Course Management – Ultra

Course Management – Ultra

When will I see my Bb course(s)?

Blackboard Learn courses are automatically created approximately 10 days before the first day of classes of each semester/session/term. After late registration, the courses are updated and students are enrolled. In case you don’t see your course, you are able to:

Create a Service Request on the IRM HelpDesk

OR

Make your course(s) 'Available' for the students

Original View

When the Bb courses are created are by default set to be “Unavailable” for students. That is, the students are not able to view the Bb course until you make it visible for them.

To make a Bb course available for the students to see follow the steps below:

  • Make sure Edit Mode is ON.
  • Click “Control Panel” > “Customization” > “Properties”.

       

While on the Customization page, you can modify your course’s availability.

  • Set Availability: Click Yes to make this course available (visible) to users. If No is selected, users in this course cannot access it. To view a video tutorial on course Availability, click here.

From the main course view, you can now easily see an open or closed padlock icon representing the availability of the course to students and quickly change the availability with one click, saving both time and effort. This new feature can be seen below, next to tools such as Student Preview and the Edit Mode toggle.

  • Set Course Duration: Time the user can interact with the course. “Continuous” means the course is always available, “Select Dates” means the course is available only on a specific date, and “Days from the Date of Enrollment”  means a time limit is set from the day the student enrolls. The best solution is to select the last choice so the course is available only during the term – “Use Term Duration”.
  • Select Language Pack: The suggested default package language is English.
  • “Submit”: Click Submit to save changes.

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Ultra View

In the new Blackboard environment the courses are created are by default set to be “Available” for students. That is, the students are able to view the Bb course .

To make a Bb course unavailable for the students to see follow the steps below:

  • After you have selected the Courses page you will click the three dots at the top-right side of your course.
  • Click “Make course private”.
  • A message is going to pop-up at the top of the page asking a second time if you want to make the course private.

To make a Bb course available for the students to see follow the steps below:

  • Again you will click the three dots at the top-right side of your course.
  • Click “Open Course”.
  • A message is going to pop-up at the top of the page asking a second time if you want to make the course available.

Copy material from one course to another

With the Course Copy, you have the option to copy the contents of one course to another.
Follow the steps below to complete the procedure: 
From the Course module select the course you want to copy the contents from.
Visit the Control Panel> Packages and Utilities> Course Copy
You can copy courses using the Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course area. In this way, the instructor is able to copy the material of one course to another. This procedure does not replace any existing material but it adds to the already existing content.

At the Select Copy Options click “Browse” so as to select the Destination Course ID (the course you wish the content to be copied to).

After you select the course, you have to select which content will be copied. Click the “Select All” button to copy all the content or choose the desired content areas, tools, or settings.

Tip: Keep in mind that complete course copies are always more successful than partial ones. This is due to the way Blackboard Learn stores its files and various items.

In the File Attachments section:

  • Click “Copy links and copies of the content” to copy the links and the relevant files

In the Enrollments section click Include Enrollments in the Copy ONLY if you want to enroll the students to the new course that you created. This option is usually suggested to be left unchecked.

Finally, click “Submit” to finish the procedure. Wait for a few minutes and visit the destination course so as to see the material copied.

 

Moreover, when managing a course, there is a list of tools available for the instructor in order to modify and customize the courses and their content. The tools are divided according to their use in eight different categories. You will find them in the Control Panel of the course. To view the details of these categories, click the orange links below:

Tools Description
Content Collection Contains a search function that let you search files and folders and modify content within the course.
Course Tool A group under the Control Panel that has all available tools that can be added to the course via Content pages.
Evaluation Evaluation provides tools for tracking user performance and activity. In the Evaluation section of Control Panel you can monitor the performance of the students and groups through Course Reports, Performance Dashboard, Retention Center and SCORM Reports. For information please take a look at the drop-down lists.
Grade Center The Grade Center can record data, monitor student progress and communicate information to students, instructors and administrators. It is also a valuable tool for assisting decision making on taking action to promote student and institutional progress.
Users and Groups:

 Users:  The instructor can enroll user to the course and change their roles.

Groups: You can create groups of students to collaborate on academic work and you can do so, by creating them one at a time or in sets. Each groups has access  to each own homepage and to various tools and links that help students collaborate.
Customization In this section you can modify your course and its properties as you see fit. You can also change the name of the course, set its availability and select its appearance by adding a theme and a banner.
Packages and Utilities A group under the Control Panel that has tools that help in the handling of Blackboard data. Tool from this section help to delete, copy, back up and check for link availability.
Help Contain link to external help in the use of Blackboard.
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