Help Blackboard Prioritize & Design New Features

Blackboard offers the Product Development Patnership (PDP) which gives Blackboard users the chance to help Blackboard prioritize and design new features. The PDP program is one of the most effective ways to directly impact Blackboard Learn products.

If you are interested in participating, please register for the PDP by Friday, September 6th

To sign up for the PDP go to bbbb.blackboard.com/PDP2013

The Fall 2013 PDP program will focus on the following:

• Grading workflows
• Attendance
• Personalized Learning 
• Portfolio 
• Responsive Design 
• Grade Exchange 

Who's invited? Faculty, Instructional Designers, System Administrators.

What's the time commitment? Approximately 1.5 hours per month from October - February

SAVE THE DATE: The 2013 PDP program will kick off on Wednesday, October 2nd at 1:00PM ET. If you are interested in participating, please block this time on your calendar.

 PDP FAQ

What is a PDP?
A PDP is short for Product Development Partnership and is a formal program which is designed to engage participants during the actual design and development process of a possible new feature. Participants are given the opportunity to help prioritize use cases and review early prototypes.

How long is a PDP?
The 2013 PDP program will begin in October and run through February.

What is my commitment if I participate?
PDP’s are a very hands on way to influence the product direction. The PDP will meet on the first Wednesday of every month for a live one-hour session. We will also communicate 5-10 ad-hoc opportunities per month that you may be eligible to participate in based on your role, experience or background. These opportunities could include formal usability tests, focus groups, interviews, etc where you will partner directly with Blackboard Product Designers.

Additional Questions?
Email BIE@blackboard.com

Synchronize SafeAssign

If you're using Blackboard SafeAssignments, it's a good idea to synchronize SafeAssign each semester before assignments are due just to make sure students won't have any problems submitting their assignments.

You can do this by going to:
Control Panel > Course Tools > SafeAssign > SafeAssignments.

In the upper right you'll see the button for "Synchronize this course." Just click that button and your course will be fully synchronized with the Blackboard SafeAssign server.

Blackboard is Coming to San Diego

Blackboard representatives will be at Southwestern College on Friday, October 11, from 8am to 4pm.

You'll get the chance to:

• Connect with other Blackboard users in your area
• Learn about the latest in new faculty-focused features in Blackboard
• Ask questions or share feedback with Blackboard product experts
• Meet with Blackboard Partners
• Join your regional Blackboard User Group (CaliBUG)

Find out more and register at http://goo.gl/QoK4t9. 

Interested in presenting at the upcoming San Diego event? They're looking for a few good speakers!
Submit Abstract

Apps for Education

Here are two extensive collections of apps and web tools that are useful to educators.

Teaching Apps provides a list of the top eleven mobile applications for education.

464 Digital Learning Tools To Sift Through On A Rainy Day has many unique apps that you may not have run across anywhere else.

Help Your Students Login to Blackboard

Some of your students may have trouble getting logged into Blackboard. You have the ability to check to see what username they should be using and you can change their password if needed. Chris Rodgers, my counterpart at Grossmont College, created a video that shows how to do this that you can find on the Online Success website under "Verifying Usernames & Changing Passwords."

Submit a Blackboard Assignment Video

There is a new video for how to submit an assignment in Blackboard that you can link to for your students to view at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/student/blackboard/how-to-submit-a-blackboard-assignment.html. If you linked to this video previously, it is now at a different URL, so please update your courses.

Most of the Blackboard tutorials for students on the Online Success website at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/student/step-4-blackboard.html  have been updated for the new version of Blackboard. Please share these with your students. Only the submit assignment video needs an updated URL, so if you already have links to the other tutorials, they should be okay.

Introduction Video: Why Your Online Course Needs One

I just read an excellent article on why you should create an introduction video for your online course that I wanted to share that with you. You can read it at http://facultyecommons.org/introduction-video/.

The article includes links to a few tools to help make these videos, but all you really need is a webcam. You can watch an introduction video created by our new Spanish instructor for Cuyamaca College's first online Spanish course at http://youtu.be/wCCW33mO32o. Donna Marques recorded this video using her laptop webcam and the new "Record from  Webcam" tool that is now included in every content editor in Blackboard.

You can edit YouTube's automatically generated captions by following the instructions at https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734705.

Flex Week Workshops

You might be interested in attending some of the workshops listed below during Flex Week. All workshops shown here are in room E-206.

There are two workshops of particular interest to online teachers on Tuesday -- "Are you a Distance Educator or Correspondence Educator?" and  "Great Practices in Online Teaching and Lunch Discussion."

You can learn how to capture video recordings of what's on your computer monitor (such as a PowerPoint or even input from a tablet) along with your voice as you lecture in the classroom so that students can review the material after class. This workshop is on Wednesday at 3pm.

Find out more about these workshops at http://www.cuyamaca.edu/professionaldev/schedule.asp.

	Monday
		6:00 pm to 7:30pm	What’s New in Blackboard?
	Tuesday
		10:00 am to 11:00 am	Are you a Distance Educator or Correspondence Educator?
		11:00 am to 1:00 pm	Great Practices in Online Teaching and Lunch Discussion
		2:30 pm to 4:00 pm	Accessibility
		5:30 pm to 7:00 pm	Blackboard I: Getting Started
		7:00 pm to 8:00 pm	Blackboard II: Course Menu and Adding Items
	Wednesday
		1:00 pm to 2:30 pm	What’s New in Blackboard?
		3:00 pm to 4:30 pm	Capture It Live!
		5:30 pm to 7:00 pm	Blackboard III: Grade Center
		7:00 pm to 8:00 pm	Blackboard IV: Tests and Quizzes
		8:00 pm to 8:30 pm	Use Blackboard to Assess SLOs
	Thursday
		4:00 pm to 5:00 pm	Blackboard V: Assignments and SafeAssignments
	Friday
		11:30 am to 12:30 pm	Open Lab