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
Category: Documentation
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
Scroll Bars that Disappear!?
This does happen and it is a known issue. I had the hardest time duplicating this issue and I even met with the student to see it in action. I was relieved when Blackboard support came back and told me it was a known issue because even now I can’t duplicate this problem reliably. https://answers.uillinois.edu/page.php?id=84176
Students! Best Practices for Taking Online Tests
I wrote some documentation that outlines best practices for students taking online tests. As I was writing this I felt there was a lot of advice I could give, but I tried to keep this general enough so that it applies to most readers. I have a feeling I’ll be adding more to this eventually.… Continue reading Students! Best Practices for Taking Online Tests
Attendance Report for Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
As of this writing there is no integration between Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and the Grade Center for attendance taking; however, we are getting more and more questions about how to track who is joining class and for how long. The reports available from within Bb Learn are very helpful for this, and I documented the… Continue reading Attendance Report for Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
Students Using the Mobile App for Fully Online Courses
We occasionally get questions from students asking if it’s O.K. to use the Blackboard App or telephony option for participating in online classes that use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. While it’s technically possible, there are restrictions in what a user can do on the app and over the phone vs. the experience of using a desktop or… Continue reading Students Using the Mobile App for Fully Online Courses
Export Your Course Archive
A necessary, although restrictive customization with our Blackboard Learn isntance is the inability of course owners to export an archive of their course. There is a very good policy reason for this, but it is not well known (even by our first tier staff). I created some public-facing documentation to inform both our central IT… Continue reading Export Your Course Archive
Where are the Discussion Boards?!
Every so often my group gets an email from a student that says that all their Discussion Boards are gone! It turns out that this is because somehow they set it up to only display drafts. Cases like this need not get escalated above tier I. https://answers.uillinois.edu/78883
Graduate Academy
Every year I’m invited to present at the Fall and Spring Graduate Academy to train incoming Teaching Assistants on the use of Blackboard Learn. I use this opportunity to not just talk about Blackboard features, but I also cover topics related to eLearning and other centrally supported IT tools at our institution. I created the… Continue reading Graduate Academy
Creating a Sign-up sheet using the Wiki Tool
We frequently get requests from instructors who want to create a sign-up sheet for managing logistics of signing up for final presentations or office hours. It’s nice to keep everything within the LMS and not have to refer instructors to any 3rd party tools, so I created the following documentation which outlines the process of… Continue reading Creating a Sign-up sheet using the Wiki Tool