Blackboard Updates

Blackboard Roster Course Availability

Bb Logo.jpgIn an effort to be consistent, the E-Learning Team has established a date of three weeks after the end of a traditional semester (fall, spring, and summer) to make unavailable to students (not instructors) all previous term roster courses.  The timing was chosen so that previous semesters will be unavailable before the next semester starts.  This will save most of you from having to go back in and make your courses unavailable and will decrease frustration for students (when they see “old” courses).  Because Blackboard uses course ID numbers, there are a handful of courses that do not fit into the “standard” semester timeframe or that have students with incompletes that will need to be made available again.  We will still send out a reminder e-mail prior to changing the availability with details about which course IDs will be affected and instructions for making them available again.

Gradebook

We are currently working with Blackboard to explore the impact of moving up to version 8 (we have 7.3 right now).  The new version offers a “Grade Center” in place of “Gradebook”.  Grade Center contains many promising new features like name fields that lock as you scroll and printable reports.  The most encouraging feature allows instructors to change grades or add comments right on the main screen.  This method should be much faster than our current system as the screen does not need to fully refresh with each submission and you will not have to scroll back to the right again to locate the assignment/test you are grading.  We have much testing to complete before we would upgrade, but please know that we are working to try to speed up the grading process for you.

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Chippewa Valley Technical College
620 W. Clairemont Ave. Eau Claire, WI 54701 USA
Questions/Comments on this documentation email: Jodi Stevens