Thursday, December 2, 2010

Requesting Blackboard Course Removal

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.

Archiving Blackboard Courses

To view video on Archiving Courses, go here.

To Archive a course, go to the course you want to Archive in BB.
Click the Control Panel, and choose Archive Course
Click Archive, then click Submit.
This will put the archive course in a que.  It will send you an email letting you know this has completed.

You can also listen to a Tegrity recording that has 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. 

Equipment Available for checkout at Helpdesk

HelpDesk devices are available for checkout, by SMU community members for one day periods. You can reserve a device in advance.

  • Flip brand video cameras 
  • digital video cameras hard drive storage
  • Digital camera 
  • Various microphones, (USB for computer, Salvi, Common Room, lapel, tape recorder) 
  • MiFi wireless device, used for Internet only. Please do not download or stream music or video using this device as it has a monthly usage limit of 5 gigabytes. 
  • LCD Projectors 
  • Multimedia Carts (Laptop, projector, video player(VHS or DVD), speakers, presentation “clicker” 
  • Projection screens 
  • Garmin GPS 
  • USB DVD burner 
  • Turning Point system 
  • Document Camera 
  • Tripods 
  • Old fashioned cassette recorders

Please contact the HelpDesk, helpdesk@smumn.edu or on-campus call 7800.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Copying a class recording

1. Access your Tegrity environment and click on the course where the class you want to copy is located.
2. Check the box next to the recording you want to copy, circled below in red.

3. Click on the “action” drop-down menu, circled in green above. Select “Copy” from the list of options.



4. A box will appear, asking you to select the course where you want this recording to be copied too. Enter the name of the course and select “OK”.

Your recording will now be copied into the other course’s folder immediately and will appear in the recordings list.

Helpdesk Stats for November

HelpDesk staff documented 393 incidents during the month of November.
222 were closed on the initial contact (CoFC) CoFC percent of total: 56.5% HelpDesk CoFC goal is 50% or better.

HelpDesk and iT staff had 35 documenters
21 achieved the 50%+ CoFC contact goal for the month for a rate of 60% There were also 3 other staff that missed it by one incident. Example received 7 closed 3 on initial contact and 4 that were not.
Thank you to Brian Behling, Chad Colt (MPLS), Jessica Perkins, Joel Lynch, Mitch Lawler, Camden Webster, Chase Davidson, Thomas Plante, Heather Ludwig, Bridget Ryan, David Corpstein, Melanie Krivachek, Chris Froelich, Clarissa Thompson-Matthews, Chris Sanstead, Kyle LaBarre, Ashley House-Mischke, Pat Luke, Brandon Lovera-Ives, Abby Kratzke, Heidi Johnson

How the HelpDesk received incidents during November 2010

11% Email Incidents: 45
1% HelpDesk VM MPLS Incidents: 2
1% HelpDesk VM Winona Incidents: 5
1% iT Staff initiated Incidents: 4
56% Phone - in-person Incidents: 220
0% Stopped in Public Incidents: 1
2% Walk in TC iT Office Incidents: 6
28% Walk-up to HelpDesk Incidents: 110

Total number of Incident documented: 393

Computer updates over December Break

Don't forget to keep your computer up to date over the Winter Break. This includes Windows Updates and Virus software updates. Any new items you may bring to campus after the holidays will also need to be up to date; you can check thier readiness by going to:

SMU Winona Campus Network Readiness Check

Tegrity System Check

My Courses box in Blackboard

In Blackboard, are you finding your courses easily in the My Courses box?
Tired of scrolling down to access current term courses?

Try the following:
Click the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the "My Courses" box (module)
Uncheck the older versions or your courses(faculty) or old courses taken (students) boxes under the various headings
Click Submit (affirmative response) button.

Course list should shorten but courses would still be available for future access by reversing the process when needed.

Copy Course Materials into an Existing Blackboard Course

The Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course page enables Instructors to copy content from one course into another they are teaching. Instructors can select areas, such as Announcements, Staff Information or Course areas to copy. Copy Course will add content to a course, but it will not remove existing content.

Find this page.

Follow these steps to locate the Copy Course Materials into a New Course page.
1. Click Course Copy from the Control Panel.
2. Click Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course from the Copy Course page.
Destination Course ID
Enter a Course ID for the destination course or click Browse to open a Search function in a separate window.
Select course materials
Select the check boxes for each course area and tool in the course that should be copied into the existing course. The table below details what happens to each selectable option when the copy is performed.
NOTE: A Course Copy operation cannot be completed if the user does not select at least one of the following areas: Content, Staff Information or Settings. If none of these options is selected a warning will appear.