Instructional Support

New Features and Enhancements in Blackboard 6.3

* To view the tutorials, you will need Adobe Flash Player installed on your computer.

If you do not have the software installed, you can download it for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

FEATURE DESCRIPTION
Redesigned Course Menu

Two views of the Course Menu are now available; the Quick View (original menu design) and the Detail View.  The Detail View is the full Course Map, letting users expand and collapse the Course Menu, and displays a clickable link to each item in the course.  Users may toggle between the two views. 

 

In addition, commonly used Tools are separated from the Course Menu to make them easier to find and use.

 

The size of the Course Menu frame may be adjusted.  Click and drag cursor to expand or contract the frame.
Assignments

Blackboard’s Assignment tool replaces the Digital Drop Box and links submitted assignments to the Gradebook. 

*Assignments Tutorial

Assignments, Word Commenting and More...

 
Visual Text Box Editor

Included for all standard textboxes including the Discussion Board.

  • Font type, size, and color
  • Tables and hyperlinks
  • Multimedia support including Flash
  • Equation editor
  • Undo and redo

*Content Authoring Tutorial
Adaptive Release

Instructor controls how to release content to students.  Content items, discussions, assessments, assignments, or other activities can be released to students based on a set of criteria including:  date and time, specific users, group membership, grades or attempts on a particular test or assignment, or Review Status of another item in the course.

Instructors create and modify Adaptive Release rules from the new Manage page available on all content items.

*Adaptive Release Tutorial
Review Status

Instructor tracks which students have reviewed a content item.  If enabled, users see a Mark Reviewed icon from the course view.  When users have completed their review of the item, they click the Mark Reviewed button.  Instructor can view progress from the Performance Dashboard.  

Instructors enable and disable Review from the new Manage page available on all content items. 

*Review Status Tutorial
Performance Dashboard

A course tool that allows instructors to see key information and outcomes for all course users.  It displays the last time users logged in, their course role, content availability by user based on Adaptive Release criteria, Review Status for content items, and a direct link to the Gradebook. 

*Performance Dashboard Tutorial
Syllabus Builder

An easy-to-use content item that makes Syllabus creation simple for Instructors of all levels, with a feature that allows them to easily apply designs to their work.  Syllabi can contain general class information such as dates and times as well as an overview of each lesson. 

*Syllabus Builder Tutorial
Messages

An internal course communication tool that functions similar to email.  Messages cannot be sent or received outside of the users in the course. 

*Blackboard Messages Tutorial
Assessments
  • Ten additional question types
  • Randomize multiple choice answers
  • Student question completion status
  • Download test or survey results
  • Question options including category and key words, degree of difficulty, and associations with learning objectives

*Assessment Questions Tutorial

*Assessment and Survey Download Tutorial

*Question Creation Options Tutorial
Gradebook Null Option

A new option to exclude untaken or ungraded items when calculating Total and Weighted Total columns.  The Running Total and Running Weighted Total columns display student performance only on completed items.

 *Gradebook Null Tutorial
Quick Edit Quick Edit allows instructors to make changes to content from within the “student view” of the course instead of navigating through the Control Panel to edit content.
Manage Button The Manage button now appears on all content items.  The Manage item page has been enhanced to include all tools related to managing content including existing tools as well as new tools such as Adaptive Release and Review Status links.
Quick Tool Linking

Tool Linking allows tools to be placed anywhere in a course that content can.  For example, Discussion Board forums and Virtual Classroom sessions can exist in the same Content Area as content such as Learning Unit slideshows, files, and Assessments. 

*Tool Linking Tutorial
Discussion Grader The Discussion Grader simplifies the process of evaluating a student's participation in discussion forums by allowing an instructor to access a single page with every message that a student has posted to a particular forum, number of words per message, and number of original messages and replies. After evaluating this information, the instructors can then easily enter a grade for the student which will be stored in the Gradebook.
Link to RefWorks

Blackboard users access their personal RefWorks accounts from within the course Tools page.  

Instructors can set up links to specific RefWorks databases from within courses, allowing students to access course-specific reading lists and group research projects.

*Refworks Tutorial
Campus Pack

Add blogs, wikis, and podcasts to your course site.  Also, a new Search tool allows keyword searches within your site.

Online Users Guide for Journal LX (Blog)

Online Users Guide for Team LX (Wiki)

Online Users Guide for Podcast LX