CE8 Faculty Finds

Content Manager

2009-07-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

In CE8 Only so much room is allocated to each user in an area called the Content Manager. If you try to upload or save (which happens if you "Create Printable View" of Assignments for downloading) a file that is larger then the remaining allocated space you will get this message:
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An unexpected system exception has occurred.

A system exception has occurred during the processing of your last request. You may attempt to return to the My Blackboard page. If further problems occur, try logging out of the system, then logging back in.

SessionID [EXAMPLE]: 1cPYKp8cLkG8tF0tlqJ9rRn6VmT98GS2HccTTJpBf6T6b5RbxRSY!-1462679239!bhc-blackboard.bhc.edu!80!443!1248443452762, Node Name: WebCTServer

Return to My Blackboard.
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To resolve this problem you should
1. Click on My Blackboard (top right corner)
2. Click the Content Manager tab
3. Click the checkboxes of the files they do not need
4. Click Delete

Calendar Tool: Date Roll Over - Adjusting All Dates

2009-07-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

Two important things about the calendar tool.

1. When Adjusting All Dates using the Date Roll Over option available through "Manage Course", you will want to wait until all dates have passed. Otherwise dates that are still in the future will stay the same and will not adjust.

2. When Adjusting All Dates there will be a calendar entry labeled Earliest dated item. This might not fall on the actual first day of classes, so you will want to determine the exact day that Earliest dated item will appear on your calendar.

Missed Assignments - Don't Change Due Date

2009-07-22T06:30:00.001-07:00

Hello,

A recent faculty find is that once students submit an Assignment in CE8, you should be careful when changing a Due Date or Cut Off Date. This may result in lost grades if you choose a date or time that has already passed.

If you will accept a students assignment beyond the Cut Off Date, rather than change the date, have the student email it to you either through the CE8 Mail tool or Outlook.

In testing the process of changing the dates a couple times, there were no issues as long as the date and time were in the future.

:-)
Andy

Move Grade Book Columns

2009-06-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

I’ll mention it now and later, Save after moving columns.

While in Grade Book (Teach tab) you will want to click the Reorder Columns button. Click the column checkbox(es) you want to move and then click the move button on the row you want to move the column above.

When done don’t forget to click the Save button at the bottom.

Discussion Counts/Search

2009-06-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the Campus Edition 8 took a step backwards from CE4 in the area of searching discussions; i.e. you can no longer search a specific topic.

What you can do is add the Search tool (from Build or Teach tab > Manage Course > Tools > Search > Save). You can then search the discussion tool for the Author. The search does not allow you to choose a specific topic and compiles all results where you can see the subject title.

In Discussions you can also click on the People Link (button to the right of the Author’s name) and select View Performance Report. This will allow you to see the total messages viewed and sent for a particular student.

Tracking (from Teach tab > Tracking > Student Tracking > select range date > Run Report > Optional - click on student name) will allow you to see how many discussions have been read and posted by each student. Clicking on a student’s name will allow you to see how many messages a student has posted during each session they logged in.

Linking to CE8 from Sungard

2009-06-12T09:22:00.001-07:00

If you prefer to have your course open in Sungard when the students click on your course name in MyCourses, and then provide a link to WebCT from there, post a News article that appears on the homepage of your Sungard site, as follows:

Click "News" in the Sungard tool list on the left.

Click the "Post an Article" link.

Complete the News article dialog box, as follows:

Choose "Active" in the Status dropdown menu.

Name your article in the Title/Subject line, such as "Access This Course in WebCT."

Choose "Article Uses HTML" in the News Article dropdown menu.

In the Message box, copy/paste the following HTML code from <a...to...<a>
<a href="http://myblackhawk.bhc.edu/cp/ip/login?sys=webct&url=target_sourcedid.id%3A%2F%2F[CRN].[YEAR][TERM]">Please click here to open WebCT.</a>

Replace the bracketed information with your course info, as follows:
- Replace [CRN] with your course's Course Reference Number, omitting the brackets.
- Replace the [YEAR] with the year the course appears in, omitting the brackets.
- There needs to be a period . between the YEAR and the TERM (example 84301.200908)
- Replace [TERM] with 01 for spring, 08 for fall, 05 for June Start, 06 for July Start, omitting the brackets.
Click "Post"

Paging Preferences: Allow you to see all students, files, tool items, etc.

2009-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Can't see all of the student names, files, tool items, etc. in CE8? Scroll down to the bottom of the window and look for the Paging Preferences button in the lower-right corner. Looks like three cascading pages with the corners turned down. See screenshot below.

Reply Privately in Discussions

2009-06-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

With the new version of Campus Edition we have unfortunately lost the Reply Privately button. You could however use the Forward button and browse for the recipient to send them a Mail message.

Firefox Solution

2009-05-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

One faculty member has found that the Firefox browser works better than Internet Explorer. Firefox 2 is validated for both myBlackHawk and CE8 and can be downloaded at: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html Firefox 3 is the most current version and might work ok.

CE8 Ready for Summer Courses

2009-05-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

Some faculty have found that their course sections in CE8 are available through myBlackHawk. Feel free to switch your course section link over to WebCT using the red edit button (located Academics tab, My Courses channel link). Please be aware that some work is still being done to make Fall course sections available and there might be periods of time when CE8 will not be available. We will do our best to notify faculty prior to this happening.

Content Browser Slow to Open

2009-05-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest frustrations I have experienced is that the "Content Browser" is slow to display the interface. We are working on figuring out the solution. I recommend that the first things you do upon entering your course is to click on the File Manager (located on Build tab, under Designer Tools) and then click Get Files. Do not close the window that opens up and go back to the previous window. Hopefully the Content Browser will be ready when you need it.

Getting Started with "CE8 Faculty Finds" blog

2009-05-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, all BHC faculty using the new CE8 (WebCT),

This summer, summer faculty using CE8 for summer school or while developing courses for Fall will be sharing tips, lessons learned, and how-to's right here in "CE8 Faculty Finds!" We hope to post an idea/tip at least weekly throughout the summer. This blog is designed to add useful "finds" that you discover while working on your courses with the new software. In the meantime, you may wish to attend one of our summer training sessions:

May 27 9AM-2PM
June 25 8:30AM-3:30PM
July 21, 22, 23 Three mornings or three afternoons 9AM-noon or 12;30-3:30PM
August 21 and 22 9AM-3:30PM Choose one of these days or the other, not both.

If you run across a tip or idea that you think would be useful to your colleagues, please share with Andy or Molly in the TLC to post to our blog in the coming weeks! Or click the Comments link under existing posts to add more ideas. Thanks for sharing!

Andy and Molly