Quick Start Guide for Staff

A Quick Start Guide for Staff
For Blackboard online tutorials please go to the Blackboard Homepage.


 * 1) If you have never set up a course web site in Blackboard before, sign up for Introduction to Teaching with Blackboard. This course is offered regularly by CAD. To sign up please visit the CAD workshops and events registration page.
 * 2) Requesting your Blackboard course
 * 3) * Lecturers who are already associated with a course in Banner do not need to request course access in Blackboard, as it is provisioned automatically. However, automatic access is provided to default (empty) Blackboard courses.
 * 4) * Staff who have higher access rights in Blackboard courses (e.g. instructor/teaching assistant) can add other teaching and administrative staff to their Blackboard courses.
 * 5) * If you wish to copy content from a previous course, you need to request this through the ITS ResolveIT by filling out an online form. ResolveIT can be accessed when logged onto myVictoria. You'll find ResolveIT under the University Helpdesks heading (right hand side, fourth down). Once in ResolveIT, go to Log a Request in the left navigation area.  The Log A Request menu appears in the middle; five down is New and under this you will find choices for types of Bb course request forms.
 * 6) * For users off campus without VPN access, you need to send an email to the [mailto:its-service@vuw.ac.nz ITS Service Desk] stating your Blackboard course request.
 * 7) If you have to send an email request to ITS make sure to note:
 * 8) * What content needs to be copied into the course (previous year’s course, standard or school template)?
 * 9) * Is the requested course a joint course (e.g. THEA204-THEA207-ENGL221) or a split-stream course (e.g. CUST213 - distance learning stream, CRN 15169)? In either case please make note of the CRNs (course reference numbers).

Blackbaord User Accounts
 * 1) If you are a staff member in a School or Research Institute with teaching or administrative responsibilities you already have a Blackboard user account. Your username and password are the same as your main network login. With questions regarding your login please contact the [mailto:its-service@vuw.ac.nz ITS Service Desk].
 * 2) Tutors - You may have employed students or staff members in a tutor role for your course. Tutors are not automatically given access to your Blackboard course you will need to manually enrol them. Instructions on how to enrol users to your Blackboard course are shown on this page. (Tutors who need access to editing course content and entering grades should be given the Teaching Assistant role).
 * 3) External users - Occasionally there is a need to provide access to your course to people who are not students or staff of VUW, e.g., visiting lecturers. To protect the privacy of Blackboard users at VUW individual consideration is given to each application, regrettably some applications will be unsuccessful. Please email the [mailto:its-service@vuw.ac.nz ITS Service Desk] for more information.
 * 4) Occasionally you may want to show your course to visitors, such as colleagues, prospective students, alumni, or parents. This can be achieved by allowing Guest access to your course. Guest access to a course can be enabled by the course instructor. Users logged in as guests can only see parts of the course that are open to Guests. Guest access to sections of the course needs to be set up by the course instructor). Guests cannot access tests, assessments and discussion boards, or post on private collaboration tools such as blogs or wikis. Finally remember to disable Guest access at the end of the course. For help on how to give Guest access to your course visit this page.
 * 5) You do not need to add students to your course; this is done automatically, based on the official enrolment record in Banner (CSA).
 * 6) It is not necessary to remove students from your Blackboard course. Using information from the official enrolment record in Banner, two weeks into the trimester a script is run to block students’ access to the Blackboard course. The script does not delete students from the course; it changes their access so the course is not available to them but they still show in the course as a user but the ‘Available’ will be changed to ‘no’. This is to ensure that any work they may have completed in the course is not deleted. After four weeks the student name is hidden from view. However the data they have generated while a member of the course is retained so if they re-enrol then the content is available to them once more. So if you want to amend the users manually then you can do so, however please only add or remove according to the enrolments presented in Banner/student records.
 * 7) When you receive notification from ITS that your Blackboard course has been set up, log in to Blackboard.
 * 8) Click on the course link under My Courses to go to the course web site.
 * 9) Start setting up your course web site
 * When a new course is added to your course list in Blackboard, it is an empty shell (unless you have requested an old web site to be copied in it). Before adding anything to your website, you need to make a number of decisions:
 * 1) * Have a clear understanding of why you are setting up the Blackboard course site. What are the main goals of your course web site (e.g., course administration, storing and distributing course materials, delivery of teaching, creating an environment to facilitate learning, or a mixture of the above)? The web site does not need to be all-encompassing. It can be set up to support only one part of the course, e.g., a course project or a specific learning activity.
 * 2) * Create a structure for your course web site that will allow it to achieve the identified goals. This is best done on paper, first, using storyboarding or by drawing a map of your site in the form of a flow chart or a map. The course design handout provides guidance on how to do this.
 * [[Media:ChalkDust2007_v6_1.pdf | Download the CAD Blackboard Course Design handout (pdf)]]
 * 1) * Create a course menu that reflects the top level structure of your web site.
 * 2) * Create subdirectories within each main menu area (if required) by creating folders.
 * 3) * Select the tools to be used in the course.
 * 4) * Select the means of communication to be used in the course.
 * 5) Add content to your Blackboard course web site
 * 6) * Add course resources and materials that are required for the beginning of the course (you can add more resources later, as and when needed). These may include documents, web links, assignments, tests and surveys.
 * 7) Set up the learning environment
 * 8) * Set up communication tools, if required (e.g., create discussion forums, create chat rooms).
 * 9) * Set up group collaboration spaces, if your students are required to work in groups, using the groups facilities.
 * 10) * Set up course or group online and select the tools you want them to share ( e.g Campus Pack blogs), if required.
 * 11) Set up assessment
 * 12) * Create assignments, if you are planning to ask students to submit their work electronically.
 * 13) * Create tests and quizzes to monitor student progress.
 * 14) * Set up the online gradebook if required.
 * 15) Final touches
 * 16) * Publish an initial course announcements.
 * 17) * Create a backup copy of your course, using the Archive Course option.
 * 18) * If your course web site was set up with a copy of an old Blackboard course,
 * 19) ** Delete old course announcements (use the recycle option to delete all at once)
 * 20) ** Delete old course journals (blogs) and wikis
 * 21) ** If any of your old course content was set to be released at specified dates, make sure you update these dates for the current course.
 * 22) When your course is ready, make it available.
 * 23) *View this tutorial to learn how to make a course available to students.
 * 24) After you have completed this last step, students enrolled in the course will see a new link to it under My Courses on their Blackboard Home Page.

Fur further support please visit the the Blackboard tutorials page.

Return to Blackboard Homepage