Technology & Instruction for UNEX

The UCR Extension Blackboard tutorials have a new home on the UCR Extension server. You can find them here: Student tutorial: http://www.extension.ucr.edu/online/tutorials/student_blackboard/ Instructor tutorial: http://www.extension.ucr.edu/online/tutorials/instructor_blackboard/

I've posted version 1 of the Blackboard tutorials for instructors. It covers most of the key points of Blackboard using short screencasts. It also includes links to PDF handouts that I've created for UCR Extension instructors as well as to the Blackboard 2 page handouts for instructors. There are a few missing pieces, but I hope to have those filled in by the end of this week. You can find the tutorials here: breilly.net/tutorials/instructor_blackboard The student version is here: breilly.net/tutorials/Student_Blackboard

I am running the Blackboard tutorial for UNEX students from a server that's not operated by UCR, something I hope will change soon. The Blackboard tutorial is now located here . I will relocate the handouts listed on this blog later this week.

If you want to manage the backup and reloading of your Blackboard course yourself, you should use the Export Course or Archive Course options, along with Import Course when you are ready to reload. Export gives you a choice of which course areas you want to save while Archive makes a copy of everything, including student records. Student records are not available with Export. Here's a short step by step set of instructions on how to use Export Course and Archive Course [PDF] .

You can add a YouTube video to your Blackboard course by including the URL of the video in a link, but a slightly more elegant way is to add the Embed code from YouTube to any course content. That way, you can include a video in an assignment or other item and it will stream from the YouTube (or other) website. The same technique works with TeacherTube also. Here are the step by step instructions [PDF] .

The new podcast features in Blackboard 7.3 are actually part of the Podcast Learning Object from LearningObjects.com . This learning object makes it possible to easily add podcasts to your course and syndicate them to your students using an RSS feed. In English, this means your students can subscribe to the podcasts you make available, whether you create them yourself or download them from someone else. This way, students will be automatically updated with the latest podcast in your course and they can listen/watch them on an iPod, Zune(!), or a computer. Here's a 4 page overview of the podcast tools [PDF]. You may also find these resources useful: A tutorial from Dave Taylor on subscribing to podcasts in iTunes. Create your own Podcast (CNET). Kirk's Eight Rules of Effective Podcasting .

An early warning system sounds like a great thing for earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis, but it's also useful for instructors in online courses. When students don't set aside time to do their online work, they can quickly fall behind and may end up dropping a course. Blackboard 7.3 has a new feature, the Early Warning System, which can be used to keep tabs on student performance which may be a sign of potential problems. Rules can be created based on test scores, late work or course activity, and it's easy to monitor student progress and send warnings via email. A summary of the features of the Early Warning System in Blackboard is here [PDF].

With the recent update to Blackboard, it's a good idea to test your computer system for compatibility with Blackboard. Saginaw State University has a nice page which will run through a number of tests and give you an easy to read report on your setup. Check it out at their Blackboard Browser Test page .

The Discussion Board is one of the areas that changed quite a bit with the update to Blackboard 7.3, although many of the changes are just restoring functionality that was available in previous version of Blackboard. Here's a 2 page summary of some of the changes [PDF].

One of the add-ons that showed up with the update to Blackboard 7.3 over the weekend is a podcasting learning object. It doesn't help you create a podcast from what I could see, but it does allow you to upload one and distribute it. The uploading part takes place in a course content area using the learning unit menu. In the Control Panel under Course Tools you will find the Manage Podcast option. I'll be adding a tutorial on how to use podcasts in Blackboard later this week.

Software updates give and software updates take away. I know I heard lots of complaints about lost functionality in the Discussion Board feature with the 7.0/7.1 update. You wonder why some of the features were removed...Well, some are returning with the 7.3 update. Here are some key changes: Restoring the capability in release 7.1, the Instructor can again view the Course Discussions in a Tree View, in which the post titles to a particular thread are visible. The use must select the Tree View icon located on the right side of the Course Discussions page. Selecting a post from the Course Discussions page will navigate the user to the Thread Detail page and will display the post as well. On the action toolbar, there are new icons. Mark as Read and Mark as Unread allow the Instructor to classify which forums have been read or not. The Search area has been rolled up into a graphic icon of a magnifying glass. Selecting this icon will drop down the search area. Within the Search tool, it i...

There is online help available for UCR Extension students who are using Blackboard , but not all of them may be aware of it. An easy way to make sure students can find the help is to add a button to the course menu which is a link to the Getting Started with Blackboard page. I've put together step by step instructions which go through how to add the button [ PDF ].

There are now a couple of troubleshooting guides for Blackboard in the Online Study area of the UC Riverside Extension web site. You can check out the instructor troubleshooting guide and another one for students . These were originally created for Extension staff who field questions from instructors and students about Blackboard, but now they are online for everyone to use. Maybe these guides will help address some of the questions which tend to come up at the start of every quarter. If you are an instructor who is using Blackboard, you may want to point your students to these guides through a course announcement. Coming soon: Introduction to Blackboard self-paced courses for instructors and students