Visit our web site for details

Blackboard Upgrade Window June 4 - 7

Blackboard will be upgraded after the end of this semester to version 9.1, service pack 8 (SP8). The system will be down June 4 - 7 in order to perform the upgrade. The single biggest change you’ll see in the system is with its visual appearance. The new look (which you can see now by logging into our sandbox environement) will feature a selection of course themes and customizable styles, very much in the vein of WordPress. Some of the main functional changes will include:

Course-to-course Navigation - Course-to-Course Navigation allows students and instructors to jump from course to course while retaining the context of the page or task from the original page of any recently accessed course.
Automated Regrading - Instructors can now fix problematic questions by simply editing the invalid question directly and having all necessary updates flow automatically to the Grade Center. For any assessment question, instructors can drop, give full credit, change point value, or change which answer is marked correct. After the question has been updated, Blackboard Learn recalculates the score of all submitted assessments that included the updated question, reflects the updates in the Grade Center, and provides notification to both the Instructor and optionally to the Student for all impacted submissions.
Negative Marking - Negative Marking allows Instructors to apply negative point values for incorrect answers on assessment questions.
Course Structures - Course Structures are pre-built structures that focus on specific aspects of a course including Activity, Communication, Content, Systems, and Time. Other Structures mimic the ANGEL and WebCT legacy platforms. These structures re-align the left navigation to match the pedagogical needs of the particular course type.
Quick Setup Guide - When Instructors first enter a course they are presented with a Quick Setup screen that provides links to documents that outline working with content and getting started in the course environment. There are also direct links to the On Demand Learning Center and help.blackboard.com. This feature will help acquaint new users to Blackboard Learn courses, features, and capabilities to help them quickly get started.

For more information from Blackboard, click here. Contact Academic Technology if you have questions.

Fall 2012 Training Schedule

We have published our training schedule for fall 2012. Our complete training descriptions can be found here, and our tabular schedule of events here. New for fall will be in-person workshops in "QR Codes for Learning," "How to Capture & Produce Video with Camtasia," "A Website in a Month"—a four part series on WordPress, "Mashup Tools in Blackboard," and several faculty panel discussions. Several of the popular in-person workshops from previous semesters will be repeated, including the PowerPoint 3-part series, "Getting Started with WordPress," "Introduction to POET," "How to Edit Video with Camtasia," and "eTexts, eReaders and eTextbooks."

Our 4-part online Blackboard training series will be refreshed to reflect changes to Blackboard with the Service Pack 8 upgrade. The online Blackboard workshops are open entry throughout the fall semester, but all work must be completed by December 1.

We will also be featuring our Blackboard with Cream and Sugar sessions for less formal training, and any faculty member can schedule appointements with our technicians for one-on-one sessions. As always, contact Academic Technology if you have questions.

eReaders and Tablets for Checkout

We recently delivered a workshop on eTexts, eReaders and eTextbooks. Participants in the workshop were given the opportunity to handle eReaders from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and iRiver, and tablets from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Samsung and Apple. We now have these devices for 2-week faculty checkout. If you want to get the feel of one of these devices before making a purchasing decision, contact Terry Gray for checkout details.

Trouble reading this? Click here.	Number 130 - April 30, 2012

Blackboard Upgrade Window June 4 - 7 Blackboard will be upgraded after the end of this semester to version 9.1, service pack 8 (SP8). The system will be down June 4 - 7 in order to perform the upgrade. The single biggest change you’ll see in the system is with its visual appearance. The new look (which you can see now by logging into our sandbox environement) will feature a selection of course themes and customizable styles, very much in the vein of WordPress. Some of the main functional changes will include: Course-to-course Navigation - Course-to-Course Navigation allows students and instructors to jump from course to course while retaining the context of the page or task from the original page of any recently accessed course. Automated Regrading - Instructors can now fix problematic questions by simply editing the invalid question directly and having all necessary updates flow automatically to the Grade Center. For any assessment question, instructors can drop, give full credit, change point value, or change which answer is marked correct. After the question has been updated, Blackboard Learn recalculates the score of all submitted assessments that included the updated question, reflects the updates in the Grade Center, and provides notification to both the Instructor and optionally to the Student for all impacted submissions. Negative Marking - Negative Marking allows Instructors to apply negative point values for incorrect answers on assessment questions. Course Structures - Course Structures are pre-built structures that focus on specific aspects of a course including Activity, Communication, Content, Systems, and Time. Other Structures mimic the ANGEL and WebCT legacy platforms. These structures re-align the left navigation to match the pedagogical needs of the particular course type. Quick Setup Guide - When Instructors first enter a course they are presented with a Quick Setup screen that provides links to documents that outline working with content and getting started in the course environment. There are also direct links to the On Demand Learning Center and help.blackboard.com. This feature will help acquaint new users to Blackboard Learn courses, features, and capabilities to help them quickly get started. For more information from Blackboard, click here. Contact Academic Technology if you have questions. Fall 2012 Training Schedule We have published our training schedule for fall 2012. Our complete training descriptions can be found here, and our tabular schedule of events here. New for fall will be in-person workshops in "QR Codes for Learning," "How to Capture & Produce Video with Camtasia," "A Website in a Month"—a four part series on WordPress, "Mashup Tools in Blackboard," and several faculty panel discussions. Several of the popular in-person workshops from previous semesters will be repeated, including the PowerPoint 3-part series, "Getting Started with WordPress," "Introduction to POET," "How to Edit Video with Camtasia," and "eTexts, eReaders and eTextbooks." Our 4-part online Blackboard training series will be refreshed to reflect changes to Blackboard with the Service Pack 8 upgrade. The online Blackboard workshops are open entry throughout the fall semester, but all work must be completed by December 1. We will also be featuring our Blackboard with Cream and Sugar sessions for less formal training, and any faculty member can schedule appointements with our technicians for one-on-one sessions. As always, contact Academic Technology if you have questions. eReaders and Tablets for Checkout We recently delivered a workshop on eTexts, eReaders and eTextbooks. Participants in the workshop were given the opportunity to handle eReaders from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and iRiver, and tablets from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Samsung and Apple. We now have these devices for 2-week faculty checkout. If you want to get the feel of one of these devices before making a purchasing decision, contact Terry Gray for checkout details. New From Our Blog Placing Your Personal Documents on the Kindle Training Schedule, Fall 2012 Blogging and Journaling in Blackboard Kindle Touch Software Update Tech Toolbox: Educreations 5 Reasons Yout Should Be Using Evernote A Kindle Taxonomy Blackboard: Tracking Student Access A Brief Introduction to Google Docs What Page? The Amazon Kindle Family Wonders of the Universe Blackboard Course Archives and Grade Backups Publishing Your Camtasia Videos News From Our Twitter Feed Kindle Fire now #1 Android tablet (ars technica) Barnes & Noble to spin off digital Nook business (The Verge) Google Sells SketchUp (Google Earth Blog) Security firm claims Mac security is "10 years behind" Microsoft (ars technica) MIT + Khan Academy = We All Win (Edudemic) The rise of e-reading (Pew Internet) Introducing TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing (TED) Amazon releases "Send to Kindle" desktop software for Mac (ars technica) Google Drive vs. Dropbox, SkyDrive, SugarSync, and others (The Verge) New version of Camtasia for Mac bends time and space (The Visual Lounge) 1 in 5 Macs Has Malware (Mashable) 3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Visit our web site for details, follow us to learn more: