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Faculty
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
[Course/User
Information]
[Digital Dropbox] [Assessment]
[Gradebook] [Cartridges]
[Miscellaneous] |
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Course/User
Information |
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1. Can I change my personal information
in Blackboard?
- Once everyone is on PeopleSoft,
changes made in it will be reflected in the BB database, until
that time no changes will be allowed in BB.
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2. Why can’t
instructors change the course properties (title, description)?
- Because of
the need to standardize the title and description sections, it
was decided to not allow instructors to change these settings.
These are vital areas for searching and cataloging courses.
- This does
not affect the instructor’s ability to change other features
such as the AREA Availability, Course availability,
guest access, course duration, enrollment options, course entry
point,
Course recycler, archive course, import course cartridge, change
course images.
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3. Why does
a student get a login error when they have previously
been able to login?
- It could be
caused by a number of things. Here are some possible solutions:
- First ask them to go to another computer,
if possible, and see if they have the same problem there.
It may be a problem linked to an individual computer.
- Ask them to
wait a few hours and log in again (in case their internet route
is slow/bad).
- Have them
clear the cache in their browser and try the web site again.
Then have them set browser to reload page every time.
- It could possibly
be related to student’s virus program or firewall.
- Base64decode
errors can be caused by the CommonName software. The student
has a product called CommonName installed and they need to uninstall
it.
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Digital
Dropbox |
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1. A student sent a file to their
instructor’s digital dropbox but when the instructor
looked into the dropbox, it wasn’t there. Why?
- The student
may be confusing the “ADD FILE” feature of the dropbox
with the “SEND FILES” feature. The add file feature
will only add it to the student’s dropbox but not send it
to anyone else’s dropbox and therefore it will only be visible
to the student. To send a file to an instructor or another
student, you must click the send file button and select the person
you want to receive it.
- For additional
information on the Digital Dropbox from David Carter-Tod, go
to
http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/projects/Blackboard/stories/storyReader$6
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2. Is there
a way to delete more than one file at a time from the digital
dropbox?
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3. Why doesn’t
my file show up once I have uploaded it into Blackboard?
- It may be
that the file you are attempting to upload has a virus.
Blackboard will not upload a file with a virus but it doesn’t
notify you that it hasn’t uploaded the file. You may
think it uploaded when it didn’t.
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Assessments |
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1. How do I make a test visible
to students again once the link has disappeared? (The test
cannot be made unavailable without deleting the grades and the
area to set the links doesn’t show unless you make the test
“unavailable” and they make it “available”
again.)
- Once you set
the test to available again, you can change the visibility of
links in the place where the links are located (Control Panel>
Announcements – if you want it in Announcements; Control
Panel> Documents – if you want it in Documents panel).
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2. When I need to add point
values to an assessment, I have to click on and edit each
question. Is there a way to assign a point value to all
questions in an assessment at once?
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3. When I click on the link to
take a quiz, it tells me that I have already taken
it. Why?
- This can be caused when a student
is experiencing a slow download of the test and clicks a second
time on the link because they don’t think it is loading.
This can cause the server to register that the student is trying
to access the assessment a second time.
- Another possibility is that
an excessive amount of time to load graphics and an interruption
of the test can cause lockouts for students.
- It could possibly be a problem
when students are accessing with Netscape 4.7 and below.
They need a updated version of Netscape or preferably Internet
Explorer.
- The problem could be caused
by a course created in Bb 4.0 and assessment not made available
again once it was copied into present course.
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Gradebook |
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1. How do I
get student grades into the Blackboard gradebook when
it was taken on paper? Blackboard will not allow me to
enter grades into gradebook even though the test is in Bb and
the column is there.
- Create a manual
gradebook entry and put the grades there. Entries in the
gradebook automatically created by creating quizzes cannot be
manually edited unless the students have attempted the quiz online.
- Or you can
trick the system into allowing you to enter a grade. You
must login as the student and access and submit the test (it’s
OK if it isn’t taken). Only then will they be able
to go to the Gradebook and put the correct grade into the spreadsheet.
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2. How can
I curve grades within the Bb gradebook system?
- Blackboard
does not offer a feature to handle this. They can download
the grades and run them through Excel.
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3. The Blackboard
gradebook is slow. How can I speed it up?
- If the gradebook
isn’t working as quickly as you would like you can choose
the “Report by Item” or “Report by User”
feature to allow you to access grade information quicker.
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Cartridges |
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1. Can I put two cartridges into
one course?
- No, if you
attempt to put a cartridge into a course that already has a cartridge,
it will not work. You will need to have two courses and
allow students to access both.
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Miscellaneous |
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1. Why did
my announcement disappear?
- Remember,
BB default for users is set to only show announcements for 7
days, students can click on view all to see past announcements.
- In creating
announcements (under course control panel) under option
#2 you can set "Always show this announcement on the course's
main page to yes or no” If you make it yes, it will
always appear in the announcement area of your course. However,
under option #2 if click on "display until...." the
date and time that you use will override the "Always show....."
feature.
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2. Is there a way to save all
posts to a discussion board for later viewing by the instructor?
- A quick and
dirty way to capture all the posts within a forum is to: 1. Click
to View all messages 2. Click to Expand All 3. Click to Show
Options 4. Click to Select All 5. Click to Collect 6. Copy the
text to your favorite editor (my preference is Notepad), then
save as a text file.
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