End of Semester Reminders (Fall 2008)

As the semester draws to a close there are a few suggested steps you should take to preserve your Blackboard site for the future. Step-by-step text and video instructions for these steps can be found at http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/endsem.htm.

• Make your old courses unavailable to students.
• Export your grade book and print a hard copy.
• Save the Discussion Board forums
• Archive your course

NOTE: Be sure to Archive your course and NOT Export your course. Archiving creates a complete snapshot of your course including students and grades (useful if there is a grade dispute down the line).

Fall 2008 courses will remain available to you until the end of the Fall 2009 semester when they will be removed from the server. If you have students who need access to your Fall 2008 course site to finish an incomplete, you may continue to make your course available to them. It will be your responsibility to make the course unavailable once all work is completed.

IMPORTANT: If you have not already archived your Fall 2007 courses, please do so ASAP. All Fall 2007 courses will be purged from the Blackboard server on December 23, 2008.

FYI: All information and current news concerning Blackboard and Instructional Technology at Philadelphia University can be found at http://www.philau.edu/its/ and http://philauits.blogspot.com/.

Regards,

Mark Clauburg, Instructional Design Specialist

Spring 2009 Courses Available

As of today, Instructional Technology Support @ PhilaU will be accepting requests for Spring 2009 Blackboard, eRes and iTunes U Course Sites. If you plan to use any of these three content management systems during the Fall, please complete the ITS Course Request Form located at:

ITS Course Request

Notes:

Reusing Material from a Previous Semester - Faculty who wish to reuse material from a previous semester are asked to indicate the Course Name, Semester, and, if known, the Course ID in the Course Import section.

Using One Course Page for Multiple Sections—If you are teaching more than one section of a course, but would only like one site, please indicate this in the Special Instructions/Requests section.

iTunes U Course—Creation of an iTunes University course is also located on this form. If you are interested in possibly trying podcasts for the spring semester, please indicate this on the form and I will also create a course on iTunes University for you.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please review the Blackboard Policies and Procedures (http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/bbpolicy.htm) or contact me via phone (215-951-6332), e-mail (clauburgm@philau.edu) or stop by my office in the Gutman Library

What is Blackboard Project NG?

At its world conference in Las Vegas this past July, Blackboard announced forthcoming plans to further develop the Academic Suite. The plan is called Project NG (Next Generation) and will encompass versions 9.0 and X of the popular course management system. I previously posted about the web site that details Project NG. However, if you want more detailed information, you can join Jessica Frinnefrock, Vice President of Product Development, in a webinar all about Blackboard's Project NG. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, September 17, and you can register here.

How do I get rid of those weird characters that show up when pasting text from Word into Blackboard?

You may copy and paste text from Microsoft Word into Notepad(PC) or Text Editor(MAC). This will rid the text of any extracted code or special characters before pasting into Blackboard. All formatting will be lost in this process.

In Word, the default setting for quotation marks and apostrophes is something called "Smart Quotes." This setting replaces "regular" quotes with the curly quotes. When you paste text into Bb, the text editor converts it automatically to HTML to be viewed on the Web.

Since Blackboard's text editor doesn't know what to do with "smart quotes, it replaces each "character" with a question mark. There is also a setting that converts two hyphens (--) into a long dash. If you do a lot of copy/pasting from Word you can turn off the "smart quotes" feature:

1. In Word, go to the TOOLS menu --> AUTOCORRECT.
2. Click the Format as you Type tab.
3. The first box is "Straight Quotes" with "Smart Quotes." Uncheck the box.
4. OPTIONAL: Uncheck the hyphen/dash box.

For existing text, you'll have to use FIND and REPLACE (from the Edit Menu) to change the "smart quotes" to "straight quotes" for the changes to take effect.

Blackboard Upgrade Update

Due to unresolved technical issues with the new Blackboard server, the upgrade to Release 7.3 was not successful. OIT has reconnected the original server, and we will continue on Release 6.3 until further notice. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Blackboard Down Today

In order to perform a major upgrade, Blackboard will be unavailable on Monday, August 18, beginning at approximately 7AM. Our Network and Systems team expects to complete this upgrade and have the new Blackboard available Monday afternoon. During this time no Blackboard data or features will be available for use. If you plan to prepare your course site for the Fall semester, please take this downtime into account. Course instructors do not need to do anything to prepare for the upgrade.

A message will be posted at http://philau.edu/its when the work has been completed. An additional email message will be sent to all users with current Blackboard accounts upon completion. If the upgrade is not complete by 4PM on Monday, an additional update message will be sent to all system users. We apologize for any duplicate messages you may receive due to multiple course associations.

After the upgrade is completed, Philadelphia University will be running Blackboard Learning System - Basic Edition 7.3. The upgrade will bring some welcomed abilities and features. Please check the previously mentioned ITS web page for announcements concerning information sessions on new features and Blackboard training for faculty and staff. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

IBM To Team with Linux Vendors on 'Microsoft-Free' PCs

According to Campus Technology, IBM has agreed with partner with Linux, in order to develop an alternative to consumers where they will be able to purchase computers that work on their operating system instead of Microsoft.

These new computers will feature programs such as Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony, and Lotus Sametime. Lotus Symphony is a bundle software similar to that of Microsoft Word and Spreadsheet while Lotus Notes is an alternative to Microsoft Outlook.

The addition comes as a alternative to Microsoft OS, which many individuals have been slow to adopt the new Microsoft Vista OS as well as those who wish to pay a lower licensing fee that accompanies Linux OS. Linux claims that their new desktop computer will be “better equipped to work with lower cost hardware than Microsoft's operating system."

While Linux may provide an alternative to Microsoft and Macintosh, the new addition maybe slow to be put into use at home as well as the office setting due to the fact that many companies require Microsoft to run approximately 80% of their programs.

Read article at http://campustechnology.com/articles/66146_2/