SafeAssign Issue

Please be aware that there was an issue with the SafeAssign tool in Blackboard the past few days. SafeAssign was working properly off-campus but was not working on-campus. 

The issue was recently resolved and SafeAssign is now working properly on and off campus. 

 If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

2014 e-Learning / Blackboard Workshops

Below are several workshops covering various Blackboard and e-Learning topics. I’m offering these workshops over the lunch hour, so please feel free to bring your lunch. Hopefully, you’ll find one or more topics below that interest you. Please RSVP to me if you plan to attend. Thanks—Jeff.

• Using clickers to assess student understanding of lecture topics (1 hour)
  Thursday, February 6^th @ 12:30 PM in A-153 Conference Room

• Using Blackboard communication tools (i.e., blogs, journals, and wikis) for student projects (1 hour)
  Monday, February 10^th @ 12:30 PM in A-153 Conference Room

• Monitoring student progress by using Blackboard course reporting tools (1 hour)
  Monday, February 17^th @ 12:30 PM in A-153 Conference Room

• Using Blackboard SafeAssign to prevent and detect student plagiarism (1 hour)
  Thursday, February 20^th @ 12:30 PM in A-153 Conference Room

• Developing and using rubrics in Blackboard (1 hour)
  Monday, February 24^th @ 12:30 PM in A-153 Conference Room

Current Blackboard Issues and Solutions

Greetings,

There are a few issues with our current Blackboard system that I wanted to call to your attention, as well as offer possible solutions. Below is a listing of those issues along with appropriate resource information. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this email.

Assignment Inline Grader

The inline grader is the new feature in the Assignment tool that lets you grade student papers without downloading them. If you haven’t used this new feature in the Assignment tool, here’s a brief video: http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_inline_grading.htm

Issue #1: Please note that the inline grade will only work with the following file types: MS Word (DOC, DOCX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX), Excel (XLS, XLSX), and PDF (PDF). If students submit their assignments using anything other than the file types mentioned above, you will not be able to annotate on their assignment.

Issue #2: Please note that it is recommended that your students save their assignments using straight-forward filenames that are free of spaces and symbols (e.g., JpetersAssignment1). If students submit assignments with filenames including spaces and symbols, they may not be viewable in the inline grader (View this link for additional resource information: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Administrator/001_Release_Notes_and_Technical_Details/Inline_Grading_For_Assignments_Release_Notes).

Can’t Copy and Paste

The new content editor in Blackboard does not allow you to copy information using your mouse right-click controls. If you want to copy information into a Blackboard content editor you will need to use the Windows or Mac short-cuts (i.e., Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-V to paste for Windows users and Cmd-C and Cmd-V for Macintosh users).

Issue: Mozilla Firefox version 22 and above won’t even allow you to copy using the windows short-cuts. In order to copy and paste using these versions of Firefox, you’ll need to make the following modifications to your browser settings:

1.      In a new Firefox tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

2.      In the Search box at the top, type or paste clipb and pause while the list is filtered

3.      Double-click dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled to switch its value from true to false.

After following the steps above, shut down your browse and then re-launch it to initiate the setting changes. If you need help with this, let me.

Discussion Board Postings Not Appearing

Issue: Some students have reported that they can’t view certain discussion postings in their course. This may be related to some students copying and pasting their postings from MS Word into Blackboard. If this happens to you or your students, follow these steps:

There seems to be a problem with certain browser versions and not being able to view discussion postings that have been copied from Microsoft Word. In order to overcome this issue, do the following:

1.  Check the checkbox to the left of each discussion posting that isn’t appearing

2.  Click the Collect button on the action bar

3.  The postings you selected should render on a new page and should be readable

Here’s a video tutorial for collecting posts: http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r9/movies/Bb9_Discussion_Board_Search_Collect_Posts_Item.htm

Again, if you have any questions or need further assistance with any of the issues noted above, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Jeff

Fall 2013 MCCC eLearning Workshop Schedule

Greetings,

Below is a listing of upcoming eLearning and Instructional Support workshops for September and October. If you are interested in attending any of these workshops, please RSVP to jdpeters@monroeccc.edu. If you have any questions regarding this email or any of the workshops, please let me know. I hope to see you at one or all of the workshops.

Respectfully,

Jeff

Wednesday, September 25

Webinar (1 hour)

Topic: Respondus Monitor (i.e. recording students on video via web cam while taking an online exam)

Time: 3:00 PM

Location: W-157b

Wednesday, September 25

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: New Blackboard Features Overview (e.g. calendar, recording video, inline assignment grading, new online test features, updated content editor)

Time: 5 PM

Location: Z -289

Thursday, September 26

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: New Blackboard Features Overview (e.g. calendar, recording video, inline assignment grading, new online test features, updated content editor)

Time: 12:30 PM

Location: Z-289

Wednesday, October 2^nd 

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: Rapidly uploading content to your Blackboard course (i.e. Blackboard has a feature where you can upload a single .zip file containing multiple files and folders, instead of having to upload files individually)

Time: 5 PM

Location: Z-289

Thursday, October 3^rd

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: Rapidly uploading content to your Blackboard course (i.e. Blackboard has a feature where you can upload a single .zip file containing multiple files and folders, instead of having to upload files individually)

Time: 12:30 PM

Location: W-157b

Wednesday, October 16^th  

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: Assignment tools in Blackboard (i.e. Using the regular Bb assignment tool with inline grading capabilities and SafeAssign, which has plagiarism detection capabilities)

Time: 5 PM

Location: C-8

Thursday, October 17^th 

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: Assignment tools in Blackboard (i.e. Using the regular Bb assignment tool with inline grading capabilities and SafeAssign, which has plagiarism detection capabilities)

Time: 12:30 PM

Location: W-157b

Wednesday, October 23^rd   

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: Using audience response systems (i.e. clickers) in your classroom or lab to collect instant feedback from students

Location: C-8

Thursday, October 24^th  

Blackboard Workshop (1 hour)

Topic: Using audience response systems (i.e. clickers) in your classroom or lab to collect instant feedback from students

Time: 12:30 PM

Location: Z-289

2013 MCCC Blackboard Workshop Schedule

The MCCC eLearning and Instructional Support department is hosting the following Blackboard training workshops in February and March. If you are interested in attending any or all of the workshops listed below, please RSVP to elearning@monroeccc.edu.

Blackboard Training Workshop Schedule:

• Blackboard Basics -- NO Blackboard experience needed! This basic workshop is targeted to those MCCC instructors that have never used Blackboard, but are curious about what advantages it may offer. During the workshop we will discuss the basics of how to post content, announcements, email and grades on Blackboard. February 6 (Wednesday) from 12:30-1:30 PM in C8
  
• Adding a variety of content to your Blackboard course. This session will focus on how to add a variety of content items to your Blackboard course, such as documents, YouTube videos, images, etc. February 14 (Thursday) from 12:30-1:30 PM in C8
  
• Using Rubrics in your Blackboard course. This session will focus on the basics of creating a rubric and utilizing the Rubrics tool within Blackboard. February 20 (Wednesday) from 12:30-1:30 PM in C8
  
•   Creating tests and surveys in your Blackboard course. This session will focus on creating online tests and surveys in Blackboard, as well as discussing Respondus Lockdown Browser (specialized browser that helps minimize student cheating while taking online tests). February 28 (Thursday) from 12:30-1:30 PM in C8
  
• Using the Assignments and SafeAssign (plagiarism detection) tools in Blackboard. This session will focus on how to create and grade online assignments, as well as use the SafeAssign tool to help with student plagiarism detection. March 6 (Wednesday) from 12:30-1:30 PM in C8

Again, if you are interested in attending any of these training workshops, please RSVP to elearning@monroeccc.edu.

Respectfully,

Jeff