People > Ed Garay

ITL Blog (permalink)

Students added to Blackboard sites (permalink)
Created on Sunday, 08/17/2008 11:02 PM by Ed Garay
Updated on Tuesday, 08/26/2008 7:45 PM by Ed Garay

Students were added today (Sunday 8/17/2008), for the first time, to existing Blackboard course sites.

Students enrolled in Fall 2008 course reference number (CRN)-based classes were added today (Sunday 8/17) to all Fall 2008 Blackboard course sites, created thus far. Automatic student enrollment add-ons into Fall 2008 Blackboard course sites (based on exported Banner CRN student rosters) will take place twice a day between 6-9pm and between 6-9am through the last day of instruction. This also applies to new Blackboard course sites requested late, which will be created in the future: these course sites will get their students added the next time the 6-9pm/6-9am automatic student enrollment jobs run after the course sites are created.

Please note the following additional points related to student enrollment into Blackboard sites:

Automatic Blackboard student enrollment only applies to classes that are assigned university CRNs.
Blackboard course sites for classes without CRNs need to have their students added differently, either by the ITL Blackboard SysAdmin staff (in bulk) or manually by the course instructors, program directors, course coordinators or TAs.
When adding students on your own, first check that the students are not already enrolled on your course sites. On the Blackboard Control Panel, click List / Modify Users (under User Management), then click the List All tab, and then the List All button to see who exactly already has access to your Blackboard site.

To add a user: click Enroll User (again, under User Management) and then enter the individual's last name or UIC netid and click Search; check the appropriate Add checkbox next to the desired name and click Submit. You could try the List / Modify Users steps again to ensure that the student has been indeed added.
The ITL Blackboard SysAdmin staff will be happy to add a list of students to your Blackboard course sites that don't have a CRN associated with them. Just email us at blackboard@uic.edu the list of UIC netids to add (listed, one UIC netid per line) and the complete name of the Blackboard site onto which they need to be added, ...but note that given the Fall Rush (during August and September) we will not be able to do add your students in less than three working days, at best.
In order to be given access to Blackboard sites, students (faculty and staff) need to first have their UIC netid activated. Netid activation establishes an individual's UIC account and password, his/her UIC email address, and other accounts, including a Blackboard account. Blackboard accounts are created within an hour after the UIC netid has been activated. To activate a UIC netid, direct students and colleagues to: http://activatenetid.accc.uic.edu.

People having problems activating their UIC netids should see an ACCC Client Services Office (CSO) consultants, available in most of the ACCC public computer labs (www.accc.uic.edu/pclabs) or by contacting the CSO at consult@uic.edu, 312-413-0003 or visiting the CSO helps desks at SEL 2267 (East campus) and BGRC 181 (West campus). Please note that the ITL staff does not deal with UIC netid activation, issuing UIC netids or any problems associated with UIC netids and passwords. Please contact the CSO instead.
Note: unfortunately, we cannot yet automatically remove students that drop the course from CRN-based Blackboard course sites. As a work-around, please use the new feature of the Blackboard Grade Center to hide a student from the gradebook. See our Blackboard Grade Center Mini-Tutorial for hiding students.

Also, once students are officially removed from the Banner student rosters, instructors and TAs could optionally remove these students from Blackboard, but please be very careful as removing a student from a Blackboard course site effectively deletes all his/her grades, completed assignments and anything else that the student might have done in our class. Removing a student from Blackboard is irreversible. Once the student data is gone, it is gone!

Comments

Fall 2008 :: What is new? (permalink)
Created on Sunday, 08/17/2008 1:47 AM by Ed Garay
Updated on Tuesday, 08/26/2008 7:48 PM by Ed Garay

What is new with teaching and learning technology at UIC this Fall?

East campus ITL-East Walk-in Hours expanded from two to four afternoons. New ITL-East Walk-in Hours are now Monday through Thursday, from 1-5pm. ITL-West Walk-in Hours remain Monday and Thursday, from 1-5pm. Faculty and staff can drop in without an appointment during ITL-East and ITL-West Walk-in Hours. For other times, please make an appointment as usual.
LessonBuilder :: new software for easily creating class materials for Web delivery
[site-licensed software for UIC faculty] If you know how to use Microsoft Word, Eudora or Outlook, you can master LessonBuilder in no time. LessonBuilder automatically creates the (Web accessible) HTML for you, with built-in navigation, table of contents, sidebars, hyperlinks and all. Besides simple lessons, LessonBuilder lets you easily create engaging class materials with pop-up windows, and simple assessment and activities like true/false and multiple choice questions, image activities, drag-and-drop, crossword, flash cards, image labeling activity, hotspot activity in explore or quiz mode, slideshows, etc. Start authoring your class materials with LessonBuilder.
Class and personal blogs and wikis now support RSS subscriptions. By clicking on their RSS links, you automatically get access to RSSable content as soon as it is updated.
The RSS Blackboard tool has been upgraded. Use it to automatically bring fresh content into Blackboard sites via RSS. Add an RSS window to an external Web page as easily as you would upload a syllabus or add any content to Blackboard.
New Blackboard Search tool to search within entire Blackboard course sites.
Blackboard has a totally new gradebook :: the Blackboard Grade Center. It is better than ever and has a lot of new functionality, but it also looks very different :: play with it and attend a Blackboard Grade Center training session as soon as possible.
Introducing Blackboard Scholar :: a social bookmarking tool for organizing and sharing bookmarks for personal use, class and group collaboration
PointeCast Publisher :: the new, better and easier way of narrating PowerPoint presentations and compressing them for Web delivery. Try PointeCast Publisher today at the ITL. We still support Impatica for PowerPoint, but PointeCast Publisher is a lot better, and produces Flash presentations that play very well on Windows, Macs and Linux desktops.
The ITL-West in BGRC, on the West campus, now has a high-capacity DVD duplicator with a built-in printer that we can use to duplicate and print small numbers (under 100) of DVDs for UIC faculty members, for instructional purposes.
The ACCC Instructional Technology Lab has started this ITL blog to keep the UIC faculty and staff informed about ITL-related services, resources and news. We plan to post on the ITL blog every week. The URL is http://itl.accc.uic.edu/blog. Click on the RSS icon to subscribe and automatically get our blog updates.
The ITL is setting up a Flash Media Server for streaming Flash Video content within UIC. Let us know if you are interested in being one of the first ones to try it out, later this Fall (in October).
The ITL has also partnered with the UIC Library to put together a smart meeting room on the first floor of the Richard J. Daley Library. The smart meeting room will have built-in video conferencing, as well as other state-of-the-art presentation and collaboration technology. Subscribe to this ITL blog for future announcements in late September.

Not so new stuff...
Pronto Instant Messenger :: a simple text-chat and voice instant messenger that automatically knows the students and instructors in each of the Blackboard course sites.
Wimba Voice Tools :: an easy-to-use set of tools for adding voice announcements, lecture recordings and Podcasts to Blackboard sites by simply speaking into the microphone. The Wimba Voice suite also includes threaded voice boards that support text and voice postings. Voice boards can easily be setup for students to submit voice assignments so that only the instructors and TAs can listen to their audio. Wimba Voice also supports uploading audio content from files on personal computers.
Get a class WebDisk :: UIC instructors are encouraged to get a class WebDisks for each of their classes (regardless of whether you use Blackboard course sites or not). Class WebDisks are easy to use and ideal for storing and sharing class materials, especially, big files, like PowerPoint presentations full of images, large PDF documents, or multimedia files like audio (MP3) files and Podcasts. Files and folders stored on WebDisks can be linked from any Web page, including Blackboard sites, or shared with groups of UIC faculty, staff and students, or with the public Web, if you wish. Also, WebDisk passes can be created and distributed as access keys, thereby maintaining non-public WebDisk content, while giving access to people at UIC or outside UIC. To get a class WebDisk, simply request one by emailing the ITL.
Adaptive Release :: a little known feature of Blackboard that lets instructor control the progressive display of class materials, online assessments and other Web activities based on how the student is doing in class. Check it out.
All UIC instructors should have a second netid.bb Blackboard-only account to use for seeing Blackboard sites from the students' perspective. To get a netid.bb Blackboard-only account visit the ACCC home page at www.accc.uic.edu and click on Accounts and then on "Accounts - Open an ACCC Account".
Problems with UIC accounts and passwords?
Try ACCC's self-service password recovery tools at http://passwords.accc.uic.edu. If problems persist, see an ACCC Client Services Office (CSO) consultant at most of the ACCC public computer labs or visit the CSO offices in SEL 2267 or BGRC 181. Note: UIC netids are always in lower-case. UIC netids are not UIC email addresses; for instance, if one's UIC email address is michaelphelps@uic.edu, his UIC netid is just michaelphelps. Also, UIC passwords are always case-sensitive.

Comments