Course Banners

Course banners appear at the entry point of a course. Instructors can create a banner using Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Banners can include various colors, images, or shapes.
Create a banner in PowerPoint
1.     In PowerPoint, on the Design tab, select Page Setup. 2.     In the section Slides Sized for, select banner from the drop down. Click OK. 3.     Create the banner with any colors, themes, images, or other design options. 4.     When finished, click File. 5.     Select Save As. When the Save As dialog box appears, add a file name. 6.     Navigate to the Save as type drop down and select PNG. 7.     Click Save.
Add the banner to Blackboard
1.     Log in to Blackboard and navigate to the specific course where the banner is to be added. On the Control Panel click Customization. 2.     Click Style. 3.     Under Banner, select Browse My Computer to attach the file. 4.     Click Submit.
Blackboard Byte: Course Banners (click to see video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhtbTsILhA&list=PLA6F88267DF7543EA&index=3&feature=plcp

Grade Center Smart Views

Smart views can be used to group students by section in situations of team teaching or multiple teaching assistants. Smart views can also be used to view course groups, grouping of students by performance, and or grouping of certain assignment types.

How to set up grade center smart views: 1.   On the Control Panel click arrows to the right of Grade Center. 2.   On the Grade Center page, click Manage and select Smart Views from the dropdown menu. 3.   On the Smart Views page, click Create Smart View. 4.   On the Create Smart View page, enter a name (required) and description (optional). NOTE:  You can make your commonly-used Smart Views favorites by clicking Add as Favorite. It will appear in the Grade Center dropdown of the Control Panel. 5.   Select a Type of View from one of the following: ·      Course Group (View one or more course groups) ·      Performance (View specific users based on their performance on a single item) ·      User (View individual users) ·      Category and Status (View items by their category and status) ·      Custom (Build a query based on user criteria) 6.   Select the criteria you would like to use to limit users. 7.   Use Filter Results to choose which columns you would like to view. 8.   Click Submit then OK. 9.   Click Filter. In the Current View dropdown, select a Smart View.

What needs grading?

Blackboard offers a Needs Grading area to the Grade Center. This allows instructors to find Blackboard assignments and tests that need to be graded without having to load the entire grade center.

Access the Needs Grading Area

1. Go to control panel and select Grade Center
2. Click Needs Grading

Options Available

To view the options bar, click Filter.

Filter is based on:

• Category: Assignment, test, etc.
• Item: name of item
• User: usernames
• Date Submitted: Any date, before, after, exact date uses the date selection tool

After selecting options, click Go. A list of items needing to be graded will appear.

From this point, more options become available:

• Show All: show all items needing to be graded
• Edit Paging: limit the number of items to be listed
• Drop down by each name:
• Grade all users
• Grade anonymously

Student Group View

Instructors can use groups in their courses to allow team work among students. Blackboard 9.1 automatically shows a student that they are enrolled in group or groups directly below the course menu.

• The My Group menu appears automatically when students are placed in a group.
• Students can click on the My Group down arrow to see the group they are in for that class. The down arrow beside the group name shows the tools that the instructor enabled for that group, similar to the control panel for instructors.
• If you would like to be able to have a student view in your course, contact Blackboard support blackboard@twu.edu.

Blackboard Byte: Student Group View

(click to see video)



http://youtu.be/qdvYyWGvIl8

For instructor information about setting up groups, please visit our website www.twu.edu/blackboard

Color Coding the Grade Center

Instructors can use color coding in the grade center to visually differentiate items in progress, needs grading, and exempt. Color coding can also be used for grade ranges such as items falling above or below a certain percentage.

Set color coding preferences:

1. On the Control Panel, click Grade Center and select Full Grade Center.
2. Click the Manage drop down arrow and select Grading Color Codes.
3. In the Color Code Information section, place a check in the box by Enable Grading Color Codes.
4. In the Color Coding Options section, use the drop down in each category (In Progress, Needs Grading or Exempt) to determine the color coding.
5. In the Grade Ranges section, click Add Criteria to add color coding for grade items that are more than, less than or between specified criteria. Multiple criteria can be set.
6. Click Submit.

A Blackboard Tip of the Week: Grading Discussion Boards

Grading Discussion Boards

Discussion boards can be graded from within each forum. To grade discussion boards, first verify that grading is enabled. Grading can be enabled at any point, even after students have posted to the discussion board.

Verify grading is enabled:

1. Navigate to the discussion board.
2. Click the drop down arrow by the specific forum and select Edit
3. Under Forum Settings, check that Grade Forum or Grade Threads is selected
• Grade Discussion Forum will allow you to assign grades for students’ posts to that forum
• Grade Threads will allow you to assign grades for students’ replies to each thread in a forum

Grading discussion boards:

1. Click the Grade icon next to the forum or thread to grade
2. Click the Grade button next to a student’s name
• The student’s posts to the forum or thread will display
• You can filter, sort, and print the student’s posts
3. Type a grade in the Grade box and click Submit

Discussion grading and the grade center:

It is important to note that when you enable grading for a forum or thread, columns for those forums or threads are automatically generated in the grade center.

• When you enable grading by forum, a column for that forum is created in the grade center
• When you enable grading by thread, a column for each thread in a forum is created in the grade center

Keep this in mind when choosing whether to grade by forum or thread. Grade center management can become cumbersome if you choose to grade a large number of threads.

A Blackboard Tip of the Week: Hiding Columns in the Grade Center

Hiding Columns in the Grade Center

Instructors are able to hide columns from display within the Grade Center. There are two types of “hiding” grade center columns: from the instructor or from the students.

NOTE: Hiding columns in the grade center from instructor view does not hide the grade column from students.

Hiding a column from students:

1. On the Control Panel click Grade Center and select Full Grade Center.
2. Click the action link (or down arrows) next to the column title. Click Show/Hide to users. A grey circle with a red line will appear next to the column name to indicate that the column is unavailable to students.
NOTE: As the instructor you will still be able to see this column in your Grade Center.
3. Click Submit.

Hiding a column from instructor view:

Hiding columns that are not being used from instructor view reduces the need for continuous scrolling across the page.

1. On the Control Panel click Grade Center and then Full Grade Center.
2. Click the action link (or down arrows) next to the column title. Click Hide Column.

Unhide a column from instructor view:

1. From the Manage drop down menu, select Column Organization.
2. Select the check boxes next to the Grade Center Columns to be shown.
3. Select Show Selected Columns from the Show/Hide menu.
4. Click Submit.
   NOTE: Hidden columns will appear greyed out in the Column Organizer.

A Blackboard Tip of the Week: Multimedia Mashups in the Discussion Board

Multimedia Mashups in the Discussion Board

Students can add interest to discussion board posts by incorporating multimedia mashups. When using this feature, students can add a Flickr Photo, SlideShare Presentation, or YouTube Video.

NOTE: For this feature to work, the instructor must enable Allow File Attachments in the forum settings.

How do students add mashups to the discussion board?

When students are posting to a discussion board the mashup button is a part of the Text Editor tools.

1. When posting in the discussion board, click the mashup tool. It is the last tool in the third row of tools.
   
   Mashup tool icon:


2. Select Flickr Photo, YouTube Video, or SlideShare Presentation.
   Flickr Photo: search by full text, only tags, or specific photo (url). Search by keywords using all of the words, any of the words, or exact phrase.
   
   YouTube Video: search by all of the words, any of the words, without the words, or exact phrase. Also, a language selection is available.
   
   SlideShare Presentation: search by full text, tags only, or specific presentation (url). Also, a language selection is available.


3. Click Select to choose an item.
4. In the View area, select Thumbnail, Text Link with Player or Embed Video.
5. In the Show URL or Show Information, select Yes or No.
6. Click Submit.
7. In the Attachments area, students can select Browse My Computer to attach items saved locally.
8. Click Submit to complete the discussion board post.