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Faculty & GTA Frequently Asked Questions
Why are there no students in my course roster? Blackboard rosters are not populated with students until two days before
classes begin for the semester. If you request a course after this date,
your course site will be populated with
students within 24 hours of when we receive the 5-digit class number (formerly
called the "line number"). Students are automatically enrolled in Blackboard courses using the class
number (formerly called the "line number"). If a student adds
a course through the add/drop process, there may be a one or two day delay
while his or her paperwork is processed. Instructors may also manually
add students and other users into their course by clicking Enroll Users
on the Control Panel. Your Blackboard roster is updated everyday with students who add the
course, but students who drop are not automatically deleted from the course,
to avoid accidental loss of data. The instructor may remove a student
manually from the roster by clicking the Remove Users from the Control
Panel. When you remove the student from the course, the student's grade
and files sent by the student are also removed. 1) Click Power User Enrollment (on the Control Panel under Course Tools) 2) Type his/her last name in the space provided 3) Click Search 4) Click the Add box to the left of the appropriate name 5) Select the desired role from the pull-down menu on the right 6) Click Submit *** If you wish to add a new user, first make sure that he/she is not already in the course. If you wish to modify the status of a user and that person is already in the course, you’ll need to remove him/her with the Remove Users from Course link in the Control Panel. ***
If you are searching for multiple names simultaneously, enter the last names (separated by commas) in the search field. You may wish to increase the number of “Results per page” in this case, or if you are searching for a common last name (Smith, Jones, etc.), so that all of the accounts will be displayed on the same page.
You cannot update a student's email address. (This is a privacy feature of Bb that keeps everyone's account information secure.) Instead, tell them to:
Back to Top Please contact IDS (ids@ku.edu or 864-2600) for assistance. Individuals not affiliated with KU need a special account to log in to Bb. This is the information that we'll need:
Back to Top First, inform the student of the standard log in procedures and check
that the student is going to the correct URL, http://courseware.ku.edu.
If the student is still unable to log in, have him or her contact the
ACS Help Center at 864-0200. If the student can log into Blackboard but
cannot find the course, call IDS at 864-2600 or send us an email at ids@ku.edu
and we will assist them. Add a temporary "student" to your course and log in using that
account. When you add the student, search for last name = Student; first
name = Temporary. To log in, use the “other” login button and type _tempstudent
as the username and Bbtemp for the password. When you're done looking
at what you wanted to see, simply remove this "user." (Don't
forget this step -- you can mess up your gradebook if you leave tempstudent
in there...) And remember, you're all sharing this account, so don't be
surprised if you see course titles besides yours in the My Courses area.
How do I request a brand-new course on Blackboard? Please go to the IDS web site, http://ids.ku.edu
and click on Blackboard Course Renewal/Request Form. After you log in,
you will need to select the semester and year under New Course Request,
and then provide the course title, course ID (department abbreviation
and number), class number (formerly called the "line number").
IDS will create a blank course for you in 24 hours. What happens to my course at the end of the semester? An email message will be sent to all faculty currently using Blackboard
reminding them to fill out the online Course Renewal/Renewal form if they
plan to reuse their course site in a future semester. These courses (after
having removed the student roster and Gradebook) will remain on the server
and instructors will retain continuous access to the sites, so that they
can modify them at any time. Courses not "renewed" for later
use are then deleted from the server. All courses will be copied into
a secure archive approximately a week after final exams end. Any file type can be uploaded into Blackboard although specialized formats
may require the student to have that same software on their computer in
order to open the files. We recommend that images such as clip art, photos
be in jpg or gif format. You can make the quiz available by adding it to any section under Content
Areas of the Control Panel. After you have selected the section and clicked
Add Test, you need to make the quiz available by 'Modify the test option.'
For more detailed instruction, please refer to the instructions in the
Assessments & Tests section of the Tools and Strategies Course in
Blackboard. Use Pool Manager on the Control Panel to build a pool of re-usable quiz
items. First, you have to move the quiz from Test Manager to Pool Manager
to create the pool and then you export it to the computer desktop. Second,
you need to reach the Control Panel of the other course to import the
pool of quiz items by clicking Pool Manager. After you have imported the
pool, you will be able to reuse quiz items by selecting 'From a Question
Pool or Assessment' from the Add Question pull-down menu in Test Manager.
For further assistance, contact IDS at ids@ku.edu
or call 864-2600. There are two possibilities why your students cannot see their grades.
First, make sure the grade is visible in the Gradebook by clicking the
heading of the column in the Gradebook (the item name) and then on Item
Information. Second, if the grade is visible, check to make sure the Tools
button is displayed among the students' navigation buttons. For further
assistance, contact IDS at ids@ku.edu
or call 864-2600. If your course has multiple class numbers such as for a main lecture section and several labs or one for undergraduate students and the other for graduate students, etc., you have two options when setting-up your Blackboard. There are both advantages and disadvantages with either option as described below. Please consider these points when telling us which option is more suitable for you. Also, keep in mind it is difficult to separate or merge courses once students are populated into courses so this decision should be made prior to creating courses. 1. We can create a single course with all groups of students enrolled. 2. We can create several courses one for each class number. Guests in this instance mean anyone who is not enrolled in the course,
are not allowed to access KU Blackboard for copyright reasons. This means
only enrolled students can access course materials. However, if you would
like to open the course to guests, you can do so by changing the course
options at three levels. First you will need to open the entrance of the
course to guests (Course Options-Settings-Guest Access). Then appropriate
sections of the course such as Content Areas should also be opened (Course
Options-Manage Tools-Enable Blackboard Tools). Finally, you must open
each Content Area individually (Course Options-Manage Course Menu). In
summary if you open a course, a guest can access 1) Announcements, 2)
Staff Information, and 3) Some or all sub-sections of Content Areas.
I'm a Mac User. Is there anything I should know? Blackboard works on either Mac or PC computers. Mac users, however, will
need to rename their files before they upload them, adding on file extensions
that indicate the type of file, e.g., .doc for word processing document
or .html for a web file. Be sure to put a period before the extension. Your materials are fully protected on Blackboard, regardless of whether or not you write copyright notices on them. Only students who enroll in your course can access those materials. No guests are allowed to log in your course unless you open the course to them. For more information about intellectual property, see: the KU policy on intellectual property here: http://www.ukans.edu/~provost/Intellectual_Property_Policy_final.html In addition to intellectual property you should respect the copyright
when you use the material from other sources. A document about copyright
is available here. http://www2.ku.edu/~ids/crm/
Instructional Development and Support offers free, one-on-one consulting
on a variety of instructional design topics. For example, a Blackboard
Course Make-Over is an opportunity to improve your course with a team
of instructional support staff over a period of time. If you interested
in this opportunity, please click the link (http://www2.ku.edu/~ids/cmo.shtml).
In addition, a quick follow-up session called a Course Check-Up is available
to all Blackboard Tools and Strategies workshop participants a couple
weeks after their workshop date. Please contact IDS (ids@ku.edu
or 864-2600) for details. You may submit a question to Instructional Development and Support via
the "FAQ Add Question Form" located here.
Your question will be answered as soon as possilbe.
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