Tip of the Week: Pin a Program to the Task bar

Application: Windows 7

If there are certain documents or programs that you use frequently, consider pinning them to the task bar. This feature eliminates the need to navigate through the Start menu to find an item. Programs and documents can be pinned or unpinned as needed.

Pinning a program to the taskbar

Choose one of the following:

If the program is open, right-click the program button on the taskbar and select Pin this program to the taskbar.

-or-

If the program is not open, click Start, navigate to the program and right-click, then select Pin to Taskbar.

Pinning a document to the taskbar

Select the closed file and drag to the taskbar. The icon for the associated program will appear. Right-click the icon to find the document.

To unpin items from the taskbar, right click and select Unpin this program from taskbar.

Watch it happen in this video: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Pin-a-program-to-the-taskbar

A Blackboard Tip of the Week: Announcing the 2012 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program

Tip: The Blackboard Exemplary Course Program aims to help faculty use e-Learning technology more effectively by identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses.

Using a rubric, instructors and course designers are able to evaluate how well their own course conforms to best practices for Course Design, Interaction & Collaboration, Assessment and Learner Support.

Consider participating in the 2012 Exemplary Course Program by submitting a course of your own or volunteering to be a reviewer or both!

There are many benefits to participating in the Exemplary Course Program:

• Learn course design best practices to improve the engagement, collaboration, assessment and learner support within your own courses
• Develop a fresh perspective by seeing how other instructors and designers from your discipline or area of interest are developing their courses
• Apply lessons learned from the Exemplary Course Rubric to your own courses or those you are helping to develop
• Receive detailed feedback on your own course development on the best practices you are employing or areas in which it can be improved
• Gain professional development experience and recognition for your accomplishments and participation in the program

This is a valuable learning experience for even the most seasoned instructor or designer.

To learn more about the 2012 Exemplary Course Program:

• Visit the Exemplary Course Program wiki
• View the Award Study Guide
• Learn about how to participate in the 2012 Exemplary Course Program and download the rubric

We encourage you to consider participating in the Exemplary Course Program. If you have questions, please send an email to: ecp@blackboard.com

To stay up-to-date on all things related to the Exemplary Course Program and other Catalyst Awards, you can ‘Like’ them on Facebook!

Tip of the Week: Chart Improvements

Application: Excel 2010

Excel 2010 has enhanced charting features. In older versions of Excel, charts limited the number of data points. Formatting chart elements is easier in 2010-double-click any part of the chart for a dialog box to open. Colors, patterns, fills, and more can be modified.

Inserting a Chart

1. Enter the data to be charted on a worksheet.
2. Select the cells containing data to be charted.
3. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, choose a chart type by clicking the down arrow by a chart name.
4. The chart will appear on the worksheet. The Chart Tools toolbar will become available if modifications are needed.

For more information about chart formatting options in Excel 2010, see this Microsoft article entitled Change the format of chart elements.

Tip of the Week: Email merge

Application: Word & Outlook 2010

Microsoft Word offers a mail merge wizard with step by step instructions to send emails by mail merge. With e-mail merge, each e-mail message is a separate mailing where each recipient is the sole recipient of each message. Each message can be personalized to address each recipient by name, yet the content of each message is unique. The unique information in each message comes from entries in a data file such as an Excel spreadsheet. This is unlike broadcasting an e-mail message to group of recipients or hiding recipients on the blind carbon copy (bcc) line of the message in each recipient only sees the email addressed to them.

Email merge process

1. Using the mail merge wizard, set up the email message in Word.
2. Connect the email message document to the data list.
3. Determine which recipients in the list will receive the email.
4. Add placeholders or mail merge fields to the email message document.
5. Preview and complete the merge.

For detailed instructions for each of these steps, see the Microsoft Office article Use mail merge to send personalized messages to your e-mail address list.

A Blackboard Tip of the Week: Grading Discussion Boards

Tip: You can grade Blackboard discussion board forums or threads by enabling the grading option when creating or editing a discussion forum.

Here’s how to create a gradable discussion forum:

1. Click on the Course Tools area of the Control Panel then select Discussion Board in the expanded menu.


2. On the Discussion Board page, click on the discussion board in which you would like to create the forum.
• NOTE: By default, Blackboard creates one discussion board per course. More discussion boards are created when groups with discussion boards are created through the Groups tool.


3. Click on the Create Forum button and create the forum as usual but do not click Submit yet.
• NOTE: If the forum already exists, click on the action link next to the forum name and select Edit.


4. Scroll down to the Grade options under section 4, Forum Settings, find the Grade section, and select one of the following:
1. Grade Discussion Forum
• Set the points possible for this forum grade.
• NOTE: Blackboard automatically creates a Grade Center column for this forum.


2. Grade Threads
• Students will not be able to create threads in this forum.
• When you create threads in this forum for students to reply to, you will be given the option to make the thread a graded thread and assign a point value.
• NOTE: Blackboard automatically creates a Grade Center column for each thread enabled for grading.

Here’s how to grade:

1. Access the forum or thread you would like to grade


2. Click on the Grade Forum or Grade Thread button


3. Click on the Grade button in the row of the student whose work you will be grading
• NOTE: On the resulting page, you can filter, sort, and print the student’s posts


4. Click on the Edit Grade button in the right-hand column to enter a grade, feedback to the student, and grading notes that will be visible to you and any other instructors or teaching assistants in the course


5. Click on Save Grade and then select the student whose posts you would like to grade from the Contributors section
• NOTE: This section only lists students who have posted in the forum or thread unless you click on the Show All button. Students with an exclamation mark in a green square have not been graded yet.


6. Click on OK to return to the Grade Forum or Thread page