{"id":449,"date":"2014-02-21T11:53:59","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T11:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/?p=449"},"modified":"2014-02-24T14:32:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T14:32:20","slug":"five-blackboard-tips-for-students-and-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/2014\/02\/21\/five-blackboard-tips-for-students-and-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Blackboard Tips for students and staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bb_roboto2\"Each month our Blackboard service is used by more than 24,000 members of the University. \u00a0Less than 1% of those customers contact ServiceLine<\/a> with a query about the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment. \u00a0Most of these queries can be answered by referring to our web pages<\/a>. \u00a0Those who do raise a ticket will usually find they have received a resolution very quickly<\/a>. \u00a0With this in mind here are some quick tips based on queries we have been receiving lately.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “Widescreen” mode \u2013 for students and staff<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n
  2. (Un)Available courses \u2013 for students and staff<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Guest Access\u2013 for staff but benefits students<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Tidying up your course list and enabling \u201cterms\u201d \u2013 for students and staff<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Course Banners \u2013 for staff but benefits students<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

    “Widescreen” mode \u2013 for students and staff<\/h1>\n

    Have you ever entered a course and found that you can only view the announcements page? \u00a0Maybe you have enabled Widescreen mode? \u00a0It can easily be toggled on and off, as shown in this animation.<\/p>\n

    \"Toggling

    Toggling “wide screen mode”<\/p><\/div>\n

    “Back to Top”<\/a><\/p>\n

    (Un)Available courses \u2013 for students and staff<\/h1>\n

    As a member of staff do you wonder what this means at the top left of your course.<\/p>\n

    \"Course

    Course is unavailable to students<\/p><\/div>\n

    As a student do you wonder why in your My Courses box something like this appears?<\/p>\n

    \"Course<\/a>

    Course is unavailable<\/p><\/div>\n

    When courses are created on Blackboard they are set to be unavailable to students. This is so that the course instructor may prepare the course and then make it available when they are ready.<\/p>\n

    So the important thing to remember is this: if you are a member of staff<\/strong> using Blackboard to support your course, your Blackboard course must be available to students in order for them to access it. \u00a0Doing so takes about five clicks, and instructions are on our web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Students<\/strong>\u00a0who find their course is unavailable should contact their course instructor.<\/p>\n

    “Back to Top”<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Guest Access\u2013 for staff but benefits students<\/h1>\n
    \"Guest

    Guest Access<\/p><\/div>\n

    There may be occasions where you wish to allow people from outside the University to access your course. \u00a0Or you may wish to allow students to preview a course before they decide they would like to take it. \u00a0It’s very easy to make your course available to “guests” and you can give this access only to certain areas of your course as you see fit.<\/p>\n

    Instructions for staff on how to enable Guest access are here:<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/isolutions\/computing\/elearn\/blackboard\/setguestaccess.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    Instructions for Guests and students on how to access courses that have Guest Access enabled are here:<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/isolutions\/computing\/elearn\/blackboard\/accessbbasguest.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    “Back to Top”<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Tidying up your course list and enabling “terms” – for students and staff<\/h1>\n

    Is your course list too long and disorganised? \u00a0Has it become a source of frustration? \u00a0With three clicks you can take back control of your My Courses box by enabling “terms”. \u00a0This feature will group your courses by academic year.<\/p>\n

    \"My<\/a>

    My Courses box with “terms” enabled.<\/p><\/div>\n

    Follow our guide to enable terms, and hide away any courses you no longer wish to see.<\/p>\n

    \n
    \n
    \n

    Customising “My Courses”<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    “Back to Top”<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Course Banners – for staff but benefits students<\/h1>\n

    A course banner can help to differentiate your course, give immediate signposting to students, and make all involved feel more positive about their course. \u00a0We have seen some instances where course banners have been designed around a key image or detail that is referred to often in the course itself and helps to anchor this detail in people’s minds.<\/p>\n

    Course Banners can be created using software such as GIMP<\/a>, Paint<\/a>, Photoshop<\/a>, Paint.NET<\/a>, and Paintshop Pro<\/a>\u00a0or any other graphic creation software. \u00a0There are many online Banner generators too, such as:<\/p>\n