Blackboard
Downtime Scheduled July 10th and July 17th
Granite
State College will be upgrading to Blackboard 9.1. on
Sunday, July 10th, starting at 2:00 am the system and
courses will be unavailable. Staff will be
working diligently to make sure the system is available
as soon as possible however you should plan on not having
access to your courses for much of the day. In addition
to the new features mentioned below, this upgrade will
also fix some known issues.
The Blackboard
database will also be upgrade on July 17th. Blackboard
will be unavailable starting at 2:00 and continuing
most of the day. This upgrade will improve the performance
of Blackboard.
WebRock
and GSC Email will be available on both dates.
Highlights of the changes
Here are some important new things that
have been added or improved. Detailed instructions will
be available soon.
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Wikis
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Wikis
enable active collaboration around course content
and group projects. Users collaborate on a document
using only a web browser. Educators can see the
process and evolution of the work and even
participate. Furthermore, educators can see each
participant’s contributions and grade accordingly.
-
Mashups
-
Easily
integrate rich media learning content using Web 2.0
resources from YouTube, SlideShare, and Flickr.
-
Course File Storage Structure
-
An
in-course file storage structure makes it easier to
keep track of documents used in courses; it is
similar to the type of file and folder structure
that is used on a PC and includes a new thumbnail
view. In Bb9.0 the location of attached course files
was hidden.
-
Improved Grading
-
Grading
in Blackboard is more flexible and consistent,
enabling grading to be done in line with the review
process. Now you can enter wiki, blog, and journal
grades directly in the assignment and grade question
by question or anonymously.
The
Grade Center has been enhanced in Release 9.1 to
include a dynamic filter that enables an educator to
instantly view grade data by selecting a category
and status criteria.
Instructors can create a Rubric to provide
guidelines for grading an item. Instructors can
associate the Rubric to a grading column and view
the Rubric while assigning a grade. The Rubric needs
to include how many entries will be required, the
minimum length of entries, and the grading criteria.
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Building Content (formerly called Adding Content)
-
Several
content types for uploading content to an area
within a Course have been changed or added:
-
-
Audio:
This new content type provides a separate method
of adding an audio file. This content type
includes fields for accessibility.
-
Image:
This content type was available in Release 9.0,
but the user interface for adding this type of
file has changed.
-
Video:
This new content type provides a separate method
of adding a video file. This content type includes
fields for accessibility.
-
URL: This content type was available in
Release 9.0, but the previous name “External Link”
has been changed to “URL.”
-
Learning Module: This content type was
available in Release 9.0, but it has changed to
include a hierarchical Table of Contents.
-
Lesson Plan: This new content type
provides a new type of content container (similar
to a folder) that has a tabbed format to add
different content items. This feature is designed
to allow students to view content with a lesson
profile and instructional objectives.
-
Blank Page: This new content type
provides a method to add an HTML page to a Content
Area or the Course Menu.
-
Mashups:
This new content type enables users to pull data
from the following third-party application content
into Blackboard Learn: YouTube videos, SlideShare
presentations, and Flickr photos.
-
Tests, Surveys, and Question Pools
-
In
Release 9.1, Instructors and Course Builders have
expanded question management capabilities available
for use when creating Tests, Surveys, and Question
Pools. These changes allow for more centralized
control over question content and reduce the amount
of time required to make global edits.
from:
Blackboard Learn, Release
9.1 New Features and the more comprehensive
Understanding the Change from Blackboard Learn 9.0 to
9.1
