Get Ready for Spring

Course Copy must include Course Settings to prevent Task Error
To avoid the dreaded big red "Task Error" message on the welcome page, be sure to put a check mark next to Course Settings when doing a course copy.  The easiest way to do a course copy is to just check everything except Adaptive Release Rules for Content.

My Grades or External Link cannot be course entry point
Since instructors don't have access to My Grades and an external link will take you right out of Blackboard, be sure to avoid setting either of these links on your course menu as the course entry point.

• Control Panel > Customization > Style > Step 4. Select Course Entry Point

SafeAssign needs to be enabled
Not everyone will need to do this, but it's worth taking a few moments to make sure this is set correctly

• Control Panel > Customization > Tool Availability
• Scroll down and make sure that both SafeAssign and SafeAssignment are checked, then click Submit

Use dates for announcements
When you create an announcement, you have the option to set the announcement duration to Permanent or Date Restricted. If you choosePermanent, your announcement will not show up in the My Announcements section on the Welcome page. To make sure it shows up there, you need to choose Date Restricted and assign both a Display After and Display Until date.

Check email Addresses
You can find out who doesn't have an email address in Blackboard by looking at the user list for your course and scanning down the list to see who has update.email@WebAdvisor listed as their email address.  In fact, this may be you!  Here are the steps to do this:

• Control Panel > Users and Groups > Users
• Use the dropdowns to select Search : Email Contains webadvisor, then click Go

All email addresses in Blackboard come from WebAdvisor each day, so setting the email address in Blackboard will just be overwritten the next day. You'll probably have to call your students to give them the instructions on how to update their email address in WebAdvisor.  Here are some instructions you can refer to: http://www.gcccd.edu/online/tutorials/bb/change-your-email-address.pdf

Add another Instructor or TA to your Courses
To add a TA to your course:

1. From the Blackboard login page, click on the Faculty Support link.
2. Log in with your email username and password.
3. Choose Blackboard Course Containers on the left menu.
4. Click on the ADD a user to a Blackboard container link
5. Fill out the form

This will submit your request to Information Systems and they will take care of your request as soon as they can.