Thursday, December 20, 2007

Change of URL for Blackboard 7

Accessing Blackboard 7

Beginning today, Thursday, December 20, when you click on My Nova on the NOVA homepage, you will access Blackboard 7. You will notice a new header for this version. If you use http://learn.vccs.edu to access Blackboard, you will now access Blackboard 7 at that address.

If you want access to your Blackboard 6 courses, you will access them at http://bb6.vccs.edu If you cannot access the URL, be sure to close your browser, open it again, retype the URL (be sure that NO www is in the URL), and hit enter. The same username and password work in both Bb6 and Bb7.

Within the next two weeks, all FA 07 Bb 6 courses will be migrated to Bb 7 along with your students and grades. This will allow students to continue to complete any incomplete FA 07 courses on the new Blackboard 7 servers.

Remember that SP 08 Blackboard 7 shells have already been created so you can export/import materials from previous courses into your SP 08 Bb7 shells if you want to do so now.

Also, note that year-old Blackboard courses are automatically archived and deleted by the Virginia Community College System at the end of every semester. So Fall 06 Bb courses are being deleted by default now by not being migrated to the Bb7 servers.

Friday, December 14, 2007

More Blackboard 7 News

Announcing some good news . . .

With the arrival of Blackboard version 7, all faculty and staff now automatically have Blackboard user accounts and all faculty have Blackboard shells for every course for the SP 08 semester. These Blackboard shells are generated as “unavailable” so no student can see any of those shells unless a faculty member develops them and makes them available. However, if faculty want to use them for support for a classroom course, for a hybrid course, or for a distance course, they can simply begin to develop the shell without having to request it.

Below are some reminders for those currently using Blackboard:

  1. Beginning December 20 when students and faculty click My Nova, they will access Bb 7 and NOT Bb 6. If students have an incomplete and need to continue working on their FA 07 course or if they are enrolled in an ELI course that continues beyond December 20, students will either see their course in Bb 7 or be told to go to http://bb6.vccs.edu/ to find their course.
  2. January 10 all students will be batch enrolled into SP 08 Blackboard courses. They will not have access to SP 08 Bb courses until that time and only if the faculty has made the course available.
  3. All faculty and staff can be working on their SP 08 Blackboard courses in Bb 7 right now. Until December 20, use the following URL to access your SP 08 Blackboard course shell – http://bb7.vccs.edu/ Use the same username and password that you currently use with your Bb 6 courses.
  4. To move content into your current SP 08 Blackboard course shell from previous semesters use the Export/Import feature. Follow the directions posted at http://www.nvcc.edu/home/nvsimpc/bb/exportimport.mht or view the video demo at http://tac.nvcc.edu/robert/blackboard6_7/blackboard7.html . ALL faculty must now do their own export/import because of the new VCCS method of creating Bb course shells.
  5. Blackboard organizations will be migrated to Blackboard 7 beginning December 20 and for the following several weeks. The migration will be completed for all VCCS colleges during this time. Once your organization has been moved, you will find it by clicking on My Nova.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A Few More Notes on the Blackboard 7 Migration

Take Note . . .

Remember - Faculty will be able to work on their SP 08 Blackboard course shells in Bb7 and view FA 07 courses on both systems throughout the entire migration period. To access your SP 08 Bb7 course shell, use http://bb7.vccs.edu until December 20 and then use My Nova or http://learn.vccs.edu.

All faculty and staff who want to move content from a previous Blackboard course shell into their SP 08 Blackboard course shell must use the export/import feature and move the content themselves.

Please inform your students with incompletes in FA 07 Blackboard courses or in ELI courses that continue beyond December 20, that they will experience a short period (15 minutes to 2 hours) sometime in that two week period where their course will not be available. We will not be able to tell them exactly which day that will be because the VCCS is migrating all of the VCCS courses at once during that time period.

After January 4, Bb 6 may no longer be available, so if faculty have incompletes for students from prior semesters and want to keep a record of their grades in Blackboard, you will need to export the gradebook into an Excel spreadsheet to keep a record.

If you want to use a single Bb course site for multiple sections (i.e. nursing) or courses, such as combined ADJ107/SOC236, you will need to contact Michelle Gee mgee@nvcc.edu , so Michelle can setup a special batch enrollment.

For ENG 111/9, you will now see two courses in Bb 7 – one for ENG 111 and one for ENG 09. If you do not want to have the two different Blackboard courses, then keep ENG 09 unavailable and use only the ENG 111.

More on the Blackboard 7 Migration

Important New Information about Blackboard Courses!

  1. Beginning December 20 when students click My Nova, they will access Bb 7 and NOT Bb 6. If students have an incomplete and need to continue working on their FA 07 course or if they are enrolled in an ELI course that continues beyond December 20, students will either see their course in Bb 7 or be told to go to http://bb6.vccs.edu/ to find their course.
  2. Beginning December 20 and for the following two weeks, the VCCS will be migrating all FA 07 courses with students and grades included into Bb 7. For students still participating in a FA07 course, it will only be unavailable for a short period of time when it is actually being migrated from Bb6 to Bb7 – 15 minutes to 2 hours on one day during the two week migration window. This allows faculty to have access to this content as well as students with incompletes.
  3. Faculty will be able to view FA 07 courses on both systems throughout the migration and work on SP 08 Blackboard course shells throughout the entire time, but during and after FA 07 courses are migrated to Bb7, they will be made unavailable on Bb6 and the title will be changed to say something like “MOVED TO Bb7,” so no changes can be made in Bb6 version.
  4. January 10 all students will be batch enrolled into SP 08 Blackboard courses. They will not have access to SP 08 Bb courses until that time and only if the faculty has made the course available.
  5. All faculty and staff can be working on their SP 08 Blackboard courses in Bb 7 right now. The migration of FA 07 Bb6 courses into Bb7 will not affect the use of Bb7 for working on your SP 08 Blackboard course shell. Until December 20, use the following URL – http://bb7.vccs.edu/ to access your SP 08 Bb couse shell. Use the same username and password that you currently use with your Bb 6 courses.
  6. To move content into your current SP 08 Blackboard course shell from previous semesters use the Export/Import feature. Follow the directions posted at http://www.nvcc.edu/home/nvsimpc/bb/exportimport.mht or view the video demo at http://tac.nvcc.edu/robert/blackboard6_7/blackboard7.html ALL faculty must now do their own export/import because of the new method of creating Bb course shells.
  7. After December 20, you can use My Nova on the NOVA homepage or http://learn.vccs.edu to access your SP 08 Bb course shells. If for any reason, you need to access Bb courses from previous semesters, you will use http://bb6.vccs.edu/ to access them.