UMBC Blackboard Update
August 2001
UMBC Blackboard Update
is for students, faculty and staff using Blackboard at UMBC. If
you have questions or suggestions, please contact John Fritz at
410.455.6596 or fritz@umbc.edu.
For more
information on using Blackboard at UMBC--including the new UMBC
Blackboard Users Group--visit http://www.umbc.edu/blackboard.
SUMMARY
1. Scheduled Upgrade to Version 5.5 (Saturday, Aug. 18)
2. Pedagogy and Technology Discussion Board
3. August Training Workshops
4. Online Courses in "How To Teach with Blackboard" (www.blackboard.com)
DETAILS
1.
Scheduled Upgrade to Version 5.5 (Saturday, Aug. 18)
Before the summer started,
we announced the plan to migrate all version 4.10 courses (http://courseinfo.umbc.edu)
to version 5.02 (http://blackboard.umbc.edu). Since then, we've
discovered that Blackboard's latest release (version 5.5) fixes
problems other campuses had found in 5.02. To avoid problems this
fall, we set up a 5.5 development server and used it for Karin Readel's
summer session II course, SCI100 "Water: An Interdisciplinary
Study." She and her 20 students found 5.5 to be reliable. Reports
from other campuses (and Blackboard's own recommendation) also suggest
this is a more stable version.
Accordingly, OIT will
be upgrading the http://blackboard.umbc.edu server to version 5.5
on SATURDAY, AUGUST 18. This will take at least a day, so the server
will be down. Most courses are already on this server, so you don't
need to do anything to prepare for this. However, if you are teaching
a Summer Session II course, and are concerned about access to your
gradebook to turn in grades, please see the "exporting gradebook
to Excel" instructions at http://www.umbc.edu/blackboard. Also,
if you haven't yet indicated whether we should delete or migrate
your course from the http://courseinfo.umbc.edu (version 4.10) server,
please contact Barbara Schulz at 410.455.3885 or bschulz@umbc.edu.
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2.
Pedagogy and Technology Discussion Board
In July, more than 15
faculty from the English Department participated in a four-day,
intensive training workshop on integrating pedagogy and technology.
Since then, the class discussion board has continued to be active.
If you'd like to take a look at this and other workshop materials
prepared, enroll yourself in the course: PEDAGOGY&TECHNOLOGY_0101_SP2000.
For more information about this course, contact Barbara Schulz at
410.455.3885 or bschulz@umbc.edu.
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3.
August Training Workshops
OIT's New Media Learning
and Development unit is offering Blackboard training classes for
faculty and staff. Beginning Blackboard will be offered on August
13. Advanced Blackboard will be offered on August 15. All classes
are held from 9 to 11 a.m. in ACIV B 219. Please contact Barbara
Schulz at 410.455.3885 or bschulz@umbc.edu if you plan to attend.
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4.
Online Courses in "How To Teach with Blackboard" (www.blackboard.com)
Through a partnership
with OnlineLearning.net, Blackboard now offers monthly, instructor-led,
online courses in "How To Teach with Blackboard." The
cost is $495 each for introductory and advanced courses. For more
info, see http://resources.blackboard.com/scholar/general/pages/olnclasses/OLNClasses.htm
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