Blackboard Support for Faculty and Staff
E-Learning Services provides a variety of resources to help faculty, adjuncts, course facilitators, and support staff. If you do not find below the help you need, please contact the Instructional Technologist for E-Learning (208-467-8782) for how-to help, or the Technical Response Center (208-467-8111) for troubleshooting assistance.
Announcement: Northwest Nazarene University will make a transition from the Blackboard course management system to Angel Learning in Spring 2010. Face-to-face or online training is now available for instructors and support personnel. Please visit the ANGEL information page for an overview video and details on the Learning Opportunities. Resources and training will be available for students beginning in December.
Blackboard Tip Sheets & Tutorials
Online Professional Development
ELS Open House
E-Learning Services will hold an Open House to show off our new office. Come enjoy refreshments any time between 1 and 3 p.m. on Monday, November 30, at our new digs in the lower level of the Emerson Administration Building.
Accounts and Enrollments
The following reflects the way NNU handles Blackboard accounts and enrollments.
Course Shells/Masters
E-Learning Services atuomatically creates Official Blackboard course shells beginning 60 days before the start of a course.
The course start date is part of the record of a course in CX, the administrative software used by the Registrar's office.
An instructor can use a Master course to a) begin developing a course before the 60-day mark, and/or b) store content from semester to semester.
Find out more about course types or complete a request for a Master
Adds/Drops
Enrollment changes are automatically processed within two hours after the Registrar's office completes a student's official paperwork to Add or Drop a course.
If you see any enrollment anomalies (i.e., students who are not added or dropped in your Blackboard course), please send an email to the Technical Response Center (help(at)nnu.edu) describing the anomaly and include the course ID, the student's name, and the student's ID.
Course End/Archiving
Thirty (30) days after the official end of a course, it is automatically made unavailable to students and instructors in preparation for Archiving.
An Archive is a record of the course as it appears at course end; it contains all of the coursework and grades. E-Learning Services completes the archiving regularly after a course ends, without any special action on the part of an instructor.
The course end date is part of the record of a course in CX, the administrative software used by the Registrar's office.
If your course "disappears" before you or your students are actually finished, please contact the Technical Response Center (help(at)nnu.edu). Include the course ID and how long you will need continued access.
Incompletes
If you have a student who is finishing a Spring course, please send an e-mail to the Technical Response Center (help(at)nnu.edu) listing the course ID, course name, and the length of time the student needs to be able to access your course.
Legal Names/Nicknames
We know that many of you and your students go by preferred names. However, with our current programming, the names appearing in Blackboard are legal names as they appear in the CX administrative software. We hope to be able to address this in the future.
If you have questions regarding the above, please send them to elearning(at)nnu.edu.
E-Learning TAs Available to Help You
E-Learning Services' student employees are available to help faculty, adjuncts and support staff with course development using Blackboard, Angel and other online technologies, such as:
- creating groups areas, blogs or wikis
- exporting content between Masters and Official shells
- creating online tests
- preparing streamed media
- making course banners, and
- other projects both basic and complex that either you do not do very often or that are time-consuming
To request FREE help from an E-Learning Assistant, please e-mail your need to elearning(at)nnu.edu and include as many details as possible, or call Crystal Nielsen, Instructional Technologist for E-Learning (208-467-8782). She will assign the task to one or more assistants.
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Web 2.0 Tools
Keep hearing about Web 2.0 and want to know more? Visit the new Web 2.0 page for some quick tutorials about wikis, blogs and podcasts, plus resources for incorporating these tools into your course.
Blackboard Tip Sheets & Tutorials
You will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the tip sheets and Macromedia Flash Player to view the video tutorials. Both are found on campus computers or may be downloaded from their respective links for free. Note that you may need to maximize your browser window for best results when viewing tutorials, which are marked with (video).
Start
Coursebuilding and Content Retention
Build
Modifying the Course Menu (video)
Creating Trackable Assignments
Creating Trackable Assignments (video)
Submitting Trackable Assignments (for Students)
Submitting Trackable Assignments (for Students) (video)
Communicate
Creating Announcements (video)
E-Mailing from Within Blackboard
E-Mailing from Within Blackboard (video)
Adding Instructor Contact Info
Creating Group Areas (video)
Discussion Board Guide for Instructors
Discussion Board Overview for Instructors (video)
Discussion Board Rating, Grading & Statistics (video)
Discussion Board User Roles and Moderating (video)
Posting to the Discussion Board
Discussion Board Guide for Students
Using the Live Chatroom - for Instructors
Using the Live Chatroom (video)
Manage
Uploading Multiple Files (Document Unpackager)
Managing Content Types & Tools
Creating & Managing Groups (Advanced)
Encouraging Accountability with Review Status
Exporting Content Between Courses
Customizing with Adaptive Release
Using the Early Warning System (video)
Assess
Downloading and Grading Trackable Assignments
Grading Trackable Assignments (video)
Evaluating Discussion Participation
Registering a Clicker (for Students)
Creating a Test from a Question Pool
Retrieving Test/Survey Results
Test-Giving Guide (for Instructors)
Test-Taking Guide (for Students)
Using the Gradebook with MS Excel
Learning Opportunities
For Blackboard assistance this fall, you may log in to Blackboard and visit the E-Learning Resource Center for self-paced tutorials. For one-on-one consultations, write to elearning(at)nnu.edu or call 208-467-8782.
For face-to-face or online Learning Opportunities regarding ANGEL, please visit the Angel Information page at www.nnu.edu/angel and RSVP via the above contact info.
Online Professional Development
Fully online training courses are available at no charge to NNU faculty, adjuncts and support personnel. Or, participants may take a course for credit, with a fee.
Angel Learning Management Suite Basics
This course focuses on the mechanics of building a course using the Angel system.
Audience:
- Those who are new to creating a course in Angel
- Those who wish to get a more in-depth look at Angel than what would be possible via a stand-alone workshop
Topics:
- Navigating in the Angel interface
- Editing personal settings
- Creating and managing resources, content and communication tools
- Managing student activity
- Creating and managing assessments
Length and schedule:
- Self-paced; overview plus 5 modules with hands-on activities and checkpoint assessments
Upcoming course dates:
- October 19-December 11, 2009
For more information, contact Crystal Nielsen, M.A., Instructional Technologist for E-Learning (cdnielsen(at)nnu.edu or 208-467-8782).
Online Course Design & Development
This course focuses on designing and developing an online course.
Audience:
- Those who must convert a traditional course to online
- Those who must develop a brand new course going online
Topics:
- The foundations for teaching and learning online
- An introduction to instructional design
- Creating multimedia instruction
- Creating community online
- Assessment and evaluation
Length and schedule:
- Seven weeks, offered quarterly
Upcoming course dates:
- October 19 start
For more information, contact Dr. Christine Bauer, E-Learning Director (CHBauer(at)nnu.edu or 208-467-8240).
Online Teaching
This course focuses on best practices in teaching online or hybrid courses.
Audience:
- Those who plan to teach online
- Those who wish to deepen their knowledge and skills in teaching online
Topics:
- Creating rubrics to guide learners and aid assessment
- Using accountability tools such as Automation and Milestones
- Managing content visibility through date/time restrictions, availability and Automation
- Using and managing live collaboration tools such as Adobe Connect or Angel's Live Chat
- Creating effective tests and matching learning objectives
- Providing feedback through various means, such as within a test, through Comments, and via the Automation tool
Length and Schedule:
- Three weeks, offered quarterly
Upcoming course dates:
- TBA
For more information, contact Dr. Christine Bauer, E-Learning Director (CHBauer(at)nnu.edu or 208-467-8240).
References
Instructor Manual: Downloadable version (PDF, 1.5 MB)
Instructor Manual: Online, searchable version
