What's new for teaching?

Fall 2007 - New in Blackboard

Blackboard CMS Learning Objects Tools
We are still using Blackboard to manage our courses, but those of you who use Journals and Teams may notice some positive changes to those tools when the learning objects upgrade takes place.

Journals: The journal tool some of you have become accustomed to will show the following changes when the upgrade is implemented:

Creation:
When you are trying to create a journal:
“Journal” has been replaced by “Blog” in the drop down add menu on the right.
The page that displays is called “blog tool.”
Use:
After you have created blogs for your class, you will notice the following:
The editing toolbar is more comprehensive and allows more flexibility.
Once an entry has been created, they can be viewed as before, but there is a menu on the right that shows a calendar with entry dates underlined, a list of archives, and a view counter in addition to a search which allows instructors and students to find particular content quickly and easily.
Help:
To get help with this tool, click the question mark in the upper right of the page. Clicking this icon opens the “Users Guide for Journal LXTM” It includes a list of help topics for all users on the left, with a guide specifically for instructors.

Teams: The Teams tool some of you have become accustomed to will show the following changes when the upgrade is implemented:

Creation:
When you are trying to create a teams site:
“Teams Group Site” has been replaced by “Wiki” in the add menu on the right.
The page that displays is called “wiki tool.”
Use:
After you have created teams site wiki for your class, you will notice the following:
The home page is displayed when the site is accessed, and a link to editing appears with a request to click the link to begin. You can also access editing mode by clicking the link in the right-hand menu.
The editing toolbar is more comprehensive and allows more flexibility.
Once an entry has been created, they can be viewed as before, but there is a menu on the right that shows a page list, a view counter in addition to a search which allows instructors and students to find particular content quickly and easily.
Help:
To get help with this tool, click the question mark in the upper right of the page. Clicking this icon opens the “Users Guide for Teams LXTM” It includes a list of help topics for all users on the left, with a guide specifically for instructors.

Pod Casts:
This brand new tool allows users to deploy and organize pod casts for student access. Once you have downloaded or created your own mp3 files, you can import them and organize them through this tool. Help with this tool is available from the help menu as with the other tools. You can set up the tool to access podcasts from iTunes or any other source that you have downloaded to your computer. The course tools menu item will display a list of all podcasts in the course no matter which content area contains them. If you think this would be useful in your course, contact your instructional technologist to discuss the best ways to use this tool.

School of Health Sciences and School of Business: Maureen Schorr

College of Arts and Sciences and School of Communications: Gary Pandolfi