Closing Spring 2008 Courses

As we have done in the past around the beginning of a term, the Sunday after grades are due: May 11, 2008, we will "close" all term-based Bb courses that were used during the Spring 2008 term.
By this we mean:

• Setting the courses as "unavailable" to Students (they will no longer see a link to it, but as the Bb Instructor you will still have access to it), and
• Renaming the courses by prepending "zz200801" to each name, which will re-sort the list of course links in the My Courses box (the one you see immediately after logging into Bb) so that if you have any Bb courses for the Summer 2008 term, they will appear at the top.

We do this after the end of each term to protect the existing course content from further changes by students and to preserve the academic records contained in the course. (It also reduces confusion with Students who would otherwise still be able to see old course sites.) Note that this only affects term-based courses. Ongoing Bb "courses" ("UNFGROUP") such as administrative Bb sites not used with courses on the UNF Course Schedule will not be affected.

Fall Course Requests

Fall 2008 courses will be available for request the Sunday after Spring 2008 finals are complete (Sunday, May 4, 2008). See the CIRT website for instructions on requesting courses: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/faq/course_request.html

Course Imports

There is a known issue with some course imports (Import Package) resulting in Page not Found errors and/or Fatal Errors when users attempt to import an archive or export file into Blackboard. We are aware of the issue and are researching solutions. In the meantime, if you experience this issue, please contact CIRT at 620-3927 for help.

Blackboard Use During Finals Week

Bb Professor:

Finals week is quickly approaching and as in previous semesters, in anticipation of increased usage of Blackboard during the final week of the semester (April 26, 2008 - May 2, 2008), we will further optimize Blackboard's performance by making the Course Copy feature unavailable.

We also ask that you follow these tips to further improve Blackboard performance during the remainder of the semester:
• Allow your students to take an examination during non-peak hours (such as at night or during the weekend).
• Allow an extended time period for exams: set a timer for an exam and allow students an extended period of time over which they may take the timed assessment.
• Setup your exams to display all questions at once rather than one at a time.
• Do not delete assessments that have been deployed and graded. Instead, make the items unavailable in a content area and make the Gradebook item unavailable and do not include the item in Gradebook score calculations.
• Do not import courses or course cartridges to Blackboard during the last weeks of the semester.
• Remind students not to attempt assessments during the Blackboard Maintenance Windows: every day from 2 AM until 5 AM and additionally on Sundays from 5 AM until 9 AM.
• For more assessment tips, visit the CIRT website:
o Tips for Faculty: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/support/assess_tips_faculty.html
o Tips for Students: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/support/assess_tips.html

-Blackboard Administrators

Blackboard Email Services Unvailable

Monday, April 7, 2008 at around 11:00 AM the Blackboard email services became unavailable due to a application configurations. Service was restored by 4:30 pM Monday, April 7, 2008 and has been stable since.

Learning Objects Course Links

With the Learning Objects Building Block update from patch 2.8.19 to 2.8.24, Course Links to Course Blogs and Wikis were removed from the Course Menu of some courses. The content in the Blogs and Wikis is still available and may be accessed by clicking Course Tools>Blog or Wiki. To reactivate the direct link on the Course Menu, go to the Control Panel and click Manage Course Menu>Tool Link>Blog or Wiki. Visit the CIRT Website for more information: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/support/settings.html#add_items

Learning Objects Building Block updated

On Sunday April 6th, 2008 the Learning object building blocks were updated from patch 2.8.19 to 2.8.24. This patch fixes a number of issues for which more information can be found here.