Register Now for @ONE Online Courses

@ONE has published their Fall schedule of courses for faculty. Most of them don't start until you've had a chance to settle into the semester, but it's important to sign up now to make sure you reserve your seat.

Here are some classes that you may need to get certified for teaching online:

• Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning
• Introduction to Teaching with Blackboard 9
  (Bb 9 is the new version we may be going to in Spring)
  
• Creating Accessible Online Courses

Optional professional development credit is available from Fresno Pacific University too!

Also, check out their 1-hour Learn at Lunch Desktop Webinars. There will be a webinar on Blackboard version 9 for those already familiar with Bb 8.

Make Old Blackboard Courses Unavailable

This is a reminder that it is important to make your Spring '09 and Summer '09 Blackboard course containers unavailable to students. We've had several calls to the help desk from students that are very confused when they see courses in Blackboard that they're not taking this semester.

To do this:

1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Choose Settings
3. Choose Course Availability
4. Make Course Available: No
5. Submit
   

Start YouTube Videos at a Specific Time in the Movie

I know many of you use YouTube videos in your courses. When playing videos in class or having students view a video online, rather than having it start at the beginning, you may want to have the video start later in the movie. To have a YouTube video start at a specific time in a video follow these steps.

1. Edit the URL you already have for the video.
   
2. Go to the end of the URL and add the time code for the specific time in the video you'd like the viewer to start watching.
   
   For example, if you'd like the viewer to start watching the video at four minutes and fifty-five seconds into the video, you'd add the following time code to the end of the URL: #t=4m55s . The URL with the Deep Link should appear this way:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLzoikMTaOA#t=04m55s
   

Speaking of YouTube videos for your students, below is one I hope every one of our students sees. If you can find a way to fit it into your curriculum, please do. It very graphically illustrates the dangers of using a phone while driving. Click the image below to play it or view it at http://vodpod.com/watch/2063868-cow-taster-001?pod=godiskatt .

Bb Email Address and Login Instruction Resources

I just want to remind you to tell your students that all email addresses in Blackboard come from the email address they have in WebAdvisor. Here is a website you can link to with instructions that show your students how to make sure they have the correct email address listed in WebAdvisor: http://www.cuyamaca.edu/tlc/bb/docs/webadvisor-email.asp.

You may want to double-check to make sure your email address is listed correctly in WebAdvisor too!

Another website you can link to for your students has login instructions:
http://www.cuyamaca.edu/tlc/bb/docs/blackboard_login.asp

SharePoint Designer is now FREE!

SharePoint Designer is the new program that replaces MS FrontPage at our college. It is used to edit web pages.

For those of you that want to use SharePoint Designer on your home computer, Microsoft has decided to give you the program for free. Just go to http://tinyurl.com/cz22uy and download it.

If you don't have SharePoint Designer on your campus computer, please do not install it yourself. Call the Help Desk at 660-4395 and ask to have it installed.

Assignment Upload Error

When using Firefox 3.5 or Chrome browsers, you or your students may get an error message that says "Please enter a valid file." This only occurs when uploading files in the assignments tool . It does not effect the SafeAssignment tool. The way to get around this error is to use IE 7 or older versions of Firefox to upload assignment files.

This has been reported to Blackboard and we're hoping for a fix soon. This is another reminder that, as fast as browsers are changing these days, it's a good idea to tell students that if they have a problem with Blackboard, to try using a different browser. Blackboard has a list of supported browsers that you can refer them to.

Course Copy Redux

Blackboard tells us that the problem with Course Copy was caused when the Grade Center had more than one Total column in it. So before copying your course, please make sure to remove any extra Total columns that are in your containers. You won't be able to remove the Total column with the green check mark, so remove any others as needed.

If you have problems with Course Copy, you can always recycle the destination container and try again with Export/Import Course.

Hide Courses in Blackboard Video

You may find that there are courses showing on your Blackboard "Welcome Page" that you don't need this semester. Blackboard provides a way to hide or show only the courses you want. I've created a video that shows you how to do this.