We recently implemented a 100mb File Upload limit on our enterprise Blackboard environment. We announced the change on January 20th and implemented it on March 1st. I don’t agree with the short time frame from announcement to implementation. I also don’t agree with the reasoning, as published in our KB which states that the reason… Continue reading 100 MB File Size Limit
Assignment submission receipts
Content Collection Woes
I am no fan of the Blackboard Learn Content Collection. In almost 8 years of working with the product I have not seen any real improvement to the Content Collection. For many, it is virtually invisible and does its job on the back end, but for those power users who dare to wade into it’s… Continue reading Content Collection Woes
On-Boarding Documentation
The intention of the document below is to on-board new hires at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Even though that’s not my department, we need to work together often. This document provides an overview of the topics new hires need to be aware of, and serves as an agenda for further discussion… Continue reading On-Boarding Documentation
30 Second How-to Video for Adding Users
There’s something about adding other users to a Compass course that poses significant difficulties for faculty and other administrators. Is the problem caused by too many steps in the process? Perhaps there are too many places to click incorrectly? Are users who struggle just rushed? Is there truly a design flaw that makes this process… Continue reading 30 Second How-to Video for Adding Users
User Permissions Error
It feels like at the beginning of every major academic term we get reports of instructors getting permissions errors when trying to enroll other users in the course. This issue has plagued me for years! Recently we found out the steps that cause this to happen.
Is Central IT Doomed to Always be Late to the Party?
One thing I see a lot of in my job is that the central IT is frequently late to the party when it comes to procuring software services to provide to campus. This usually happens when departmental IT units across campus aquire licenses of new or trending software that does a superior job at fulfilling… Continue reading Is Central IT Doomed to Always be Late to the Party?
Students that can’t upload documents
Every once in awhile I’ll tell my wife about a problem we’re seeing recurring at the office. In this case, it was an issue where students are saving their homework as a draft, then they are emailing support because they can’t find a button to upload anything. This is common with group assignments, where one… Continue reading Students that can’t upload documents
Create a Calculated Column
This is a video tutorial that I created to help our users understand how to set up weighted grading. I couldn’t find a good, succinct tutorial online, so I tried to make one myself. Surely, this is a difficult topic to teach in under five minutes, but I think this will be useful in getting… Continue reading Create a Calculated Column
Organizing the Grade Center with Smart Views
I made this video as part of the final project for an ION course I’m taking on creating accessible videos. It covers a common issue that arises at the start of an academic term: how do large classes organize their grade books by discussion section. I’m sure I’ll be sharing this widely.