Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Did you know...

In Blackboard 8.0, the Grade Center can hide students that are disabled, and won't show in your grade list.

When a student has dropped a class in Webtools (student is disabled, in the Blackboard course after 24 hours), you can then go to the Grade Center and HIDE those disable students.

Go to Manage and scroll down to Show/Hide Users. In the window that comes next, select the students you want to Hide, and click Hide Users, then Submit.
If you would need to show them again, click Manage, scroll down to Show/Hide Users, and in the window that appears, select the Hidden users and click Show User.

This will help your grade book from becoming cluttered or confusing.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Blackboard upgrade planned for May 30th, 2010

The iT department will be upgrading Blackboard (courses.smumn.edu) from v7 to v8 on May 30, 2010 from 7am - noon. Course/Organization content will move forward with the upgrade.

Blackboard v8 doesn't look much different from v7. However, there are some nice changes that we want to make you aware of.

New features and enhancements are:

1. Grade Center

2. Self and Peer Assessement Building Blocks

3. SafeAssign

4. Scholar Building Blocks.


If you want to get a sneak peak at the new features there is a Set of Quick Tutorials located on courses.smumn.edu.

To locate the Quick Tutorials Module, Log into Blackboard, click on My SMU Tab, then Modify Content, find and place a check mark next to Quick tutorials. When you return to the My SMU tab you'll see a long list of tutorials for a number of Blackboard versions. You'll be looking for the The Blackboard Academic Suite Release 8.0 Learning System Tutorials.

If you want to save screen real-estate you can click on the - to minimize the Quick Tutorial list or to de-activate the Quick Tutorials Module click the X.

Blackboard also has a few webinars that you may find helpful.

BB v8 Changes

http://www.blackboard.com/Company/Events-Center/Webinars-and-Demos/Webinar-Archive.aspx

The Grade Book in V7 is now referred to as the Grade Center in BB8. The THIS LINK explains.

SMU acknowledged for its growth with lecture capture technology.

Tegrity, a leading class capture web service provider for higher education, acknowledged Saint Mary’s University at its 4th Annual User Conference held in Louisville KY. During the April 15th Tegrity Innovation Awards Ceremony, held at the Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota was awarded a Certificate of Achievement for its growth in the number and duration of new recordings during the past year.

Top Tegrity Users - Certificates of Achievement:

Usage statistics from 7/1/09 thru 4/10/10 (8+ months

Archiving Blackboard Courses

Directions for Archiving Courses are located at here.

Once you've archived and saved the resulting file for your courses you may request that the HelpDesk delete the courses permanently from the Blackboard system.

ATTENTION: ONCE Courses are deleted they may not be restored.

To request that courses be removed from the Blackboard system please email the HelpDesk with a listing of the course IDs that should be removed and your verification that you've archived the content you want to have record of.

Computer maintenance over the summer

Don't forget to keep your computer up to date over the summer. This includes Windows Updates and Virus software updates.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Inside a global cybercrime ring

Click the picture below for the full story.

Windows 7 in Hendrickson Labs

Windows 7 has been installed in all Hendrickson Labs. Come down and test the software that you will need for your classes next year.

Amnesty Day for the Pro Presenter

If you have acquired or come into the possession of a Power Point clicker (Pro Presenter), we will have a period of amnesty for the return of these items. Please, if you have one, drop the Pro Presenter off at the Helpdesk anytime. These are invaluable, costly to replace, & would help out the pocketbook budget. Thank you for your support.