Blackboard Learn Workshops - Skills Addressed and Prerequisites

Bb01: Getting Started with Your Bb Learn Course

[Please note: This is a 2-hour workshop.]

New to Blackboard? Learn the basics including navigation, organizing and getting started with adding content, an overview of the rich feature set including Grade Center, and more. Please bring a syllabus file, content files and assignment details.

Suggested prerequisites: None

Skills Addressed: eLearning Support Site, My Institution, Course Layout (Dashboard, Navigation, Course Menu), UNI template, Quality Matters, Course Structure and Organizing Your Course, Tools Overview, Adding Content, Student Preview (vs. Edit Mode); instructor’s Control Panel, and a brief overview of Grade Center

Bb01a: Getting Started with Your Bb Learn Course

New to Blackboard? We’ll address the very basics including navigation, available tools, organizing and getting started with adding content, and making your course available. Please bring a syllabus file.

Suggested prerequisites: None

Skills addressed: eLearning Support Site, My Institution, Course Layout Overview (Dashboard, Navigation, Course Menu), UNI template, Quality Matters, Organizing Your Course (content type vs. sequence), Tools Broad Overview - Student (Tools page), Getting Started w/ Building Your Course (Web Link, Syllabus as a File, Partner Content), and making your course available to students

 

Bb01b: So You've Uploaded Your Syllabus to Bb Learn...Now What?

This workshop covers next steps beyond adding your syllabus to building your course. It includes an overview of the rich feature set available to instructors within Blackboard Learn. Please bring content files and assignment information.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a

Skills addressed: Course structure and organizing course content; overview of Course Tools (Control Panel); Adding content - brief overview of adding assignments, discussion forums, course link, YouTube mashup, Blank Page vs. File vs. Item; and a brief look at other tools available in Assessments and Tools

 

Bb01c: Above and Beyond the Basics in Bb Learn

Learn about the numerous features available in the Blackboard Learn Control Panel, experience your course from the student perspective, and see what’s involved in transferring your course for use in a subsequent semester.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: Student Preview (vs. Edit Mode); Control Panel including Content Collection, brief overview of Grade Center, customizing the look of your course, words of wisdom concerning course transfer for next semester and more; and, if time allows, the Global Navigation Menu

 

Bb02: Assessing Your Students Using Bb Learn's Assignment Tool

Learn about Blackboard’s Assignment tool which enables electronic submission of individual or group assignments. Mark up and give feedback online or download. Assigned scores automatically register in Grade Center.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: Rubrics, Creating Assignments, Submitting Assignments (student perspective), Grading Assignments, Needs Grading

 

Bb03: Using Bb Learn's Discussion Tool to Facilitate Student Interaction

Blackboard’s Discussion tool enables graded or ungraded discussions online any time with no need for participants to log in simultaneously. Learn to use this Blackboard tool to replicate robust discussions that take place in the traditional classroom.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: Discussions terminology, Create a Discussion Forum, Link to a Discussion Forum, Create a Thread, Tree View vs. List View, Graded Discussions

 

Bb04a: Testing 1, 2, 3: Developing, Deploying and Editing an Online Test in Bb Learn

Online testing can be used in numerous ways to assess students or to provide a means of self-assessment. Learn the process involved in setup and delivery of online testing in Blackboard Learn and look at several of Blackboard’s numerous question types.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: Tests vs. Surveys vs. Pools, the test canvas, adding test questions, deploying a test, editing the test vs. editing the test options, manually-graded question types

 

Bb04b: Putting Bb Learn Online Testing to the Test

Experience the student perspective in online testing with Blackboard Learn. We’ll discuss online testing obstacles, viewing and analyzing student test results, responding to manually graded questions such as essays, and strategies to help limit cheating.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b, Bb04a

Skills addressed: Student perspective including taking the test and online testing obstacles, in-depth look at viewing student test results, manually graded test questions, access log, exporting/importing tests, Grade Center History & Course Reports (as they apply to detecting cheating), Column Statistics, Attempts Statistics, Item Analysis

 

Bb05a: Bb Learn Grade Center: Just Give Me the Nuts and Bolts

This session addresses the Blackboard Grade Center layout. Learn about manual, automatic, and calculated columns and how to organize them. We’ll also address the "Needs Grading" interface, how to set up a letter grading scale and generating grade reports.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: Grade Center Layout, Create Column, Create Calculated Column, Auto-generated Columns, Editing Column Information, Sorting by column, Icon Legend, Needs Grading, Column Organization, Grading Schemas, Reports, Work Offline

 

Bb05b: Things I Never Knew About Bb Learn Grade Center

Tap into the power of Blackboard Grade Center’s more advanced features to customize what’s displayed. Learn tips for organizing columns into grading periods and how to color code data based on criteria you set.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b, Bb05a

Skills addressed: Smart Views vs. Full Grade Center, Creating Smart Views, Grade Center Filter, Emailing from Grade Center, Grading Periods, Grading Color Codes, Row Visibility

 

Bb05c: Weighting Grades Using Categories and Calculated Columns in the Bb Learn Grade Center

The Blackboard Grade Center can accommodate a number of different grade weighting schemes (the process by which grades are weighted for a course’s final grade). Attend this session to learn how to use Calculated Columns and Categories for this purpose.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b, Bb05a

Skills addressed: Create weighted column, Working with categories, Drop grades

 

Bb06: Facilitating Collaborative Group Work Via Bb Learn's Groups Feature

Learn how to use Blackboard Learn’s Groups feature to facilitate student collaboration and interaction. Bb course groups have their own areas in a course to collaborate on coursework with tools to assist in the collaborative process.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b, Bb02, Bb03

Skills addressed: Creating Groups, Group Sets, Self-Enroll Groups (including sign-up sheets), Group Tools, Editing And Managing Groups, Adding Group Links To Content Areas, Creating and Grading Group Assignments, Editing Group Membership, Deleting a Group

 

Bb07: Improving Accessibility in Your Course with Blackboard Ally

Learn how to make files uploaded to Blackboard accessible for ALL students. This workshop addresses both the instructor and student services available within Blackboard Ally, designed to assist you with accessibility in your courses.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: Benefits of Bb Ally to faculty and students, awareness of Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning, understanding Bb Ally accessibility score indicators, how to improve your documents’ accessibility scores, Bb Ally student features (alternative formats)

 

Bb08: Transitioning Your Bb Learn 9 Course for the Next Semester

Copying an existing Bb Learn 9 course for use in subsequent semesters can save time, but can cause potential snags. Come prepared to walk through this process with an experienced instructional designer.

Suggested prerequisites: Prior use of Blackboard to support a face-to-face, blended, or fully online course

Skills addressed: Step-by-step hands-on experience or demo with transitioning a currently or previously used course for use in an upcoming semester; These skills also apply to copying one section of a course into another section prior to the start of a semester.

 

BBb09: Integrate Attendance Data Into the Grade Center Using the Bb Learn Attendance Tool

Do you use attendance data as part of your students' overall grades? Learn how to track attendance data using Blackboard Learn's Attendance Tool. The overall Attendance score can be included when calculating grade totals in the Blackboard Grade Center.

Suggested prerequisites: Bb01a, Bb01b

Skills addressed: How to set up and track attendance using the Bb Attendance tool; integration of data from the Attendance tool with the Grade Center

Staff

Jason Vetter - Manager, Instructional Technologies, Educational Technology & Media Services
Jeffrey Ries - Senior eLearning System Administrator, Educational Technology & Media Services
Lori Seawel - Sr Educational Technologist, Educational Technology & Media Services
Paul Moes - Assistant Application Administrator/LMS, Educational Technology & Media Services
  • ITTC 36
  • (319) 273-5555
  • Service Hub