Search for Closed Captioned Videos

You can find videos that are closed captioned by using the Google Advanced Search page. Captions make videos accessible to those who are hard of hearing. Captions also help students whose native language isn't English, since they may find it easier to understand written English than spoken English. Videos used in online courses that are required to pass the course must be captioned. Google has made it easier to find captioned videos using Advanced Search.

To access this, just begin your search as you normally would at google.com.

On the results page, click Videos.

Next click "Advanced Search"

On the Advanced Search page, you can select to show only videos that are closed captioned, have the duration you're looking for,  and a few other options.

 

My Workshops This Week

Professional Development workshops start today and if you're looking for something that may interest you, please come to one of these workshops about online teaching. No reservations required, just come on by!

Accessibility
Monday, August 15, 11:30am to 12:30pm
E-206

Getting Started with Blackboard
Monday, August 15, 2:30pm to 4:30pm
E-206

Whats New in Blackboard 9.1
Monday, August 15, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
E-206

What's New in Blackboard 9.1
Tuesday, August 16, 1:00pm to 3:00pm
E-206

Great practices in online teaching
Tuesday, August 16, 3:00pm to 5:00pm
E-206

Online Teaching Forum
Tuesday, August 16, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
E-205

Open Lab with Teaching and Learning Center Staff
Friday, August 19, 10:00am to 12:00pm
E-206

How to Hide the McGraw-Hill Icon in Tools

You may have clicked Tools on your menu in Blackboard and tried to hide the McGraw-Hill icon and instead of hiding it, Blackboard just gave you a blank white screen in response. This is a bug that can be fixed by following these steps:

1. Get back into your course either through the Welcome Tab or using the Back button
2. In the Control Panel expand Customization
3. Click Tool Availability
4. You don't need to change anything here, amazingly, just clicking on this link fixes this
5. Click on Tools in your menu and you'll see the McGraw-Hill icon is gone

Make Your Old Courses Unavailable Before Copying to New Courses

There's a quirk in the new version of Blackboard. When you do a course copy, Bb copies the course availability settings from your old course to the new course. If your old course is available to students, this would make your new course available before you're ready for students to view it.

 In a perfect world, you have already made all your old courses unavailable, but just in case you haven't, please do so before copying Bb containers for the upcoming semester. Instructions for making your courses unavailable can be found at
http://www.gcccd.edu/online/tutorials/bb/course-availability-9.pdf.

A word of caution. You may be tempted to avoid this problem by not copying course settings, but this is one of the most important areas to copy, so please make sure course settings is checked when you do a course copy.

MS Office 2010 Accessibility Checker

Please follow these directions to make your files accessible to those with disabilities before you do your final save in Microsoft Office 2010. This is just a reminder that making files accessible is not only a good thing to do, we are required to do so by law.

1. Click the File tab.
   
2. Click Info.
   
3. Under Prepare for Sharing, an alert will appear if the Accessibility Checker has found any problems.
   
   
4. If there is an alert, click the Check for Issues button, then click Check Accessibility.
   
   
   
5. 
   You are returned to your file where the Accessibility Checker task pane is open, showing the inspection results.
   
6. Click on a specific issue to see Additional Information and steps you can take to fix or revise the content.
   
   Note:   If the content in the additional information pane in the bottom of the Accessibility Checker is hard to scroll because you can't use the mouse, press F6 to focus on the task pane, tab until the focus is in that area, and then try to scroll with the keyboard.

Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) on “Online Learning Today...and Tomorrow.”

The Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois Springfield is hosting a Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) that already has over 2,500 participants registered. This course started June 27th, but there's still time to register and take advantage of the chance to learn, connect, and collaborate with thousands of others around the world that are interested in Online Learning.

There are no grades, certificates, or requirements for this course. You can concentrate on the areas that interest you or take in the entire experience. There will be a weekly webcast on Thursday mornings at 11am Pacific time. This webcast will be recorded, so you can watch it at your convenience. The course runs until August 19th.

Here are the weekly webcast topics:

6/27/2011	Online Learning Today
7/4/2011	Online Learning Research
7/11/2011	Online Learning Technologies
7/18/2011	Online Learning Apps and Mobile Learning
7/25/2011	Public, Private & Open - Learning
8/1/2011	Personal Learning - Informal Learning
8/8/2011	Collaboratives & Collectives in the Clouds
8/15/2011	Online Learning 2011-2021

You can register for this MOOC on the right sidebar about 1/3 of the way down the page at https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/home.

100 Essential Tips for Microsoft Office 2010

PCMAG.com has put together "100 tips for using Microsoft Office 2010." A lot of time that can be saved by using these tips, most of which I'd never known about before. You can view them at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387115,00.asp.

Online Teaching Conference 2011

There is still time to register for the online sessions of the Online Teaching Conference. The conference is being held this Thursday and Friday at Orange Coast College, but many of the sessions will be viewable over the web. Online attendance is FREE, so register now at http://otc11.org/ and watch from the comfort of your home.

Grading Students Anonymously

Another new feature in Blackboard 9.1 is the ability to grade anonymously. This tool helps eliminate bias when grading assignments and test questions that are not automatically graded. Watch the Anonymous Grading video at http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_grade_center_anonymous_grading.htm to find out how.

Bb 9.1 Workshop Links

We had a great workshop today. I was thrilled to see so many faculty attending either online or in person. You are a dedicated bunch of teachers!

I promised to post a couple of links that I mentioned in the workshop today to this blog so they would be handy for everyone.

First is the "Understanding the Change from Blackboard Learn 9.0 to 9.1 document. This is a "lite" version of the document that Blackboard gave us. I edited 63 pages down to the 21 pages that effect faculty. The rest is a bunch of geeky stuff that you won't miss.
http://www.cuyamaca.edu/rhonda.bauerlein/bb/Understanding_the_Change_in_Blackboard_9-1_Faculty.pdf

The next link is to the instructions on how to archive your courses. Archiving will give you a backup of your course in case anything goes wrong. You should archive your courses several times a semester. As I mentioned in the workshop, don't skip the last few steps where you save the file to your hard drive. If you don't take those last steps and your course is messed up, the archive won't do you any good since it is part of the course and will be ruined too.
http://www.gcccd.edu/online/tutorials/bb/archive-your-course.pdf

Since I'm on the subject of tutorials, take a look at the other tutorials Chris Rodgers (my counterpart at Grossmont) and I have created for you at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/faculty/. Some of them are appropriate for you to link to for your students to show them how to change their email address or submit an assignment.

If you missed the workshop today, you can view the archive at http://tinyurl.com/bb91workshop. The bad news is that I forgot to start recording until 40 minutes into the workshop. Sorry about that! At least you'll get to see the last 80 minutes of the workshop.

Blackboard 9.1 Workshop on Wednesday

On Saturday we upgraded Blackboard to version 9.1. To help you transition to this new version I'm offering a workshop covering the new features in 9.1 this Wednesday, June 8th from 10 am - Noon.

For your convenience, you can attend either in person or online.   Those that want to attend in person will meet in room C-223 (upstairs in the Library).  You don't need to RSVP, I think we'll have plenty of computers available for everyone who wants to attend.

The workshop will be simultaneously offered online through CCC Confer.  To attend online follow these instructions:

Ø  Dial your telephone conference line: (888) 886-3951

Ø  Enter your passcode: 416491

Ø  Go to www.cccconfer.org.

Ø  Click the Student Log In button under the Teach & Confer logo.

Ø  Locate the “What's New in Blackboard 9.1” meeting and click Go.

Ø  Fill out the form and enter the password: 416491

STUDENT TELEPHONE CONFERENCE FEATURES:
*0 - Contact the operator for assistance with the audio.
*6 - Mute/unmute your individual line with a private announcement.

QUESTIONS?
CCC Confer Client Services is available Monday through Friday between 8:00 am - 4:00 pm at 760-744-1150 ext 1537 or 1554 or email clientservices@cccconfer.org.

To make the most out of this workshop, please log into Blackboard and take a good look around version 9.1. Write down any questions you have and bring them with you to the workshop. 

New Online Course for Blackboard 9.1 Available

The "Teaching with Blackboard" online course has been updated to reflect the changes for version 9.1. This course is a self-paced course that you can take at any time, or just use it as a reference to look up how to do specific things. If you're fairly new to using Blackboard, this is the best way to learn how to use it.

You can sign up for this course at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/tutorials/bb/twbb.asp.

New in Bb 9.1 - Rubrics

Blackboard 9.1 includes a brand new Rubrics tool. The Rubrics tool allows instructors to associate rubrics with any column in the Grade Center. Rubrics can be viewed from the Grade Center during the grading process. Blackboard created a video to show you how to use the Rubric tool that can be viewed at http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_grade_center_creating_a_rubric.htm.

At this point in time, Blackboard rubrics cannot be viewed by students, however that will change in future versions. Until that new version comes out, you can create a screenshot of the rubric and add it to your course content.

Also in future versions, rubrics will become more integrated with grading; allowing you to grade directly from a rubric. For now, it's only a pop-up that you can view while you're grading. This tool may not offer the full functionality you need yet, but depending on your situation, you may find it useful now.

You can find more information about what rubrics are and how to use rubrics in your courses at http://www.squidoo.com/TeachCollege2.

New in Bb 9.1 - Needs Grading

Today I'm going to switch gears a bit and show you a brand new feature you're going to love about Blackboard 9.1.

The Control Panel has a new top level item for the Grade Center. When you click to expand this, you have two options: Needs Grading and Full Grade Center.

After you click on Needs Grading, you'll see the Needs Grading page.
(Click the image to see it larger)

Here you see all items that need to be graded. You have the option to filter these items to only show certain categories, certain assignments, certain students, or select certain dates. By clicking on the column headers, you can sort items to the order that works best for you.

If you click the Grade All button, you will be shown the first item that needs to be graded. Just grade the item like you always have, then click the Save and Next button. You will then be shown the next item that needs to be graded. The screen will look just like this one, except it will be for the next student's work. No more going through 3 or 4 clicks to grade each assignment!

I hope you enjoy this new tool to make grading easier.

Microsoft Office Web Apps

Microsoft Office Web Apps allow you to store your files on the internet and access them from anywhere. You can use Office Web Apps to collaborate on documents online. More than one person can edit a file at the same time. You can use the Office Web Apps with just about any version of Office, or directly from your browser. Best of all, you get 25 GB of space for free!

Start by watching this video that shows what you can do with it:
http://youtu.be/BJ3PFZBa1BM

First, you sign up for a Windows Live ID. If you already have a Hotmail or Live account that you want to use, you can skip this step and just log in with that ID. Once you have a Live account, you have access to your online storage area called SkyDrive.

To explore more features of Microsoft Office Web Apps check out these links.

• Overview - office.microsoft.com/WebAppsThinks
• Share Office documents in SkyDrive
• Embed a PowerPoint document on a web page
• Embed an Excel spreadsheet on a web page

New in Blackboard 9.1 - Build Content Menus

Today I'll continue my post from Tuesday about the new menus in Blackboard version 9.1. To refresh your memory, here is the new Build Content menu.

File

I covered Item last time, so let's move on to File. As I wrote in an earlier post, Bb 9.1 has an entirely new file system and the file link in this menu is how you would add a link to a file in your course. The video titled "Course Files"  gives an overview of this file sytem, and these Hands-on exercises will show you step-by-step how to use Course files, upload a file to Course Files, and make a link to a file using the file option of the Build Content menu.

Audio

Below is an image of the audio dialog. This option is used to create a link to an audio file that is uploaded into Blackboard. We suggest you use this only for short audio files, say 5 minutes or less. The reason is that large files put too much burden on the Blackboard system and slow it down for everyone. If you have larger files, please save the file to your website file area or iTunes U and link to it using the URL option in the Build Content drop-down. For more information on how to do this, please email me. 

Audio Dialog window:

In step 2 of this audio dialog, please say no to Autostart and Loop in order to meet accessibility guidelines mandated by law. If the audio file you are uploading or linking to is required for your students to succeed in your course, you must also provide a transcript of the audio in step 1.

Image

The Image dialog is pretty straightforward. There is a new option under the Browse Mashups button to load images from Flickr. When adding images, make sure to type a short description of the image in the Alt Text area. This is another accessibility feature that we are mandated to comply with. Use the Long Description if a short description in the Alt Text is not adequate to communicate the meaning of the image. Long Description is not required, only Alt Text is required.

I'll continue covering this Build Content menu in my next post.

New in Blackboard 9.1 - Action Bar Menus

One of the biggest changes in version 9.1 is the Action Bar for Content Areas, Folders and Learning Modules. In Blackboard 9.0 this Action Bar looks like this:

In Blackboard 9.1 it looks like this:

All the tools you've used in the past can be found in these drop-downs, however it may take you a while to get used to looking for them in a different place. Let's take a look at what's in the Build Content drop-down.

As you can see, there are a lot more options than there were in version 9.0. The first option under Build Content > Create is Item. This is the same as the old Create Item button on the old Action Bar, so the only new thing to learn here is where to look for it. An Item is "a general piece of content, such as a file, image, text, or link to which a description and other items may be attached."

Blackboard's Online Help for instructors has detailed information for each of the items on this drop-down. If you'd like to experiment with these new features, you can access our Blackboard 9.1 Test Server at https://gcccdtest.blackboard.com/. If you're having trouble logging in, just send me an email and I'll help you out.

For the next several days, I'll cover what each of these options are and how you can use them.

Use Outlook 2010 to Schedule Meetings

Lynda.com created a short video showing how to use Microsoft Outlook 2010 to find times that work best in your group for meetings.

You can watch this free, 2 minute video at:
http://blog.lynda.com/2011/04/11/outlook-20072010-shortcut-keeping-track-of-schedules/.

Contact me if you are interested in watching other Lynda.com videos on how to use Microsoft Office 2010.

New in Blackboard 9.1 - Course Files

Paraphrased from the Blackboard 9.1 manual:

Course files provides file storage on the Blackboard server for a single course. Course Files within each course displays content for that specific course, not for other courses taught by an instructor. Instructors can create folders and subfolders in Course Files to organize their content in a way that is logical to them. Once content is in Course Files, you can link it to any place in your course where attaching files is available. 

Watch this short video to find out more about Course Files.

SafeAssign is Fixed

Blackboard notified us today that they have fixed the problem with SafeAssign that began last month. However, it is important that you synchronize your course with SafeAssign to make sure it will all work. Here are the steps to do that.

1. In the Control Panel, click Course Tools to expand that section
2. Click on SafeAssign
3. Click Synchronize this course

Students who previously submitted SafeAssignments will probably still see an error message when they try to view them. However, as the instructor, you will be able to grade these from within the Grade Center, which is great news. SafeAssignments submitted after you synchronize your course should not show an error when students try to access the assignment after submitting it.