Problems submitting assignments in Blackboard

A problem has surfaced with submitting regular assignments (not SafeAssignments) in Blackboard. When clicking on an assignment, a student may be bumped out of their course and taken to the Welcome tab in Blackboard. This doesn't always happen, but at this point we know it only happens in the Firefox and IE browsers, but many people using these browsers will not have this problem. Any number of factors may be affecting this issue, but some of the variables are the browser version, the Java version, and if there are any add-ons installed in the browser. So far we haven't determined the exact combination of factors that will cause this error to occur.

The temporary solution is to have students use the Chrome browser to submit assignments. This issue has been reported to Blackboard, and I’ll let you know any further developments on this.

Update: This issue has been fixed. Blackboard runs on several servers, and apparently one of them was goofing off. We had Blackboard reboot this wayward server and assignments can be submitted with any browser now.

Filenames in Blackboard

There are two known issues in Blackboard that result from improperly naming files.

1. Submitting a file with an apostrophe in the name will prevent Assignment Inline Grading from rendering the file on the first load
2. Error submitting an assignment file with a name that is more than 126 characters long and contains spaces

The Online Success website has been updated to better address these issues at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/student/blackboard/bb-filename-conventions.html. Please give students this link so they have this information handy when they're ready to turn in assignments.

What's New in Blackboard SP11 Workshop

Today, Friday, May 24th, from 10 am to 11:30 am, in room E-210, I am offering a workshop covering what's new in Blackboard SP11. I hope to see you there!

There's another blog post about the new discussion board features below this post, so please keep reading.

New Discussion Board Features in Blackboard

The discussion boards in Blackboard have been revamped for SP11 (the new version we're upgrading to on June 7 & 8).

Post-First Discussion Forums

The most useful of new feature in the discussion board is that now you can force students to post their own thread before they can read other student's threads. This is useful if you want students to post original responses without being influenced by what others in the class are posting.

You can make this setting when creating or editing a forum by clicking "Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum."

When a student goes to a forum that has this setting, they will see this:

After they click the "Create Thread" button they will see this:

One of the best things they've done is add the forum description to the create thread page, so it's clear to students what you want them to do while they're writing their post. 

Thread Displays

The way threads display is completely changed in the new version. All posts in a thread are visible on the same page. Instructor posts are easy to spot because they've added a little lavender "INSTRUCTOR" sign next to the instructor name in this view. Everyone can now see the student avatars next to each post. Posts can be collapsed and expanded as needed to view this page.

Avatars

You can encourage your students to add their picture to Blackboard by following these steps.

1. Click the global navigation menu (your name in the upper right corner of the page)
2. Click Settings
3. Click Personal Information
4. Click Personalize My Settings
5. Click the Browse My Computer button to look for a picture on your computer that is 150 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall. If you need to crop or resize a picture to get one this size, try http://www.picmonkey.com/ before taking this step.
6. While you're on this page, you might as well fill out part 2 to show only courses visited in the last 150 days or whatever span of time works best for you.
7. Click Submit

Learn more about the Blackboard discussion board updates at https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Student/040_Tools/Discussion_Board_Updates

Or watch this video at http://youtu.be/ObKS6_DB_nI

Inline Grading in Blackboard

Blackboard has added a new feature in the version we're upgrading to on June 7th called "Inline Grading." When assignments are turned in through Blackboard (sadly, this does not include SafeAssignments) you will be able to see the submitted paper without downloading the file.You can draw on the student's paper, highlight text, and comment on it, all from within Blackboard. Watch the video below to see how it works.

http://youtu.be/3X9Rerz0VX0





Supported document types that can be converted are Word (DOC, DOCX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX), Excel (XLS, XLSX), and PDF (PDF).

More detailed information is available at https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Instructor/070_Assignments/003_Grading_Assignments/Inline_Grading_For_Assignments.

New Calendar in Blackboard

The new calendar in Blackboard is everything you've wanted it to be for years! One of the most important features of the new calendar is that it links directly to due dates for test and assignments. Once a due date is set, you can change it by just dragging it in the calendar.

If you haven't been using due dates, now is the time to start using them!

Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTdGOMAZhQY&feature=share&list=PLontYaReEU1uivbr7MFnCcdSgLgELAkRP to see how the new calendar works.



 You can find complete documentation for the new calendar at https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Instructor/050_Course_Tools/Calendar.

New Content Editor in Blackboard SP11

One of the new features we'll see in the next version of Blackboard is a new content editor. This is where you type comments in discussion boards, create content for your course, and type announcements.

In addition to the normal features you would expect in a text editor, there is a new math editor and a feature called "Video Everywhere" which allows anyone with a webcam to embed video into the page.

You can login to the test server at http://gcccdtest.blackboard.com to try this out and watch the video below for more information.

Blackboard Learn Feature Overview: Content Editor 
http://youtu.be/ZmaYofCG9NA

Rubrics in Blackboard SP11

In our current version of Blackboard, you can create rubrics and associate them with assignments, but their usefulness ends there. Currently, you can't grade using these rubrics, and students can't view them. This all changes with SP11. In the new version, students are able to see the rubrics so they understand your grading criteria before they start an assignment, and you'll be able to grade and give feedback to students using interactive rubrics. Rubrics can be imported and exported for use across courses.

Rubrics Video Tutorials

To find out more about rubrics, watch these three videos and try them out on our test server.

• Creating a Grading Rubric
• Associating a Rubric with a Gradable Item
• Grading with Rubrics

Rubrics Resources

• "Authentic Assessment and Rubrics" from the University of Central Florida's Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning: http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/TeachingAndLearningResources/CourseDesign/Assessment/AssessmentToolsResources/rubrics.php
• Utah Education Network: http://www.uen.org/rubric/know.shtml
• A Rubric for Evaluating Student Blogs: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-rubric-for-evaluating-student-blogs/27196
• Rubistar - search through their database to get ideas: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
• NIU guide to rubrics: http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/guides/rubrics.pdf

Import Rubrics

Blackboard has gathered a few rubrics from the higher ed community that can be imported into Blackboard, then edited to meet your needs. These are available at http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Products/Blackboard-Learn/Features/Sharing-Rubrics.aspx.

Test Server For Blackboard SP11 Is Available

The Plan

We plan to upgrade to Blackboard 9.1 SP11 on June 7th and 8th, with the system hopefully coming up sometime early on Saturday, June 8th. See this previous blog post for more information on this upgrade. Your Blackboard containers will continue to be in the same state they were in before the upgrade after the upgrade is finished. That means the menu will be the same, and all the content you've added to your courses will be the same. So there's nothing really to worry about in that regard. The differences in SP11 mostly involves new functionality.

Test Server Log In

There will be some changes to the look and feel of Blackboard and many new features after the upgrade, so we have installed SP11 on our test server so you can to try it out at http://gcccdtest.blackboard.com. Log in using your usual Blackboard username. Your password will be your birth date unless you've changed it on the test server. As soon as you log in, be sure to change your password by clicking on Personal Information on the TEST Site tab. If you have trouble logging in, please send an email to Rhonda using your campus email account so I can be sure it's you.

Summer and Fall Semester Course Containers

Fall containers will be created on May 1st. It is best to continue to copy and modify your Summer and Fall semester courses on the live server just as you normally would. The test server can be used to experiment with new functionality, but it would be best to do course development on the live server and phase in use of new functionality over time once the live server is upgraded.

New version of Blackboard in June

It's a pleasure to announce that we will be upgrading Blackboard on June 7th and 8th to version 9.1 Service Pack 11 (SP11). We are currently on 9.1 Service Pack 5 (SP5). We haven't upgraded in two years, so this new version will give us some exciting new features. I have listed some of the major improvements below.

New Features:

• Interactive rubrics - grade by clicking directly in the rubric
• Needs grading tool enhancements - option to choose how many interactions will place the item in Needs Grading status
• Timed assessments enhancements - auto submit at time expiration, auto save answers
• New user interface - clean and more modern interface
• Automatic test re-grading - change an answer or throw out a question then Blackboard handles re-grading
• Redesigned discussion boards
• Force first - students have to post before being able to read other posts
• all messages for a forum on one page
• New calendar - vastly improved
• New content editor
• No extra steps to safely paste from Word
• video everywhere – record from your webcam to your YouTube account and embed
• It actually inserts a blank line when you press return
• Course Evaluations & Enterprise Survey Tool built in to core product
• Inline grader for assignments - no more downloading files
• Improved item analysis for assessments

We should have the new version installed on our test server sometime next week. You can also get access to the test server to try it out yourself. Just send me an email requesting access.

You can check out Blackboard's official information about this upgrade at http://go.blackboard.com/faculty. I'll provide in-depth articles about these new features throughout the rest of this semester. I will also give workshops. Stay tuned to this blog for more information and have your colleagues sign up if they haven't already done so.