Attendance and Participation Aren't Just Important, They Are Required!

As your ELI course(s) begin, it is important to keep in mind attendance and participation in your ELI courses are very important. In fact your attendance and participation are not just important, they are required. Students who have not attended and completed their first assignments by the Census Date will be administratively withdrawn from the course by their instructor.  This has several consequences including:

Reduction in class load and possible change from full time to part time status (both potentially affecting financial aid)

Loss of tuition (yes, an administrative withdrawal will cause you to lose the money paid as tuition for this course)

No record of the class or letter grade on your transcript

As soon as your class begins, log into Blackboard and explore your course Blackboard. Use this opportunity to locate and review the course syllabus and assignments tab. This will give you a chance to see what you will be responsible for throughout the semester. In addition, this will also allow you sufficient time to plan your time appropriately, making certain you will be able to complete your readings, assignments, projects and tests in time for their specified due dates. Again, it is crucial to ensure you have completed and submitted your first assignment prior to the Census Date to avoid being administratively withdrawn from your course.

Logging into Blackboard as soon as the semester begins will also give you the opportunity to identify any unexpected issues and provide ample time to ask any questions you might have. ELI has a comprehensive array of student services to support our distance learners.

If you have any questions or you are not sure where to start, you can always contact the Success Coaching Team at elisuccess@nvcc.edu or by calling 703-764-5076. They are more than happy to answer your questions, as well as refer you to useful resources and services that will support your online learning experience.

Bb Tip: Search and Collect Discussions Threads

A Discussion Board or Forum in a Blackboard course can be the heart of the class if it is implemented well. It is the place where you can most easily get to know the other students in the course. If the forum is well attended, and students check in regularly, it is a place you can ‘raise your hand’ and ask questions if you don’t understand the material. It is a place where you can share your ideas and get into interesting discussions. But sometimes, it is possible to fall behind in your reading of them. It can be overwhelming if you don’t check for 3-4 days, and then log in to find 30+ unread posts!

Sometimes you want to pick one or two threads to follow and then just look in to see what other people have said to your posts. Or perhaps you want to quickly look to see whether the instructor has posted any comments and read those first. You might even just want to look at all the posts you’ve made this week to make sure you have hit the golden number of responses needed to get full credit for participation. So how do you locate the posts you are most interested in among all the other posts on the forum? Scanning for these posts one by one can be very time consuming, and if the posts are sprinkled through several threads, the page reloads can be frustrating. Luckily, the Search and Collect features make keeping up with discussions in Blackboard a little easier. Click the links and images for a closer look.

The Search feature lets you locate the specific posts you are interested in more easily. Once you click the Search button, the search interface looks like this:

Click image to enlarge

An alternate method is to check the boxes next to all the posts (or just use the ‘select all’ box at the top of the thread) and then click the “collect” button:
You can then use the “filter” button to narrow down which threads you see and what order you see them in.

Bb Tip: Tutorials Button

Confused as to how to submit an assignment or use the discussion board in Blackboard? Check the Bb Tutorials. This menu button is available in each Bb course site and provides a list of the tutorials on how to use some of the tools and features in Blackboard 9.

The Bb Tutorials button is located on the left-hand side bar, under Welcome, in all course sites.

Are you having trouble seeing your assignments in Blackboard?

Just a quick tip: Blackboard has a feature that lets you hide your Menu Buttons so you have more screen space for what you are reading. Unfortunately, if your menu is hidden and you aren't aware of this feature, you may have difficulty finding things inside your course. The button which makes this menu reappear will be to the left of the screen and will have a symbol that looks like this: >

A visual demonstration of how to hide and un-hide your Menu Buttons is available here.

Problems with Bb9 Equation Editor? Try this...

ELI students in Physics, Chemistry and Math courses have reported problems using the Equation Editor in Blackboard 9 to complete their assignments and exams. ELI's Instructional Design team has investigated the situation and here we present the recommended work-around. (click any image to enlarge)

Using the Equation Editor in BB9

First, note the icons and tools in the image of the text box below:

1. Visual Text Editor is ON
2. Click triangle to reveal second toolbar
3. See the Equation Editor icon
4. See the Preview icon

To write an equation in the text box:

• Click on the Equation Editor icon – a pop-up window will open.
• Click and scroll across the gray buttons to select the type of equation you want to create.

• Create the equation and then click the Submit button:

• The equation will appear as an empty box (as shown below).
• Click on the Preview button to see/verify the equation.
• Close the Preview window and continue with the test or assignment.

Note: If you need to delete an equation, click on the center of the empty box and use the delete key on the keyboard.

Blackboard Upgrade: In case you missed it

If you're returning to ELI after being away for a semester, or if you haven't been reading ELIfe lately, you may be surprised to log-in to Blackboard and find that things look a little different. Don't worry, you're not imagining things; the VCCS upgraded to Blackboard 9 on May 15. We posted several tips about new features of Bb9 here during April. To catch up on the tips you missed, click the "blackboard 9" label from the column at the right of this page.

Keep in mind, Bb9 is new to all of us. So if you discover any neat tips or tricks, share what you've learned by posting a comment. We'll do the same.

Blackboard Upgrade Reminder

Heads Up! On May 15 the College will be upgrading from Blackboard 8 to Blackboard 9. Blackboard will be down from 12:01 a.m. on May 15 until no later than 11:59 p.m. on May 15.

What does this mean for you?

• You will not be able to access your course in Blackboard on Saturday, May 15—please plan appropriately!
• Any exams that need Blackboard access will not be available.
• On Sunday, May 16, your course will be available with the new, Blackboard upgrade (version 9). The new version of Bb will look somewhat different from the old version, and may have some new features.

For a preview of Bb9, check out these tutorials.

Bb Tip: Submit Assignments

One of the features that has changed in Blackboard 9 is the way to submit your assignments. In Blackboard 8 you would click on the View/Complete Assignment link:

That link is no longer available in Bb9. Instead, you simply click on the title of the Assignment when you see the clipboard icon:

Next, you will end up in the the very familiar screen to Browse and Submit your work. Easy, eh?

Bb Tip: Blog and Journal Tools

There are a couple of new tools in Blackboard 9 which your instructors may be using this summer. One is the blog and the other is the journal. The blog provides you an individual opportunity to record your ongoing ideas for the entire class. There is also the option for a whole class blog. The blogs are not private so you will have to be careful about what you write in a blog. The journal is private between you and the instructor. In a journal you might keep your reflections on what you have learned throughout the course. Both the blog and journal are located under Tools (or My Tools) in the navigation bar:

 

Notice that there are several other tools that you recognize from Bb8. Remember, not all instructors use all of the tools available so check your course site and directions when you are able to log in on May 17.

Bb Tip: TAC Tutorials

A reminder about the Blackboard conversion from NOVA's Technology Applications Center (TAC):

On May 15 the college will be upgrading from Blackboard 8 to Blackboard 9.  The new version of BB will look different from the old version, and it will also have some new features like blogs and journals. To prepare you for this transition, TAC has linked two sets of student tutorials to the Blackboard Updates blog. Please see the "Student Print Guide to BB 9" and "USC BB 9 Student Videos," both of which are described in blog postings.

Bb Tip: Personalize Your Portal

Happy Monday morning ELIfers! Here are some more previews of Blackboard 9 and tips about personalizing the portal page from ELI's Instructional Design team:

You will log into Bb9 the same way that you log into Bb8, using the same user name and password. When you arrive at the portal page you will see two sub tabs:

1. The NOVA tab lists your Blackboard Courses and any Organizations that you are enrolled in.
2. The Notifications Dashboard is a handy summary of what’s new in your courses, including Needs Attention, Alerts, What’s New, and To Do.

You can change what’s on either the NOVA tab or the Notifications Dashboard tab by using the Add Module button:

By placing a check mark or removing a check mark from the box next to each possibility you can rearrange the content on your portal page.

You can also personalize the color scheme by using the Personalize button:

This is your portal page so organize it the way that works for you and make it as efficient as possible. One warning:  Don’t remove the My Blackboard Courses module or you won’t be able to get into your courses!

Bb Tip: The carrot symbol

Starting Monday, May 17, all colleges in the Virginia Community College system will be using Blackboard 9 for their learning management system. If you are enrolled in a course on Friday, May 14 you can use Bb8 on Friday. Note: Blackboard will not be available on Saturday, May 15 or Sunday, May 16.

The new Blackboard looks a little different, but works mostly the same way. The first course screen looks like this:

 

The carrot symbol (<) that the red arrow is pointing to allows you to change the screen appearance by hiding the navigation buttons. To change it back, just click on the carrot (>) again. 

This is the first in a series of tips for using Blackboard 9. Keep tuning in for additional tips.

A sneak peek at Blackboard 9

VCCS upgrade to Blackboard 9 is right around the corner. Get a sneak peek and preview all the exciting new features.

• iTunes Format
• Windows Media Player Format
• Quicktime Format

Get Ready for Blackboard 9!

This is exciting! The VCCS is upgrading to Blackboard 9 in May 2010. Here are some features to look forward to:

• easier navigation
• new and improved social learning tools such as blogs and journals
• Web 2.0 technologies that allow for greater interactivity and collaboration

You will continue to have access to Blackboard through myNOVA but there are several major differences within this version to be aware of (and get excited about). The plan is to have Blackboard 9 fully operational for the SU '10 semester. We’ll be presenting BB9 tutorials throughout April to help you prepare so, stay tuned!

Blackboard Tip: Discussion Boards

Blackboard discussion boards are an integral communication tool for distance learning students. Some instructors will require you to post an introduction to the discussion board as your first assignment. And beyond that, you can use the discussion board throughout your course to ask questions about assignments and materials or to arrange a study group. Learn how to use this feature and stay in-the-know about your ELI course. Visit here for a Blackboard discussion group tutorial.

How do you use the discussion board in your courses?