[CCoE Notice] Blackboard Semester Start-up Information; Student Upload Begins Tonight!

[Boyer, Debbie]

Dear Spring 2015 Blackboard Faculty,


Information regarding Blackboard (Bb) Spring 2015 semester start-up:


How to Add a TA to Your Blackboard Course

Please see attachment.


Initial Student Upload

Students will be uploaded into BbLearn coursesite(s) on Wednesday, January 14th, beginning at 12:01am.  By default, the Blackboard coursesites are "Available".  This means that the students will have access to your course site when they login to Blackboard.  Subsea and Petroleum Engineering are "Unavailable" and will be made available on the first day of classes.


To Make BbLearn Coursesite "Unavailable" to Students


1.    Login to BbLearn coursesite;
2.    Under Control Panel, click Customization;
3.    Click Properties;
4.    #2. Set Availability;  "Make Course Available?", select "No";
5.       Click Submit.

When you are ready for your students to have access to your course content, repeat the steps and select "Yes".


Was Your Coursesite Content Copied from a Previous Semester?

If content from a previous semester was copied to create your Spring 2015 coursesite, it is important to hide, remove, and/or update old content.  Course documents and folders may be "hidden" from student view until ready for use this semester.

1.    Edit Mode is: "ON"
2.    Click appropriate Content Area on upper Navigation Bar;
3.    Hover your mouse over the item to be "hidden", click drop-down arrow, select Edit.
4.    Scroll down to Option #3 - "Permit Users to View This Content", select "No".
5.    Click Submit.
6.    The icon next to the document or folder will appear lighter than the icon for "visible" documents and folders.  When you are ready for students to have access to this material, repeat the steps and click "YES" under Option #3.

"Best practice" is to make content unavailable until ready for use - having all of the course content available at the beginning of the semester can be overwhelming to students and cause confusion.


Emailing Your Students

There are two options available to email your students:

  1."Faculty Center" in PeopleSoft (attachment feature is not available)


  2."Send Email" feature in Blackboard Learn


1.    Under Control Panel;
2.    Click on Course Tools;
3.    Click Send Email;
4.    Click on "All Users" to send email to all users in course - students, TAs, Graders, etc.
or Click on "All Student Users" to send email to only students enrolled in BbL course.
5.    Complete Subject field and Message;
6.    A copy of the email will be automatically sent to the sender;
7.    An attachment may be included;
8.    Click Submit.

Your email message will be sent Bcc to all recipients.


Student Handout: Blackboard Learn Access

There are three options for logging in to Blackboard Learn - your BbLearn username and password are the same as your CougarNet ID & password.

            https://accessuh.uh.edu   (single-point authentication for several UH online services)

            https://elearning.uh.edu   (access directly to Blackboard Learn)

            http://www.uh.edu/blackboard   (access to Blackboard Learn and some helpful links)

Steps for accessing Blackboard Learn are attached.  Please distribute this handout to your students in class.  You may also want to post the electronic version on your coursesite.  Please use this new Spring 2015 document to replace all previous versions


Email Alias Information

The "email address" field in Blackboard Learn defaults to the UH email alias.  Students must have a valid "destination" email account designated in PeopleSoft to receive mail via BbLearn and the university.  Students can login to https://myuh.uh.edu (PeopleSoft) to update their "destination" email account.


Enrollment Updates

After the initial upload, enrollments will be updated every 4 hours.


Student Questions Regarding CougarNet and BbL Accounts, BbL login, and Password Resets

See "Bb Login" attachment.



Faculty Questions Regarding Your Blackboard Learn Course

Contact Debbie Boyer at 713-743-1347 or dboyer at uh.edu<mailto:dboyer at uh.edu> or JC McDonough at 713-743-9972 or jcmcdonough at uh.edu<mailto:jcmcdonough at uh.edu>.


Regards,
Debbie

Debbie Boyer, M.S.
Director, Education Technology
Cullen College of Engineering
University of Houston
dboyer at uh.edu<mailto:dboyer at uh.edu>
713-743-1347
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