Thanks for reading our blog and we encourage you to check out the Sakai Question of the Week at http://blogs.luc.edu/sakai-qow/ as Loyola moves from the Blackboard Course Management System to the Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment.

Questions about Sakai? Email sakai@luc.edu.

A. Student access to courses is normally scheduled to take place just after the last date for undergraduate students to complete their “incomplete” courses – in this case, that date is Tuesday, Feb 26th.

But you can remove old courses from your view whenever you like; you can find instructions for that at Removing Old Courses from View.

A. The best way to post audio files so they can be streamed is to upload them to Ignation https://webapps.luc.edu/ignation/index.cfm .  Login in the upper right corner and then choose Upload a Video under My Tools.  After about 24 hours, you will receive a link  that you can post in Blackboard.

 A. It is not possible for a student to delete an assignment that has already been submitted. You’ll need to contact your professor to request to have your first assignment attempt cleared.

A. You can use the Paste from Word Mashup tool in the text box editor to paste from Word into a wiki page and keep your formatting; here is a link to instructions: Paste from Word .

A. If your meeting and recording were created in Blackboard, any student who was enrolled and added to the meeting would see the link and the chevron. If you don’t add your students to the meeting when you create it, they will not see the meeting or the recording.  A solution for the future is to add your students to the meeting when you create it – then they can see the recording using the instructions you gave them.

For now, to allow your students to see the recording you have already done, you can make it public and then post a link to it in your Blackboard course.

1. Log into Connect.luc.edu.
2. Click on Meetings in the toolbar at the top of the page.
3. Click on the meeting whose recording you want to make public.
4. Click on the Recordings link in the toolbar just above the red bar.
5. Click in the box to the left of the recording you want to make public and select the Make Public button just above the red bar.
6. To get the link for your students, click on the name of the recording and copy the “URL for Viewing.”
7. Paste that URL into your Blackboard course.

A. There are two ways to comment on Turnitin Assignment submissions: Grademark in Turnitin and Grade Details in the Grade Center. In order for your students to view any comments you posted using GradeMark, students will need to go to the Turnitin Assignment, choose “View/Complete Assignment,” then select the View button.  You will be able to check which students accessed the graded paper by the names listed in the “Response” column in the Turnitin Assignments assignment inbox.

For students to see any comments you posted using Grade Details in the Grade Center, they should click on Tools in the course menu, then on My Grades and they will see your comments in the Comments column.

A. Videos in Blackboard may take a very long time to download, during which time you will see the Pause button. To speed up viewing of videos, instead of embedding, add a link to the video:

1. Go to the content area when you want to post the video.
2. Click the Build Content tab, then Create > URL.
3. Enter the name of the video and the URL.
4. Select Yes for Open in New Window.
5. Click Submit.

A. You can download your Grade Center to Excel and choose “User Information Only” as the information to download. That will download First Name, Last Name, and Username to Excel. Then, you could use an Excel function to add @luc.edu to the username, which gives you the email address. For a tutorial on downloading your Grade Center, please visit  Backing up Grades .

A. Please check your Groupwise email settings to see if you have selected plain text for viewing messages instead of html:

1. Open Groupwise.
2. Click on the little arrow to the left of Home at the top of the screen and select Tools > Options.
3. Double-click on Environment.
4. Click on the Views tab.
5. Look under Default Read view & Font at the bottom right. If “Plain Text” is selected, select “html” and click OK.

A. To confirm that your upload worked, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Grade Center in your course, find the column for the assignment, and click on the chevron in the cell for the student whose paper you want to confirm.
2. Click on View Grade Details.
3. Click on the View Attempt button in the lower right corner on the Grade Details page.
4. Scroll down to #3: Grade Current Attempt and look underneath the text box, at Attached files – you should see the commented file you attached for this student on this assignment.

Students can see their graded and commented papers either by going back to where the assignment is posted and clicking on it again to bring up the Review Submission History page, or by going to Tools > My Grades and clicking on the score for that assignment, which should be an active link if you have attached a document. Once a student is on the Review Submission page, s/he can view or download the document.

For instructions for students on how to submit and then review the grade for an assignment, please visit Submitting an Assignment .

A. Your professor is using the Track Changes Feature in Microsoft Word. If you have Word on your computer, you will need to download the paper to your computer and open it in Microsoft Word. Then, click on the Review tab, choose Show Markup and make sure there is a checkmark beside the options your professor is using.

A. Editing a meeting in Connect Central after it was created in Blackboard breaks the link between Blackboard and the Connect server. You will need to create a new meeting in Blackboard and do any editing of the meeting in Blackboard as well.

A. If you click on the chevron icon next to the folder you’ve created, you can select Adaptive Release.  In the Adaptive Release settings, under Membership, you have the option to add the usernames of those you would like to have access to the folder. This Blackboard video explains Adaptive Release rules:  Adaptive Release: Create Multiple Rules for a Content Item .

Or you could create groups and use the File Exchange area to make items available for specific groups.  Here is a link to a tutorial on creating groups:  Creating Student Groups .

A. You can “lock” discussion threads in Blackboard to allow students to see the posts, but not to allow any new posts. Follow these steps to lock a thread:

1. Open a Forum in the Discussion Board.
2. Select threads to lock (you can select all threads by checking the box to the left of “Date” in the header).
3. Choose “Lock” for the selected threads using the “Thread Actions” drop-down list. You can unlock the threads in the same way.

 A. If you are using the Assignment Tool to set up your assignments, you only need to enable the To Do module on your course’s homepage (you can read more about the Home Page at Customizing Course Home Page ) . Once you add a due date to your assignment, it should show up for students in the To Do module in the What’s Due box; they should see the number of assignments set up under one of the headings – Today, Tomorrow, This Week, or Future – depending on when it is due.  Students will see the dates assignments are due, however the instructor will not see the due dates in the What’s Due module.

A. Yes, you can batch download assignments; you can find instructions for batch downloading at Downloading Assignments .

A. Archive in Blackboard is not an option for instructors because it preserves all student records associated with a course.

You are correct to use Export for course content and to export your Grade center. Once you have saved your Grade Center Excel file, you can password-protect it, for security. For a free Microsoft Office tutorial on password-protecting your spreadsheet, visit Set a Password in an Excel Spreadsheet .

A. If you are using Internet Explorer and seeing a notice at the bottom of the screen that says “Only secure content is displayed” when you click on the audio link, click on “Show all content” at the bottom of the screen.

You will be sent back to the homepage of the course, but you can then go back to the content area where the item is posted and play the item.

This problem doesn’t happen in Firefox, so you could use Firefox as your browser when in Blackboard.

A. You can correct this quickly and easily yourself.

1. Log into Blackboard.
2. On the Login page under Tools, click on Personal Information.
3. Click on Edit Personal Information.
4. Change your name in the first section, under the “Personal Information” heading.
5. Click Submit.

A. To get one-on-one help with Blackboard, email blackboard@luc.edu and include your preferred dates and times (during regular working hours) for a session. If you have questions about particular areas of Blackboard, include those in your email.

For online Blackboard tutorials, visit our Faculty Blackboard Help Resources wepage.

A. You can set either a discussion forum or a discussion thread so that you and your students can “subscribe” to the forum or thread.

1. Click on the chevron menu beside the discussion forum.
2. Select Edit.
3. Scroll down to forum settings and select either Allow members to subscribe to threads or Allow members to subscribe to forum. The following setting determines whether the entire post will be included in the email or there will only be a link to the post.
4. When students click on the name of the forum, they will see a Subscribe button directly above any threads that are posted. If a student subscribes, he or she will be sent an email when there is a new post to the forum or to the thread.

A. Create a test and then take the test by clicking on the link to the test. What you see in the test will be exactly what your student sees.

You can submit the test and view your results  but your result won’t be recorded in the Grade Center.

A. You can give extra time to a group of students for an exam but you will have to create two groups of students: one group will contain the students who need extra time and the other will contain all the students who do not need extra time. You can find instructions for creating student groups at Creating Student Groups .

 After creating those two groups you have two options:

1. Use one test only and make the test with the standard time available to the group of students who do not need extra time for a set period of time using Adaptive Release (test only available to group 1 between date/time x and date/time y; once the time period for the “standard time” group has passed, edit the test time to allow for more time for the second group which will have an Adaptive Release rule as well (test only available to group 2 between date/time x and date/time y).

2. Create two tests – one for standard group and one for non-standard group. Use Adaptive Release rules to make standard time test available to only standard group and the non-standard time test available only to the non-standard group. This creates two test columns in the Grade Center which is not a problem if you are using a Running Total for Grade Center Total calculations since students are graded only on completed items. However, if you are weighting grades via the Weighted Total or have customized your Total column via Select Columns then it’s best to move the scores for that non-standard group into the standard group test column and take the non-standard test column out of GC calculations.

Alternatively you could just set the test up to be timed but take off the Auto-Submit option. The clock will run throughout the test, and the test time for each student is still recorded in the Grade Center, but any student who exceeds the standard time (which will be those who need more time) upon submission shows  a “Needs Grading” icon in the Grade Center test column. You can then go in and check the test time via the View Attempt choice for each of those students who needed more time; you can tell that group they will remain in the test and their attempts will be submitted even though the time has been exceeded, but remind them that if they go over the extra time limit you will be able to see the exact amount of time taken via Blackboard Grade Center test submission statistics.

You can find a Blackboard video on creating adaptive release rules at Create Multiple Rules for Content Item .

A. To modify the description and instructions for a survey, follow these steps:

1. Click on Course Tools in the control panel and select Tests, Surveys and Pools.
2. Click on Surveys.
3. Click on the chevron beside the name of the survey you want to modify and select Edit.
4. Click the chevron beside “Survey Canvas:…” at the top of the page and select Edit.
5. Make your changes and click Submit.

A. You can use the same test during different time periods for the student who needs to take the test early and the rest of the class.

1. You will need to create two groups: one for the student who needs to take the test early, and one for the rest of the students. For more information on creating groups, please click here.

2. Create the test and deploy it in a content area. If the test is timed make sure you indicate the allotted time and check the Auto-Submit ON radio button in the Test Options for the test to be automatically submitted when students reach the test time limit. Add an adaptive release rule that specifies the date range when the test should be available to the student who will take it early and, under Membership on the Adaptive Release page, select the group for the student who needs to take the test early – the rest of the class will not see the test at this point.

3. Once the student who needs to take the test early has completed the test, change the adaptive release rule so the date range is appropriate for the large group and, under Membership in Adaptive Release, select the large group of students and remove the student who needed to take the test early. The large group will now see the test on the date(s) you selected. You can find a Blackboard video on creating adaptive release rules at Create Multiple Rules for Content Item

A. For an overview of which browsers are supported by Blackboard, visit Loyola’s Blackboard 9 Browser Guide. For more information, visit the Blackboard 9.1 SP6 Supported Browsers and Operating Systems webpage.

A. Hosts can create up to 20 breakout rooms in a meeting and send attendees into them. Participants are automatically promoted to presenters in a breakout room, which gives them access to  audio and video broadcasting, as well as any tools the host has made available; they return to participant when the breakout session ends.

Hosts can jump from one room to another and can broadcast messages to all groups, however, if the host is recording the meeting, only the main meeting room is recorded -  the breakout rooms will not be included in the recording. Attendees can ask the host a question at any time even if the host is not present in the breakout room using VoIP or chat.

For more information on Adobe Connect, visit Creating Adobe Connect Meetings.

A. You can set up a wiki and add a wiki page, listing specific dates and times for student presentations. Since wiki pages are accessible for viewing and editing by students, they can access the wiki page and fill in their names. It is possible for a student to overwrite another student’s timeslot, so you will need to list in your instructions that students should sign up for only open timeslots.

For a Blackboard video on how to create a wiki, please visit Create a Wiki .

A. You can download your Grade Center and only take the Total or Weighted Total column (whichever one represents the overall course grade). You can also download other individual columns.

When you download the Grade Center you open the downloaded file into an Excel spreadsheet which makes it much easier to format and print out than the Blackboard Grade Reports. For instructions on how to download your Grade Center go to Backing up Grades and, under Point 3, choose Selected Column rather than the Entire Grade Center and specify the column you wish in the drop-down box to the right of the Selected Column radio button.

 A. To check on a paper that you already have in digital form, you can set up a Turnitin assignment and then add to it an adaptive release rule where membership is limited to you, so students won’t see it.  Visit Turnitin Assignment for instructions on setting up the assignment, and Blackboard’s video tutorial on Adaptive Release  to learn how to set up an adaptive release rule.

If you would like to use Turnitin, but due dates will be different for each student, you could set up a series of assignments, organized by topic, with the due date for each one set as the last possible date for anyone to turn in the assignment (set the post date after due date).  Students could turn in any of the assignments at any time before that final due date.

A. You need to make sure you have turned on the Modules page under Tools in Blackboard. 

1. Go to Control Panel > Customization > Tool Availability.
2. Check the  box for Available in Content Area.
3. Click the Submit button.

A. There are several options for making a video with narration and screen capture: 

• - There is free software available online at Screenr  that allows you to up to 5 minute clips of screen capture with narration. Screenr produces a flash file that can be uploaded to Blackboard. 
• - An option you will find inside Blackboard is Wimba Voice Presentation, which allows you to add narration and text to a selection of URLs. You can add a Voice Presentation in any Blackboard content area under “Add Interactive Tool.” For a quick video tutorial on adding a Voice Presentation, visit http://www.wimba.com/assets/videos/Presenter/Presenter.html . For text instructions, visit page 8 of the Wimba Voice Tools User Guide http://www.wimba.com/assets/resources/BB_42_User_Guide_91.pdf
• - We also have software — Camtasia Studio and Captivate —  and a recording room available for Loyola faculty and staff at the Lakeshore campus that will enable you to record narration and screen capture.  For more information and to reserve the room, please contact Blackboard@luc.edu.

A. Unfortunately, there’s not a good option to print a calendar from Blackboard. But one way to do this is to open the calendar, then do a screen print:

1. Open the calendar in Blackboard.
2. On the upper right-hand side of your keyboard, press Print Screen or PrtScn.
3. Open a Word document and select Paste, or use Ctrl-V. 
4. Double-click on the image in Word, then use the crop button on the upper right side of the format tab.
5. When you crop the image, you can remove the blackboard course menu and header, so you only have the calendar.  You can also resize to make the calendar bigger. 

A. Courses from a previous semester are typically removed around the middle of the following semester; however an instructor may manually make the course unavailable sooner than that.  Students will be removed from Fall 2011 term courses on March 4, 2012, three days after the last day to submit assignments to change an “I” grade to a letter grade.  If you would like access to a course that is no longer available, you will need to contact the instructor.

For future reference, the date when students are automatically removed from the previous term’s classes is posted under the “Students” heading on the Blackboard Important Dates webpage.

A. You can do this in Blackboard if you use the Assignment Tool to create the assignment. For anonymous grading, each student is assigned a number, such as Student 8, and attempts appear in random order.

Follow these steps to use anonymous grading:

1. In the control panel, under Grade Center, click on Full Grade Center.
2. Click the chevron beside the name of the assignment and select Grade Anonymously.
3. On the Grade Assignment page, grade the first student’s submission, then move to the next student using the Save and Next button in the upper right corner of the window.
4. After you grade the last student’s submission, click the Save and Exit button in the upper right corner.

If you choose Save and Exit before you are finished grading all of your students, when you return to complete grading anonymously, the remainder of the students in the class will have been assigned  new random numbers.

A. If you want your students to be able to enter the meeting space you are using to record, and have access to the recordings in the Adobe Connect area on Blackboard, you should add them all to that meeting space; you can do that by clicking the chevron to the right of the meeting name, selecting Edit, and then adding the students. You can find detailed instructions for this at Adobe Connect in Blackboard: Creating a Meeting.

To access recordings, students should:

1. Click on Tools in the Course Menu.
2. Click on Adobe Connect Pro.
3. Click on the chevron beside the name of the meeting and select Meeting Information.
4. Click on the active link Recordings.

NOTE: If students click on the name of the meeting itself instead of on the chevron, they will get a notice that the meeting cannot begin until the host  arrives; but there is no need for the instructor to be logged in for students to listen to the recordings.

If you don’t intend for students to use the meeting space, and you only want them to access the recorded lectures, you can make your recorded lectures public in Connect Central (http://connect.luc.edu) and then put the links to the lectures in Blackboard; you can find instructions for making your recordings public at Recording a Meeting.

A. It sounds like you have accidentally hidden your course menu from view. To get it back, log into Blackboard and go to one of your courses. Then, follow the instructions at Recover Missing Course Menu.

A. You may have unintentionally deleted your Content area and that would have deleted all of the content you uploaded into it: the little chevrons on the right side of the red menu for each button give the option to rename, hide, or delete.

You will need to recreate the content area by adding a new content area in the menu and then reuploading your content into that new area. Please visit Customizing your Course Menu for instructions for creating a content area.

A. There is an issue with course copy since Loyola upgraded to Blackboard 9.1: The instructor receives an email saying the copy is complete before it really is complete. We recommend waiting at least 15 minutes after you receive the email before you go to the destination course. If you don’t see the content after that, you can try copying only the parts that didn’t come over in the first copy, or contact blackboard@luc.edu for assistance.

A. Academic Technology Support currently offers Drop-in sessions each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Lakeshore campus; you can come by during these times to receive help with Blackboard without making an appointment:  http://www.luc.edu/blackboard/Dropin.shtml . You can also schedule an appointment outside of these times, by emailing Blackboard@luc.edu.

And you may also want to take a look at the Blackboard tutorials we have online to help get you started:  http://www.luc.edu/itrs/teachingwithtechnology/blackboard/Faculty_Resources.shtml

A. As the instructor in the cross-listed course, you have the option to have the course title (course name) to be listed as you wish.

Go into the Blackboard course, go to the Control Panel, click on Customization, then click on Properties.  Under item 1. Name and Description, you can change the Course Name, then click the Submit button.

A. Macs cannot play Windows Media Videos, but there is a free media player called Flip4Mac WMV that your student can use to convert and view your video. You can find an ITS Technology Tip with  instructions for downloading the player at  http://blogs.luc.edu/techtips/2011/07/15/play-windows-media-files-on-your-mac/

A. If you are a “leader” for the Blackboard organization you can use the My Organizations Plus tool to submit a “.txt” file of a list of students with the list of their UVIDs. 

Please visit this link Managing Organization Enrollment for a tutorial on how to use My Organizations Plus to enroll users, including how to enroll multiple users simultaneously.

 A. There is no good way to do this from within Blackboard. But you can download the Grade Center, open it in Excel and then format in Excel for printing. You can download the entire Grade Center or specific columns, e.g., Total column or whichever column you are using for the final grade. 

For instructions on downloading your Grade Center please visit  Backing Up Grades .

A. You can use Blackboard Faculty Resources tutorials to learn how to manage your organization – they work the same way in both courses and organizations, except for managing enrollments. 

For help with uploading documents, visit Adding Files in Blackboard ; for help with managing enrollments, visit Blackboard Organizations/Communities and click on “Manage Organization Enrollment.”

A. If you choose the “immediately (can overwrite reports until due date)” option then there will be a 24 hour delay for the second and subsequent Originality reports to begin processing.  Students would need to allot enough time before the due date for resubmission.

A. Log into Blackboard and find the module for “My Organizations Plus” on your Login page. Then click Edit users next to the name of your organization to manage enrollment for the organization.  Note that only the leader of the organization can add members.

Visit this link for complete instructions Blackboard Organizations

A. This is an issue for those who use the Internet Explorer 8 or 9 browser, but shouldn’t be a problem for those using Firefox 3.6 or above, or Chrome.

Please review the messages produced by IE8 and 9 under the “Common Browsers Issues” heading in our Browser Guide ; there are solutions for each version of the browser that will allow students and instructors to view the websites. That page also describes how users can determine which version of a browser they are using.

If the links are added individually as URLs you can also resolve this issue by editing the links in Blackboard so they open in a new window – this will allow students to open the links in any browser that is supported by Blackboard.

A. The answer depends on the format of your narrated Powerpoint lectures.  If they were created in Articulate, they are Flash files and cannot be downloaded (but if you saved the source files in Articulate, the audio files should still be there in a separate folder and you could post those for download).

But if you recorded your lectures in Powerpoint, they can be converted to mp4, which is a format that can be downloaded. You could post those files directly in your Blackboard course, or you could set up an iTunes U area for your course and post them there. Students who wanted to load them onto their ipods could do that in iTunes, or any of your students could download the files and then burn them to a CD.

For assistance with file conversion Loyola faculty should email blackboard@luc.edu.

For instructions for setting up a Loyola iTunes U area, please visit iTunes U in Blackboard.

A.  A .zip file backup of a course can only be imported into an existing course on Blackboard.  Opening the .zip file may cause the data to be corrupted; therefore, since you have opened it, you should go through the export process again. You can find instructions online for exporting and importing a course at Export/Import Course.

A. Here’s how to remove Powerpoint presentations from Wimba Classroom:

1. Log into Blackboard and click on Wimba Classroom.
2. Click on the room where you have uploaded your Powerpoint slides.
   Before you click on Enter Room, you will see a button for Add and Manage Content toward the top of the window .
3. Click the Add and Manage Content button.
4. Click Add and Manage Room Content.
5. In the Modify Room window, click on the trashcan icon to the right of the presentation you want to remove, then click OK to remove it.

A. If your professor has allowed feedback that shows the questions, you can do the following to print your test results:

1. Login to Blackboard and enter your course or organization.
2. Click on Tools in the Course Menu.
3. Click on My Grades in the list of Tools.
4. In the My Grades page, locate the test you wish to view.
5. Click on the underlined grade you received for the test – it will list in the Grade column.
6. This will open the View Attempts page.
7. Under the Attempts heading you will see a sub-heading entitled Calculated Grade (to the far right).
8. Under the sub-heading Calculated Grade, click on your underlined score; this will open your test results.
9. Copy the test results by left-clicking at the beginning of the area you wish to copy and move your mouse to the end of your test.
10. Right click on the highlighted area and choose Copy.
11. Open Word and paste the information into a Word document.

A. You can allow students to submit a Turnitin assignment after the due date:

1. Click on Course Tools in the control panel.
2. Click on Turnitin Assignments.
3. Click on the title of the Turnitin Assignment.
4. Click on the Edit Assignment tab at the top.
5. Scroll down and click on More Options.
6. Click Yes for” Allow submissions after the due date?”
7. Click Submit.

 A. When you remove all columns except the few required columns in the Grade Center, students disappear from the Full Grade Center view. If you add a column to your Grade Center, the student names will reappear.  For instructions on adding a column, visit Creating a Grade Center Item.

If you add a column, but don’t intend to use it, you can remove it from students’ view by editing the column information using the chevron beside the column title and selecting “No” for “Include this column in Grade Center calculations” and also for “Show this column to students.” If you want to remove the column from your own view, you can hide it from yourself by clicking on the chevron and selecting “Hide Column.”

 A.  Installing the Compatibility Pack along-side of Office 2003 will allow you to open, edit, save, and create files using the formats that are used by both Office 2010 and Office 2007.

You can download the Compatibility Pack here: Windows users, Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 users: Download the Compatibility Pack.

A. There is an automatic feed from LOCUS to Blackboard once a day. Once your student is listed in LOCUS for your class, it should appear for her in Blackboard 24 hours later.

A. You should ask the previous instructor if you can use her materials; then ask her to email Blackboard@luc.edu and request that you be enrolled in her course as “course builder” so that you can copy the material into your course.

If there are only a few individual files to copy to your new course, you can copy individual items instead of copying a whole section of a course. To copy a single item, click on the chevron beside the item to be copied and select Copy. You will then be asked for the destination course and folder. You can find detailed instructions at Moving/Copying an Item or Folder  .

If you want to copy more than a few files, and if they are all in the same content area, you might find Course Copy to be the best way to copy the files. You can find instructions at Course Copy .

 A. You will use the exact same process to upload an Office 2010 file in Blackboard as you have for Office 2003 or Office 2007 files, and your students should be able to read those files in those earlier versions of Office. Likewise, if you upload a file created in Office 2003 or Office 2007, your students with Office 2010 should have no trouble opening or downloading the document.

 You can find instructions for uploading files at Post Files to a Content Area .

 A. Yes, since Blackboard is Web-based you can get to Blackboard on any computer that is connected to the Internet.

But you may need to review the browser you use in Windows 7. Browsers that are recommended for Windows 7 (64-bit) for our version of Blackboard as of August 15, 2011, are: 

• Mozilla Firefox (Version 3.6x) **Recommended for best performance**
• Internet Explorer (Versions: IE 8, IE 9)
• All newer stable versions of Chrome

A. In other modules in the Home page, such as “My Announcements,” the course menu stays intact, so you could click back to another course area.  However, the “My Calendar” module fills up the whole Blackboard page and doesn’t provide another option to the back button to return to the course page.

A. The Paste from Word Mashup tool resolves this issue. For instructions on using this tool, visit this link Paste from Word .

A. If you have already created a Home Page for your course, you can change the course entry point so it opens to that new home page.

1. Log into Blackboard and go to your course.
2. Click on Customization, then Style  in the Control Panel.
3. Scroll down to 4. Select Course Entry Point.
4. Drop down the list and select the Home Page you created.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Submit.

If your course doesn’t already have a Home Page and you want to create one, visit this link Your Course Home Page  and click on the link for Adding a Home Page.

A. To download or upload your Grade Center, click the “Work Offline” button in the upper right corner of the Grade Center and select Download or Upload.

A. If you are using Powerpoint slides, Articulate will allow you  to record your slides and narration and save your presentation in a compressed format that will be easier for students to access than if you record directly into Powerpoint. Articulate is available in the Digital Media Room in the Granada Center and Loyola faculty can reserve the room and get assistance with recording by emailing blackboard@luc.edu. Instructions for recording can be found at Narrating Powerpoint in Articulate . 

Another option for recording a lecture is Wimba Live Classroom, which gives you the option to record your slides and narration directly into Blackboard. You can find instructions for recording and posting at  Record a Presentation with Wimba Live Classroom .

A. Instead of adding an Essay question to the test, add the one right below it in the list: a File Response question. That will allow students to reply with an attachment.

Also, make sure that in Test Question Settings you have checked the box for “Add images, files, and external links to answers.”

A. Announcements are sent to students in your course, and a copy of the announcement is emailed to you, automatically, by default. At the bottom of the email that you receive you will see this message:
“This is a system notification sent based on your personal settings and should not be replied to. Click here to view and edit your Notification Settings.”

To change this setting for your course, click on Notification Settings in the email, select your course, then uncheck the Email box next to Announcements. You can also change these settings in Blackboard by clicking on My Places at the top of the Blackboard window, then on Notification Settings Dashboard in the My Places window.

Be aware that students in your course can do the same thing when they receive emailed announcements from your course, i.e., they can choose not to receive those announcements. To be sure they will receive an announcement, even if they have made the choice not to in their Notification settings, be sure to check the “Override User Notification Settings” box under the Message box when you create a new announcement.

A. Because of the way Blackboard 9 works with Internet Explorer 8, the easiest solution is to change the settings for the URL in Blackboard so it opens in a new window. To set the URL to open in a new window, follow these steps:

1. Log into Blackboard.
2. Click on the chevron beside the URL you want to open in a new window.
3. Select Edit.
4. On the Edit URL page, scroll down to 4. Options.
5. Select “Yes” for Open in New Window.
6. Click Submit.

A. In Blackboard 9, instructors can create a personal profile that includes contact information and office hours. For instructions, please visit Creating a Faculty Profile .

A. Yes, there will be training over the summer and some sessions will be at the Water Tower campus. Visit Blackboard Workshops for dates and times for all scheduled Blackboard 9 workshops.

A. In the Control Panel, click on Course Tools then Tests, Surveys and Pools, then click on Tests.  Click on the chevron next to the test you want to edit and click Edit.  Under each question, there is a delete button.  Check the box next to the question, then click Delete.

Note: You can delete questions after the test has been deployed, but not if it has already been taken by students.

A. To access the completed test:

1. Click on the Grade Center link in the Control Panel; you will see an exclamation point in the column where the student completed the exam.
2. Hover in the cell with the exclamation point, and you will see a chevron (double-down arrow) icon pop up.
3. Click on the chevron, then click Grade Details.
4. Scroll down and choose View Attempt to see the exam.

A. You can find tutorials and links to videos on how to use features in Blackboard 9 on our Faculty Help Resources page.  Faculty can also come and ask questions one-on-one at Academic Technology Services’ Blackboard Drop-in, every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to noon in the Information Commons, room 204. And you can always email blackboard@luc.edu with any questions you have about either the current Blackboard or the new Blackboard 9 and get a response within 24 business hours.

 A. In order to get an email notification that your students have posted to the discussion board, you will need to subscribe to your discussion forum.  

First you will need to enable subscription in your discussion settings. To do so, either create a new discussion forum or click the “Modify” button to access a previously created forum.  Once you are on the “Add Forum” or “Modify Forum” page, scroll down to “Forum Settings.” There is an option titled “Subscribe.”  Next to Subscribe you will see the following options:

• Subscribe
• Do not allow subscriptions
• Allow members to subscribe to threads
• Allow members to subscribe to forum
• Include body of post in the email
• Include link to post

Choose “Allow members to subscribe to forum.” Then decide if you wish to have the body of the post included in the email or a just a link to the post. You may choose “Allow members to subscribe to threads” instead but then you will have to subscribe to each individual thread. Click “Submit” at the bottom of the page. 

If you checked “Allow members to subscribe to forum” then you and your students will see a “Subscribe” button at the top of the page when you enter your discussion forum. Note, you will need to enter your discussion forum as you would to post.

If you click on “Subscribe” then you will be notified with “SUCCESS: Forum subscription successful” at the top of the page.

A. You will need to remove the dash when entering grades. The dash is just a place holder until you enter a grade.  If you leave it before the grade it will calculate as a minus and your grade totals will be wrong.

To fix the problem for grades you’ve already entered, click in a cell with the negative grade once to highlight the whole grade, then click again after the dash, then use the backspace button to delete it.  When you are finished,  click outside of the cell where you changed the grade and you will be prompted to click OK to save the change.

 A. You can break a forum down into threads and control the threads within the forum by not allowing participants to post new threads to the forum.

For more information, visit Creating Forums and Threads in a Discussion .

A. Uploading an Articulate file in Blackboard 9 is a two-part process. First, you will upload the file to the course’s Files area, a kind of storage area to keep files so they can be accessed from any content area in  your course; then you will add the file to a content area.

Upload the file

1. Scroll down under the Course Menu to see the Control Panel.
2. Click on the chevron next to Files in the Control Panel.
3. Click on the Create Folder button in the Course Content window. It’s important to create a folder for each of your Articulate presentations since, for each .zip file you upload, the file you will link to so students can play the presentation has the same name: player.html.
4. Name the new folder with the same name as your Articulate file (this is not required, but will help you organize your Articulate files).
5. Click on the new folder you made.
6. Click on Upload and select Upload Package.
7. Browse for your Articulate zip file and click Submit.

Add the file to a content area

1. Click on the content area where you would like the Articulate file to be accessed, such as Course Documents or Content.
2. Under Build Content, select Item.
3. Give the Articulate presentation a name
4. Next to Attach File, choose Browse Course, then click on the appropriate Articulate folder (the one you created).
5. Click in the box beside player.html.
6. Click Submit.
7. Click OK to the “Message from Webpage.”
8. Under File Action, accept the default.
9. Select the options you want and click Submit.
10. Students will access the presentation by going to the content area, finding the appropriate Articulate file name, and clicking on player.html.

A. Blackboard 9, a new version of Blackboard that is coming in May, has a wiki feature that students can use for collaborative work.

Visit Create a Wiki for a video on how to create a wiki in Blackboard 9 and make it open for editing by students. You can also access written instructions via our tutorial on Creating a Wiki.

A. You can find tutorials and links to videos on how to use features in Blackboard 9 on our Faculty Help Resources page.  Faculty can also come and ask questions one-on-one at Academic Technology Services’ Blackboard Drop-in, every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to noon in the Information Commons, room 204.

A. The problem is most likely punctuation marks in the assignment name. Blackboard creates filenames using the assignment name, and punctuation often causes problems in filenames.

You should rename this assignment using only alphanumeric characters. The order in which you do this matters:  First rename in the content area where the assignment is posted, then rename with the exact same new name in the column for the assignment in the grade center. If you change the name in the grade center first, or vary the name even a little between the two areas in Blackboard, the link between the assignment and the student submissions in the grade center will be broken.

A. Since PDFs open within Blackboard, if a student double-clicks to open the file in Blackboard it will take a long time, or might even time out and not open.  However, if your students right-click on the document and save it on their local drive, they should then be able to open it.

Since the issue is the document’s large size, a second option would be for you to break the PDF up into several smaller documents and post that way.

A.  Due to a number of issues, including particular mobile devices, coverage, phone platform, etc., students should not attempt to submit assignments or take tests or quizzes on any mobile device; instead, they should use a non-mobile Web browser for those purposes.

A. You can manually override a grade by clicking on the cell in the Grade Center column and entering the new grade.

Visit this link for more information on modifying grades in Blackboard’s Grade Center: Manually Enter Scores in the Grade Center

A. You can do this in three steps:

1. Make a folder on your computer and put all the image files and the html file in the folder.
2. Zip (compress) the folder (on a Loyola PC, right-click on the folder and select Send To > Compressed (zipped) Folder).
3. Log into your Blackboard course and create a new item.
4. Attach the zip file and, under 2. Content > Special Action on the Add Item page, select Unpackage this file.
5. Select your html file as the entry point.

This will show only the zip file as a link, and students will see the html file when they click on it.

A. Before you can register, you need to go to the Blackboard course you are using the i>clicker for. Visit How Students Register i>clicker Remotes for detailed instructions.

A. At the beginning of each semester, it’s important to remember to make your course available — if you don’t, students cannot see your course on their Login page, even if they are registered for your course and their names appear on the roster. In order for students to see your course, you must manually make the course available in the Course Options settings in the Control Panel.

For instructions in both text and video on how to make your course available, visit Making Your Course Available .

A. Many instructors combine sections of the same course but wish to maintain separation of each section within the Grade Center. This is possible through two actions: 1) first creating a Blackboard Group for each section (please refer to our online tutorial Creating Student Groups ); and then, 2) creating a Grade Center Smart View for each group.

Let’s say you have combined two sections and have created a Blackboard Group for each section, Group1 and Group 2. You can look at each group individually within the Grade Center by creating two Smart Views, one for each group. To create a Smart View, do the following:

1. In your Grade Center, click on the Manage option.

2. Select Smart Views from the drop-down list.

3. A Smart Views page will open in which you should click on Add Smart View.

4. In the Add Smart View page, give the Smart View a name in the Name box, e.g., Group 1.

5. In the Selection Criteria area, choose “Group” for Type of View; for Select Criteria, make sure your User Criteria is set to “Group,” your Condition is set to “Equal to” and you have highlighted “Group 1″ in the Value field.

6. The Filter results should be set to All Columns (this is the default).

7. Click on Submit.

8. You will be taken back to the Smart View page and you will now see that Group 1 has been created as a Smart View.

9. Follow these same steps to create a Smart View for Group 2 but make sure that the name for this group is unique, e.g., Group 2 and that you highlight Group 2 in the Value field in the Selection Criteria when creating the Smart View for Group 2.

10. When you are back in the Grade Center you will see both Group 1 and Group 2 listing as Smart Views under the dropdown list for Current View. If you select the Smart View Group 1 you will see only the students from the Group 1. Alternatively, if you select the Smart View Group 2 only the students from Group 2 will appear.

A. Students can still view their assessment results through the Tools > My Grades view within your course by following the instructions below:

1. The student should click on the underlined score for the test in their My Grades view for the course in question.
   
2. This will open a View Attempts window in which the student should click on the underlined score in the Calculated Grade box.
   
3. Clicking on the score in the Calculated Grade box opens the Review Assessment window in which the student will see any results the instructor has allowed for the assessment. In the example below the instructor allowed students to see only the test score. Depending on the instructor, the student may be able to see the answers the student submitted for the test. While Blackboard automatically notes whether or not the answer is correct, the instructor may/may not allow the students to see the correct answers to each question.

A. You can modify an assignment to add points possible after it has already been graded. Here’s how:

1. Go to the assignment’s column in the Grade Center and click on the chevron beside the assignment name.
2. Click on Edit.
3. On the Edit Assignment page, under 3. Grading, enter the number of points possible for the assignment.
4. Click Submit.

If you have already entered a grade for any student who completed the assignment before you modified points possible,  you will need to go back through View Grade Details in the Grade Center to edit that grade.

Now the Total column will include the points you give each student for the assignment.

 A. You can easily access Blackboard on your iPad using Loyola’s Mobile Learn app. Here’s how:

1. Go to the iTunes App Store and search for “Blackboard Mobile Learn.”
2. Download the free app for iPad.
3. Open the app.
4. Enter Loyola University Chicago in the field provided.
5. Login with your Loyola UVID and password.
6. Choose the course you want to access from the list.

Some narrated lectures at Loyola are created in a format that is not currently supported by the iPad, but you should be able to review all lectures from any PC or Mac computer. Visit Blackboard Mobile Learn for more information.

A. You can add an adaptive release rule on the Powerpoint file that requires students to click on a button associated with the copyright restriction text before they can see the Powerpoint. But there isn’t a way to require them to click the button every time they want to view the Powerpoint, only the first time. Here are instructions for creating the adaptive release rule:

1. Upload the Powerpoint file to your course.
2. Add an item for Copyright Restrictions, typing the restrictions, or copying and pasting the restrictions in the text box. (Technically, you can attach a document at this point, but if you do, you will only get a link to the text and students may not click on the link to read it.)
3. Submit.
4. Click the Manage button for the Powerpoint, then select Adaptive Release.
5. On the Adaptive Release page, beside  4. Review status, click Browse and then click on the Copyright Restrictions item you added.
6. Click Submit, then click OK.

At first, when students log into your course, they will not see the Powerpoint. They will see the copyright restrictions in the content area where you posted that item, with a “Mark Reviewed” button to the right of the item.  When an individual student clicks the Mark Reviewed button, indicating that he or she has read the copyright restrictions, the Powerpoint will become visible for that student.

You can find out which students have reviewed the Copyright Restrictions item by going to Control Panel, then to Performance Dashboard, under the Assessment heading. There is a column for “Review Status” and it will have a number in it for each student who has clicked the Review Status button.

A. When you hide a column in the grade center, it only hides the column for the instructor in the grade center. If you unhide the column and then click on Modify for that column, you will see “Show this column in My Grades” is selected and that means students can see it — to hide it, just select “No” for that option and then submit.

Visit this link for instructions on Unhiding a Column in the Grade Center or watch the Blackboard Video.

A. Yes, it is. Once they submit their first document, it will prompt them to upload another if they want to. They can even save the assignment instead of submitting and then go back at some later date and upload more files to the assignment.

Find out more  by watching the Blackboard Student Video on turning in assignments or by reading our faculty tutorial on the Assignment Tool.

A. Here is the best way to make a copy of discussion posts:

1. Click on the forum to copy from.
2. Click on the thread to copy.
3. Scroll down to see Select all and click Go. This will select all posts in the thread.
4. Scroll back up to click on the Collect tool – the first one on the Discussion toolbar. This collects all posts in the thread onto one page.
5. Drag over to highlight all the posts.
6. Click Edit > Copy in your browser.
7. Open Word and click Edit > Paste.

 This will allow you to copy the discussion forum one thread at a time.

 A. If your instructor has allowed you to see the submitted answers for a test, then you can view these again by clicking on the test. You will see a message telling you that you have completed the test but asking if you want to view the assessment results. Click on OK and you will be taken to a screen that shows the questions and your submitted answers, and any other content the instructor wants you to see. However, if the instructor has only allowed you to see your score for the test then you will not be able to see the test questions or your answers.

You should ask your instructor about access to previous test questions/answers. It is up to the instructor as to whether or not s/he wants to make this material available to students.

A.  The way to get Blackboard help quickly is to contact the IT Help Desk by phone – dial (773) 508 – 4 ITS (773/508-4487) – or email Blackboard@luc.edu. Either way, you will get an email response within 24 working hours.

For the fastest resolution of your issue, make sure you include the Blackboard course ID and instructor’s name in your email or phone call; and, if a specific area of a course is involved, include that as well.

 A. Please visit our Technology Tip Resize Photos Fast  . Be aware that you cannot resize the photo in Blackboard — instead, you must resize on your computer and then upload to your homepage.

A. If you wish to add a Teacher’s Assistant, Course Builder, or Course Grader, contact the Blackboard support team at Blackboard@luc.edu with that user’s name, the specific course you want them added to, and their role in that course.

Instructor assignments come from LOCUS, so the Blackboard @ Loyola support team cannot add a colleague as instructor in your course, but can add a colleague as a TA. Since Blackboard Teacher’s Assistants have access to the course Grade Center, we do not recommend giving a student in your class the role of Teacher’s Assistant.

For more information on access given the various roles, please visit this link: Blackboard Roles. The Guest role is not used at Loyola.

A. Student access to any semester’s courses will be removed automatically a few weeks after the start of the following semester, but if you would like to remove them from your view before then, follow these instructions:

1. Login to Blackboard.
2. On the Login tab, click on the gear icon located at the top right of the My Courses window.
   
3. This will take you to a new window called Customize: My Courses. In Customize: My Courses, check Display Course Name for the courses you would like to view. Uncheck any courses and announcements you wish to hide from your My Courses.
4. Click the Submit button, then OK.

When you return to the Login page, the course will no longer appear in your My Courses list.

See detailed instructions with images

Link to Video

A. At the beginning of each semester, it’s important to remember to make your courses available — if you don’t, students cannot see their course titles on their “My Institution” page, even if they are registered for your course and their name appears on the roster. In order for students to see your course, you must manually make the course available in the course options settings in the Control Panel.

For instructions in both text and video on how to make your course available, visit Making Your Course Available .

A. To move columns in the grade center, click on Manage > Column Organization. Find the table on the Organize Grade Center page that lists your Total column, and move your mouse to the first (shaded) column in that table — your cursor should turn to a double-headed arrow.

Click and drag the total column up or down and drop it where you want it. Then, you must click the Submit button in the lower right corner to complete the change.

A. You can collect all the posts by one student in a particular forum or in all forums in a course.

1. Click on a forum in which you want to collect posts for a particular student.
2. Click the Search button in the upper right corner.
3. Type the student’s first and last name in the Search box.
4. Under the Search box, select whether you are collecting posts for the current forum, the current discussion board, or all forums in the course.
5. Select the date range for the search.
6. Click the Go button to the right of the date boxes.
7. Select all of the posts and copy and paste them into a Word document.

A. Anonymous questionnaires can be created in Blackboard using the Survey tool. For instructions on creating a survey, visit Creating a Survey or watch the Blackboard Video.

A. Your Blackboard course will be created automatically, once you are assigned to teach the course in LOCUS. Login to Blackboard at https://blackboard.luc.edu using the same username and password that you use for LOCUS; you will see your course listed under “My Courses.”

Visit the “Setting Up Your Course” section of our Faculty Blackboard Help Resources page for instructions in text and video format for uploading materials to your course.

A. An instructor can export tests from her course using the Export/Import tool. Then she can send the resulting .zip file with the tests to other instructors and they can import the file into their courses. Once they have imported the .zip file, they would need to deploy the test in a content area.

For a tutorial on Export/Import, visit Exporting and Importing a Blackboard Course .

A. The easiest way to do this is to use the discussion board. Create a forum and then post the first thread, describing what you want your students to do. Ask them to reply to your thread and attach their Powerpoint files. If you set it up so students cannot create their own threads (on the Forum Settings page), they will only be able to reply to your thread, and comment on each others’ Powerpoint files.

For more information, visit these links:
Instructors: Creating a Forum | Creating a Thread
Students: Creating a Discussion Board Thread | Replying to a Discussion Board Thread

A. Once you log into Blackboard, click on the Personal Information link in the Tools menu on the left then choose Edit Personal Information.  Type in the correct spelling of your name, then click Submit at the bottom of the page. Once you make the change, your name will show up correctly in Blackboard.

A. The process to move a folder from one content area to another is “Copy,” which you will see to the right of the folder in Blackboard. Once the copy is done, you will see the option “Delete item after copy” — if you select this option, the folder will be removed from its original location.

Visit this link for instructions for copying or moving a folder Moving/Copying an Item or Folder.

 A. You can unhide a column in Blackboard’s grade center by selecting Organize Grade Center under the Manage button on the grade center toolbar.

For complete instructions, visit this link Unhiding a Grade Center Column .

A. You can add a content area (course menu link) by doing the following:

1. In the Blackboard Course Menu, click on the Add Menu Item button (represented as a plus sign) located at the top left of the menu.
2. A drop down menu will appear; click on the type of menu item you would like to add.
3. Give the area a name and check the box “Available to Users” to allow students to see the content area.
4. Click Submit.

For complete instructions, visit this link Customizing Your Course Menu.

A. There are two possible solutions if a student’s name and grades are missing from the grade center:

1. If her name is at the end of the alphabet and has been displaying at the end of the list of students, you can try one of these two solutions:

a. Reverse the alpha order twice in the Last Name column and the last row will show – you can do this by clicking on the yellow triangle in the column header.

OR

b. Change the Grade Center view from the default “Full Grade Center” to “Preview of My Grades.”

2. It may be that you have inadvertently hidden this student in your grade center. Click on Manage > Show/Hide Users in the grade center. If you see the student’s name grayed out, select it by clicking in the box to the left, and click Show Users; then click Submit.

A. To submit students’ papers, follow these instructions:

1. Go to Turnitin Assignments via the Control Panel.
2. Click on the assignment for which you want to submit a student paper.
3. When the Turnitin page opens scroll down to the inbox.
4. Click on the submit paper button in the top left hand corner of the inbox and submit your student’s paper, making sure to go through both the  upload and submit steps.

The paper should then turn up in the inbox and you should be able to view the Originality report.

A. You can access Blackboard from any computer with an Internet connection. We recommend downloading the Mozilla Firefox Web browser for use with Mac computers:  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html

A. If you use the Export option in Blackboard, you get a .zip file of course materials without student records that you can store on your hard drive or portable flash drive for the purpose of importing into another course.

For instructions on how to export your course, visit this link on Exporting and Importing Your Course.

A. The My Organizations Plus module in Blackboard allows the leader of an organization to add users, batch add users, remove users, and batch remove users. For assistance with these functions, visit our Managing Organization Enrollment webpage.

A. Check the Return Receipt box, under the message box, when you write an email in Blackboard to receive a copy of the email you wrote, with a list  of addresses the email was sent to at the top of the message. Make sure you start your email by going to the Control Panel and then click on Send Email under the Course Tools heading —  if you send email using the Communication button in the menu, you will not see the Return Receipt box.

Once the email has left Blackboard, whether and when your email arrives in students’ inboxes depends on several things, including the speed of Loyola’s servers for the Groupwise email system and whether students are forwarding their mail to another email service. Any students who are not receiving email sent from your Blackboard course should email Blackboard@luc.edu directly so the Blackboard @ Loyola team can work with each of them individually to track down email problems.

A. To permanently reorder your Grade Center columns, follow these steps:

1. In the Grade Center, click on the Manage tab.
2. A drop down menu will appear; click on Column Organization.
3. On the Column Organization page, you will see that you can move grade columns by “dragging” the column to the desired location using the double-headed arrows symbol.
4. Move your columns into the desired locations.
5. After you have made all necessary changes, click on Submit.
   -This last step is very important.  If you don’t click the Submit button, you will lose the changes.

For more information on the Grade Center, visit this link: 

http://www.luc.edu/itrs/teachingwithtechnology/blackboard/Faculty_Resources.shtml

A. Blackboard can add a colleague to your course in a specific role that will allow him or her varying levels of access depending on your intent:

• Guest access – ability to view only those parts of the course you as the instructor manually select (view is limited to content areas)
• Course builder – ability to view all content, use communication tools, add material and delete material from the course
• Teaching Assistant – ability to do everything a course builder does with the additional ability to view the Grade Center, and make changes to the Grade Center (enter grades, override grades, change grades, clear attempts, view attempts, etc.)

To request any of these types of access to your course for another professor, send the name of the instructor, the course id, e.g., BIOL_100_101_7383_102, that you wish the instructor to access, and the type of role you would like the instructor to have in that course to Blackboard@luc.edu .

A. If you want the student to take the test at the same time as the other students you must create a separate test (give this test a unique name – do not name it the same as your original test) and deploy it in the same content area as the original test. This will create two columns in your grade center which means that you will have to decide how you want to treat that extra column for the special needs student – one option is to take that column out of Grade Center calculations and then manually enter the score the student received into the original test column – the one containing all the other grades.

In addition to creating a separate test you should also create two groups of students: one group will be all your students who can take the regular test; the other group will consist of the student(s) who will take the longer test. Visit this link for instructions on how to create groups: Creating Student Groups.

Then you must create an adaptive release rule for both tests such that only the students in the appropriate group will see the test assigned to them. To set an adaptive release rule, find the test that you deployed in a content area and select Manage then Adaptive release.  Under Membership, choose which group will have access to the test you are managing.

This is the basic process for simultaneous testing. You could have the special needs students take the test at a different time — you would still need to create groups and rules but you would not have to create a separate test. You would simply make the test available at a different time for each group and then modify the amount of time for the test when it was time for your special needs group to take it.

A. Visit this link to find online documentation and videos for help with basic features of the Grade Center: 

If you find that you need additional assistance you can come to a Blackboard Dropin on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. in the Information Commons, Room 221, LSC. These are first come, first served, and are devoted to Grade Center questions.

If these times are not convenient you can schedule a one-on-one Teaching with Technology (TWT) clinic. Visit this link for more information about TWTs Teaching with Technology Clinics and email Blackboard@luc.edu to ask questions or to schedule time during a clinic .

 A. You can see who is in a group by going to Control Panel, then clicking on Manage Groups in the User Management panel. Click on the Modify button for the group you want to see, then click on List Users in Group.  As instructor, you have access to all groups and do not need to add yourself, and you will not see yourself listed there.

When students who have been added to a group enter your course, they should click on the  Communication menu button, then on the Group Pages link. There, they will see a list of all the groups you have created, but only the name of the group they are in will appear as an active link that will give them access to the group when they click on it.

Tip: If you type the names of the group members into the Description box when you create or modify the group, you and your students can easily see who is a member without entering the group. 

Instructions for Creating Student Groups

A. It is possible to limit access to content based on group membership using an adaptive release rule. Here’s how:

1. From the control panel, post a content item in any content area.
2. Select Manage next to the item.
3. Select Adaptive Release.
4. On the Adaptive Release page under Membership, select the group(s) you want to give access to.
5. Scroll down and click Submit.

 Now the content will appear for the group(s) you selected, but others will not see it.

A. You should see your saved draft thread in the forum in which you were working when you added the thread;”draft” will appear as part of the thread name, and “Draft” will also appear to the right of the thread, under the Status heading. If you do not see your draft, check the Display box under the list of threads — if it does not say ”Show All,” click the dropdown arrow and select “Show All.” Nobody but you will see the thread until you submit it.

Visit this link and scroll down to “Blackboard Videos” to find more information on the Discussion Board.

 A. You can copy a discussion board from one course to another by selecting Course Copy from Course Options in the control panel. Choose “Copy Course materials into an existing Course.” Browse for the course to copy to, scroll down under “Select Course Materials” and select Discussion Board, then Submit.

Why would several of my students not be listed as  potential authors of a new Turnitin assignment? How can this be corrected, so that all the students may complete the assignment?

A. At first, your Turnitin roster will only show the names of students who have accessed Turnitin assignments. As your other students submit papers, their names and assignments will automatically be added to your Turnitin roster.

If you would like all student names to appear in the list immediately, go to the Control Panel and, in the Course Tools area, click on Turnitin Assignments, then click the View button for the assignment.  There is a Roster Sync button in the upper right corner of the Inbox that will import a list of all students enrolled in the course.

This function can also be used later to remove students who are no longer enrolled in the course. All submissions for students removed by a Roster Sync will disappear from all Turnitin assignments in the course.

Warning: Students who are removed by the roster sync function must be re-added to the Blackboard course and the Roster Sync function must be used again to regain access to any submissions for the student.

A.  Blackboard’s Performance Dashboard lists all users enrolled in the course, with pertinent information about each user’s activity, including date and time of last login, number of posts to the Discussion Board, and a link to students’ grades if the Grade Center is used.

The Performance Dashboard can be accessed on the Control Panel under Evaluation.

Visit this link for more information on the Performance Dashboard.

You can also watch a video on the Performance Dashboard.

A. Instead of clicking on the exclamation point, click on the chevron on the right side of the cell you are grading and then select Grade Details.

In the Grade Details screen, select View Attempt.

On the Grade Assignment page, in the User’s Work section, you will see anything the student typed into the text box beside “User’s Comments,” and any file he or she attached beside “User’s Files.”  Click on the name of a file to open it; or right-click on the filename and save it on your computer to read and mark the paper.

For more information on using the Assignment Tool, visit our Webpage or Flash Video .

 A. If students need help getting connected to a session they should call Wimba’s 24/7 Technical Support line 866-350-4978. They can get support via email at technicalsupport@wimba.com .

If they do not have a microphone and need to call in to take part in the session, the number to call is (201) 549-7592. If they intend to call in for this purpose, they should have already been given a pin number.

For more information, visit Loyola’s Wimba Technical Support page.

 A. Files submitted on Blackboard should have names that include only alphanumeric characters, hyphen, and underscore. If your students use other characters in their filenames, it is possible that you will not be able to view or open their files.

The solution is for students to rename their files without special characters and then resubmit their assignments.

A. Although instructors can upload materials in many different areas on Blackboard, there are limited ways for students to do this. If you would like your students to upload documents to Blackboard so that other students can see them, the simplest way is to create a discussion forum.

Instructions  for creating a Discussion Forum Web | Video

Once the forum is created, add a starter thread in which you ask your students to reply and attach their Word documents. The result should be a series of attached documents with each student’s name. For the sake of clarity in the forum, you may want to prevent students from creating their own threads, which is an option in Forum Settings.

Instructions for creating a thread Web | Video

A. We recommend that instructors routinely back up the Grade Center.  Downloading the Grade Center to Microsoft Excel each time you enter new grades is a good way to maintain a backup of your Grade Center in case Blackboard becomes inaccessible. Excel also offers more complex mathematical functions than Blackboard’s Grade Center.

For complete instructions on how to back up your Grade Center, visit either of the following links: Web Instructions | Video Instructions

For more information on the Grade Center, visit the Grade Center portion of the Faculty Help Resources page.

A. First you will need to set up your discussion so it is possible to subscribe.

1. Go to your course and click on Discussion Board in the menu on the left.
2. Click on the Modify button next to the forum and scroll down to Forum Settings on the Modify Forum page.
3. Beside Subscribe, select Allow Members to subscribe to forum or Allow members to subscribe to threads, and select whether the email notification will have the body of the post or only a link to the post.
4. Submit.

   Then, you will need to subscribe to the forum or thread:

1. Go to your course and click on Discussion Board in the menu on the left.
2. Click on the forum you want to subscribe to.
3. Click on the Subscribe button on the discussion toolbar.

4. You will see the message “Forum subscription successful.”

A. There isn’t a way to view assignments that have not been submitted, but you can make the assignment available to only a few students so they can submit later. Here’s how:

1. Go to the content area with the assignment using the course menu.
2. Click the chevron next to the assignment and select Adaptive Release.
3. On the Adaptive Release page under Membership, browse for the student(s) you want to give access to.
4. Scroll down and click Submit.

Now the assignment will appear for the students you selected, but others will not see it.

A. The process of adding a link in Blackboard is pretty straightforward: You can find text instructions here and video instructions here.

To find the link you need from the Library:

1. Find a link to Citation Linker at the bottom of the Library homepage http://libraries.luc.edu/ .
2. Fill out the form and, if the article is found, click on the link to the article on the Electronic Journals Search page.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for “Persistent link to this record.” (There are not always persistent links available.)
4. Select the persisent link, copy and paste into Blackboard.

A. In its Grade Center Reports function, Blackboard always inserts a page break between students. But you could create your own report by downloading selected Grade Center columns to a tab-delimited Excel file. Then, select the area of the spreadsheet that is being used and print the selection from Excel.

Downloading the Grade Center: Text instructions and Blackboard video.

A. When you type two adjacent spaces in a Blackboard announcement that you send as an email, you get that extra character. You can use the Enter key without getting the character, but avoid typing two spaces in a row.

A. You can allow student access to originality reports when you set up of your Turnitin assignment.  Here’s how:

1. Click the More options button at the bottom of the New Assignment page in Turnitin.
2. Choose the “yes” radio button beside “Allow students to see Originality Reports.”
3. Click Submit.

To view the report, the student should go to where the assignment was posted on Blackboard and click on the View/Complete link. Links to the original assignment and to the submitted paper will appear and, on the right side of the screen, under Contents, is a link with the percentage of the paper that was found to be unoriginal. The student clicks on the percentage to see the complete originality report.

Learn more about Turnitin assignments.

A. To print out your roster in Blackboard, follow these instructions:

1. Under the Control Panel, click Grade Center, then select Full Grade Center.
2. Highlight the Work Offline button on the right side of the screen and select Download.
   
3. Under Data: Select Data to Download, choose User Information Only.
4. Leave the default Options and click Submit.
5. Click the Download button to open and print the file or save it locally.

A. Students cannot see their course titles on their “My Institution” page, even if they are registered for their course and their name appears on the roster, unless instructors make the course available.

You must manually make the course available in the Course Options settings in the Control Panel; see our tutorial on Making Your Course Available or watch the Blackboard Video for complete instructions.

A. Loyola’s instance of Blackboard is hosted on Blackboard’s servers. Occasionally it is necessary for Blackboard to perform maintenance  on their network infrastructure, which may result in brief outages. This work is usually done at night or very early in the morning, when Blackboard assumes it will inconvenience the smallest number of users.

Blackboard Service Alerts is a blog from Information Technology Services that posts notices of scheduled outages. If you would like to know about planned Blackboard outages, you can click on the Blackboard Service Alerts link. 

If you subscribe to the feed using your Web browser or a Web-based feed reader such as Bloglines or Google Reader, you will get the most recent Service Alert delivered to you whenever it is posted. The benefit of subscribing is that you can receive the most up to date information without having to remember to visit the Service Alerts blog.

 A. Discussion threads are always ordered by date with the most recent thread at the top. Anyone can reverse his or her view of the threads, i.e. display the oldest thread at the top, by clicking the arrowhead above the title “Thread,” but that does not change the view for anyone else. 

It’s also possible to display any group of threads by clicking in the box to the left of the threads to view and then clicking the Collect button  on the toolbar.

A. Once you have created a test you must deploy it to a content area for students to view and submit. If you do not place your test in a content area students will not be able to access it.

For instructions on deploying a test, visit Deploying a Test.

For instructions on modifying a test, visit Modifying Test Instructions tutorial.

A. You can find basic instructions for setting up a Turnitin assignment at Setting up a Turnitin Assignment.

When you create your Turnitin assignment, make sure that the dates you assign are in the following order:

1. The start date is the date that you would like the assignment to be visible to students.
2. The due date must fall after the start date.
3. The post date must fall after the due date; the post date is when the assignment will be graded and available for student viewing.

If you do not follow this order for dates, the Turnitin assignment will not be created. You do get an error message in a yellow box when you enter the post date incorrectly, but it is not very distinguishable.

More Turnitin Resources

Turnitin Instructor User Manual
Flash Video: Viewing an Originality Report

A. You can use the Export/Import Course option to make a backup of your course content from last year and then import the content into your new course. For instructions on how to do this, please refer to the Blackboard videos on Exporting Your Course and Importing Your Course.

A. Once you have created the test and have deployed it to a content area, you will need to Modify the Test Options.  There will be the option to set the timer to whatever period of time you like.  You will be able to see the time the student took to take the exam recorded in the Grade Center. Here are complete instructions for creating a test and a Blackboard Video on the subject.

A. There are several possibilities for getting the Grade Center to list more students:

1. Remove (or hide) any unnecessary tool bars from the browser display.
2. If you are using a Windows PC, press the F11 key on the keyboard to see a full browser screen display. To return to the regular display, press F11 again.
3. Adjust the screen resolution on your computer monitor. You must have your screen resolution set to 1024 by 768 pixels in order to see more than one person in your Grade Center view. To set your screen resolution:

• Click on the Start button on your Desktop page.
• Choose Settings > Control Panel.
• In the Control Panel, click on Display.
• In the Display dialog box, click on Settings.
• In the Settings dialog box, locate the Screen Resolution bar and move the marker until you see the 1024 by 768 pixels appear under the marker arrow. Click on Apply.
• You will receive a message that your desktop has been reconfigured. Click on Yes.
• Your new settings will be put into place. Refresh your Blackboard browser window and you should now see more than one student appearing in the Grade Center.

To adjust screen resolution on a Mac:

• Select System Preferences from your Dock or within Applications.
• Under Hardware, select Displays.
• Select the highest available resolution.

A. You can see points possible for any item for which points are assigned in the Grade Center by clicking on the double arrow beside the column heading and selecting Quick Column Information. You can also see this information by clicking in any cell in a column and looking at the Grade Information Bar, located over the column headers in the spreadsheet: this row shows grade type, points possible, how the grade is displayed (score, percentage, etc.) and whether the grade is visible to students.

 You can see points possible for the entire course by reviewing Quick Column Information for the Total column.

A. You can work with only one student at a time in the spreadsheet view of the Grade Center by creating a Smart View. Here are the steps to create a Smart View:

1. Click the Manage menu button in the Full Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views.
3. Click the Create Smart View button.
4. Type a name for the view and, optionally, a description.
5. Under Selection Criteria, select User for Type of View.
6. Under Users select the student you want to grade. If you want to select more than one student at a time, click on the first student you want to grade, then hold down the Ctrl key and click on other students you want to include.
7. Under Filter Results, select the Grade Center columns you want to display; the default is All Columns.
8. Click Submit, then select the Smart View you created; you are now ready to enter grades.
9. To return to the view of the full Grade Center after grading in a Smart View, in the Control Panel click Grade Center > Full Grade Center.

A. You can’t undo a Course Copy, but you can go into the course you copied course materials to and quickly clean out that copied material using Bulk Delete. Here are the steps:

1. Go to the Control Panel of the course you want to remove the copied content from.
2. Under the Packages and Utilities heading, click on Bulk Delete. A message tells you that this action is final and cannot be undone.
3. Select the materials to remove.
4. Type Delete in the Confirmation box at the bottom of the page.
5. Click Submit.

A. If you use the Export option in Blackboard, you get a zip file of course materials without student records that you can store on your hard drive or portable flash drive for the purpose of importing into another course. With the Archive option you will get course materials and student records, but you have to request that option by emailing Blackboard@luc.edu. With both Archive and Export the data can only be viewed by restoring the course in Blackboard or importing into a new course.

We recommend that instructors routinely back-up the Grade center; when you use the “Download”option in the Grade center, you get an Excel file that can be viewed outside of Blackboard.

Check out these videos for Exporting Your Course, Importing Your Course, and Working Offline in the Grade Center, or our written tutorial on Backing Up Your Course Grades for more information.

Q

A. Make sure that you have either set up a thread inside the forum for students to reply to or allowed students to create their own threads.  Also, allowing attachments in the forum will allow students to work on their replies outside Blackboard and then attach them to their posts.

To adjust the forum settings to allow students to create their own threads and to allow attachments:

1. Click on the chevron to the right of the forum name.
2. Select Edit.
3. On the Edit Forum page, click to put a checkmark in the boxes beside “Allow file attachments” and “Allow members to create new threads.”
4. Click Submit.

To add a thread:

1. Click on the name of the forum.
2. Click on the Create Thread button.
3. Add the subject of the thread and, in the Message box, add any information students will need to respond; you can add an attachment if you have more information.
4. Click Submit.

For more information for instructors on setting up and using a Discussion Board in Blackboard, please visit the tutorials under the Discussion Board heading on the Faculty Resources webpage.
Students can find videos on creating and replying to a discussion thread on the Student Resources under the Blackboard 9 Videos heading.

A. Simply entering a Score for a column that uses the Primary Display of “Percentage” will not calculate the Percentage. To calculate a Score’s Percentage select “Score” from the Primary Display drop-down menu and select “Percentage” from the Secondary Display drop-down menu.

A. You can attach your PowerPoint file with builds, transitions, and animations to a discussion board post. Anyone in your class who has either PowerPoint 2003 or 2007 should be able to view your presentation. If there is anyone who does not have PowerPoint, they can download a free viewer from Microsoft.

A. The Export/Import Course option allows you to make a backup of your course content and then import the content into your new course. For instructions on how to do this, please refer to our tutorial on  Exporting and Importing Your Blackboard Course.

A. In your Grade Center, first sort by First Name and then by Last Name:

1. Click in the dark gray title cell of the First Name column.
2. A yellow up arrow should appear right above First Name, indicating that the Grade Center is sorting by First Name, in ascending order. If you see a yellow down arrow, just click on it to change it to an up arrow.
3. Then click in the dark gray title cell of the Last Name column to get the arrow to appear.
4. If the arrow is pointing up, the Grade Center is sorting by Last Name, in ascending order;  but, because you already sorted by First Name, it is preserving the First Name, in ascending order,  within the same Last Name. If the arrow that appears in the Last Name column is pointing down, click on it to change it to an up arrow.  

A. You have probably created the column via the Add Calculated Column choice rather than Add Grade Center column choice. Calculated Columns are designed to compute scores based on the values of other columns, e.g., calculating the average of five columns, or dropping the lowest score of a series of columns and then totaling the remaining columns. To check the type of column you have created:

1. Click on the chevron icon beside the title of the column.
2. Click on Modify Column.
3. If you have a Select Columns option available to you in panel number 3 you have created a Calculated Column.
4. Go back to your Grade Center.
5. Find the mistakenly created calculated column.
6. Click on the chevron icon.
7. Choose Remove Column.

Check out this Creating a Grade Center Item video for instructions on how to create a column to manually enter grades.

Each week, the Blackboard @ Loyola team will choose one question from the many received that represents the concerns of many others and will post the answer in the blog. You can read the Question of the Week by clicking on the link on Loyola’s Technology homepage, or you can subscribe using your Web browser or a Web-based feed reader such as Bloglines or Google Reader to get the most recent Question of the Week delivered to you.  

For support information, visit our contact page .  To see answers to the most pressing questions of the week, click on the link for the Blackboard Question of the Week Blog, under News and Events on the Information Technology Services homepage .