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General Tutorials | Blackboard Paper Based Tutorials | Blackboard Web Based Tutorials | Blackboard Video Tutorials

In order to view some of the paper based tutorials, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

In order to view these short Blackboard tutorials you will need to Get Macromedia Flash Player

General Tutorials

• Grossmont Cuyamaca Community College District (GCCCD) Online: Look in the upper right hand corner and click on the link "Support for Faculty". This section was created as a resource for faculty to assist them in the development and maintenance of their online course(s). Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ), from "How do Online Courses work?" to "Is Online Learning as effective as face-to-face learning?" We have resources to guide you along the way as you face the challenge of integrating information technology tools into teaching.  You will find information on creating, modifying, deleting a course container and uploading your student roster into WebCT and/or Blackboard.

• Closed Captioning, turning them on a tutorial in PDF format going through the procedures on how to turn Closed Captioning accessibility feature on in Window Media Player.

• Pop Up Blockers a tutorial in PDF format going through the procedures on how to turn off Pop-up blockers using Internet explorer and Google Toolbar.

• Free Online Tutorials BayCon Group provides tutorials on a growing list of computer-related topics. All tutorials are in depth, comprehensive, online, and -- best of all -- absolutely free

• Choosing a Course Management System, TLT.SUNY.edu, One of the initial reasons for the creation of this website was requests from SUNY campuses for information that would help in making decisions about course management systems (CMS), increasingly popular software programs for the delivery of online and "hybrid" courses. The purpose of this page is to provide some assistance with choosing a CMS. The links below will take you to reviews of CMS products. While no review is completely comprehensive (the products change too quickly) they are helpful in getting a start with the decision.

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Blackboard Tutorials

Paper Based

• Cuyamaca College procedures for obtaining a Blackboard Course Container A tutorial in PDF format going through the procedures on how to obtain a course container.

• How to Reuse a Blackboard Course Container The following procedures were developed by the GCCCD for reusing a WebCT course container.

• Cuyamaca College procedures for uploading students accounts into your Blackboard course a tutorial in PDF format going through the procedures on how to upload students into your course.

• How to Add a Single Student to Blackboard The following procedures were developed by the GCCCD for Adding a single student to Blackboard.

• Instructors manual a tutorial for faculty users created by Blackboard.  This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Student Manual a tutorial for student users created by Blackboard.  This tutorial is in PDF format.

• What's New in Blackboard (created by Blackboard) Innovations in Blackboard Learning System (Release 6) include advanced content management features, Gradebook and Assessment enhancements, and a new Collaboration Tool. A full description of each of these changes is available in the Product Release Notes; this is meant to be an informative, high-level overview for instructors. This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Digital Drop Box vs. Assignment Manager (created by Blackboard) The Blackboard Learning System (Release 6) introduces a new content type called the Assignment Manager. This new tool combines the file exchange capabilities of the Digital Drop Box with the organization and management functionality of the Gradebook within Blackboard. Due to similar capabilities between the Digital Drop Box and the Assignment Manager, Blackboard Learning Services offers this tip sheet as a means of providing best practices for the use of each tool. This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Gradebook Icons in Blackboard (created by Blackboard) Blackboard uses icons in the Gradebook to indicate, at a glance, the status of a particular assessment for a specific student. In most cases, clicking on these icons provides additional information about the student’s responses, and also allows you to clear that attempt so that students can re-take the assessment if needed. This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Downloading Gradebook from Blackboard The grade book for each course can be downloaded, edited in a spreadsheet program, and uploaded.

• Importing grades from Excel The grade book for each course can be downloaded, edited in a spreadsheet program, and uploaded. Note: For best results, manipulate and upload a Gradebook that has been downloaded from Blackboard. It is not advised that Instructors create a new Gradebook from scratch then upload it (there are known issues and problems doing this way)

• Weighting Grades by Category or Item (created by Blackboard) Blackboard’s Gradebook contains a grade weighting feature that allows an instructor to determine how the software calculates the final grade for a student. There are two options: Weight by Item and Weight by Category. This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Modifying Items for Grade Weighting (created by Blackboard) Blackboard Learning System (Release 6) allows instructors to group multiple assessments into one category, and assign a value to the entire category. For example, an instructor may decide that all Tests together are worth 15% of a student’s final grade, all Labs together are worth 20%, and so on. To calculate the student’s final grade, Blackboard divides the weight assigned to that category by the number of items in that category. In order to ensure that a student’s final grade is being calculated properly throughout the term, you may need to temporarily exempt some items from the gradebook calculations. This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Course Roles (created by Blackboard) In some cases, instructors want to delegate some of the responsibility for maintaining their Blackboard course to another user. They may want to designate a student to be a Teaching Assistant, for example, or to help them with grading essays. To accommodate this need, Blackboard allows instructors to assign different user privileges to individual users who are enrolled in their courses. This tutorial is in PDF format.

• Blackboard and Accessibility Blackboard is committed to the accessibility of our learning platform. We are working with leaders in the accessibility field to bring our software into compliance with industry standards and federal guidelines for accessibility. Here are some frequently asked questions about Blackboards accessibility efforts.

• Creating an Accessible Blackboard Course This document provides information to help course builders create online material that addresses Section 508 standards.

• Creating a Personal Homepage Instructions on editing the personal homepage.

• How to Search the Blackboard Knowledge Base

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Web Based

• Blackboard Homepage Homepage for Blackboard.

• Blackboard and Accessibility; Frequently asked questions.  Blackboard is committed to the accessibility of our learning platform. We are working with leaders in the accessibility field to contemplate industry standards and federal guidelines for accessibility. Here are some frequently asked questions about Blackboard's accessibility efforts.

• Blackboard Tutorial for an individual who uses a screen reader The Blackboard Learning System Screen Reader Tutorial provides users that access the Blackboard Learning System through a screen reader with information to help them use the Blackboard Learning System successfully. Currently, the tutorial includes information on logging in, the portal layout, and course Web sites.

• Blackboard Support Page Blackboard’s Support is comprised of a diverse set of professionals whose comprehensive skills will help you effectively resolve issues you may encounter with Blackboard products.

• Blackboard Training Page Blackboard Training empowers users to take maximum advantage of the Blackboard Academic Suite™. By sharing best practices for teaching and learning online, we enable clients to grow adoption while simultaneously decreasing their support and administration costs.

• Blackboard Quick Tutorial Page 1: A  Quick Tutorial is a mini-movie tutorial that runs in an automated fashion and includes on-screen narration.  To view the file, you will have to have Macromedia Flash 5TM or higher installed on your computer. If you do not have the software installed, you can download Macromedia flash player for free.

• Blackboard Quick Tutorial Page 2: More powerfully simple mini-movies

• Black Board Course Cartridges In the catalog, each publisher has provided a general description of each course cartridge. Contact the publisher of the cartridge you are interested in to learn about demos, trials, and how to obtain a course cartridge Download Key.

• Blackboard Newsletter, You can subscribe an array of specialized topics ( Blackboard in Practice, Connected Campus, Bb News Releases, Around the Blocks, K-12 Connections)

• Blackboard Tutorial for an individual who uses a screen reader The Blackboard Learning System Screen Reader Tutorial provides users that access the Blackboard Learning System through a screen reader with information to help them use the Blackboard Learning System successfully. Currently, the tutorial includes information on logging in, the portal layout, and course Web sites.

• University of Texas Blackboard Tutorials These tutorials explain the process of performing specific actions in Blackboard. If this is your first time using these tutorials, we recommend that you visit the Introduction before going on to the tutorials.

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Videos

In order to view these short Blackboard tutorials you will need to Get Macromedia Flash Player

The following videos are Quick Tutorials provided by Blackboard.  A Quick Tutorial is a mini-movie tutorial that runs in an automated fashion and includes on-screen narration. To learn more about any of the capabilities listed below, simply click on the title link. To view the file,  The movies will begin playing as soon as the page loads.

Course Management - Addresses activities involving managing the course site or major components of the course site. Course Management capabilities focus on effective creation and set-up of courses (Course Creation Wizard, Course Templates) as well as tools for semester-to-semester migration (Course Copy, Course Recycle) and archiving (Course Import/Export, Course Archive, Course Backup).

Content Authoring - The Visual Text Box Editor provides a rich text editing interface, including WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and Spell Check, to create effective learning content. QuickEdit allows an instructor to quickly switch between the student view of a course content area and the instructor view. Instructors can also import e-learning content created in external authoring tools such as Macromedia® Dreamweaver ® , Microsoft® Frontpage®, or any SCORM-compliant authoring tool

Adaptive Release - Provides the ability for an instructor to create custom learning paths through course content and activities. Content items, discussions, assessments, assignments, or other activities can be released to students based on a set of criteria including: date/time, username, group membership, institution role, grade on a particular test or assignment, or whether the user has previously reviewed another piece of content.

Syllabus Builder - Provides the ability for instructors to easily create a course syllabus by uploading an existing syllabus or by using the built-in syllabus creation functionality to design and develop their own course syllabus and lesson plans.

Learning Units - Allows instructors to create sequenced lessons and control whether students must progress through the Learning Unit according to the sequence or have the ability to select individual lessons from the table of contents. Students can save their place in a Learning Unit and return later.

Course Cartridges - All major education publishers create pre-packaged content and course materials in the Blackboard Course Cartridge format to supplement their course textbooks. The course content may contain multimedia, assessments, Question Pools, and links to additional resources, such as interactive learning applications, that supplement the textbook reading. Cartridge materials can be customized once downloaded into a course site.

Teaching and Learning Tools - A variety of tools designed for support of specific teaching or learning activities. Examples include the Glossary, a tool to create sharable, customizable term-definition lists; the Electric Blackboard, an online note-taking tool students can use to take and save notes online as they work through their course materials; and Staff Information, the detailed contact information and office hours for the course instructors and teaching assistants.

Personal Information Management - The Performance Dashboard provides a view of student progress and indicates whether students have reviewed specific content items. Content Tracking provides usage statistics (alterable by user or date range) for individual content items. Similarly, Course Statistics provides usage data for an entire course. Advanced System Reporting maintains a parallel database to allow System Administrators to run comprehensive reports without impacting system performance.

Discussion Board - The Discussion Board enables threaded, asynchronous discussions. Instructors can set up multiple forums around different topics and embed those forums in appropriate content areas or lessons. Instructors can determine whether students can modify, delete, post anonymously, include attachments, and other options. Forums can be sorted/viewed by thread, author, date, or subject and are completely searchable.

Collaboration Tools - The Collaboration Tool, designed for live, synchronous interaction, supports a text-based Chat environment, as well as a full Virtual Classroom. Instructors can schedule collaboration sessions using either environment. In addition to text-based chat, the Virtual Classroom provides a collaborative whiteboard, group web browsing (web touring), private question-and-answer, and breakout room capability. It can be run in a Lecture Mode or an Open Participation Mode. Users can "raise their hand" to be called on or given full participation control. All chat sessions can be logged and archived.

Group Projects - To support peer collaboration, instructors can use the Groups tool to form multiple groups of students. Each group can be given its own file exchange area, Discussion Board, Virtual Classroom and a Group Email tool to send messages to all group members. Students can belong to multiple groups simultaneously, so an instructor might assign different groups for different assignments or projects.

Assessments and Surveys - Instructors can deliver online, automatically-scored assessments and surveys. They can create such assessments from scratch or draw upon personal, institutional, or commercially-available "test banks" of questions. Question types include Calculated Formula, Calculated Numeric, Hotspot, Jumbled Sentence, Likert Scale, True/False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, Ordering, Matching, Fill-in-the-Blank, Short Answer, Essay, File Upload, and Binary Choice. Assessment questions can be given all at once or one at a time, can be timed or un-timed, and assessments can be taken multiple times or only once.

Assignments - Allows instructors to create assignment items through which students can submit their response to the assignment. Instructors can track the students' assignments and download the submissions from an entire class simultaneously through the Gradebook. They can grade the assignments and provide feedback for each student which may be viewed online when checking their grades.

Gradebook - Instructors can store student performance results in the course Gradebook. Scores from assessments delivered through Blackboard are automatically recorded in the Gradebook. The Gradebook supports custom grading scales, grade weighting, item analysis, and multiple gradebook views. With the instructor's permission, students can view their own grades (but no one else's) in the course Gradebook.

Reporting & Performance Dashboard - overview of the gradebook in which instructors can store and manage student performance results on assignment and assessments that they have created.

Please click here to link to more Blackboard Quick Tutorials on some of the newer product enhancements offered through our latest Application Packs for the Blackboard Academic Suite (Release 6.1)

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General Information | Blackboard | WebCT | Graphics, Clip Art and Multimedia | Accessibility 

 Resources | Design, Pedagogy and Best Practices | Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Encyclopedias 

News, Articles, and Books | Plug-ins and Freeware | Internet Search and Techniques

Microsoft Tutorials | Respondus | Camtasia