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Blackboard Upgrade
Version 6.1
August 2004
The New Server
Blackboard has been migrated to a new quad-processor server with 12 GB of RAM in order to boost performance and meet the growing need for more Blackboard classes.
The Access Denied Error
Since the implementation of the PeopleSoft 8 system (June 7, 2004), faculty and students have been reporting an Access Denied error when they attempt to access resources within Blackboard. This is being caused by the new PeopleSoft system. If a user accesses the new PeopleSoft system and leaves it without signing out, it leaves the session cookie locked so that other applications, including Blackboard, cannot access it. Blackboard uses the session cookie--once the user is logged in--to identify the user for that session and grant the user access to resources. Therefore, the Access Denied error.
By following these steps, users should be able to "unlock" this session cookie and gain access to their courses:
- Go to the Palomar eServices/PeopleSoft system.
- Sign in. (If you don't remember your Signin information, use "GUEST" [in all capital letters] as both username and password.)
- Click the Signout link in the upper right corner of the eServices screen.
- Return to the
Blackboard Login Page, and log in normally.
For further information, help, or to report some other problem: email technical support.
Instructor Manual, Version 6.1
Two versions of the Blackboard Learning System (Release 6.1) Instructor Manual are available for your use:
-
An Online version is available here. This version includes a useful Table of Contents listing each function in Blackboard.
-
An Adobe Acrobat .pdf version that can be downloaded and printed is available here; the printed version of this guide is 355 pages long. The Acrobat Reader necessary to view and access this Manual can be downloaded for free here.
For further information on What's New in Blackboard Version 6.1, as well as other helpful services, visit the PC Online Faculty Services page.
Blackboard Topics
Blackboard (Bb) Training Series
Teaching Online Training Series
Preview Palomar College Faculty Blackboard Sites
Obtaining a Blackboard Site for Your Courses
Blackboard Login Site for PC Online
PC Online Faculty Services - Adding Students to Your Bb Site
How to Renew Your Blackboard Site(s) for Each Semester/Term
Class Rosters and Blackboard sites
Tutorials for Using Blackboard
Academic
Technology administers the technical aspects of
Palomar's online college, and online materials for all courses.
The Blackboard Learning System can be used in both standard
face-to-face classes, hybrid classes with partial online content, and
fully online courses.
The Blackboard system provides an easy-to-learn online site for communicating with your students via email, discussion boards, and announcements. An online grade book allows students to securely access their grades for individual assignments as well as their total score for the course. Class handouts can be easily posted for student access 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. A separate area for groups allows the instructor to create group sites with a separate discussion board and email portal.
A very easy system to learn, Blackboard can be accessed by faculty and students over the Internet from anywhere in the world. Most instructors who teach online use the Blackboard Learning System to organize and present their courses.
We offer Blackboard Training to interested faculty. Blackboard 1 is essential for all users. Blackboard 2 and 3 are essential if you will be teaching a fully online class, or use Blackboard's assessments, gradebook and communication tools in your face-to-face or hybrid classes. Blackboard 4 and 5 are for more experienced users of Blackboard.
- Blackboard 1 - "Introduction to Using Blackboard at Palomar College" - The basics of how to set up and manage a Blackboard course at Palomar.
- Blackboard 2A - "Creating & Deploying Tests, Surveys & Using the Gradebook" - How to create and deploy several types of exams in Blackboard, and how to use the electronic gradebook.
- Blackboard 2B - “Advanced Test Design and Question Pools in Blackboard” - A focused discussion of assessment design and deployment, with an emphasis on question pools.
- Blackboard 3 - "Interacting with Your Students Using Blackboard" - Your options for instructor/student interaction using Blackboard and how to use them.
- Blackboard 4 - "Advanced Content Management in Blackboard" - For experienced users, presents best practices in web linking, PowerPoint uploads and use, zip and unzip techniques, video/audio use and formats, inline graphics, internal linking within Blackboard and other techniques.
- Blackboard 5 - "Effective Blackboard Course Design and Delivery" - For those who know the basics and want to design their course structure, mechanisms and content consistent with best practices.
We also offer a 2-part training series for teaching online courses:
- Putting Your Class Online, I & II - putting all the Blackboard parts together and/or your individual web site to create an online class.
- Recommended Timeline to Develop and Offer An Online Class at Palomar
Preview Palomar College Faculty Blackboard Sites
Faculty and Students may preview existing Blackboard sites maintained by Palomar College faculty here.
Click on the 
button to enter the course site.
Obtaining a Blackboard Site for Your Courses
If you are interested in using Blackboard to teach online, or as an enhancement to your real-time class(es), submit a Blackboard Developmental Course request form, or contact Bonnie Dowd, ext. 3626.
Instructions on how to login to your Blackboard site will be sent to you by email after your site has been created.
Blackboard Login Site for PC Online
Click here to login to your Blackboard site.
Students may access their classes for the first time by using their nine-digit Student ID number as both username and password.
PC Online Faculty Services - Adding Students
Faculty who wish to add students not on the original class roster to course Blackboard sites can do so here.
How to Renew Your Blackboard Site(s)
It is necessary to renew your Blackboard sites at the end of each semester or session, in order to have the class rosters added to each site that you maintain. To do this, please contact David Gray - dgray@palomar.edu - and provide him with the following information:
The number and title of the course site that you would like to renew, and the 5-digit class number for each course site that you wish to renew. For example: HIST 101, History of the United States, #30404
Class Rosters and Blackboard Sites
One of the many advantages to using a Blackboard site with your classes, either online or face-to-face, is having your class roster for each section available each semester for email communication with students and the posting of grades.
These rosters are loaded into each site by the weekend before each college term. Until this time, your registered students will not have access to your Blackboard site unless you activate the Guest Access feature of each Blackboard site.
With Guest Access, any student may access your site through the PCOnline Catalog page.
Sites with Guest Access have a preview
button like this:
Class rosters will be added to your Blackboard site(s) the weekend before the beginning of each term. Until that time, without Guest Access your site(s) will be unavailable to your students, and will be listed as "[Unavailable]" in the My Courses - Courses you are teaching area of the My Palomar welcome page of each Instructor's Blackboard account.
Academic Technology strongly recommends that faculty enable the Guest Access feature of their Blackboard sites so that students interested in previewing some of your course content may do so. For example, after enabling Guest Access for your site you can make the area that contains your list of course readings and/or the syllabus available to guests. You should restrict Guest Access to course areas that you do not want visitors to access.
You may restrict Guest Access to any specific area of your course site in the Manage Course Menu section of the Course Option area of the Control Panel, after you have enabled Guest Access as described above.
Click here for further information on the activation of "Guest Access" from Chapter 4 of the Blackboard Instructor Manual.
Tutorials for Using Blackboard
Tutorials are available here for students and faculty on the following topics:
Logging in to Blackboard
Changing your personal account information (password, email address)
Using the Digital Drop Box
Textbook Publisher Course Cartridges
An increasing number of textbook publishers are providing
Blackboard Course Cartridges to supplement their textbooks. Course
Cartridges are an easy way for instructors to supplement their Blackboard
courses with content-rich materials developed by academic publishers. Using a
Course Cartridge allows you to import publishers’ content directly into a
Blackboard course site.
Cartridges may contain a wide variety of resources, including basic instructional text, PowerPoint presentations, subject-specific multimedia objects such as videos, or banks of test questions. Publishers may use different kinds of content in different Cartridges. Cartridge content is typically updated when new textbook editions are released. Access to the Cartridges can be provided by your Textbook Sales Representative.
Click here to access the Blackboard.com web site with additional information on Course Cartridges.
- Link to Instructor Training Center at Blackboard.com
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Last modified
06/10/2008.