ITTC Online Magazine

We would like to thank all who participated in the ITTC Summer Institutes for Summer 2009. We had a great turnout and are happy that you joined us in making this year’s Institute a huge success!

There are several courses available at different levels of instruction for you to register to attend and most are 1.5 hours in length.   We also offer many “Open Lab” hours where you can come and receive a one-on-one training session if you wish.  

For more information, please go to our website at www2.astate.edu/ittc and at the bottom of the home page you can select to view our Scheduler where you will see all the class listings.   Many are repeated on different days of the week and different times of the day so as to make it easier for you to attend.   Instructions on how to register to reserve your seat are also available on the Scheduler.

We hope to see you soon at the ITTC.

Have a good start of the semester.

Henry Torres

Director, Interactive Teaching & Technology Center

Dean B. Ellis Library Suite 301

Arkansas State University

Ph: (870) 972-2334  

Below are the instructions (from ITS) to merge several sections of your Bb 8 course shells into one course shell:

Dear Colleagues,

You are receiving this message because we have identified a course or section in Banner that you teach as either dual/merged or cross-listed.

IT and ITTC have been actively engaged in making several improvements to the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS).  As you are aware from recent communications, a new Blackboard LMS platform will roll out for the Spring of 2010.  This new platform is called “Blackboard Learn”.  Blackboard Learn will provide many new features and enhancements, as well as resolving many technical and functional issues of the current Blackboard environment.  One of the features will be the native capability to merge multiple course shells into a single shell.  In the interim period as we are preparing to move to the new platform, we have made a change in the enrollment process in which we need assistance from some of you.  Because we now auto-enroll students and faculty in courses/sections based on information in Banner, the capability to merge courses in the traditional method is no longer viable.  If you teach a course that is merged with multiple courses, this message applies to you. So for instance, if you teach ACCT4113001 and ACCT5113001, and you traditionally combine these courses and call the course Tax Accounting II, this message applies to you.  

Please follow the steps below in order to merge courses and/or sections into a single course shell in Blackboard.

• We have created a new course merge utility that can/will merge courses and/or sections.  Faculty wishing to merge their courses/sections in Blackboard into one course shell can use the utility at the following URL: https://apps.astate.edu/blackboard.
• Once you log into the site using your ASU email address, you will see all of the courses for which you are listed in Banner as the instructor of record.  If a course or section is not listed, then you need to contact your department chairperson to make the assignment in Banner.
• Select the courses that are to be merged into a single course shell, and click on the single arrow to move them to the selected courses box on the right.
• Once the courses are listed as desired in the selected course window, give the course shell a name in the “New BB shell” text box and click merge.  This is the name that the course will appear as in Blackboard.
• The page will update and display the courses that have been merged.
• Once this process is complete, the new merged course shell will be created in the next update window. (7AM, 12Noon, 5PM, 12Midnight)

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.  If you need any help with this process, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 870.972.3933 or by email at helpdesk@astate.edu.

I’ve been using this tool for over a year now and it has saved me so much time!  Henry introduced me to it about a year ago and he said have you ever heard of Xobni?  It sounded kind of strange to me but then he explained that it was just inbox spelled backwards. Ahh,makes sense! 

Xobni is a tool that works inside of Microsoft Outlook.  It allows you to search for things so quickly.  Suppose you are in a scramble to get to your next meeting and you need the file that Bob sent you but you can’t remember when he sent it.  Now you go to search for his name in Outlook but Bob has to email you all the time so you have hundreds of emails from him.  With Xobni you will get a return like this just by typing in Bob’s name. 

It shows you every conversation you have had with this person and if you hover over those conversations it will show you a selection from that email so that you do not have to open every single one.  In a seperate section it will also show you every attachment that has been sent!  So easy and convenient. 

I just downloaded a new version of Xobni today and found that it will now link a person’s email address to Partners such as Facebook and LinkedIn.  It’s pretty cool.  I just wanted to share.

Here is a link to the website if you are interested in trying it out.  http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/.  Come back and comment to let me know if you would like to see more tips like this.

The 2nd Annual Online & Distance Education Regional Conference dates have been tenatively set for April 8th & 9th, 2010.

More details to be announced soon!

As you should have heard by now, Bb6 will be unavailable for your students beginning this fall semester.  You will then have until December 2009 to get a backup of your files before it will be gone forever.  For more information on migrating from Bb 6 to Bb 8 check out this tutorial.

If you have taught or participated in an online learning environment you know that one of the challenges is overcoming the barriers between instructor and student. The physical distance that exists often causes social and communication barriers that create a feeling of distance between the students and their instructor. One way to bridge this gap is through digital storytelling. This technology can help you get to know your students as well as letting them know a little more about you, the class they are enrolled in, and what you expect from them.

Digital Storytelling is the art of turning a personal story into a multimedia experience. One can combine images, sound, and their own creative voice to quickly and painlessly create their own story. What results is a work that is original and often powerful. There are various software programs that are free for download and one of those is Photo Story 3 for Windows. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Microsoft website or by going to our website and clicking on Free Software.

Our idea is that professors make their own digital story for students to view and in turn assign students to do the same. What you request from them is up to you but a few examples are career goals, hobbies and interests, and what they hope to learn while in your class. This practice can also help you tailor your class to the needs of your students.

Digital Storytelling can also be used in a variety of different ways. For example, it can be used to explain historical or artistic materials when pictures with voice over can be more powerful than the written word. While the images are scrolling across the screen you can narrate using your own words. It has also been used to highlight departments, programs, and events. One example of Digital Storytelling being used in this manner is on the future College of Communications Home page located at http://www2.astate.edu/a/communications/. Just click on the picture of the students. The music in this Digital Story was actually taken from the Media Services catalog of songs. More information on this can be found on page two of this newsletter near the bottom of the page.

For an example of a digital story from the instructor and student perspective please visit the digital storytelling page on our website.

While at out website you can also click on Training to sign up for a Digital Storytelling workshop.

The dawn of new semester brings a sense of excitement, but this can quickly turn to anxiety for you and your students if you do not get your online class started off on the right foot. We would like to offer you some tips in making sure that you and your students are not overwhelmed by the obstacles of online education.

First off, you need to establish communication guidelines. Not only will this help you to manage phone calls and emails from your students, but it will help to establish a bond of trust between both parties. It is important to let them know when you will be available to answer questions and when they can expect to receive grades for the homework that they turn in. This helps to ease tension in the event of stressful situations. For example, if a student has a problem at 10pm on Thursday night and you only respond on Tuesday and Thursdays they may spend their entire weekend stressing over the situation and/or emailing you 50 times in the next three days when this entire situation could have been avoided if they had known that you would be sending out responses on Tuesday mornings.

Then, once you establish these communication guidelines do your very best to stick to them. This just strengthens their trust in you as their instructor. Look at it from the perspective of the student, you give them deadlines for their assignments and expect them to respond in the designated time. If they do not, you grade them accordingly. They do the same to you but instead of it being a letter grade it becomes your reputation. Of course we are all human, so if something comes up and you cannot meet your pre-established guidelines just let them know by sending out a class- wide email or by posting an announcement in your Blackboard course. The more you communicate with them, the more successful you will be in the online education arena.

Another way of forming rapport between you and your students is through personalized Blackboard homepages. Not only can you set one of these up but so can your students. We recommend that if you request this from them, that you do the same by setting up a page about you. You can create your profile by clicking on Control Panel and then on Staff Information. Similarly students can do this by clicking on tools and then on Homepage. Not only does this help to strengthen the connection between parties but it may also deter deceptive identities.
Let us know if we can help you in any way and enjoy your semester!

Reusing and Migrating Files in Blackboard: Helpful Hints

As we transition from Blackboard 6 to Blackboard 8 the need to seamlessly migrate our course content is an area of emphasis for the Interactive Teaching and Technology Center (ITTC).  The migration of Blackboard 6 files to version 8 is quick and easy. On our website www2.astate.edu/ittc  in our online tutorial section we have detailed instructions on migrating from Blackboard 6 to version 8.

Migration of Blackboard 6 files to version 8

Before you start the migration process ensure that the following is in place:  Course shells have been created for you in Blackboard 8 (www.blackboard@astate.edu). These empty course shells will be used to house the migrated course (s) or to set-up new courses.

-If it is important to you to have a record of last semester’s course, you will want to complete the “Archive” protocol before any migration. Archiving a course allows you to save a copy of your course in its original/current format. This will ensure that you have an intact copy of your course secure for later retrieval if needed. 

-Be sure to empty out any submitted materials, for example, discussion boards with their postings, or all the work submitted to the Digital Drop Box (Alternatively, you can simply choose not to migrate your discussion boards or Digital Drop Box, and then re-create new ones in your BB8 course.)

-Make sure that all materials in the BB6 course that you plan to migrate are “available”

Exporting the Blackboard 6 Course:

-Sign into Blackboard (Bb) 6 and go to your course

-Go to Control Panel, to Course Options, to Export Course

-Select the course materials you want to export to Bb8

-Click Submit

-Click the Download Link and save the course file to your Desktop (creating a Zip file)

-Log out of Bb6

Importing the Course Files to Blackboard 8

-Sign into Blackboard 8 and click on an empty/unused shell

-Click  on Control Panel, go to Course Options, to Import Package

-Under Select Package, click on “Choose File” and select the Bb6 file previously saved to your desktop

-Under Select Course Materials – check the materials to be imported

-Click Submit

-On completion of this process, an email confirming the successful transfer of file to Blackboard 8 is sent to your mailbox

Reusing/Recycling a Blackboard Course

Recycle – allows you to reuse everything in a course just as you set it up the previous semester it was used, except that it allows you to erase all student names, submitted information such as Discussion Boards, Announcements and Digital Drop box submissions. With recycle you have the option to use the same name of the course and the same course shell. Once you have selected the items you want to remove from the course you type “Remove” and select “Submit”. Ensure that you have an archived copy of your course before you recycle it. Once you complete the recycle process any items removed from a course is permanently deleted. 

Important: Remember to convert all your courses to Blackboard 8. Blackboard 6 will be sunset beginning summer 2009 and will be turned off December 2009. For a short video tutorial on how to do this, go to our website and look under Online Tutorials.