SP8

Enhancements in Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1 Service Pack 8
 Update July 2012: A new service pack is being applied to Blackboard @ VUW. Blackboard has focused on enhancing existing tools and features to promote instructor efficiencies as well as introduce new features to further enable instructor productivity.

There are some exciting new features included in Service Pack 8 for both teaching and learning and system administration.

This resource page focuses on the Teaching and Learning  enhancements, these include:


 * Activity Reports: Activity Reports provide reporting on how instructors and students are utilizing their Blackboard Learn courses and course materials. Administrators can generate reports for any course in the system, any user, or a collective view of users. Instructor reports are limited to their individual courses and the students enrolled in those courses.
 * Automated Regrading: Instructors can now fix problematic questions by simply editing the invalid question directly and having all necessary updates flow automatically to the Grade Centre. For any assessment question; Instructors can drop, give full credit, change point value, or change which answer is marked correct. After the question has been updated, Blackboard Learn recalculates the score of all submitted assessments that included the updated question, reflects the updates in the Grade Centre, and provides notification to both the Instructor and optionally to the Student for all impacted submissions.
 * Course Structures: These structures re-align the left navigation to match the pedagogical needs of the particular course type.
 * Course Themes: Pre-built designs that instructors can select to match their design preferences and teaching methods.
 * Course-to-Course Navigation: Course-to-Course Navigation allows students and instructors to jump from course to course while retaining the context of the page or task from the original page of any recently accessed course.
 * Negative Marking: Allows instructors to apply negative point values for incorrect answers on Assessment questions.

To find out more information on new features and enhancements in Service Pack 8 read What's New in SP8 for Higher Ed [PDF] (341KB)

Blackboard have created a collection of screen shots so you can see the new features - visit this page to view the gallery.

Resources for Blackboard Learn 9.1, SP8

 * Introducing Blackboard Learn SP8 Video Demo (playing time 2 minutes 20 seconds).
 * A Modern Experience in SP8 Video Demo (playing time 1 minute 53 seconds).
 * Activity reports Video Demo (playing time 3 minute 51 seconds).
 * Automated Regrading in SP8 Video Demo 1 (playing time 1 minute 34 seconds) and Video Demo 2 (playing time 2 minute 58 seconds).
 * Course themes Video Demo (playing time 2 minute 50 seconds).
 * Course-to-Course Navigation Video Demo (playing time 1 minute 32 seconds).
 * Negative marking Video Demo (playing time 4 minute 13 seconds).
 * Task-based Navigation in SP8 Video Demo (playing time 1 minute 16 seconds).

New Partner Integrations
 Internships.com: With single sign-on access, the free Internships.com Building Block provides increased efficiencies and added value for students within their normal Blackboard Learn workflow. With original content and proprietary career development tools, the Internships.com and Blackboard integration helps prepare students for future workforce success with tools like the My Career  tab, universal search tool, and a resume builder.

 Echo360: Echo360 (aka VStream) is an audio and video capture system. The system provides faculty the opportunity to create audio and video files for teaching and learning activities from the comfort of their desktop PC or from teaching rooms. Once in Blackboard, students and faculty can use media as easily and intuitively as they would other content objects. Please visit this link for details on the latest series of  staff development workshops 2012 - 2013 

 If you would like more information or assistance with the enhancements in Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1 Service Pack 8 please contact [mailto:jillian.pawlyn@vuw.ac.nz Jillian Pawlyn] or [mailto:Irina.Elgort@vuw.ac.nz Irina Elgort]   Please tell us what you think about these pages 

You can help us to keep our material updated and to be as useful to you as possible by sending us your question and feedback on what is provided.

Please send your questions and / or comments to [mailto:Irina.Elgort@vuw.ac.nz Irina Elgort]