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What’s New and Different in Blackboard 7.0 |
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The Blackboard 7 Learning System includes a number of new tools and features. This
document is only a brief outline of what's new and different. In depth
information is contained in the Instructor Manual and product documentation. We
are also offering a number of workshops titled "Blackboard 7.0, What's New And
Different." Instructors can
enroll online for one of these workshops by going to http://itc.boisestate.edu/events/.
We have created some of these help documents ourselves, and collected others
from Blackboard's official website. In order to view most of the files, you'll
need the following browser plug-ins:
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 Macromedia Flash Player. You can download the free version from
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 Adobe Reader (PDF). You can download Adobe Reader from
Adobe.com.
ON THIS PAGE:
Institutions can run multiple
languages (or locales) on the same system. Institutions can offer the
Blackboard Academic Suite in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch,
and Portuguese. The entire system can be set in a specific language, or
a language may be offered as a preference for users. To support
cross-border education, as well as foreign language courses, Instructors
can set the language of the course independently from the language
setting of the overall system.
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Available Tutorials |
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Set the course language |
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apply to all users in the course. Using Adaptive Release, Instructors
can display content to certain users for a limited period of time, or
only after users meet (or fail to meet) predetermined requirements. Some
content might be applicable to all users in the course, while other
content should be audience-specific.
Adaptive Release allows an Instructor to create custom learning paths
through course content and activities. Content items, discussions,
assessments, assignments, or other activities can be released to
Students based on a set of criteria including: date and time, specific
users, group membership, grades or attempts on a particular test or
assignment, or Review Status of another item in the course. Instructors
create and modifiy Adaptive Release rules from the new Manage page
available on all content items.
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Available Tutorials |
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Create
custom learning paths
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Outcomes-based tracking is an
important feature to most Blackboard clients. Today, Instructors can
track item hits on a user-by-user basis, but Students have no automated
way of explicitly notifying Instructors when they review an item. If
Review is enabled for a content item, users see a Mark Reviewed icon
from the course view. When users
have completed their review of the item, they click the Mark Reviewed
button. The item then displays a Reviewed icon. The Instructor can view
progress from the Performance Dashboard or the User Progress page in the
Control Panel. Instructors enable and disable review from the new Manage
page available on all content items.
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Available Tutorials |
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Review Status |
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The Syllabus Builder is an
easy-to-use content item that makes Syllabus creation—the most basic
element of any course—simple for Instructors of all levels, with a
feature that allows them to easily apply designs to their work. Syllabi
can contain general class information such as dates and times as well as
an overview of each lesson.
Instructors create a syllabus by selecting Syllabus from the action bar
dropdown menu on a Content Area page.
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Available Tutorials |
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Create a
syllabus with the Syllabus Builder
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The Performance Dashboard is a
course tool that allows Instructors to see key information and outcomes
for all course users. It displays the last time users logged in, their
course role, content availability by user based on Adaptive Release
criteria, Review Status for content items, and a direct link to the
Gradebook: User Grade List page for individual users.
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Available Tutorials |
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Review student progress and course activity |
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When creating Assessments in
the Blackboard Learning System, Instructors may choose from ten
additional question types, including: Calculated Questions, Numeric
Response Questions, File Response Questions, Hot Spot Questions,
Multiple Fill-in-the-Blank Questions, Jumbled Sentence Questions,
Opinion Scale Questions, Short Response Questions, Either / Or
Questions, and Quiz Bowl Questions.
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Available Tutorials |
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Assessment Enhancements in Bb7
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Current Gradebook calculations
for Total and Weighted Total include items that have not been taken or
graded. A new option to exclude untaken or ungraded items when
calculating the Total and Weighted Total appears in Application Pack 3.
The Running Total and Running Weighted Total columns display Student
performance only on completed items.
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Available Tutorials |
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Gradebook |
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Instructors can download
Survey or Test attempts as a .CSV file. Most often, this feature is used
to perform statistical analysis in a spreadsheet application, such as
Microsoft Excel. Downloaded Assessment attempts now include all
questions in the Assessment. In earlier versions, only certain question
types, such as Multiple Choice, were included in the downloaded attempt.
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Available Tutorials |
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Instructors have the option to randomize the answers in multiple choice
questions. The answers are randomized for each assessment attempt, which
helps prevent Student cheating.
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Available Tutorials |
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Randomize
Multiple Choice Answers
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Two views of the Course Menu are now available to users; the Quick View
(the original menu design) and the Detail View. The Detail View is the
full Course Map, letting users expand and collapse the Course Menu, and
displays a clickable link to each item in the course. If allowed by the
Instructor, users may toggle between these two views.
In addition, commonly used tools are separated from the Course Menu to
make them easier to find and use. To support the advanced Course Menu,
the Course Map has been completely redesigned for Application Pack 3. It
displays new icons based on the item or tool, shows only the content
available to the current user (based on Adaptive Release critieria), and
loads very quickly even in large, content-rich courses. The map is
cached for even faster rendering in subsequent views and has a 20 minute
automatic refresh.
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Available Tutorials |
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Advanced
Course Menu and New Course Map
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In Blackboard Academic Suite
(Release 7) the import, export, archive and restore processes are
asynchronous. This means that users do not have to wait in the browser
window while the operation takes place. This is more efficient for users
because the operations are queued and managed in the background. When
one of these tasks is executed, the system completes it in the
background and sends the user an email upon completion. The new process
for Export and Archive matches the process for Course Copy. The new
Export / Archive Manager, available on both the Administrator Panel and
the Control Panel for individual courses and organizations, makes it
easier for users to manage these operations. This page lists all of the
packages that have been created for the course, including detailed logs
for the package processes. The user can export and archive the course
multiple times and keep multiple backups of the course. The user may
also remove packages that are no longer needed.
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Available Tutorials |
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The Copy Course Materials into
a New Course and Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course features
now include an option to include protected Course Cartridge content.
Instructors and Administrators can choose whether or not they would like
to include cartridge content in the copy operation. If this option is
selected, the content may be accessed in the copied course by users with
a valid Student Access Key. When copying course materials into an
existing course, the system will check to confirm that both courses
contain the same Course Cartridge. If they do, the selected course
sections will be copied including any protected Course Cartridge
content. If the courses contain different Course Cartridges, only
non-Cartridge materials will be copied and the user will be given a
message stating there was a Course Cartridge conflict.
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Available Tutorials |
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Instructors may add a number
of different kinds of content to course Content Areas; these are
referred to as Content Types. Additional Content Types (i.e. Discussion
Board, Groups, Tools) have been added to the drop-down list of a Content
Area page in Bb 7.
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Available Tutorials |
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| This is the blackboard website
that provides links to these tutorials as well as additional ones. |
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Available Tutorials |
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Blackboard Assistance at Boise State
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email: |
blackboard@boisestate.edu |
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phone: |
(208)
426-2583 (8-5 Mon-Fri) |
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office: |
Education 420 |
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