TAC - Technology Application Center Updates

Training Opportunities - Hybrid, Blackboard, Adobe, Computer Skills

2011-05-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

The Technology Applications Center (TAC) summer training schedule is now available to faculty and staff. Faculty who will teach Fall 2011 Hybrid courses are now able to register for hybrid training classes. Former and present faculty who teach hybrid courses should sign up for the Hybrid Overview and faculty who will teach a hybrid course for the first time, should register to receive the Hybrid Certification which runs from June 3rd - June 24th.

The Technology Applications Center (TAC) will offer additional trainings in Blackboard, Computer Skills, Adobe Products and Web2.0 Certification over the summer. All trainings are located at http://tac.nvcc.edu/tactraining/su11/. Please check the registration page often as new trainings are added regularly.

Blackboard Mobile Learn

2011-03-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

Northern Virginia Community College has enabled a pilot of the Blackboard Mobile Learn application that provides students and instructors viewable access to Blackboard on their mobile device. Click here for a video demo of Blackboard Mobile on your device

Blackboard Mobile learn offers viewing features to students and instructors of certain content within Blackboard course sites. In addition, tudents and instructors can view embeded media with Blackboard. PLEASE NOTE: You may discover many features while using the application; however, we recommend and provide support under the student and instructor feature list.

Student Features
View Announcements, Calendar Events and Grades.
View and post in Discussion Board Threads.
View embedded media.

Instructor Features
Post Announcements and Calendar Events.
Post and view Discussion Board Forums.
View embedded media.

To start using the Blackboard Mobile Learn application, follow the setup instructions listed under your respective mobile device.

iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch Setup

Go to the iTunes app store on your device, search for "Blackboard Mobile Learn"

Download and launch Blackboard Mobile Learn

At the "Search for your school" box, type in and select Northern Virginia Community College

When prompted, enter your MyNova/Blackboard username and password

Blackberry Setup

Open the Blackberry AppWorld on your phone, search for "Blackboard Mobile Learn"

Download and launch Blackboard Mobile Learn

At the "Search for your school" box, type in and select Northern Virginia Community College

When prompted, enter your MyNova/Blackboard username and password

Android Setup

Open the Android Market on your phone, search for "Blackboard Mobile Learn"

Download and launch Blackboard Mobile Learn

At the "Search for your school" box, type in and select Northern Virginia Community College

When prompted, enter your MyNova/Blackboard username and password

Blackboard Performance

2010-08-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Inez Farrell from VCCS has informed us that they have discovered the problem with BB's poor performance. According to Inez, " It is a perfect storm of courses being copied and notifications turned on. Each copied course is generating a host of notifications which in turn is jamming the course copy queue. "

VCCS will be turning off the notification feature. Notifications on course copies, course availability and new announcements will be turned off, so even if you check that the announcement be emailed it will not.

You may still use the email function -- but perhaps you'll want to save those emails for low-peak hours.

We'll keep you posted on all further developments.

Blackboard is moving slowly!

2010-08-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back! I hope all went well with you on the first day of classes, however I know one of the major problems you may have experienced is how slow Blackboard was and is loading. It also has been timing out as it moves from one page to another. This is due to the fact that we share the system with every other VCCS institution and every Professor and every student in the system is trying to access Blackboard. In addition, BB9 very politely sends automatic notifications to all students when courses are made available and VCCS believes that is what is clogging the system. Please be assured that IT sent a help ticket to VCCS yesterday as soon as the problem began and VCCS is aware of the problem and trying to find a fix. In the meantime, the less we use the Email function this week the better.

Also Class copying requests are running about 48 hours behind -- so if you asked Blackboard to copy over information and it is not there yet -- don't do it again, just be patient and it will appear.

If you have problems or concerns, don't forget you have great TAC Mentors on all of the Campuses (except Loudon -- but we are working on that! In the meantime feel free to contact me.). You'll find a list of your TAC mentors at: http://www.nvcc.edu/faculty-and-staff/technology/tac/contact/index.html

Feel free to post your questions here as well, and we'll try to answer them as quickly as possible.

Alicia Tucker
Acting TAC Coordinator

12 Questions about Blackboard 9

2010-05-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

We have all probably reached that point in the semester when we could use some comic relief, and what better way to achieve that state than while learning about BB 9? I thoroughly enjoyed listening to David Wicks' screencast "12 Questions about BB 9" for the second time. He has such a wonderful social presence!

Although his presentation is a bit long (1 hour and 15 min), it is well worth your time. In it he answers the following questions. (You can skip ahead in the screencast to get to the information you need, but you'll miss some of his humor).

What browser should I be using?
What happened to the Control Panel?
How can I see the course as students see it?
How do I copy content from an existing course?
How do I modify the navigation menu?
Why do all announcements seem to be permanent announcements?
Compared with Blackboard 8, how many clicks will I save when I upload a document?
How do I see a roster of my students?
How do I modify the window so I can see more content and fewer navigation options?
How do I create areas for group projects?
How do I create sign-up lists for student projects?
How do I make my course available to students?

BB 9 - Basic Necessities

2010-04-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

Because these four processes represent basic functions in faculty - student communication, each faculty member will want to know how to accomplish them in the new BB9. Knowing how to make your course available, add a syllabus and faculty contact information, and create an announcement will improve your communication with your students.

How do I make my BB course available? Remember, in order for students to view your BB course, you must make it available, and the process for doing this is quite different in BB9. Making a course available is now a part of course "customization" described here.
How do I add my syllabus? BB9 offers you two ways to add your syllabus to your BB course. You can attach a file as you probably have in the past, or you can use BB's new syllabus builder tool, which will walk you through the component parts of a syllabus (e.g. objectives, materials, etc.). Directions for adding a syllabus are here.
How do I add my faculty contact information? The process of putting your contact information in your BB9 course differs from the process used in BB8. Here are the steps for adding your contact info.
How do I add an announcement? In BB8 announcements were created via the control panel. Since BB9 has no control panel, creating an announcement in BB9 is quicker. Directions for doing this are here.

Access to Blackboard 9

2010-04-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

Would you like to explore Bb 9 now rather than waiting for the May 16 upgrade? If so, you can gain access to a Bb 9 training course if you attend a Bb 9 hands-on workshop. Those who would prefer to learn Bb 9 by themselves using the tutorials may gain access by contacting their campus TAC mentor, who will add them to a Bb 9 training course. Once you've been enrolled in a Bb 9 training course, you will see your course listed at the following web address: explore.vccs.edu (no "www").

Be sure to tell your mentor your Bb userid. Campus TAC mentors and their contact information are listed here .

BB 9 Webinar

2010-04-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

Would you like to attend a virtual BB 9 training session? This pre-recorded BB 9 webinar reviews the major differences between BB 8 and BB 9. To view the session, click on the this link and download and run Saba Centra 7 (the eNOVA session tool).

This webinar covers the following new features of BB 9:

icons
notifications dashboard
edit mode
simplified confirmations
assignment tool
journal tool
blog tool
groups
tests and surveys

BB 9 Tidbit - Graded Discussion Forum

2010-04-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

When using a graded discussion forum in BB 9, do not change the title of the grade center column that is automatically generated. Changing the title of the grade center column often will cause a disconnect in the link between the grade center column and the forum, resulting in an error message.

Blackboard 9 Demo Movie

2010-03-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Check out the following demo movie to find out about the new features available in Blackboard 9! Click on the link to the format that works best to view on your computer.

iTunes Format
Windows Media Player Format
Quicktime Format

Student Print Guide to BB 9

2010-03-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

NSU has posted a very thorough Student Guide to using BB 9; you might want to link to this within your BB resource page. The guide includes written directions and screen shots for the following:

Logging into BB - p.1
Exploring the My Institution tab - p. 2
The course environment - p. 4
Accessing course content and tools - p. 5
Using the tools link - p. 11
Accessing tests - p. 17
Finding staff information - p. 24
Sending email - p. 25 and 71
The discussion board - p. 27 (viewing forums, posting threads, responding to threads and much, much more)
Viewing and submitting assignments - p. 50
Viewing assignment grades and feedback - 52
The journal tool - p. 55
The blogs tool - p. 64
Accessing and viewing grades - p. 72
Viewing feedback - p. 76

USC BB 9 Student Video Tutorials

2010-03-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

USC has some helpful BB 9 student video tutorials that you might want to make available to your students this summer and fall. Student video tutorial topics include:

Course Navigation Concerns

Locating content in BB 9
Downloading files from BB 9 (MS Word and pdf files)
Printing items from BB 9

Submitting Papers, Files and Assignments

Preparing files for submission (file names and extensions)
Submitting an assignment via a BB assignment submission link

Sending email via BB

Hiding and unhiding the course menu

The Faculty Bb 9 On-Demand Learning Center

2010-03-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Bb has provided us with numerous print and video tutorials for Bb 9 via its On-Demand Learning Center. These resources are divided into three content areas:

Understanding and Building Your Course - working in the course environment, building course content, setting permissions, and course utilities
Communicating and Collaborating - discussion board, groups, blogs and journals, and announcements and scheduling
Assessing Learners - grade center, tests, surveys and pools, and assignments

Interactive Faculty Bb 9 Videos

2010-03-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for a quick start with Bb 9? If so, check out these short interactive videos.

The Course Environment covers edit mode, the course menu, the course home page, and customization of course elements.
Adding Content discusses creating a content area, creating an item in the content area, and selecting the options for the content.
Making Tools Available on the Course Menu shows you how to add a tool, make it available to students, and reorder the course menu options.
Creating Blogs shows you how to create a blog within a content area.
Creating Single Groups and Adding Users guides you in creating a group, selecting the group options, and adding students to the group
Creating a Grade Center Column shows you how to create a column, select options for the column and enter grades.

Hamilton's Faculty BB 9 Quick Start Guide

2010-03-03T04:46:00.000-08:00

How are other colleges and universities supporting faculty as they move to Blackboard 9? Searching their resources reveals that most are also using Quick Start guides. See, for example, Hamilton University's "Blackboard 9 Quick Start Guide," which has some great screen shots. Among other things, this guide discusses these changes in BB 9:

the edit/display mode
the chevrons
dragging and dropping items
the absence of the control panel

Excellent Faculty BB 9 Support Site

2010-02-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

Fresno State has an excellent BB 9 support site. I highly recommend its "BB Version 9 Start Up" document, which provides an excellent introduction to BB 9 for beginners. Some of the topics it covers include:

using BB dashboards
using edit mode
setting up your course framework (customization)
designing the course menu
using course tools
adding content
adding faculty contact information
posting an announcement
making your course available
sending email via BB

Blackboard 9 Quick Guides

2010-02-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

Check out the updated Blackboard Quick Guides!

What's New in Blackboard 9

Blackboard 9 Quick Guide