINGS As you continue through the test creation process, you enter the Test Canvas. Here, if you have already created a Question Pool, you can pull your test questions from a Question Pool or Assessment. Before you do anything else you will want to ensure that you have the appropriate Test Settings. The most likely settings you would want to change are the ability to attach images to question in Images, Files, and External Links (2) and the default point value in Scoring (4). First, click the Question Settings button.

56 Blackboard Instructor Manual 56 After selecting Question Settings, the Test Question Settings page will appear.

57 Blackboard Instructor Manual 57 The options in Test Question Settings are fairly self-explanatory. You will just want to be aware that if you want to add images to your test, you need to enable that function in Images, Files, and External Links (2).

58 Blackboard Instructor Manual 58 You will need to set the default point value for each question in Scoring (4). If you change the default point value after you have added questions, it does not recalculate the point values. Thus, you must set the defaul point value before importing questions from a pool. When you are finished, click Submit.

59 Blackboard Instructor Manual ADD QUESTIONS TO A QUIZ After you have modified your test settings, you can add question from a Question Pool or Assessment. Click the double downward-facing arrows to the right of Reuse Question and select Find Questions from the drop-down menu. After selecting Find Questions, a new window will pop-up. You may need to ensure that your pop-up blocker is disabled so that the window will appear. Under Pools in the left-hand navigation, select the Pool that you would like to find questions from. In this example, questions are being pulled from Module 1 Pool.

60 Blackboard Instructor Manual 60 If you simply want to copy the questions as they are currently written in the Pool, select Copy selected questions before selecting the question. If you want the questions to automatically update as they are edited in the Pool, select Link to original questions before selecting the question. When linked questions are edited, changes made to the question are reflected everywhere that there is a link to that question. When you see the questions that you wish to include, check the box to the left of Question Text to select all, or select the individual questions you wish to include. When you are finished, click Submit. C. DEPLOY A QUIZ After your question pool has been created, you can create and deploy your test. Go back to the content view of your course, and to the section of your course where you want the test to appear. Select the Create Assessment drop-down menu and click the Test option.

61 Blackboard Instructor Manual 61 In the Create Test manager, you will have the option to add any exam that is not already deployed. Select the Test you want to add and click the Submit button. After clicking Submit, Test Options will appear with a Success message at the top. On this page, you can modify the test s settings.

62 Blackboard Instructor Manual 62 In Test Information (1), you can edit the existing Name and add a Description. Beneath the Description field, there is an option to Open Test in New Window, but the default is set to No.

63 Blackboard Instructor Manual 63 In Test Availability (2), you will only Make the Link Available if: You are ready for the students to take the quiz. You have added a password to prevent students from seeing the quiz before the recommended time. You have set a display after date. You can Add a New Announcement for this Test by selecting the Yes radio button. You can allow Multiple Attempts, or set a maximum number of attempts. You can also Force Completion every time students take the test. You can Set Timer, though it should be for less than 1 hour as Blackboard times out at one hour. And you can set the Display After/Display Until dates for the test. If you do this, you must Make the Link available, but it won t show up until the date you have specified. Finally, you can set a Password to ensure that students are not accessing the link until you give them the Password. In section 3 Due Date, you will a calendar date & time if the test is due on a specific day or time. Generally, the Self-assessment Options (4) can remain as they are in the default.

64 Blackboard Instructor Manual 64 In Test Feedback (5), you can select the level of feedback you want students to receive. Lastly, for Test Preparation (6), it is recommended that you leave it as All at Once. You can Randomize Questions, but remember that if you do, you cannot easily see an item analysis. When you are finished, click Submit.

65 Blackboard Instructor Manual 65 VI. GRADE CENTER The Grade Center is a convenient place to provide feedback for students regarding their progress on the assignments in the course. A. HOW STUDENTS VIEW GRADES Students will view their Grades by selecting My Grades in the navigation on the left. When students enter the My Grades tool, they will only see feedback on their own Grade Center information. B. ORGANIZING THE GRADE CENTER There are several key strategies for organizing the grade center. In this section you will learn to Add a Graded Item to the Grade Center, Create a Weighted Average Column, Hide Columns, Show or Rearrange Columns, and Rename a Column.

66 Blackboard Instructor Manual ADD A GRADED ITEM In Blackboard Basics, you learned how to add Assignments into your course content. Items that are created as Assignments will automatically appear in the Grade Center. Similarly, deployed quizzes, tests, and surveys will also appear automatically in the Grade Center after they are created. Other items will need to be added to the Grade Center manually. To access the Grade Center, open the Control Panel on the left-hand navigation. Select the Grade Center drop-down menu and click Full Grade Center. You may also use the Quick Tool Pad to get to the Grade Center. Choose the icon circle below Gradebook. To add a new item to the Grade Center, Select Create Column from the top menu. In the Create Grade Column menu, enter the Assignment name in Column Name. You can add the name you wish to display in the Grade Center in the Grade Center Display Name field. You can also add a Description of the assignment. In the Points Possible text box, enter the maximum points attainable for this assignment.

67 Blackboard Instructor Manual 67 You can add a Due Date under Dates (2) if you wish. You may also change the Options (3). We recommend leaving at the least the defaults. Selecting Show Statistics for this column to Students in My Grades will let students know how their performance on an assessment ranks with scores of their peers.

68 Blackboard Instructor Manual 68 Click Submit when finished. 2. CREATE A WEIGHTED AVERAGE COLUMN After all of your assessments have been added to the Grade Center, it is useful to provide a column that calculates the weighted total of the scores. To add a weighted score column, in the Full Grade Center, scroll over Create Calculated Column on the top menu bar and select Weighted Column.

69 Blackboard Instructor Manual 69 You will need to name the column in the Column Name field. The Grade Center Display Name and Description are optional. The Primary Display and Secondary Display settings can remain on their default selections.

70 Blackboard Instructor Manual 70 To create the Weighted Column, you need to pull existing columns from the Columns to Select field. To do so, select the column in the Columns to Select field and click the right arrow to move them to the Selected Columns box.

71 Blackboard Instructor Manual 71 The column will be added to the Selected Columns box. A box indicating the percentage weight of the item is available. You MUST pull all the columns that will comprise the Weighted Column at one time and they MUST total 100% or you will receive an error.

72 Blackboard Instructor Manual 72 You have an option of whether to have this option calculate a running total. It is best to leave the default option. Click Submit when finished. Options (4) has additional selections that you can make, including an option to Show Statistics for this column to Students in My Grades enabling students to gauge their performance against their peers.

73 Blackboard Instructor Manual 73 Click Submit when you are finished. 3. HIDE COLUMNS As you enter the Full Grade Center for the first time, you might encounter extraneous columns that you wish to hide. To quickly hide a column, you need to select the double downward-facing arrow next to that column.

74 Blackboard Instructor Manual 74 When the drop-down menu opens, scroll down and click the Hide Column option. That s it! 4. SHOW OR REARRANGE COLUMNS Now that you ve hidden the column, there may be instances where you want to be able to see it again. To unhide a column or rearrange all the columns in the Grade Center, you will need to Manage Column Organization. To do this, scroll over the double downward-facing arrows next to Manage along the Grade Center toolbar. Select Column Organization.

75 Blackboard Instructor Manual 75 The Column Organization view shows hidden and visible columns. Here we can see that the first columns typically show student information. To toggle between Show/Hide, select any column by checking the box next to the column and then selecting an option from the Show/Hide drop-down menu. In the example below, the user is making Last Access visible. In the All Grade Center Views section, you will typically see assignments and assessments you have created. You can easily rearrange the order of these items by simply dragging them up and down using the arrows to the left of their name. This will move their order in your Grade Center view.

76 Blackboard Instructor Manual 76 When you have organized the Grade Center to your satisfaction, click the Submit button. 5. CHANGING A COLUMN NAME To change the name of a column, click the double downward-facing arrows next to the existing column name until the column menu appears. Select Edit Column Information from the drop-down menu.

77 Blackboard Instructor Manual 77 Modify the Column Name under Column Information (1). Note that if this is an assignment that is embedded within your course content, the old name will remain in the course content. Click Submit when finished. C. PROVIDING FEEDBACK IN THE GRADE CENTER 1. FEEDBACK ON ASSIGNMENTS If you have set up assignments using the Assignment tool from Blackboard Basics training, those items will automatically be generated in your Grade Center. When students submit their assignment through the hyperlink, you will see their ungraded submission as a green exclamation point.

78 Blackboard Instructor Manual 78 To view that student s attempt, hover your mouse over the area next to the exclamation point and click the double downward-facing arrows that appear. Make sure you are choosing the arrows next to the individual assignment, not the column title. Once you have clicked the double downward-facing arrows, additional options will appear. Select View Grade Details. In the Grade Details view, select the View Attempt option.

79 Blackboard Instructor Manual 79 In the deeper assignment details, you will see the file the student has uploaded.

80 Blackboard Instructor Manual 80

81 Blackboard Instructor Manual 81 To open the file, you can simply click on the file and open it. Or, you can right-click and save it to your computer. After you have reviewed the work, you can provide a grade for the assignment in the Grade box, and you can provide comments for the student in the Feedback to User text box. You can also attach a file for the student to review, for example if you comment on their Microsoft Word document. The Instructor Notes (4) section is for your own records. Students will not see your comments here. When you are finished, click Save and Exit. 2. BATCH DOWNLOAD OF ASSIGNMENTS It can be cumbersome to download each student assignment individually. For this reason, there is an option to download all student files at once, or to select several files for download. Scroll over the column heading, in this case Assignment 1, until you see the double downward-facing arrows.

82 Blackboard Instructor Manual 82 You will see several options for the column. Select Assignment File Download. You will have an option to select any submitted assignments for download. In this example, one student has submitted his file. Check the box next to the students name to download their files.

83 Blackboard Instructor Manual 83 Click Submit. You will encounter a message that informs you that your assignments have been packaged. Right-click the hyperlink under Download Assignments Now and select the option to Save Link As. Choose a convenient location to save this file and you can rename the download file name to something associated with the assignment.

84 Blackboard Instructor Manual 84 When the download is complete, you can select Open to view the files. After we have selected Open, we can see the individual assignments that we selected for download. D. QUIZZES

85 Blackboard Instructor Manual FEEDBACK ON QUIZZES You can modify a quiz grade and leave specific feedback for a user following the same procedures as you would for leaving feedback on an assignment. If you have essays in your quizzes that need grading, you will see an exclamation point when students have completed a quiz and it is ready for grading. If you have just multiple choice items, you will see the grade in the Grade Center. You can override a grade if necessary. 2. QUIZ DATA For quizzes, there is additional information that you can collect from Blackboard. A. ITEM ANALYSIS To gather data for a rudimentary item analysis on a multiple choice quiz, scroll next to the column name of the quiz and click the double downward-facing arrow until you see the column menu. Select Attempts Statistics. For each answer, you will see a breakdown of what percentage of respondents chose each response. For example, a breakdown will have a check mark next to the correct answer. In the following example, we

86 Blackboard Instructor Manual 86 can see that 100% got the answer correct. B. GRADE DISTRIBUTION To pull a simple Grade Distribution, you can use Column Statistics. To do so, scroll next to the column name of the quiz and click the double downward-facing arrows until you see the column menu. Select Column Statistics. On the Column Statistics page, you will see the Statistics and Status Distribution for the quiz. The Statistics column will display information like the Average, Median, and Standard Deviation for the quiz scores. You can also see the Grade Distribution related to the percentage out of 100 on the column

87 Blackboard Instructor Manual 87 farthest to the right. E. RESET AN ASSIGNMENT OR QUIZ BY CLEARING AN ATTEMPT On a rare occasion, you might have to allow a student to resubmit an Assignment. For example, if a student uploaded the wrong version of a document, you can clear their submission so they can resubmit. Also, in some cases, students taking quizzes experience a time out that requires you to reset the quiz. To Clear the Attempt, you will follow the same steps as if you were going to give Feedback. You would look for the exclamation point, and select View Grade Details. In the Grade Assignment detail, you will click the Clear Attempt option. This will erase the student s uploaded file.

88 Blackboard Instructor Manual 88 To Clear a Quiz attempt, the steps are the same. Before it deletes the file, the system will confirm that you want to delete the file. Select OK, if you are sure you want to clear the attempt. Then you will need to notify the student that they can resubmit.

89 Blackboard Instructor Manual 89 VII. CUSTOMIZE COURSE OPTIONS There are four key tasks that you will want to make sure that you know how to do in order to optimally manage your Blackboard course sites. You will need to know how to Manage the Course Menu, Modify Your e- Reserves Link, Make Your Course Available, and Export Content. A. MANAGE THE COURSE MENU You can rearrange items on your course menu. The default template contains several items that we ask that you consider leaving intact on the menu, including the Syllabus tab so that students and staff can easily locate your course syllabus and Faculty & Staff Information, which should contain your contact information. But ultimately, you can add new content areas and tool links and re-order any items on the left-hand navigation. Furthermore, you can remove items that will not contain information on your site, as a matter of housekeeping. To manage your course menu, open the drop-down menu by clicking the plus sign link on the left-hand navigation.

90 Blackboard Instructor Manual 90 In the drop-down menu, you will see several Create options, including Create Content Area, Create Tool link, Create Course Link, and Create External Link. 1. CREATE A CONTENT AREA The key area in the default template for you to place content is Course Documents. However, you can create as many content areas as suit your purposes. To add another content area, select the plus sign on the left-hand navigation to open the drop-down menu. When the drop-down menu appears, click Create Content Area. After selecting Create Content Area, you can create a new content area with a link the left-hand navigation. You can name this anything you want and type the name in the text box beneath Name.

91 Blackboard Instructor Manual 91 You can give the option for users to view this area if you choose, by checking the box next to Available to Users. If you want students to access this Content Area, you must check the box. After creating the new Content Area, open it by clicking the link on the left-hand navigation. Once the page has opened, you can edit access to this area. To do so, click the double downward-facing arrows next to the title and select Edit. On the Edit Content Folder page, you can edit the Name of the folder and add Text to describe the contents under Content Folder Information (1).

92 Blackboard Instructor Manual 92 Under Default Content View (2), you can edit the Content View and apply the settings to all new and existing sub-folders in this content area. Under Options (3), you can Permit Users to View this Content, Track Number of Views, and Select Date and Time Restrictions. If you want students enrolled in the course to have access to this Content Area, select Yes next to Permit Users to View this Content. When you are finished, click the Submit button. 2. CREATE A TOOL LINK If you frequently use certain tools in your course, it is a good idea to add a link directly into your course menu. For example, if you are setting up Groups in your course, you can add a link to the Group Pages directly. To do so, select the plus sign on the left-hand navigation to open the drop-down menu. Click Create Tool Link.

93 Blackboard Instructor Manual 93 In the Add Tool Link view, you can select from the course tools by clicking the drop-down arrow next to Type and navigating to the desired tool. In this example, we will add a link to the Groups tool. Check Available to Users if you want students enrolled in the course to have access to this tool. Click the Submit button when you are finished. 3. CREATE A COURSE LINK OR EXTERNAL LINK You can also add links to specific existing areas of the course to make that area more prominent or to external resources to make them easily accessible to students. Select the appropriate Create Link from the drop-down menu on the left-hand navigation (shown below) and following the prompted procedures. B. MAKE YOUR COURSE AVAILABLE When courses are created in Blackboard by pulling information from ISIS, they will be created as Unavailable. This means that you will be able to see the course site, but students will not see it. This is a procedural necessity because students will be enrolled in course sites as soon as they are created. This will allow you to build your course site before allowing students to see this. In turn, you will have to make the course Available when you are ready to do so. We recommend that if it is possible, you should make your course available two weeks before the start date of the course.

94 Blackboard Instructor Manual 94 To make your course Available: 1. Start here at the main page in Blackboard. (My Institutions Tab) 2. On the right hand side you ll see a module titled My Courses Plus, showing your courses. 3. Click on the Tool Icon right next to the Course Name. 4. You ll see a menu of icons drop down below the course name. This is called the QUICK TOOL PAD.

95 Blackboard Instructor Manual Select this icon 6. Your course is now available. C. COURSE COPY You can copy sections of one course into another course site. This will allow you to transfer course materials from one semester to the next without having to rebuild them from scratch. To copy content from your course site, open the Control Panel left-hand navigation menu and select Packages and Utilities. Under Packages and Utilities, select Course Copy. In the Copy Course menu, beneath Select Copy Type (1), select the Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course option from the drop-down menu. Under Select Copy Options (2), click Browse to find the course you want to copy the materials into.

96 Blackboard Instructor Manual 96 In the Courses window, select the radio button to the left of the course you want to copy your materials into. Click Submit when you have selected the course. In the Copy Course menu, under Select Copy Options (2), you will need to select all the course sections that you want to include in your copy. Choose the items you want to copy. Your options here may be different depending on your unique course settings. If you want to copy all of the course content and files into the selected course, select the radio button next to Copy links and copies of the content (Include all Course Files) under Course Files (3). If you don t want to include course files in the copy, select Copy links to Course Files. You will not need to Calculate Size of the course, as there is no limit to the size of the copy package.

97 Blackboard Instructor Manual 97 Do not click the box next to Enrollments in the Enrollments Section (4). When you are finished, click the Submit button. After you click submit, you will see a success message that the course copy has been queued and you will receive an notifying you of the same. Once you receive the confirming the copy has completed you can view your course materials in your new course. D. COURSE ARCHIVES

98 Blackboard Instructor Manual 98 An effective solution for saving an entire course and ensuring that you ll have the data for future use is the archive function. To access this utility, go to the Control Panel, expand Packages and Utilities, choose Export/Archive Course. You will then arrive at this screen. Here, please choose Archive. We recommend using the default settings showing below. The select submit.

99 Blackboard Instructor Manual 99 You may use this option to eliminate unnecessary files from your archive to reduce file size. When you remove them during this function, it will not remove them from the current course. Below you will see the Success (green) message bar appear informing you that you will receive an when the process is complete. Upon receipt of the , return to Archive utility screen to download your zipped Archive.

100 Blackboard Instructor Manual 100 Click on the file name and you will be prompted to save this archive file. Save it on your personal computer or any safe storage devices. Now you have an archives copy of your course Why is Archiving recommended? Sometimes a course can become corrupt for some unforeseeable reasons. If it ever happens, please carey.blackboard@jhu.edu and send in your archive files. It is more likely that IT and Support staff will be able to restore your course from your Archive files. It is a recommended practice to backup your files.